The ALPINA B3 is finished. Not paused, not between generations: the last B3 GT and B4 GT were built in November 2025, and the brand that made them belongs to BMW now. If you are reading this because a leasing site is still quoting you a monthly rental on a B3, that is the thing worth knowing first.
What makes this worth writing about is the gap between what BMW's own website says and what the leasing industry is still advertising. We checked both this morning. BMW has no ALPINA to sell you and says so, politely, by asking the question itself on its own page. Several brokers have prices up.
The old ALPINA
B3, B4, B8, XD3
BMW ALPINA
The new brand, from 2026
Bovensiepen
The family firm, on its own
What Actually Happened to ALPINA
BMW Group said it in corporate language in March 2022 and most people missed what it meant. The release announced that the cooperation with Bovensiepen would expire on 31 December 2025 and that the sale of the ALPINA trademark would lead to the discontinuation of the current ALPINA vehicle programme at the end of 2025. That is the whole programme, not one model, which is why the B3, the B4, the B8 and the XD3 all ended together.
The trademark transferred to BMW on 1 January 2026. BMW then launched BMW ALPINA as its own brand, with a new emblem, cars to be built in BMW Group plants rather than at Buchloe.
This is the part that explains why so much stale content is still live. There was no farewell release for the B3, the B4 or the B8. The 2022 statement was about a trademark and a corporate programme, and after that BMW said nothing model by model. The final cars were documented on an enthusiast Instagram account rather than by a manufacturer. A brand that was absorbed rather than retired leaves no obituary for anyone to notice, and search engines and leasing databases carry on exactly as before.
For the record, from reporting rather than from BMW: the last B3 GT was a Touring in ALPINA Green, the final B8 GT left Dingolfing in early 2026, and the XB7 is said to be capped at 120 units with production beginning in September 2026. We have not been able to match that last one to any BMW release, and it sits oddly nine months after the trademark changed hands, so treat it as the one loose end in the story.
What BMW's Own Page Shows Today
We loaded it this morning, and the first surprise is the address. alpina-automobiles.com now redirects to BMW UK's own site. ALPINA's website is not a stale configurator left running: it is gone, and it hands you to a BMW brand page.
The second surprise is what that page does not contain. We read the whole of it. There is no model name anywhere on it, no price anywhere on it, and no configurator, no build your own and no order link. The only thing it asks you to do is Stay informed. It is a brand page about a concept car, the Vision BMW ALPINA, with the footnote that the images show a concept and the production car may differ.
At the bottom of its own ALPINA page BMW runs a list of frequently asked questions. Two of them are "Will the Vision BMW ALPINA become a series production vehicle?" and "When will the first BMW ALPINA vehicles be available?" When the manufacturer's own page poses those as open questions, there is no car to lease. That is as clear a statement of availability as you will get.
One line on that page is also the answer to this article's title. BMW writes that its focus is on precision, not sport. The head of BMW ALPINA has described the brand as filling the portfolio gap between BMW and Rolls-Royce. The Vision concept is around 5,200mm long with four seats. None of that describes a fast 3 Series.
The First New BMW ALPINA, in BMW's Own Words
Here is what BMW has actually committed to, and it is less than you might expect but more than it was six months ago. In a release of 15 May 2026 BMW said that next year, customers will be able to experience the first model of the BMW ALPINA brand, and that it is inspired by the BMW 7 Series, but unmistakably BMW ALPINA.
Published in May 2026, next year means 2027. So the timing and the donor car are now BMW's own statements rather than speculation, which is a change from where this stood earlier in the year. What BMW has still not given is a model name, a price, an on sale date or a plant.
| What we know | Source | How firm |
|---|---|---|
| First car in 2027 | BMW release, 15 May 2026 | BMW's own words |
| Based on the 7 Series | BMW release, 15 May 2026 | BMW's own words |
| Positioned between BMW and Rolls-Royce | Head of BMW ALPINA, same release | BMW's own words |
| V8 engine | Press reporting | Reporting only, not BMW |
| An electric version based on the i7 M70 | Press reporting | Reporting only, not BMW |
| A six cylinder model | Press reporting | Unconfirmed either way |
| Model name | Nowhere | Not published |
| Price | Nowhere | Not published |
We have kept the engine out of the firm column deliberately. BMW has said nothing about what powers it, so anyone telling you it is a V8 is repeating a report, and anyone telling you there will be a six cylinder is guessing.
