Quote:
Originally Posted by MRichmond
That's the lamest explanation possible. "We would sell all we could make, but since we can't make as many as there would be buyers, we won't sell any at all"??? Please. I suppose Ferrari should just shut down production of the 430 immediately.
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Not as lame as you might think. When Alpina first approached BMWNA about importing their cars, in about 2003, they tried the V8 Roadster experiment, but BMWNA concluded that they'd want to sell at least 1500 cars per year to justify the marketing expense.
The B7 is imported to give BMWNA a halo model to compete with the S8 and S63, but they don't really want the B5 and B6, as they'd (in the eyes of BMWNA) distract customers from the M5/M6, but not sell enough to justify on their own.
Alpina, in turn, doesn't want to sell 1500 cars in the US, as well as close to 1000 a year for the rest of the world. They'd have to build an even bigger factory (having just expanded already over the past couple of years).
I can see why they wouldn't sell the B5 and B6 in the US (although they had planned to sell an X5 with the H1 engine over there, until they abandoned the project altogether, in part on environmental grounds).
Good news for anyone wanting to federalise a B5 or B6 is that the engine is already 50 state compliant and fully certified.
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