From BMW’s Department of Redundancy Department comes the M850i Edition M Heritage, an M-Lite version of a car paying tribute to a non-M version of a car that was available with a VIN starting in WBS. I mean, given its architectural link with the 5 Series and 7 Series, the M850i Gran Coupe is a four-door version of a two-door version of a four-door car, after all. Anyway, this special edition comes as standard with paint and some wheels, but none of that’s really important. What matters is that BMW decided to position it directly next to an original 8 Series, then bring a photographer. Frankly, I’m surprised someone at corporate didn’t veto that decision.
Alright, I’ll expand on the new one first. The M850i Gran Coupe is a car driven by…actually, I’ve never seen anyone driving an M850i Gran Coupe. Old guy who looks like he golfs in an M850i Cabriolet? Sure. Power broker in an M8? Absolutely. But this particular variant? Can’t say I know. Perhaps that’s why BMW has decided to paint 500 of them in the launch colors of the original 8 Series: Bright Red, Mauritius Blue metallic, Cosmos Black metallic, Oxford Green metallic, and Daytona Violet metallic. It’s then clothed big swathes of interior in Alcantara, added some unique wheels, piled on the equipment, and given it some badging and small accents. Pricing starts at $131,575 and you’d have to taste exterior glass on a regular basis to splash that much cash on one.
While I adored the 6 Series Gran Coupe, I never found myself enthralled by the 8 Series Gran Coupe in non-Alpina trim, for reasons that become immediately apparent in this photo set. While the M850i Gran Coupe is a luxury car you can spend money on, the original 8 Series was a flagship. A benchmark. One of those cars so special, its makers might not be able to replicate it again. Given that it cost roughly $900 million to develop, most automakers wouldn’t want to anyway. That’s a shame, because everything wrong about the M850i gets clarified in the context of the E31 8 Series.
For one, there’s appearance. The modern car is a product of its era, one that already feels quite 2020. It’s bulbous and busy and derivative of the rest of the lineup around that time. The E31 is something different entirely. It looked nothing like any other BMW of the late ’80s, its pop-up headlights and pillarless greenhouse standing out. At the same time, it’s restrained, muscular where muscle’s needed and sleek where it isn’t, all without being overbearing.
Then there’s the meaning of the name. An 8 Series should be something above a 7 Series, not something less spectacular, less cutting-edge, less extravagant. The 6 Series nameplate exists for that, and that’s what the M850i Gran Coupe really should be. The original 8 Series was the first production car to feature CANBUS networking (not the W140 S Class as commonly thought), featured the first pairing of a V12 engine and a six-speed manual transmission, and was the second car ever to get Germany’s first postwar V12 engine. It was also one of the first BMWs to get a modern multi-link rear suspension, and had a drag coefficient of just 0.29 in the late ’80s. The E31 8 Series was a magnificent festival of things that go, and by contrast, the M850i seems almost quaint. A twin-turbocharged V8 mated to an eight-speed automatic isn’t something most would bat an eye at in today’s car market.
The original BMW 8 Series comes from a time when so many manufacturers made cars we absolutely loved, BMW included. A time when it was normal to know a bit about how a car worked, and when innovation was wholeheartedly creating better products to drive. Adaptive dampers and sequential fuel injection, not over-the-air subscriptions and app integration. Could BMW be more like that again? Possibly, but the brand’s been so mired in irreverence for heritage lately, from playing a game with font sizes on the badge for the M235 Gran Coupe to the entire XM SUV. Pity, because everyone loved the cars BMW made around the turn of the ’90s, from the driving-first E30 and E36 3 Series to the crisp E34 5 Series to the C-suite sports sedan E32 7 Series. Cars from a time when BMW was cool because it was authentic.
(Top graphic image: BMW)
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To me, the modern 6 Series was a better car than the modern 8 Series.
Of course the E31 and E24 trump both, but I never understood the point of the new 8. Like you said, it didn’t bring anything spectacular to the table. This should’ve been an AMG GT or even cheap Ferrari competitor and was just a glorified 6 Series.
I dunno. Having admired BMWs for as long as I can remember (Gen X’er here), I happen to love both this 8-series and the modern-day stylings of BMWs (actual cars, though…no SUVs or crossovers…which aren’t cars to me). Hadn’t been able to own one until several years ago, but the 3 BMWs we’ve owned–loved all of them. Two 2 series and an i4; I’ve driven a couple of 8 series too as loaners, an M840i I believe a while back and an 8 series convertible. Test drove pretty much every series of real cars too.