Bovensiepen Did Not Stop Building Cars
The family business lost the ALPINA name on 1 January 2026 and is building cars under its own, which is a detail most coverage of this story leaves out. The car is the Bovensiepen Zagato, revealed at Lake Como in May 2025.
| Bovensiepen Zagato | |
|---|---|
| Based on | BMW M4, the current G82 car |
| Engine | BMW's S58 3.0 litre twin turbo six |
| Power | 611hp and 700Nm, as reported |
| Body | Carbon, by Zagato |
| Price | About 369,495 euros, from reporting |
| Numbers | A limited run |
| Sold in the UK? | Not confirmed |
So the people who made the B3 are doing exactly what they always did, taking a BMW and reworking it, but at roughly four times the price of the car underneath and in tiny numbers. Everything in that table comes from reporting rather than from Bovensiepen, because we could not reach its own site.
We found no UK price, no UK retailer, no right hand drive confirmation and no importer for the Zagato. That is not the same as saying it is unavailable, and at this price a bespoke import is plausible. It does mean nobody should tell you it is on sale in Britain, and it is not something we can lease you.
What a B3 Buyer Should Look At Now
The honest answer first: nothing is quite the same car. The B3's trick was being very fast, very comfortable and almost invisible, which is a narrow brief that almost nobody else writes for. The closest thing is a six cylinder 3 Series with all wheel drive, and that is where the awkwardness comes in.
| Car | Price when we checked | Where that price came from |
|---|---|---|
| BMW M340i xDrive Saloon | £66,475 on the road | BMW UK release, 28 May 2026, dated |
| BMW M340i xDrive Touring | £68,315 on the road | Same release |
| BMW M350 xDrive, the replacement | £66,785 on the road | BMW UK release, 30 September 2026 |
| BMW M3 Competition Saloon | From £91,485 | BMW UK brochure page, undated |
| Audi RS 5 Saloon | From £89,400 | Audi UK model page, undated |
| Audi RS 5 Avant | From £91,300 | Audi UK model page, undated |
| Mercedes-AMG C-Class | Not established | No dated UK price list found |
The M340i is the car a B3 owner would recognise: straight six, all wheel drive, fast without being a track car, and roughly where the ALPINA sat on price. It has just been superseded. BMW UK announced the new 3 Series on 30 September 2026, the six cylinder petrol is now called the M350 xDrive, and BMW says the petrol models arrive in January 2027. So the nearest thing to a B3 is changing generation at exactly the moment the ALPINA stopped being available.
A word on the other three, because the price column is doing some work. The M3 at over £91,000 is the hardcore car the B3 deliberately was not, and it is £25,000 up on an M340i. Audi's RS 4 no longer exists as a name, because the A4 became the A5, so the comparison is now the RS 5 at a similar £89,000 to £91,000. And on the AMG C-Class we are going to be straight with you: we could not find a dated Mercedes UK price list, and reporting through 2026 says production of the C 63 S E Performance ended in May. We are not going to tell you it is orderable when we cannot show it.
Note that only three prices in that table came from a dated source. The others are live manufacturer pages with no date on them at all, which is a recurring problem at this end of the market and the reason we price from the funders rather than from a list price.
