{"id":1836751,"date":"2026-03-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1836751"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:00:00","slug":"bmw-tuner-ac-schnitzer-will-shut-down-at-the-end-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1836751","title":{"rendered":"BMW tuner AC Schnitzer will shut down at the end of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BMW tuner AC Schnitzer<\/a> has announced it will soon stop tuning BMWs. Which means a story that began way back in 1987 with a modified E32 7 Series will end in 2026.<\/p>\n

The company says rising costs in designing, developing and building aftermarket parts have created \u201ccompetitive disadvantages\u201d. It cites in particular the \u201cextremely long approval process for parts in the German system\u201d that has caused the long-running tuner to \u201cfall further and further behind its non-German competitors\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf we can only bring aftermarket parts to market eight or nine months after the competition, that speaks for itself,\u201d said ACS\u2019s managing director Rainer Vogel.<\/p>\n

Vogel noted that ACS \u2013 like other tuners \u2013 had \u201cnot succeeded in inspiring young customers to enjoy sporty driving with our brand to the same extent as their fathers\u2019 generation did\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ACS also said changing customer behaviour, worsening international market conditions \u2013 tariffs, rising costs in raw materials, volatile exchange rates, basically the world generally being on fire since 2020 \u2013 and \u201cthe gradual phase-out of the internal combustion engine\u201d has made running a tuning company very, very challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking a rational decision regarding a business segment that is so emotionally charged is not easy,\u201d Vogel added. \u201cBut as a family-owned business, we always think in terms of the entire Kohl Group and its stable future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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AC Schnitzer was of course founded by Willi Kohl and Herbert Schnitzer back in 1987 in Aachen (the AC bit) under the Kohl automobile GmbH parent company. Not only did it tune BMWs, it also raced touring and rally cars, set world records with a modified E63 M6 and LPG-powered 335i, and opened up its tuning to incorporate Minis, Range Rovers and even the GR Supra.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kohl Group is in talks with parties interested in acquiring the AC Schnitzer brand,\u201d the company said, \u201cbut regardless of the outcome of these discussions, existing inventory will be sold off by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BMW tuner AC Schnitzer has announced it will soon stop tuning BMWs. Which means a story that began way back in 1987 with a modified E32 7 Series will end in 2026. The company says rising costs in designing, developing and building aftermarket parts have created \u201ccompetitive disadvantages\u201d. It cites in particular the \u201cextremely long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1836751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1836751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1836751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1836751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1836751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}