Matt Prior
TESTER’S NOTES
As an independent, Alpina has made some corkers
I tried not to make last week’s feature on Alpina too much of an obituary for the tiny German manufacturer.
Alpina has been altering BMWs for nearly 60 years, but it recently decided to sell up and hand the reins of its new cars over to Munich, which will use the Alpina name however it likes from 2026. As an independent, Alpina has decided that the risks outweigh the potential rewards.
It was hard not to feel a bit downbeat, then, even though Buchloe will continue working as Alpina Classic with old cars, will still have an engineering department helping out big car makers and might even persuade itself to develop new cars under a different brand name. Besides, the Alpina name will live on within BMW, which we can but hope will use it wisely.