The Part the Industry Has Not Caught Up With
Production ended in November 2025. We checked six UK leasing sites a year later, on 14 November 2026, and this is what they were showing.
| Site | What it shows | Availability claim |
|---|---|---|
| Contract Cars | Six ALPINA 3 Series entries, priced, with the derivatives not even named | Offers a factory order, quoted at around three to four months |
| Pink Car Leasing | A fully configured B3 GT Saloon, priced to the penny with an initial payment and an admin fee | None stated |
| GB Car Leasing | B3 GT Touring, no price shown | Describes it as pre-registered |
| The AA | ALPINA addresses still in the search index | Pages serve a generic search result with no ALPINA cars on them |
| Xcite Car Leasing | Lists B3, B4, XD3, B3 GT Touring and B8 as a range | No prices, no timescales |
| First Vehicle Leasing | Landing page with an empty model filter | Says plainly that it does not have the product |
That is the one that matters. One of those six sites offers a factory order on an ALPINA 3 Series, with a quoted timescale of around three to four months, next to six priced cars. The factory stopped building them twelve months ago. Nobody can place a factory order for a B3, so a quote generated from that page cannot be fulfilled the way it is described, however genuine the intention behind it. We have not reproduced any of those monthly figures here, because a price on our site should only ever be one we can stand behind.
We would rather be fair than score points, so two of those six deserve credit. GB Car Leasing describes its B3 GT Touring as pre-registered, which is the honest way to sell a discontinued car: it tells you exactly what you are getting. And First Vehicle Leasing says plainly that it does not have the product. A landing page outliving a product is an SEO artefact rather than a deception, as long as it tells the truth when you arrive. The honest caveat on this whole piece is that we are a leasing broker writing about other leasing brokers, so read the two paragraphs above as what we found rather than as a league table.
The reason we do not have an ALPINA page is the rule we apply to every model page on this site. We list a car when there is new supply behind it and live rates to quote. For ALPINA there is neither, so the pages come down rather than sit there collecting enquiries we cannot fulfil. If you want a discontinued car and there are genuinely unregistered examples about, that is a different conversation and worth having with us properly.
So What Replaces the ALPINA 3 Series?
Nothing does, and the reason is more interesting than a specification.
ALPINA has not gone away. It has moved upmarket, out of the segment the B3 lived in. BMW's own words put the first car in 2027, based on the 7 Series, sitting between BMW and Rolls-Royce, with a focus on precision rather than sport. A four seat luxury grand tourer over five metres long is not a replacement for a fast estate you could park outside a school without anyone noticing.
So the practical answer for a B3 buyer is a six cylinder 3 Series with all wheel drive, which today means waiting until January 2027 for the M350 xDrive, or finding the run out of the M340i. The sentimental answer is a Bovensiepen Zagato, and almost nobody will be buying one of those. The answer nobody wants is the M3, which is a quicker and much less comfortable car for £25,000 more.
If a B3 was what you wanted, get quoted on the 3 Series run out while it is still around, and ask us what the M350 looks like from the funders when it opens for order. Comfortable, fast and understated is a real brief and it is worth matching properly rather than defaulting to the M car because it is the one with the badge.
Want something fast that nobody notices?
Tell us what the ALPINA was going to do for you and we will price the cars that actually do it, across our funders, with no monthly figure quoted until we know it can be delivered.
Talk to LetsLeaseFrequently Asked Questions
Very little, and that is the clearest evidence available. ALPINA's own website, alpina-automobiles.com, now redirects to BMW UK's site. The page it lands on carries no model name, no price and no configurator of any kind, and its only call to action is to stay informed. BMW's own frequently asked questions at the bottom of that page include whether the Vision BMW ALPINA will become a series production vehicle and when the first BMW ALPINA vehicles will be available. When a manufacturer asks those questions on its own page, there is nothing to order.
No. BMW Group said in March 2022 that its cooperation with Bovensiepen would expire on 31 December 2025 and that the sale of the ALPINA trademark would lead to the discontinuation of the current ALPINA vehicle programme at the end of 2025. The final B3 GT and B4 GT were assembled in November 2025. There is no factory building them, so no new B3 can be ordered. If you see a lease quote for one it is either a pre-registered car, which is legitimate as long as it is described that way, or a page that has not been updated.
