We’ve already established that 2021 was a record year for BMW by racking up more than 2.2 million sales to comfortably beat Mercedes for the first time in five years. After looking closer at the numbers for the United States market, we were surprised to find the defunct 6 Series in the sales chart for the fourth quarter. A grand total of two people bought a 6er between September and December last year.
This unexpected discovery prompted us to look back at previous sales reports issued by BMW USA over the course of 2021. Guess what? The 6 Series appeared in the Q1 sales chart with 41 units, once again in Q2 with seven sales, and also in Q3 with five cars. Doing the math for all four quarters, no fewer than 55 people bought one last year.
Sadly, BMW USA doesn’t provide a breakdown of the numbers to see which models from the long-dead 6 Series family generated those sales. We will remind you that the Coupe and Convertible body styles bowed out for the 2019 model year to make room for the two-door 8 Series. The subsequent 2020MY saw the end of the more practical 6 Series Gran Coupe, replaced with the equivalent 8er.
In addition, the same model year signaled an early retirement for the 6 Series Gran Turismo, which is still on sale in Europe where it received a facelift in the latter half of 2020. The sole member of the 6er family, the GT is living on borrowed time since it seems highly unlikely it will be renewed for the next generation. That shouldn’t be much of an issue considering sales never really took off, which is understandable given its somewhat odd shape and the more appealing 5 Series Touring alternative.
Since we’re on the subject of so-called zombie cars, BMW USA’s results for 2021 also show the i8 in all four quarters. The plug-in hybrid sports car grabbed eight sales in Q1, two in Q2 and Q3, and another six in Q4 for a total of 18 cars. As a refresher, production of the electrified coupe and roadster duo came to an end in June 2020.
