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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.

2016 Technology of the Year Finalist: 2016 BMW 7 Series

BMW remade the legendary 7 Series around technology for 2016. Yes, the sixth generation of BMW's iconic flagship remains a luxury leader, but its sophisticated new features expand the 7's traditional strengths to a new generation that relies on smartphones. The 7 Series' extensive tech is most evident inside, where the driver and passengers have new interactions with the car. A feature called gesture control allows the driver to turn up the volume, accept or decline phone calls, or turn off the home screen using hand movements (see the video below). The sedan also has a digital instrument cluster, LCD touchscreen keyfob, wireless charging feature for phones, and a pinch-to-zoom function that makes iDrive simpler to use. Life is especially good in the backseat, where a seven-inch Touch Command Tablet allows the passenger to control comfort, lighting, and infotainment tasks. There's also WiFi, a gorgeous panoramic Sky Lounge LED roof, and 10-inch screens mounted into the seatbacks. Creature comforts and connectivity aside, BMW literally redid the 7 Series to the core. The new body structure, called Carbon Core, helps the sedan cut weight by up to 190 pounds compared with its predecessor while improving stiffness and rigidity. Meanwhile, the big sedan now offers four-wheel steering, improved aerodynamics, and it will get a plug-in hybrid version next year. It's still a 7 Series, and that means it has all of the luxury can you imagine. The car will massage you, perfume the air, and ionize the cabin. Naturally, it has a potent twin-turbo V8 pushing out 445 horsepower. This is what you've come to expect from BMW. But with the new 7 Series, the venerable automaker moves toward the modern tech-savvy consumer, and that's why Bavaria's most decadent sedan is a finalist for our Technology of the Year award.

2017 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive is an M7 by any other name

Have you been waiting for BMW to release a more potent version of the new 7 Series? Try 600 horsepower on for size and forget all about the famous M badge. The new flagship performance sedan from Munich is the 2017 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive. Alpina is Bimmer's tuner of choice, and it designs customized features to integrate precisely with the factory build. The B7's 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 is massaged to deliver a nice, round 600 horsepower, and a torque figure nearly as impressive at 590 pound-feet available from just 3,000 rpm. All that muscle is channeled through an eight-speed automatic to all four wheels (as you might have guessed from the new xDrive handle). The result is an Autobahn-blitzing 0-60 time quoted at just 3.6 seconds – 0.8 seconds quicker than its predecessor – and a top speed estimated at 193 miles per hour. Those would have been considered supercar figures not that long ago, but are delivered here in a luxury sedan as big as they come. They also stand up pretty well to the forced-induction eight-cylinder competition in the Audi S8 Plus, Jaguar XJR, Maserati Quattroporte GTS, and Mercedes-AMG S63. The Audi produces a bit more power but less torque, the Mercedes does the opposite, and the Jaguar and Maserati are left in the dust. Only the S8 Plus dares claim a quicker 0-60 time, and even then it's only said to be a tenth quicker. (The Mercedes-AMG S65 boasts much higher output from its V12, but without an all-wheel drive system capable of handling all its muscle, it's a fair bit slower off the line.) Keeping all that momentum under control is an air suspension with adaptive dampers, active roll bars, and four-wheel steering. It's all mounted to 20-inch wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber and packing oversized brakes measuring 15.5 inches at the front (with four-piston fixed calipers) and 14.5 inches (with floating calipers) at the back. Of course it also benefits from all the advancements that the Bavarian automaker developed for the latest 7 Series, but takes things a step further with a specific aero kit and an interior decked out in even more upscale leather and trim. The finished product may not wear an M7 badge as so many have called for from BMW's flagship sedan series over the years. But the Alpina name carries a cachet all its own and has for the past 50 years now – which is a few years longer than BMW M GmbH has been around.