Alpina B5 Touring to outsell sedan in Oz?

The Alpina B5 Touring has only just arrived in Australia, but it promises to sell in larger numbers than its stablemate sedan.

In Europe, the high-spec wagon has been very well received, and Alpina executives in Australia for the launch of the B5 Touring see no reason why the local market should be any different.

"The B5 is very successful for Alpina," explained Thomas Cornu, the company's product manager. "We've sold more than 800 units in total; it's 500 Tourings and 300 sedans."

Alpina chief, Andreas Bovensiepen followed up by explaining that "the only choice" is the B5 Touring "if there's no M5 Touring".

Without a wagon version of BMW's highly esteemed M5, the way is left clear for Alpina to sell its own high-performance wagon in relatively large numbers.

"Specifically, we try to fill niches in BMW's portfolio... we know the road map for BMW [product roll-out] for the next five years – which cars they are bringing," Bovensiepen said.

"We are always looking for niches"

Bovensiepen also remarked that in Europe Alpina was also filling some of those niches with 3 Series Touring variants, and all-wheel drive models.

In Australia, the consumers in the market for a large, high-performance prestige wagon like the Alpina B5 Touring are limited to that car or the larger Porsche Panamera Turismo. Benz offers the Mercedes-AMG E 63 in a wagon variant overseas, but the previous generation of E 63 wagon only sold about 10 units in Australia, as a local spokesman told carsales some years back.

Alpina may not sell the B5 Touring in large numbers either, but when a company is only building about 1500 cars a year for global consumption, incremental numbers are worth chasing.

The B5 Touring produces 447kW and 800Nm from its turbocharged V8 engine and drives to all four wheels through a specially calibrated ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. With that engine output the B5 Touring will reach 100km/h from a standing start in 3.7 seconds and go on to a top speed of 332km/h.

Bespoke Pirelli tyres are matched to Eibach springs and Bilstein dampers for optimal dynamics and ride comfort. Alpina engineers have set up the B5 Touring with one degree of negative camber on the front end, in contrast with the 15 minutes specified for mainstream 5 Series models. Unlike the sedan, the B5 Touring features air suspension at the rear.

Price in Australia is set at $217,000, a premium of $8000 over the sedan.

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