In recent years, premium automakers have run out of niches to expand into and have turned instead to what should be regarded as microscopic sub-niches. (How else to explain the BMW 4-series Gran Coupe, the Mercedes-Benz GLC coupe, or the Range Rover Evoque convertible") But now both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have admitted that they are planning a cull of variant numbers in coming years. We’re sad to report that it’s traditional coupes and convertibles that are most likely to face the ax.
?The checkerboard of body styles and segments is rather full, although there are still a few to be finished,? Ian Robertson, BMW?s head of sales and marketing, told Car and Driver at the Geneva auto show. ?We?ve got an X2 and an X7 coming, and there are a few others, but I also know?because we?ve taken decisions?that some body styles will be removed in the future.? Dieter Zetsche (whom Americans will remember as Dr. Z), now overall head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, agrees. ?The specialty cars, these coupes and convertibles, were always niche cars,? he told journalists at Geneva. ?The expansion into China and other emerging markets [has given] huge opportunities for sedans, but they did not take up these specialty cars. Which makes the business case for these vehicles less easy.?
Dieter Zetsche on the Mercedes-Benz stand at the Geneva auto show.
Although Zetsche insisted that Mercedes will continue to offer two-door models, he admitted they will not come ?in the variety we are having...