[advantage20]

The more I look at the car and the more I believe it's been developed as just a new 6 Series, until marketing kicked in and suggested rebranding it as a new 8 Series and including it into the new Bayerische Motoren Werke range as part of the new strategy for conquering the luxury segments.

Except that it was too late to actually redesign the vehicle, hence why pretty much everything screams 6 Series rather than 8 Series: slightly smaller footprint than the current generation, even more cramped rear room, profile and rear end clearly related to the current model, for sure a more unique dashboard than the current 6er but not quite special and upmarket enough compared to the claimed competition, a much stronger lean towards sportiness than luxury even though BMW keeps claiming both are equally high, an M Sport rear bumper design that's very sporty indeed but also a little vulgar and lacking finesse compared to other high-end sporty/luxury GTs. Finally, to my knowledge BMW never offered the E31 8 Series the spot it deserved in the G15's launch communication, as that would only have highlighted that the new model's philosophy is clearly closer to the outgoing 6er than to the original 8er whose heritage has been binned. Instead BMW only briefly brushed over the number 8 as having always been associated with the brand's most special models... in order to instill the new model with some free heritage prestige while turning the back to the heritage.

I might be wrong, and BMW would probably never admit it anyway, but a lot of clues point towards this vehicle having started its development as simply the new 6 Series before being switched over to the 8er range on a whim, without introducing sufficiently distinct high-end features to back it up. As such, I don't think we would have been overwhelmed by the vehicle's specialness had it been branded as just a new 6er. I also remember Scott telling us, by the time the first spyshots made their appearance, that this was indeed the new 6er and that there wouldn't be an 8er during the current generation cycle. Hence maybe also why they jumped on the now empty 6er spot to rebrand the new 5er GT as a 6er GT, while it's evidently closer to the 5er sedan it's based upon than the previous generation was...

Overall the new 8er has a beautiful exterior design, the interior is nice although it should have been more special (and it easily could have, had it borrowed a couple more tricks from the Concept) and I'm sure it will drive great, but the general philosophy and the lack of special interior features (as opposed to the original 8er) just don't make it a really credible new 8er. Yes, in the end the name doesn't matter as much as how well the actual car delivers, but I can't help being a bit disappointed by the lack of luxury feel and unique features making it worthy of the 8er badge, and therefore a little worried for its credibility against the S Coupé, Vantage, DB11, Continental GT and other vehicles that can certainly claim being special.