Can someone tell Munich to just quit it already?
German luxury marque BMW dubbed this year the ‘Year of the X,’ and rightfully so, with the highlight of the year from them coming in the form of the new X7 flagship SUV, usurping the X6 as the previous range-topping high-riding BMW that money could buy. With the luxury and smarts of a 7-Series limousine but with serious ground clearance (and that driving position that, really, is what everyone’s after here), we thought that’d be the end of that.
However, there were rumours circulating ahead of the X7’s launch that we wanted to ignore (and frankly we’re still trying to plug our ears and claim hearsay). But the rumours are gaining traction and this time, with an update from BMWBlog, they appear to be more solid than previously thought. BMW’s mulling an X8, but it won’t be in the form you think it’d be.
BMW’s even-numbered X models have always taken a more athletic and sporty approach than their odd-numbered brethren. The X5 for example is a more upright and practical proposition, whereas the X6 sports that divisive roofline and a more driver-rewarding character. But the X8 will break that mould as while it’ll sport a unique roofline, it won’t be an SUV coupé as many would expect it to be.
It will instead focus on luxury, and offer discerning customers even greater posh & plush than even the X7 (that was the exact same brief BMW gave to justify the X7 over the X5, mind). It’ll likely be offered as a 5-seater as standard with a 4-seat arrangement as an option, with a 3rd row of seats highly unlikely. In the same vane, expect to find the same powertrains in the X8 as you would in the X7, as they are (as BMW claims) that
Looks-wise again, we’re told it won’t be a coupé SUV in a traditional sense, but it’ll have a roofline unique from the X7. Which, to us, makes it sound like more of a saloon-on-stilts rather than a coupé-on-stilts. Which begs the question as to why one wouldn’t just buy a 7-Series in the first place?
If we had a direct line to Munich we’d beg them to stop, because there really is a BMW X for everyone already. This writer doubts an X8 would offer much more than what an X6 already brings to the table, and frankly, we’ve enough BMW X cars to last a lifetime. But perhaps at this point, it’d be best to start praying we don’t see an X9 at some point.
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