New car news

06 November 2008 - 15:00

BMW CS: most dead

A bit more world-recession-type confusion for you: BMW has cancelled the CS.

The four-door coupe, shown in concept form at the Shanghai show in April last year, was expected to go into production next year, but BMW chiefs have decided that the CS wouldn’t meet ‘internal requirements for rates of return’.

Which, in normal-person speak, means it wouldn’t sell enough.

The CS was expected to be based on the 7-Series platform and rival the Porsche Panamera and Aston Rapide in the soon-to-be-quite-competitive ‘family supercar’ market: rumours suggested it would be powered by a six-litre V12.

However, more sensible engine variants would have brought the CS closer in line with its most obvious rival, swooptastic Mercedes CLS.

But with sales down some 62 per cent year-on-year, BMW has got cold feet and canned production. Does this mean trouble for Aston, Porsche and Lamborghini’s four-doors?

Or does it just add further proof to Top Gear’s belief that no one’s got the foggiest what’s going on with this whole recession fiasco?