Probably “you have bad taste” is what folks will say. That’s fine. I love the stylings of everything from a 2002 to the ’90s cars as well…and today the current models have given me everything I’d hoped for having only driven but never owned until recently. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They’re trying to pull from the deific energy of the 850CSi, and yet they’re making the M850i Gran Coupe next to it look so mundane it’s on the same level as a fungus.
The old car is a museum curator in the garden hedges wearing a tailored suit as he negotiates for a new exhibit, and the new one is a techbro with a pedostache and a button up shirt that he refuses to actually button past the navel.
Authentic? And yet they still don’t have turn signals and seem to need to be very close to the rear ends of other cars. Kinky? Or just asshole drivers?
Also. $130,000+ what the absolute F is that about.
Still love the OG 8 series. That red paint is fantastic and a good reminder that not every color needs to be a pearl or metallic. Lets have fun with colors again.
BMW has some spectacular blues right now. Makes me wonder why the only ones I see on the road are white, gray, or black.
So I don’t hate the current 8-series and I love that BMW is painting some of them in real, fun colors. They had a great selection in the 90s and why NOT bring those back?
The E31 is an odd one to me. I’m another who “met a hero” when I got to drive an 850Ci / 6MT and ended up feeling pretty let down. My thoughts mimic the C&D review that got linked here. It was a mix of gorgeous, cool, and not so fun to drive all at once. I left feeling like my E36 was a better overall car, if less prestigious. Because it was.
The E31 was partially a technological tour de force, though the V12 was “do what we can with what we have” to me. Two M20 inline sixes slammed together, using two of everything to control it all.
Meh. Painfully pretty, but I don’t want one. I’d own a new 8GC though.
If I wanted to spend over $130K on a BMW coupe, I’d rather just start by buying an E31 850 for $25K and go from there.
In the 70s and 80’s when I was first getting interested in cars (yes I’m old), the more expensive brands differentiated themselves in the marketplace with real things like quality, performance, safety, etc. An E12 BMW might actually have been twice as good as an Olds Cutlass in 1981. But now that the gap in these objective areas has been so thoroughly closed by the competition, makers like BMW still need something to differentiate them in the marketplace and justify their fat profit margins. The ways they do that aren’t really real things anymore; they are more like perception. You don’t have to make a better product, you just have to help people feel like your product is better.
You mean Audi’s domain?
I will never support a four-door coupe nor will I ever eat cauliflower rice.
Cauliflower pizza crust would like to enter the chat.
Cauliflower pizza crust can wait outside in perpetuity.
I’m right there with you on that! 🙂
ghost broccoli needs to stop trying to be things its not.
My cousin genuinly has that gluten allergy problem and she says who in their right mind would WILLINGLY suffer through that cauliflower crap
I’ll take a glass of water over a non-alcoholic beer any day.
I actually think this is one of their better looking current models, but I’m also a weirdo that thinks the G80 M3 looks ok (only in certain colors). I’m a long time BMW enthusiast, but it’s getting really hard to stay on board with them. I had a G20 3 series from 2019 when they first came out and loved it, but IMHO it keeps getting worse with each revision and I shudder at the thought of what the next one is going to be like. But as others mentioned BMW don’t GAF. People seem to be buying/leasing them anyway. I’ll continue to watch from the friendly confines of my E46/F87/Volvo S60.
The original 8 Series is second only to the Z8 as best looking BMW ever. That whole generation of BMWs is exceptional looking. They are foolish to offer anything else up in comparison. BMW today has gone even farther than Ferrari in losing their reason for existence.
Gotta say that I agree with Thomas’ assertion that people really truly fell in love with the 80s and 90s bimmers. They were literally the perfect cars for their time. Modern BMW’s tend to try way too hard and have lost the guttural charm that their forbearers provided. Their cars now just look like appliances that could have come out of any old automobile factory.
“people really truly fell in love with the 80s and 90s bimmers”
OTOH other people had less love for the people who bought BMWs.
For ‘reasons’
Maybe it has to do with turn indicators being an option that you have to check on the build sheet… which is all the way on the back page in the lower corner in a massive 7-point font. Needless to say, only those with a magnifying glass would have even seen that there was a box that could be checked.
