The 5 series GT again is aimed at being a niche car, just like the X6 and X6M, high profit, low inventory and production costs, for people who want exclusivity, with luxury, style and comfort. Wagons have traditionally never been popular in US anyways, especially not the very expensive ones such as the BMW 5 wagon, so I think it is wise to go with a niche car approach such as GT. And even more wise to discontinue the permanent showroom floor occupant, the 5 wagon. Perhaps, BMW learnt a lesson or two from Mercedes R Class and is not trying to market it as a replacement for a minivan, nor is it suggesting it to be a volume seller. This way they can keep the cost of their bread and butter models such as the 3 series low. Mercedes R class did not fail, it was the Mercedes's sales forecast department that failed. They predicted the US sales based on European numbers it appears. An expensive crossover, wagon looking vehicle, such as R Class cannot sell volumes in a country like USA. However an SUVish crossover such as Lexus RX, or even the 4 GM cousins (Buick enclave, Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia, and Chevy Tavern) all sold relatively better that the R Class despite R class's superiority. CLS class on the other hand that is the closest looking cousin to R class did extremely well. It is the stigma associated with vehicles that look like wagons in US that they do not sell in volumesIn the US the 5er Touring (there called Sports Wagon) is only available as a 535iX. The X deletes the option of getting any real sporty options like Dynamic Drive (active roll stabilization), sports suspension, etc. Also not the great Active Steering option. So basically not really a Sports Wagon. I think the lack of options explains the low sales figures more then anything else, if you could order the 5er Touring in the US as sporty as you can order it in Europe, then it would be a much bigger seller as you can make a bigger difference between the 5er Touring and the X5...ok so BMW thinks they can sell more of a hatchback to americans! if they tried to market the wagon in the states then maybe they would sell more. that things is plain ugly
