We recently road tested Alpina’s new B3 Touring ‘GT’. You won’t be surprised to learn it’s quite a good motor car, but it also sounds a death knell for the outfit that makes it.
On 31 December 2025, ownership of the brand will transfer from the Bovensiepens to the BMW Group, ending six decades of family-run status.
There is a possibility that things will continue more or less as they are in terms of the product line-up, but it’s a slightly forlorn hope. The fact that Alpina insiders are referring to the B3 GT as ‘the last of the last’, and that the B8 GT revealed yesterday is packed with tributes to founder Burkard Bovensiepen, tells you everything you need to know.
It’s rather an ominous sign for the man or woman who wants only – ha ha – for a 3 Series with Bentley-grade torque, effortless poise and a truly sumptuous cabin, all underwritten not by ‘oh, this rides pretty well for a 190mph car’ but genuine comfort and refinement. Rare, too.
So what will happen, beyond already robust B3 residuals getting tungsten bracing? BMW has courted execs from luxury goods giant LMVH – with, one imagines, a view to launching Alpina into the limelight as a super-premium rival to Mercedes’ Maybach.
That would be a world away from M, which should at least come as a relief to non-nerd BMW salespersons who have struggled to explain to puzzled visitors why the pinstriped car in the corner costs more than an M3 and they won’t be getting any sort of discount.
Alpina never was that comprehensible to the casuals.
So, rebooting the brand as a rival to Maybach and Bentley’s Mulliner arm. It would be a profit-driven enterprise far removed from Burkard Bovensiepen’s tangibly beneficial contributions to turbocharging and performance-diesel tech, not to mention his erudite interjections into the German political sphere.
It would be for the 1% of the 1%. Which makes me wonder what room this approach leaves for 3 Series- and 5 Series-based models – the heartland of Alpina’s output for those who buy the cars to use them.
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Death nell of Alpina?, am I reading this correct?, you actually think a full take over will take away the specialness of an Alpina?, no, I don't think BMW will mess too much with such an iconic car brand.