Anybody know what car this is?

Of the three, I prefer Audi.

BMW quality has taken a bit of a downhill slide over the last few decades. The company most people know as BMW was created by two brothers called Harald and Herbert Quandt. The company had been around for ages, but management had run it into the ground. It was rescued it from bankruptcy by the Quandts in the early 1960s.

However, they died in the 1980s and the company has stayed in the family but the various political squabbles between the heirs who inherited the money but not the passion for the car business that Harald and Herbert had.

As a result, the quality and innovation for which BMW was famous in their heyday has gradually been whittled away by accountants and family squabbling. BMW used to be the stereotypical "engineer's car". I think Audi has taken that crown away from them.

In my opinion, the only BMWs left today that have a bit of the "old spark" in them are the "M" cars (they're built by a separate division within BMW to a much higher standard than their mass-production vehicles). If your friend wants a 6-series, he should go for an M6 - otherwise I would suggest he not bother.

As for the A7. I don't personally care for the "fastback" style - if I were buying a car like that, I'd get the A8 instead but the only difference (so far as I know anyway) is the body. Same chassis, same engine, same features. Though, if I had the money, I'd buy the S8 because it has one of the best V8 engines for sale on the planet right now. Though, honestly, if I had the money to buy a new S8... I'd probably buy a used Bentley instead. But that's just me. 

As for Land Rover. I don't like SUVs. I never have and probably never will. It is a personal thing. I don't drive off-road (which is the only sensible reason anyone would buy an SUV) and I don't like the high driving positions that SUVs have. I am known to say "I don't like driving while standing up".

Having said that, if someone put a gun to my head and made me buy one, I would buy a Land Rover of some sort. Partially because they are owned by Jaguar and partially because there is a reason why the Land Rover is an icon of off-road driving... why so many people who drive seriously off-road in places like Africa wouldn't be caught dead in anything but a Land Rover.

The Range Rover model is, I suppose, one of the automotive icons of the world - along with things like the Porsche 911, the Mazda Miata, Volkswagen Beetle and the Ford Crown Victoria... (and did you ever think you'd hear those four vehicles mentioned in the same sentence?)

But, just because something is an icon, that doesn't mean I want one.














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