Yahoo Autos The 2019 BMW 8-series Coupe Brings Back One of BMW's Craziest Interiors
The BMW 8-series coupe has a new white-and-brown interior option.
It harks back to an available color scheme from the 6-series Gran Coupe.
BMW is increasing the amount of Individual options across its lineup.
As we were slacking off and messing around on BMW's online configurator for the 8-series coupe, something caught our eye. In a sea of fairly boring, dark interiors, a new two-tone interior color scheme had appeared in the list of fancier options from the BMW Individual customization division that wasn't there a week ago. The colors are called Ivory White and Tartufo, and they make up a glorious white-and-brown combination that brightens up the interior of the 8-series and makes it look genuinely special. The sight of this new interior activated that stuff in our brains that makes memories work-look, we're not scientists, cut us some slack-and we realized that we've seen a nearly identical color scheme in another BMW.
Whatever those memory things are immediately went into action, bringing up mental images of the 6-series Gran Coupe's debut spec. BMW showed that car in a delicious Frozen Bronze paint with a two-tone Opal White and Amaro Brown interior, both of which were options available through the BMW Individual catalog at a high cost. That Frozen Bronze paint was $3500, and the interior was $3500 to $5000, depending on which trim of 6-series you got. (By contrast, the 8's option is only $2650.)
The two interiors are extremely similar not just in color but in the distribution of it. (Check out the above gallery for a comparison.) Both cars have brown on the carpets, upper dashes, and the tops and bottoms of the door cards, while nearly everything else is white. The 8-series has more brown on the seatbacks and bolsters, while the 6-series has more brown on the center armrest. Sadly, both cars have black steering wheels, which breaks up the color too much for our tastes. There's one major difference that makes the 8's interior stand out, though: A pure white suede headliner. The 6's was brown, and while it looked awesome, it didn't help the cramped feeling of the Gran Coupe's interior. The 8's white headliner should increase the feeling of airiness already present thanks to the light interior, although we wish the big coupe could be had with a panoramic sunroof.
This interior scheme isn't the only recently added BMW Individual option that we noticed. Aventurin Red Metallic, shown below, is a new $1950 option that's the only listed Individual paint color-existing non-Individual colors Dravit Grey and Tanzanite Blue II cost the same amount, though-and it's also the only actual red available. Other available Individual options on the 8-series include additional chrome exterior trim and different wheel designs. None of the Individual paints or interiors are shown on the 8-series convertible's configurator, but it's only a matter of time. There's also a four-door 8-series Gran Coupe on the way that we hope ushers in some radical new colors, just as its 6-series predecessor did.
BMW's Individual program has been around for decades, offering a wide range of special paints and leather colors, unique interior trims, personalization options, and more. BMW Individual also allows the creation of customer-commissioned one-offs, such as the recently revealed 8-series Night Sky, which featured real meteorites on the interior. BMW says that the addition of Individual options from the catalog can add six to eight weeks to the production time of a new car, with a fully customized car adding months onto that.
We reached out to BMW to ask about the new options, and BMW spokesperson Oleg Satanovsky told C/D that the number of Individual options available from the factory (and available on the configurator) has been increasing. He said BMW is promoting the visibility of its Individual division not just to allow for more choices, but to give owners "inspiration to create their own Individual car." While there aren't any real-life photos of the Ivory White and Tartufo interior yet, Satanovsky also told us that the next round of 8-series press cars will include at least one with the new interior, which hopefully will make its way to our Ann Arbor office.
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