All US spec BMWs came with turn indicators. The problem was the blinker fluid reservoir was super tiny and blinker fluid was impossible to find even at the dealers. If you asked for it they’d just laugh at you.
Yeah… the last time I could even find blinker fluid was at an old big lots… they sold the high-precision Siemens brand, and even the discounter wanted $56.73 for a litre of it.
I remember when the old site had a reader meet up in LA and they had a contest for what to name the signature cocktail. The winner was Blinker Fluid.
They abandoned Aston Martin for the ’90s Bond films and went with the BMW Z3 despite the DB7 and V12 Vantage being a thing because the Z3 had that much pull with the public. Ronin’s E39 5-series is famous the world over, and BMW leaned into that connection all the way until the E60 was unveiled in 2004. Meguiar’s used to use an E36 M3 for their television ads. The hero car of Need For Speed: Most Wanted was an E46 M3 GTR. BMW was everywhere, and people wanted more.
The only time I see a BMW in media nowadays is if BMW has paid to insert the car in there. That kinda tells you that people don’t see them as aspirational cars anymore, and with the X1, X2, and 2-series they’re not really luxury status symbols in the U.S. anymore either. I see high paid suits driving GMCs, Jeeps, Teslas, and Lexuses while the white collar middle management drive the base model 325 or the X2.
News Flash:
BMW (and later, Ford) paid for their products to be in the Bond films.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2001-08-30/james-bonds-new-35-million-wheels
https://www.007.info/buy-another-day/
That looks as much like and E31 8-Series as I do.
And I do not.
Therapist: “Now I’d like to say three nice things about 850. Do you think you could do that?”
Me: “The grille is much nicer now. The rear headroom is the best of all the Gran Coupes. And at least it’s not one of those GT models, what the f*ck was up with that?”
Therapist: “OK, let’s not get off track, that’s only two things so far. Can you think of a third?”
Me: “Yes, at least Chris Bangle wasn’t involved.”
Bangle: “I’m sitting right here, dude.”
It looks like a Stinger.
I’m getting a little more of a Lexus GS vibe from it, but same basic idea.
Both a Stinger and a GS are more desirable than the “8” series
BMW (along with Porsche and Mercedes) all face a similar conundrum. They do not want to alienate their existing customer base, but their existing customer base simply isn’t enough to keep the lights on, so they also have to attract new buyers. You might say the same about Cadillac in the 1990s.
So BMW has to build cars for the loyalists and also more mainstream vehicles. This is one of the latter.
BMW lost many of the customers they used to attract. Zero brake or stearing feel and designs that are hideiously tacky. Their current customers don’t care about getting “The Ultimate driving Machine” they just want to look like they care.
I don’t think BMW cares. They sell far more cars now than then, and are profitable.
For sure, BMW made the easy business decision. It is a lot more profitable to sell overpriced, tacky, fashion accessories than good driver’s cars. But that doesn’t make them good cars for people who are looking for the type of driving engagement they used to offer.
Driving engagement is dying in general. Normies don’t give a rat’s ass about it, they just want comfortable appliances that make driving as carefree as possible. The more you spend the more gaudy of a transportation blob you get, but a BMW serves the same purpose for like 90% of their buyers that a CRV or Highlander does for their’s…it’s a comfy, quiet transportation device that doesn’t force you to think or put in effort.
One of the saddest takes I keep seeing is that there will soon be a whole generation of enthusiasts who have no idea what feedback is, and tragically I think that’s true.
For sure. The primary issue is that the machines have become infinitely more capable than the drivers. The more input the driver has, the less capable the car will be. To get the performance numbers that the poseurs care about, car makers need to build cars that only become engaging on a track with near professional race driver skills. On the road, they are so under-stressed that they feel completely dead.
More than anything else, that is why auto enthusiasm has shifted from a hobby that could support a meaningful culture to one that is all about spending money. If driving isn’t fun, there is less reason to learn how to wrench and modify. Not that modern cars allow for or benefit from that beyond using a laptop.
This is a fantastic comment, in fact I hadn’t even considered it in the terms you’ve expressed it here.
That’s why I have no interest in these number cars—boring, often ugly, and mainly sold as insecurity cover instead of driving machines. On the flip side, you have a generation or two who think they’re either Ken Block because they played some video games or that you’re a menace for driving something even as modest as a Focus ST or GR86 with stability off because they can’t conceive of actually driving themselves and what it’s like to drive a communicative car.
