Anyone ever had a chance to drive one of these? They look extremely rare. I saw one parked at the gym the other day, but was a moron and didn't take a picture because I had no idea what it was!!

 

I think the Z8 failed because it looked too much like the Z3 at the time. Aside from the power and slightly different front and rear ends you can barely tell the difference.

M.

 

well i actually wonder if bmw ever really pushed sales on that car? i mean, you still see cars like the sl500 or so in mb commercials, etc... but i NEVER saw the z8 on screens except for a little while in 007. with no advertising, and a car that's 100k, how could they sell?

i saw the alpina z8 before too at dealership, and actually the other weekend i saw another alpina z8 just parked right by the road side. i told my wife that some people they really don't care.

however, for some reason i think the car looks pretty ugly. i like the z3 styling a lot more

 

BMW " pushing " sales? You can't " push " a car if you don't build any. BMW dealerships were adding horrendous markups to the Z8 on top of an already exotic price, and availability was next to none. Ford is making the same EXACT mistake with the GT....restricting availability and allowing dealerships to price the car out of most peoples' reach.

This is one of the BIG problems in the auto industry.......something I have written and commented on at length. Automakers and dealerships claim to be going by the " laws " of supply and demand......but in reality they don't. Much of the time they either overproduce and then they have cars sitting on the lot they can't GIVE away, or, as in the case of the Z8 and Ford GT, production is too limited, prices are too high, and dealerships inevitably profiteer and take advantage of it.
I don't really see this changing much either, unless the whole industry goes with dealerships like Saturn and Scion that sell everyting at list price, or unless we get far-minded people at high levels that will look past the ends of their own noses and tell their plants to produce enough cars to meet demand.

 

The Z8 was never intended to be a volume car. Aside from the "can't drive it past 100K miles because the aluminum frame will bend" flaw, this was an awesome automobile that absolutely achieved its objectives. The fact that you don't see one every day (like the SL500) is exactly the point. It brought much-needed prestige and exclusivity to the BMW lineup, which was suffering from 318i dilution at that point.

And to those who think the Z8 and Z3 looked alike, I recommend you take a second, more detailed look at various aspects. The cars did not look very much similar at all.

 

I agree with you that there is such a thing as a " volume " and " non-volume " car, but that does not excuse gross under-production of a car that you KNOW is in at least some demand....and I don't agree that gross underproduction adds to so-called " prestige ". You don't add to company prestige by telling your customers to wait for 6-8 months and pay twice the list price. For instance, a " non-volume " car, as you put it, may have a basic underlying demand of, say 10,000 units a year. That is a LONG way from, say, a high-volume car like Accord or Camry that sells 400,000-plus units every year. But if you know you can sell 10,000 units a year and you deliberately produce only 1000 or so, you screw up two ways. First, you insult customers by not providing the cars they want, and Second, you simply allow your dealerships to grossly pad their pockets on that unavailability of the cars that is insulting potential customers in the first place, so you insult your customers two ways in one. And then you expect them to come back in the future when they need a new car? Chris Bangle's designs, alone, have driven a lot of people away from BMW....they don't need poor marketing and sales practices to add to it.

 

I've always loved the Z8 , one of the best IMO

 

Its really odd b/c anyone notice that BMW sedans are always the ones to beat but outside the M3, when they build 2 doors, they are always a mixed bag? Seems they know sports sedans but not sports cars/coupes.

 

The 6-series is the only current BMW I would think about purchasing.... of course if I had the money for it.

I don't think the Z3 and Z8 look anything alike.

 

What I'm saying is that the design didn't say a lot about $100,000.

Take a look at the SL500 - it communicates all day about how much money it costs.

The Z8 didn't. Simple as that.

M.

 

I even read that the 6 series "lacked feedback and road feel" ?!?!

 

The Z8 was a retro design, actually by Henry Fisker who was working at Aston Martin before he left and started the Fisker Coachbuilds brand



I mean he totally fixed the 6, that looks gorgous.

 

The new 6 and the old 7 & 8 series are the only ones Ive ever liked......

the Z8 was a 100K 'chicks car'

 

The Z8 a " Chick Car "? How on Earth do you come up wth THAT statement?

 

Because it looks like a Z3

Z3 = chick car

Miata = Chick car

Droptop Solara = Chick car


etc, etc............

couldve called it anything but an '8' and it wouldve been ok by me... Z9, Z4...not 8.