BMW Gran Coupé to be new BMW 6-Series? Very unlikely.

Autocar are claiming that the BMW Gran Coupé Concept is going in to production in 2012 as the new BMW 6-Series. Which makes no sense.

We’re back again to the rumourmill. This time the rumourmill is busy banging its drum to proclaim that the BMW Gran Coupé Concept we saw last month is going to see the light of day in 2012 as the next generation BMW 6-Series. Which we wouldn’t normally  take much notice of as it doesn’t make sense to us. But we ought to consider the possibility as it’s Autocar peddling the rumours.

We’ll hang our colours to the mast to start with. We see the Gran Coupé as a range-topping model for BMW – possibly badged as a new 8-Series. BMW is missing a real competitor in the swoopy-coupe uber-saloon market and the Gran Coupé fills the bill just perfectly.

So why do Autocar think the Gran Coupé will be the next 6-Series? Frankly, we can’t work it out. If they were saying that they think the Gran Coupé signposts the design language for the next 6-Series we’d have no arguments. Even if they said that it will be the new 6-Series from the bulkhead forward we could buy that. But a 4-door 6-Series? Nah.

And we’re also pretty sure that we’re going to get the new 6-Series by the early part of 2011, with a reveal probably some time before. Autocar are saying that the Gran Coupé based 6-Series won’t turn up until mid 2012, which is just the wrong timeline.

We could be wrong. It’s certainly been known. But we don’t buy this for a minute. It makes no sense.