I think this is true, but I also think the “prestige” brands have become very reliant on wealthy buyers in Asia and the Middle East that don’t have any expectation of driving in a spirited way. They are driving in urban environments with heavily regulated traffic or modern, straight expressways and primarily want to look stylish when they pull up.
This is a big piece of it. Developing car markets have no reference point and are focused on conspicuous consumption first and foremost. The fact that a BMW M4 Competition is expensive and has good numbers on a spreadsheet is the only thing they care about. BMW knows this and makes the products accordingly.
The sad part is when consumers who do have reference points, like many in the U.S., ignore the reality and continue to claim that BMWs are cars for people who love to drive.
But the truth of it is (and we don’t want to admit it) a lot of the conspicuous consumption demand is coming from right here in the U.S. The X///M which everyone scapegoated as a ‘for China car’ isn’t doing great in China, but has found a home on the USDM as a cheap Urus or Escalade-alternative.
There’s plenty of tasteless conspicuous consumption right here that we needn’t blame global tastes for what we are also guilty of. The M series BMWs have practically become the ‘playboy’s Hellcat’ given how many I see on social media being poorly driven by douchebags who just see them as a way to ‘flex’ on other people.
For sure. I think the automakers learned that as a side effect of the changes they were making for emerging car markets. They realized that the quickest way to profits is to appeal to people who prioritize disposable fashion. If you can sell a product for which the primary function is to be expensive and temporary, it is likely to be very profitable.
This is the only reason Maybach exists.
Wealthy Asian buyers were purchasing AMG S Classes because they were the most expensive versions – then complaining about how they drove.
Maybach just 21st Century for “Brougham”
I’d say that most of the driving populace for quite a while has been unaware of what it’s like to drive an engaging car. The numbers of engaging cars available have declined for decades (even within segments where one might expect engagement, like sporty coupes where more of them were grandma’s grocery runner in a different package than being driver focused), were never the big sellers, and are more specialized kinds of cars that many people would never even know someone who had one, let alone be given access to drive it.
I am really tired of being told that no products are being made for me because “normies” want something different. Isn’t the whole premise of capitalism that there’s supposed to be product differentiation?
Follow-up question: if all I’m gonna be allowed to buy is a boring grey crossover with a CVT, can I at least have free health care?
And we all know how well the 90s Catera worked for Cadillac.
My impression is that from the 2010s on, Cadillac sedans had usurped BMW as The Ultimate Driving Machine. The fact that this didn’t translate into sales is proof that many of us, including Cadillac product planners, never fully understood BMW’s secret to success.
The awesome thing about being a loyalist of old school BMW is there were a ton of them made and they are generally well supported! I’ve had no issues enjoying daily driving 25+ year old BMWs.
My parents e38 was just in to the local dealer and it sat there for three weeks awaiting a new EDC shock absorber. The service managers said a staggering number of customers asked if it was for sale in that three weeks.
Article: The M850i Gran Coupe is a car driven by…actually, I’ve never seen anyone driving an M850i Gran Coupe . . . But this particular variant? Can’t say I know.
Funny you say that, my friend the BMW salesman tells me that there’s usually 3-4 two door 8 series sitting on the lot, but the can’t keep 8 series Gran Coupes longer than it takes to do paperwork on them.
Looks like the last Avalon.
I blame the Toyotafication of everything. Toyota taught people that what they really want are boring, trouble free, no risks taken appliances. Why buy a car that gets you excited and risk getting stuck somewhere? Getting stuck is annoying, makes you feel something bad. We prefer to get where we’re going every single time and feel nothing at all. This day and age, with social media, we already know what people think they want.
“Nevermind that we used to define what people wanted by making it before they realized that’s actually what they wanted all along. That was risky. What if we’re wrong and they don’t like it? What we’re looking for are guarantees, reliable as a Toyota returns on our investments, not risk-taking, edge pushing advances in the automotive medium. Leave those for the Chinese companies trying to earn market share. Certainly they won’t catch up then eventually leave us behind.”
People always wanted this. No manufacturer ever prided itself on building unreliable turds – the Japanese were just the first to figure out how to build consistently reliable cars and they were rewarded with sales and loyal customers. The “appliances” argument is complete garbage perpetuated by people who have no actual critiques to make.
No manufacturer ever prided itself on building unreliable turds— Jeep?
