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Zombie cars: Discontinued vehicles that aren't dead yet

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.

BMW to unveil X4 in March

It's been about half a year since BMW unveiled the X4 concept in Shanghai. But if you've been waiting for news on when it will reach production, the latest intel indicates it'll be announced next March.
Just when in March? That's the strange part. Inautonews reports having been told by BMW that the new X4 will be announced on March 14. So, the Geneva Motor Show, then? Not quite: although that show will still be going on then, the doors open to journalists like us on March 4, not 14. So either someone has got some details mixed up, or BMW - for some reason - is planning on waiting until after Geneva to reveal the production X4.
Whenever it does, we'll be looking at a slantback version of the X3, much like BMW did with the X5 and X6, giving Bavaria a rival to the Range Rover Evoque and Porsche Macan.

BMW 8 Series return signaled by a ton of new trademarks

There's an ebb and flow to rumors in the auto industry. We'll hear a rumor or report, then nothing for months, only for the story to pop back up again with a fresh head of steam. This time around, it's the BMW 8 Series, a car we haven't reported on since February, when we said it'd be back in 2020. Today's news is that BMW has filed trademark applications for a series of numbers related to the new model – 825, 830, 835, 850, 845, and 860 – along with an M850 and an M8. It was uncovered by AutoExpress, which adds additional depth to the story. Much like the 7 Series dukes it out with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan, the new 8er will take the fight to the S-Class Coupe. Even in Europe, where automakers like Mercedes offer a far wider array of powertrain options, the S-Class Coupe is only available in six-cylinder S400, eight-cylinder S500 (what we call the S550) and S63 AMG, and twelve-cylinder S65 AMG trims. If BMW uses all the numbers it's sitting on, the 8 would have a far broader spread of powertrain options, three of which – 825, 830, and 835 – could undercut even the base S400. But as AutoExpress explains, these trademarks obscure a bigger shift in how BMW will build and market its luxury coupes. Under the new strategy, BMW would move the 6 Series away from its role as a larger grand tourer, leaving space for the 8. The 6er would then be repositioned to challenge the Mercedes-AMG GT and Porsche 911. According to AE, BMW has been content to let the 911 do its thing, but the success of the AMG GT is forcing its hand. That means a lighter, hotter, and two-seater 6 Series. We like. Of course, 8 Series rumors have been floating around since the last one, the E31, went out of production. That means we'll continue to advise caution here, even though everything laid out by AutoExpress makes lots and lots of sense. Related Video: News Source: AutoExpressImage Credit: BMW Rumormill BMW Coupe Luxury Performance trademark bmw 8 series