With every man and his dog keen to park an SUV or pickup on the driveway, sales of more traditional car types like sedans, coupes and convertibles are on the decline.
This extends to the luxury segment where we might see BMW replace both its 4-Series and 8-Series with a new 6-Series as a response.
Yes, according to the sources of Australia's Which Car, there's a new 6-Series coming in 2026 to replace both the 4-Series and 8-Series. BMW fans will note that the move would be a reversal of the current 8-Series having replaced upon its arrival in 2018 the previous 6-Series.
2021 BMW 4-Series Convertible
The only survivor of the alleged culling of the 4-Series and 8-Series would be the 8-Series Gran Coupe, which would be added to the 7-Series family after its redesign.
Combined sales of the 4-Series and 8-Series were only about 30,000 units in the U.S. last year, meaning there aren't that many sales that would need to be recovered by any new 6-Series. At the same BMW would be able to save on the development costs by having just the one nameplate.
It's a strategy already employed by Mercedes-Benz, which has phased out its SLK-Class, S-Class coupe and convertible, and AMG GT Roadster. Filling that void is now just the AMG GT coupe and new AMG SL. And Mercedes may have more pruning to do, as it is rumored that the current C-Class and E-Class coupes and convertibles will be replaced by a single nameplate to be called the CLE-Class.
