Yahoo Autos 2019 BMW 8-Series: Is BMW Rediscovering Its Performance-Car Mojo?
For a people with such a well-earned reputation for obsessiveness, the Germans can be surprisingly cavalier about numbers. Consider this new BMW: What used to be called the 6-series will now become an 8. There is still a 6, but it was previously a 5, specifically the 5-series Gran Turismo. (The German attitude toward words and their meanings is perhaps a related discussion.) And despite its numerical promotion, the 2019 8-series will in fact be smaller and some 200 pounds lighter than the 6-series it replaces.
It will also be a dramatic stylistic departure. The higher number represents the car’s repositioning at the top of the lineup, and BMW will be looking to establish the 8’s premium status with cues pulled from the 2017 concept and reserved for the 8-series alone. It’ll still wear BMW’s signature grille, but with teeth that jut proud of the nose before cantilevering back in at the top of the kidney beans. Aggressively squinty headlights are a mash-up of traditional and modern elements, the usual twin halos here bent into near hexagons and illuminated by lasers. Perhaps the most daring aspects of the design are its tapered greenhouse and pronounced shoulders. To find such extreme tumblehome on any previous BMW, you’d have to barrel-roll an Isetta down a hill into your living room. Inside, even elements such as the concept’s metal speaker grilles and Swarovski-crystal iDrive controller are likely to make it into the production car, all part of the effort to distinguish the 8-series from the lower numbers of the BMW lineup.
As with the outgoing 6-series, the 8 will be available in coupe, convertible, and sleek four-door body styles. All should be significantly sportier than their predecessors, as BMW aims this flagship range at cars like the Porsche 911 rather than the Mercedes S-class. Our recent experience with the M5-which triumphed over a Cadillac CTS-V, Mercedes-AMG E63 S 4MATIC, and Porsche Panamera Turbo in a recent comparison test-has us believing that BMW has rediscovered its performance-car mojo.
Powertrains will track those available in the 5-series, with a 335-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six at the bottom of the hierarchy, a 456-hp twin-turbo V-8 in the midline all-wheel-drive M850i, and versions of the M8 in every body style. Like the M5, the M8 will be powered by a 600-hp twin-turbo V-8 routing power to all four wheels and come with a selectable rear-drive mode that’ll help satisfy the urge to buy new rear tires. All engines will mate to ZF’s eight-speed automatic transmission. Just as the 6-series cost more than the 5-series, now that it’s an 8, expect it to cost more than the 7-and not by just a little bit. We’d be surprised if you could get into one for less than $100,000. Adding options and horsepower quickly pushes the 8’s price to $130,000 and beyond. The 8-series coupe will be the first to launch, late this year, with additional body styles and M derivatives dribbling out through 2019.
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