Collect call from Turin, Italy trying to patch in.
I’d be more inclined to agree with that sentiment were it.not for the sea of nearly identical crossovers constantly surrounding me, all trying to mimic the Rav4.
Okay? It’s not Toyota’s fault BMW and other automakers have chosen to build garbage.
I’m not blaming Toyota for anything. I’m pointing out that the entire industry trying to be like Toyota is stifling innovation.
They’re not trying to be like Toyota, they’re building cars people actually buy, which is, generally bland but reliable crossovers. Tastes change, and the auto industry is a business. Years ago people wanted station wagons, then hatchbacks, then minivans, then SUVs, now crossovers.
I also don’t see how innovation is being stifled whatsoever – cars today are safer, cleaner, more efficient, and more practical than they’ve ever been. And that’s all to say nothing of the huge strides made in electrification. If innovation was being stifled we’d all be rolling around in carbureted shitboxes that overheat on a 70 degree day and fall apart if you look at them weird.
Not mimic RAV4. They are there to destroy your soul
*side eye from Italian car manufacturers*
x1,000,000
If Toyota didn’t figure it out, we’d instead be talking about Yugofication… Those things were tanks.
I agree and I would also say that cars have gotten so expensive both to buy and maintain that it has made more people want boring appliances.
I actually view it as the opposite. BMW realzied that a focusing on engaging to drive doesn’t lead to sales. What does lead to sales are massive performance figures that only matter on a spreadsheet and tacky “look at me” styling. Meanwhile BMWs have gotten even more expensive to maintain. Nothing about a current BMW is the trouble free, low-cost experience on which Toyota is based. Especialy given their depreciasion.
All German luxury cars outside of some Porsches are disposable products. They are designed to be leased and last the length of the warranty only.
100% true.
Getting stuck can mean no one is there to pick up your kids when they need picked up. It can mean missed hours at work and lost pay. It can mean losing your job in a time where the social safety net has REALLY big holes in it.
Unless you’re independently wealthy or living with your parents, you aren’t foregoing fun-yet-unreliable because you’re not a Cool Guy Who Takes Risks(TM). You’re making the choices necessary for your life.
It is always about the journey. Not the destination. (should be Alfa Romeo’s corporate byline).
Reliable doesn’t have to be boring, it’s just that it’s usually the case, but it’s also usually the case for less reliable expensive stuff, as well. People have always wanted reliable*, but far fewer ask for driver engagement and those numbers dwindle as the years pass and fewer people even know what that is to ask for it.
*Even Lamborghini built Lamborghini partly because of problems with his Ferrari, though it was more the insult to his ego than anything else, it still had its genesis in an unresolved clutch problem.
What it really comes from is a time when many of us were children, and remember cars more fondly. Everything is better through the rose-tinted glasses of youth. Music, movies, friendships, and yes, cars.
There will be a day when a future Autopian staffer who is currently attending elementary school writes a nostalgia piece for the current 8 series.
Reviewers at the time didn’t love the E31 either, and it cost almost $220,000 in current dollars. Nostalgia is great, but nothing is quite as good as we think we remember.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15142831/bmw-850i-archived-test-review/
Sadly, you are correct.
I still like the E31 styling better, although the thought of owning one absolutely terrifies me.
I’m not ruling out that it’s possible someone like my son will eventually grow up to be someone who looks fondly upon the current 8. It’s possible just like it’s possible a meteor could land on my house.
And I get that history sort of repeats itself and we all look fondly on the cars of our youth in ways future generations will never understand. But… is this really something someone like my son will give a shit about? Or will the cars of his youth (that he didn’t experience anyway) be met with a shrug? Because there’s just about nothing that this car does from a design standpoint that any other non-luxury vehicle does. And it exudes basically zero character, at least to me anyway.
I’m fascinated by this and totally willing to be proven wrong. Maybe one day my kids will be like “Screw you Dad! 2020’s BMW was peak!” But I’m going to put my money on my kids, and most other kids of today, simply not giving a shit. Because why would they?
It’s one of the last passenger cars available with a V8, it’s one of a few remaining convertibles, it’s reasonably good looking inside and out, especially compared to other BMW models, and so on. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the current 8 series will be fondly remembered compared to what comes later.
My statement was a bit provocative, purposely, but again, look at the linked C/D review of the 1991 850i. That doesn’t strike me as a review of a car they expected would have iconic status 35 years later. So might it be with this one.
