The Most Expensive BMW Ever Made
The most expensive BMW ever sold is John Surtees’s 1957 507, at £3,809,500 — $5,012,432 at the rate of the day — with Bonhams at Goodwood on 13 July 2018. The most expensive BMW you can order new is the i7 M70, at the $170,050 top of the 2026 band. The 3.0 CSL of 2022 has no American price at all. The dearest BMW in our garage is the M4.
| BMW | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| 507, 1957 — chassis 70067 | £3,809,500 | Hammer plus premium, Bonhams Goodwood, 13 July 2018. $5,012,432 that day. |
| i7 M70 xDrive, 2026 | $170,050 | Sticker. Top of the i7 band; the dearest thing in a BMW showroom this year. |
| 3.0 CSL, 2022 | €605,000 | A pre-tax starting bid in Spain, 2023. Fifty built, no US price. |
| Z8, 2000 | $128,000 | List price. 5,703 built, 2,543 of them for North America. |
| McLaren F1 GTR, 1996 | $34,655,000 | Not a BMW — but its V12 is. RM Sotheby’s, August 2026. |
| M4 | $449/day | What the dearest BMW in our garage actually costs. |
One question that is really three
Ask for the most expensive BMW and you get an auction result, a showroom sticker and a fifty-car hand-build priced in euros, sorted into one column as though they were the same kind of number. They are not, and only one of the three is a transaction that provably happened.
An auction result has a house, a date and a buyer’s premium attached. A sticker is what the factory asks this model year, and it moves every model year. The third number belongs to a car BMW built fifty of, sold by private arrangement and never certified for the United States, so every dollar figure ever printed beside it is somebody’s conversion of somebody else’s estimate.
So the columns stay apart here, each figure says which kind it is, and the one BMW a reader can actually be handed the keys to sits in our own BMW fleet rather than at the end of the article. The same method runs across this whole series, from Mercedes to Rolls-Royce.
The record: a 507 that one man kept for sixty years
On 13 July 2018, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Bonhams sold chassis 70067 — a 1957 507 roadster with its hardtop — for £3,809,500 including premium. That was $5,012,432 at the rate of the day, roughly double the estimate, and no BMW has come near it since.
The car explains the money. John Surtees bought it new in 1957, the year after his first 500cc motorcycle world championship, and kept it until he died in 2017 — one owner, sixty years, and still the only man to have won world titles on two wheels and four. It is not a standard 507 either: BMW’s Alex von Falkenhausen fitted larger valves, bigger carburettors and a hotter camshaft, and Dunlop fitted four-wheel disc brakes, which no other 507 ever had.
Hagerty’s price guide put a perfect ordinary 507 at $2,812,500 in April 2023, about half the Surtees figure — which is how much of that five million was the logbook rather than the metal. The rest is scarcity, and the scarcity was a mistake: the 507 was meant to cost $5,000 in America and landed nearer $9,000 in 1957, against a Mercedes 300 SL roadster at $7,000. Mercedes sold 1,858. BMW sold 254 and nearly went under, and a car that sells in the hundreds is the one that sells for millions later.
The most expensive BMW engine is in a McLaren
Here is the row every other list leaves out. The most expensive car ever sold with a BMW engine is not a BMW. It is a 1996 McLaren F1 GTR, which made $34,655,000 with RM Sotheby’s at Monterey in August 2026 — the most expensive British car ever auctioned. The 6.1-litre V12 behind its driver is the S70/2, designed and built by BMW M in Munich.
A BMW engine has therefore sold for seven times what any BMW has, and the difference is the car around it: 106 road cars, a Le Mans win, a gold-lined engine bay. The McLaren ranking tells that story. The point for this one is that BMW’s engineering ceiling and its price ceiling are different numbers, and the gap between them is provenance.
Two rules, because they are where these lists break
A record is a date. The 507 has held the BMW record since July 2018. A list that says “the most expensive BMW is the 507” without the date cannot be checked, and a list that gives the wrong date is describing a different sale.
No silent conversion. The Surtees car made £3,809,500. Reprinted at today’s exchange rate it becomes a different dollar figure every year, and almost nobody says which rate they used. The number is the sterling one; the dollars are a footnote with a date on them.
The one with no American price
In November 2022 BMW M turned fifty and marked it with fifty cars. The 3.0 CSL is a hand-built two-door on the M4 structure with the most powerful straight six the company has put in a road car, each one roughly three months’ work at Dingolfing. The figure attached to it everywhere is €750,000. BMW never published a US list price, because the car was never certified for sale here.
What does exist is one concrete, market-specific number. Unit 41 of 50 went to Spain, where BMW Ibérica sold it through a two-week private auction in February 2023, and Motor1 reported the Spanish starting price at €605,000 before tax — about $650,000 that day, nearer €800,000 with Spanish VAT and registration tax on top. That is a starting bid, in one country, in one tax regime, converted on one particular Tuesday. It is not a list price, it is not a sale, and it is certainly not “the most expensive BMW ever made, $860,000”. Quote it with the qualifiers or not at all.
The most expensive BMW you can order new
This is the question most people are actually asking, and the answer is not the SUV with the split headlights and the hybrid V8. It is the electric limousine: the i7 M70 xDrive, at the $170,050 top of Car and Driver’s published band for the 2026 i7, the source for every sticker on this page so the rows compare like with like.
The most luxurious BMW is a different question from the dearest one. The 7 Series is BMW’s flagship saloon and the i7 is its electric version, the same body and cabin with a battery where the engine was; the quickest way to sit in one is a BMW 7 Series rental in Los Angeles.
