BMW Six series article
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Remember the BMW 6 series? These cars were the class of the late 1970s to late '80s. While America was turning out square-edged Cadillac boats, BMW showed the world what luxury two-door design could be, debuting a coupe with smooth-flowing, curvaceous sheet metal (see the picture below for a reminder). The 6 was such an icon that it was soon displayed in New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Yes, but what about the sales? Ah, good point. Coupes haven't been hot sellers since the late 1950s, and as BMW found out, very expensive coupes may be attractive but they're hard to retail.
Yet rival Mercedes-Benz has sold almost 12,000 CL and CLK coupes so far this year in the U.S.--cars that range in price from $43,000 to $125,000. That's a lot of money BMW's not getting, even though that's not a huge volume relative to its 3 series, which regularly sell more than 100,000 U.S. units annually. And while you might say BMW does sell a fair lot of 3 series coupes, these are largely less pricey than even the bottom-rung CLKs and are less practical, with smaller backseats and trunks.
Source: Forbes
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