APRIL 2019 11COMMENT
P
erhaps I’m just a dinosaur – or an exceedingly grumpy
old man (both, if you happen to be one of my
children!) – but, as far as I’m concerned, any car, no
matter the manufacturer, that is brought to market as
some sort of a special edition, raises my hackles.
Sometimes they’re just extremely poorly-judged marketing tie-
ups, while others tend to be nothing more than the marketing
department justifying their budget by painting cars an odd colour
and throwing a load of options at it. An example of the former
would be the new Hyundai Kona ‘Iron Man’ edition – I just don’t
see Tony Stark, one of the world’s richest fictional characters,
thinking that a mid-sized SUV with a couple of badges and some
red detailing, is that ‘Marvelous’.
Special editions generally smack of a run-out model, or a car
which just isn’t selling as well
as its manufacturer would like,
being slathered in additional
jewellery. But now there’s a
new phenomenon, the First
Edition. I think I noticed this first
when the latest generation of
M5 was launched. On BMW’s
stand at the Frankfurt Show,
there was a Frozen dark red metallic example with a somewhat
tacky plaque by its gear lever pronouncing this was an ‘M5 First
Edition – 1/400’. Bar the plaque, I’d have to admit that it looked
pretty tasty... but at a price; it was a whopping €19,500 more
expensive than the base model.
I’ve no idea if any came to the UK – perhaps someone can
enlighten me – but I was reminded about it by a press release
from BMW UK that popped into my inbox extolling the virtues of
the new M850i xDrive Coupé First Edition. Just 10 are destined for
the UK market and, along with their Frozen Barcelona blue metallicpaint, they’ll be fitted with a host of additional kit and some
‘Crafted Clarity glass’ highlights around the start/stop button, iDrive
controller, the gear lever and the stereo volume control.
Now, I don’t want to be called an old pedant (oh, go on then,
if you insist), but the M850i xDrive Coupé has been on sale
in the UK since December 2018, so how on earth does this
‘First Edition’ justify its moniker if it doesn’t actually go on sale
here until June 2019? And then there’s the price. A standard
M850i xDrive weighs in at a not insignificant £99,525, yet the
First Edition is a frankly eye-watering £121,995. Yup, I think the
marketing department must have dreamed that figure up after a
particularly long and liquid lunch!
It’s not just BMW, though – Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and even
Kia have jumped on the First Edition bandwagon recently, and it
would seem the real reason behind
them is so that the folks assembling
them will gain experience of fitting
all the possible options. So, instead
of practising their craft on prototypes
and the like, these cars are being
assembled as test beds, and then
being sold on to the public. Or am I
just being too cynical?
Personally, I wouldn’t buy a model at the beginning of its
lifecycle anyway as, inevitably, there will still be some bugs to iron
out. And is it likely to be even more ‘buggy’ if it’s rammed full of
all the latest technology that can be thrown at it? The best time to
buy a special edition is when a model’s just about to be replaced- everything’s been tried and tested, you get a load of extra kit,
often at no additional cost and, if it’s a run-out model, there will
be a big discount in the offing as dealers will be desperate to shift
the old stock before the all-new model arrives. First Editions? Not
for me, thanks. l
BOB HARPER
... doesn’t understand all the fuss that’s made about ‘First Edition’ models
I’d have to admit that it looked
pretty tasty... but at a price; it
was a whopping €19,500 more
expensive than the base model
A standard M850i
xDrive weighs in at
a not insignificant
£99,525, yet the
First Edition is a
frankly eye-watering
£121,995.