BMW has acquired tuning outfit Alpina, 60 years after the Buchloe-based brand produced its first uprated component for a production BMW model.
The two firms have been closely linked since 1964, when BMW started applying factory warranties to cars equipped with Alpina components, but Alpina has remained an independent entity until now.
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BMW have now switched to the ZF 8 speed auto for (most of) their M cars, which now dillutes the Alpina market to quite a degree, so sales could have started to struggle.
My thinking is, BMW will use their M badge for the more hardcore versions of their performance cars, and the Alpina badge for the more comfort based versions (so for example, the "everday" M5 becomes the BMW Alpina B5, and the Competition/CS versions stay as the M5)
As for talk of BMW using the Alpina name as a trim level on lesser cars: You've been able to buy Alpina wheels, bodykits, suspension components and such like, without having to buy a full blown Alpina car for decades now - So there's no real change there.
Anyone asking if BMW taking over Alpina is a bad thing, should ask themselves another question:
"Could Alpina have survived without BMW taking them over?"
I'm suspecting that the bosses at Alpina came to the conclusion that they couldn't.
Which would you rather have?:
Alpina's still being available to buy? - Or Alpina no longer existing?
Regrettably, I expect the in-house version of Alpina, will become a brand marketing exercise, similar to the AMG-lite models, within Mercedes.
A genuine Alpina always felt like more than sum of it's parts and that will be sorely missed.
I think that's very sad. I already own a 10 year old Alpina and love it. I suspect that the current 3 series touring may be the last great Alpina produced. Maybe time to put an order in.