Unfortunately, your son will probably look back on the time when people could actually afford a car and insurance.
Beg to differ. Most of the music, movies, and mayhem from my youth do not engender rose colored glasses. They mostly do not age well at all. (Sets aside a chunk of vinyl records and 2001 A Space Odyssey)
As someone who has been accused of lacking sentiment with some truth and non-sufferer of nostalgia, I just roll my eyes when these things are written about cars that were lackluster in their day and there are many of them. These were good looking cars, but un-engaging to drive, horribly expensive, and massive headaches to maintain.
It may also be that part of the issue is renewed or new exposure to these old cars reveals them to seem far more engaging than the new models people are accustomed to as newer cars have declined in engagement over the years. A 3000GT was a numb, overweight, tech-laden pig that looked even fatter and heavier than it was compared to its contemporaries, but when compared to something new, it might feel engaging, mechanical, and relatively light.
I daily a ’21 BMW that many gatekeeping enthusiasts like to shit on. They’re just wrong. I figure it’s the same people I disagree with on a great number of more important things.
One of the residents of my last home (an unglamorous suburban condo building) was a guy who drove a 650i Gran Coupe, owned a building remediation company, and when running for the condo board, insisted there was no conflict of interest because, as the owner of the penthouse unit (which, he was quick to point out he lived in the penthouse of our average building), there was no conflict of interest because he paid the most in maintenance fees. I feel like he’d love this, as two better than his 6 Series.
In BMW’s defense, the E31 8-series was a bit of a sales flop, and never did as well as hoped, which in some ways makes the current 8-series a valiant successor.
they have made back the costs in the ongoing maintenance of the ones that did get sold.
In fairness, the 8 Series is objectively the best-looking modern BMW. I’m not saying it’s brilliant, but it will age a lot better than the rest of their current lineup.
It’s just hard to compare its styling to the original, because 90% of cars aren’t going to compare well to the original 8 Series, either. It’s a genuine design masterpiece.
That’s true. Once they screw up either the 3 Series or the X5, it’ll be the end of the brand for me.
I am living in fear of the upcoming redesigns of both the 3 series and X5. My dad has an X5 50e and it’s just about a perfect luxury SUV. I certainly don’t need a new car, as I’ve only had my Kona N for 3 years and change and it’s about to be paid off…but if you or anyone else wants to get a BMW the time is now.
Speaking of the 8 Series, certified 840is coming off leases can be had in the high 40s/low 50s. They certainly won’t be pain free to own but that’s a lot of car for that much money and rough ones aren’t really even dipping lower than the 30s right now, so I don’t think it’ll be nearly as awful of an investment as most other used luxury sedans.
Hell I’d even just stick with the B58, although secondhand M850is aren’t that much pricier if you simply must have a V8.
I think the 8 series is the best looking car BMW currently makes and I’m not sure if it should be the subject of our ire when war crimes like the XM, the 5400 pound M5, etc. still exist. At least the 8 series is a conventionally attractive, rear wheel drive sedan available with a straight 6 or V8. Sure, there’s no manual (buyers don’t give a shit and I don’t either but car blog curmudgeons certainly do), but to me it’s still one of the last remaining links to the BMW most of us came to know and love.
Enjoy it while we’ve got it, because the rumor is it’s not going to be here much longer…and the next gen 3 series is close to being revealed and it’s hard to imagine it being anything other than an over styled, obese, demented love letter to screens…so enjoy the G20 while we’ve got it too.
‘I think the 8 series is the best looking car BMW currently makes..’
The very faintest of faint praise.
Yep, agree. The tone of this article really missed the mark for me. The current 8 series isn’t perfect, but I think they’re darn good looking and (while I would hear a 6 series vs 8 series argument) it fills an important place in BMW’s lineup.
Okay, I’ll ask – what the heck does “you’d have to taste exterior glass on a regular basis” mean?
Same. Maybe speech-to-text mis-transcribed something? This page is Google’s only match on the entire internet for “taste exterior glass”, so I don’t think it’s a real expression.
I think what he’s getting at is that the car is so overpriced for what it is, that you’d have to be brain-damaged from multiple facial encounters with the windshield to buy one.
Or, does he mean people who LICK car glass? I’ve seen it. It ain’t pretty.
I think he might be calling certain individuals window-lickers.