Because nobody announced the end of the car. BMW's 2022 statement was about a trademark and a corporate programme rather than a model, and no BMW release has ever formally retired the B3, the B4 or the B8. Leasing databases and search engines take their cue from manufacturer announcements, so when a car disappears without one, the pages carry on. We checked six UK leasing sites on 14 November 2026 and two were still quoting monthly rentals, one of them alongside the offer of a factory order taking around three to four months.
BMW said in a release of 15 May 2026 that next year, customers will be able to experience the first model of the BMW ALPINA brand, and that it is inspired by the BMW 7 Series but unmistakably BMW ALPINA. Published in May 2026, that means 2027. The timing and the 7 Series basis are BMW's own words. The model name, the price, the on sale date and the plant are all unpublished, and the V8 engine and a possible electric version based on the i7 M70 come from press reporting rather than from BMW.
No, and this is the real answer to the question. BMW's own page says its focus is on precision rather than sport, the head of BMW ALPINA has described the brand as filling the portfolio gap between BMW and Rolls-Royce, and the Vision concept is a four seat car around 5,200mm long. That is a luxury grand tourer, not a fast compact saloon. ALPINA has moved upmarket and left the segment the B3 occupied, so there is no like for like successor coming.
It is building cars again under its own name. The Bovensiepen Zagato is a coachbuilt grand tourer based on the current BMW M4, using BMW's S58 3.0 litre twin turbo six, reported at 611hp and 700Nm, with a carbon body by Zagato. It was revealed at Lake Como in May 2025 and is reported at around 369,495 euros in a limited run. All of that comes from reporting rather than from Bovensiepen itself. We found no UK price, no UK retailer and no right hand drive confirmation, so nobody should tell you it is on sale here.
A six cylinder 3 Series with all wheel drive, and the timing is awkward. The BMW M340i xDrive was £66,475 on the road for the saloon and 68,315 for the Touring in a dated BMW UK release of 28 May 2026, which is roughly where a B3 sat. But BMW announced the new 3 Series on 30 September 2026, the six cylinder petrol is now the M350 xDrive at £66,785, and BMW says the petrol models arrive in January 2027. So the nearest equivalent is between generations until the new year.
Only if you want a different kind of car. The M3 Competition Saloon starts from around £91,485 on BMW UK's own brochure page, which is about £25,000 more than an M340i, and it is the harder, more track focused car that the ALPINA deliberately was not. The B3's appeal was speed with comfort and anonymity. If that is what you want, the M3 is not the obvious substitute, and we would rather talk you through the alternatives than sell you the badge.
The RS 4 no longer exists as a name, because Audi renamed the A4 to A5, so the equivalent is the RS 5 at around £89,400 for the saloon and 91,300 for the Avant on Audi UK's own pages, both undated. On the Mercedes-AMG C-Class we could not establish a current UK price from a dated Mercedes source, and reporting through 2026 says production of the C 63 S E Performance ended in May. We are not going to present either as orderable without better evidence than we have.
Because we only list a car when there is new supply behind it and live rates to quote against. ALPINA has neither, so the pages come down rather than sit collecting enquiries we cannot fulfil. It is the same test we apply to every model page on the site, and this week it has also taken down two Maxus pages and two other ALPINA ones. If you want a discontinued car and there is genuine unregistered stock out there, tell us and we will go and look properly.
It can be, as long as you know that is what you are buying. A pre-registered car has already been registered by a dealer, so you are not the first registered keeper, the warranty clock has already started and the car will have a build specification somebody else chose. One of the six sites we checked describes its B3 GT Touring as pre-registered, which is the honest way to sell a discontinued car. The thing to avoid is a quote described as a factory order for a car that no factory makes.
LetsLease is a credit broker rather than the lender. We arrange the agreement and place it with a funder such as Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens or Santander, and that funder owns the vehicle and holds the agreement with you. Because we work across several funders rather than one, we can compare how each prices the same car.