//M or Alpina?

[Stirling]

This is an interesting discussion. I think your comparison with Picasso and Monet is a good one. It seems that in situations like this there is some subjective factor that is driving up prices.

Take the Mercedes 190e 2,5-16v Evolution 2. These change hands for north of $50,000, even in Japan. Why? There are any number of current vehicles on the market that will smoke an Evo 2 in a straight line, have more creature comforts, are far more reliable, and will be considerably less expensive to maintain. Yet I'd bet that nine out of ten guys on this forum would take the Evo 2 over, say, a Nissan 350z, myself included.

And I haven't yet figured out why.

Some sort of psychological shortcoming, imagine!

What i see with the Evo 2 also leads me to believe that once we're through the current debt crisis Alpina prices are headed skyward. They simply didn't make enough of them. Classic Alpina prices are likely to be helped along in North America if BMW continues to import the newer models, raising awareness of the brand with the wider motoring public.