Wall Street Journal Article on BMW M6 Coupe, by Dan Neil

[AVB-AMG]

FYI - The following is a link to the 3/22/13 Wall Street Journal article by Dan Neil on the BMW M6 Coupe, titled:

BMW M6: A Hurtling Flume Ride on Dry Land

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...tos_LS_Autos_2

Enjoy......

Here are some of my rambling thoughts after reading this article:

I agree with most of the author's points that essentially the current BMW M6 Coupe is a very elegant, sophisticated and mature vehicle built with a powerful engine that gives it astounding acceleration capabilities for such a heavy car. Having previously owned a 2004 Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG and currently own a 2007 M-B ML63 AMG, I am looking forward to taking delivery in early June of a new 2014 BMW M6 Coupe.

This article reinforces my sense that there appears to be a growing convergence and shared strategies between the BMW M-Division and the Mercedes-Benz AMG Group. Both have been tasked in making a M/AMG version of almost every model offered by each Manufacturer. Yet, when you look back over the past 3+ years, with BMW introducing the X5M, X6M, X6 Coupe and X6 Grand Coupe, they are gravitating to making heavier and heavier cars with higher hp engines that are best suited to highway driving, straight line drag racing and grand touring in a very luxurious interior environment and deviating farther away from the original sensibility of the M-Division of light, nimble and fast vehicles that excel in the winding back road "twisties". Is this a good thing? Or is it just inevitable in the larger macro strategy and goal of these manufacturers to offer a wider variety of cars to meet every conceivable size for the public in order to sell as many vehicles as possible.

Granted, these are truly niche vehicles. In 2007, Mercedes-Benz sold around 900 ML63 AMG's in North America. In 2013, I was told that BMW sold around 2,400 M6's globally.
With most European countries forecasted to continue to be hampered by recession for the rest of 2013, M-B and BMW are pushing more and more vehicles to the US and China market. It will be very interesting to see if a glut forms and they are forced to add or increase their financial incentives to move these vehicles off of Dealers lots. Right now, if you want to buy or lease a 2013 650 xi coupe / convertible or a 2013 M6 coupe / convertible you can negotiate a deal that is at or just below the Dealer's invoice cost, since they need to make room for the soon to arrive 2014's. So if you do not need or want to have the updated iDrive that will be in the 2014's you can get a really good deal now. Good luck!