BMW Sales Exec: Sports Cars May Be a Dying Breed

Close your eyes and imagine a world without sports cars. Sad, isn’t it? If the segment continues on its current path, that could be the future.

In an interview with Bloomberg, BMW sales chief Ian Robertson, spoke frankly on sports-car sales in the United States and Europe: “The sports-car market is roughly half of what it used to be,” adding “Post-2008, it just collapsed. I’m not so sure it’ll ever fully recover.” To be clear, the sports cars being referred to are vehicles like Audi’s TT, Mercedes’ SLK, and BMW’s own Z4.

These are sobering words coming from a company that has built its reputation selling “Ultimate Driving Machines.” Yet this outlook is a pretty good explanation for why the brand is developing its next-gen sports car in tandem with Toyota, as doing so allows BMW to continue to offer image-building cars while sharing the R&D costs with another company.

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BMW’s plan for now appears to be to continue development of the joint project while maintaining a vigilant eye on the segment moving forward. One thing’s for sure: If fewer sports cars hit the road in the future, the vintage stuff on sites like Bring a Trailer is only going to get pricier. Buy now.



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