It clears the XM Label at $161,150 by about nine thousand dollars; for 2026 the XM range collapsed to the Label alone, so that model’s band is a single number. Two consequences follow. The most expensive BMW model is the i7, and the most expensive BMW sedan is also the i7, because it is a sedan — which is why those two searches should return the same car and usually do not.
Ranked by sticker, with the source beside each figure and destination included where the source states it, as of 28 September 2026:
| 2026 BMW | Sticker | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ALPINA XB7 MANUFAKTUR — 120 cars, sold and serviced by BMW dealers since Alpina joined the group | $181,550 ($180,000 plus $1,550 destination) | BMW Group PressClub, 6 March 2026 |
| i7 M70 xDrive | $170,050, the top of the band | Car and Driver, 2026 i7 |
| XM Label | $161,150 | Car and Driver, 2026 XM |
| iX M70 xDrive | $112,675 ($111,500 plus the $1,175 destination charge of the day) | BMW Group PressClub, 28 January 2025 |
The table says one thing the headline does not. For 2026 the dearest car with a BMW badge on its dealer paperwork is an Alpina, the 120-car XB7 MANUFAKTUR, allocated before deliveries begin in the last quarter of the year; among cars anyone can walk in and order, the i7 M70 keeps the top. It may not keep it long: BMW’s own release for the 2027 7 Series (BMW Group PressClub, 22 April 2026) lists an i7 60 xDrive at $124,700 and no M70 at launch.
The most expensive BMW in Los Angeles
None of the cars above exists in a rental fleet. There are 254 507s on earth and fifty 3.0 CSLs, and neither has ever been on a daily rate in this city or any other.
What does exist is a ladder of BMW model lines, and the top of ours is the yellow M4 — the only BMW here on the exotic-tier deposit, and roughly four times the day rate of the X1 at the bottom. Between them sit the black 7 Series, the X5 and the 430i Convertible. “How much is the most expensive BMW” and “which BMW should I book” almost never have the same answer; the second is on the BMW page with its calendars.
The 430i Convertible is the one to think about if the 507 is what brought you here: front-engined, rear-drive, roof down, the open BMW in our garage. If the day is four people to dinner in Beverly Hills, it is the black 7.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
The M4 carries a $2,000 refundable deposit, the black 7 $750, the 430i and X5 $500, all back 5–7 business days after the car returns. The Protection plan is priced per day off the deposit band, and your own full policy works instead. Weekly and monthly blocks bite on the BMWs in a way they do not on the exotics, so the car’s own page is where to read the rate.
Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is $150 both ways standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the free shuttle out to it — about half an hour — or $300 both ways VIP, where it is waiting at the terminal when you walk out; one direction is half. They combine per leg. The mileage allowance is written into your rental agreement, and the rest is in the terms.
The short version, with the columns kept apart
The most expensive BMW ever sold is John Surtees’s 1957 507, chassis 70067, at £3,809,500 with Bonhams on 13 July 2018 — $5,012,432 that day, and a record that has stood since. The most expensive BMW you can order new is the i7 M70 at the $170,050 top of the 2026 band. The 3.0 CSL of 2022 has no American price, and the only hard number on it is a €605,000 starting bid in Spain.
The most expensive car with a BMW engine is a McLaren. And the most expensive BMW in Los Angeles is a yellow M4, which is in our garage rather than in a vault.
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Cars in this guide
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive BMW ever made?
Nizo Luxury rents the BMW M4 in Los Angeles — +1 (424) 303-6496 — at $449 a day. The most expensive BMW ever made is, by the only number that records a transaction, John Surtees’s 1957 507, chassis 70067, which sold for £3,809,500 including premium with Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on 13 July 2018 — $5,012,432 at the rate of the day. One owner for sixty years, factory engine upgrades and the only four-wheel disc brakes ever fitted to a 507. No BMW has come near it since.
What is the most expensive BMW you can buy new?
The i7 M70 xDrive, at the $170,050 top of the 2026 i7 band per Car and Driver, among cars anyone can order. One BMW-badged car lists higher for 2026: the 120-car ALPINA XB7 MANUFAKTUR at $180,000 plus destination, per BMW's own release, allocated as a limited run. It clears the XM Label at $161,150, which for 2026 is the only XM offered. Because the i7 is a sedan, the most expensive BMW model and the most expensive BMW sedan are the same car this year.
Is the 3.0 CSL the most expensive BMW?
It is the most expensive BMW of the modern era and it has no price you can quote. Fifty were hand-built from 2022, never certified for the United States, and sold by private arrangement; the figure attached to it everywhere is €750,000. The only hard number is a €605,000 pre-tax starting bid for the Spanish car in February 2023, which is a bid in one country and one tax regime rather than a list price.
Is the McLaren F1 engine a BMW?
Yes. The F1’s 6.1-litre V12 is the S70/2, designed and built by BMW M in Munich, and it is the engine in the 1996 F1 GTR that made $34,655,000 with RM Sotheby’s at Monterey in August 2026 — the most expensive British car ever auctioned. That is seven times what any BMW has made, and the difference is the car around the engine.
Which BMW is the most luxurious?
The 7 Series, BMW's flagship saloon, and the i7, which is its electric version: the same body and cabin with a battery in place of the engine. The most expensive BMW you can order, the i7 M70, is the top of that same line, so the most luxurious BMW and the dearest one are one car in two forms.
What is the most expensive BMW in Los Angeles?
In this garage, the yellow M4, the only BMW here that carries the exotic-tier deposit. Below the M4 sit the black 7 Series, the X5 and the 430i Convertible, and the calendars are on the BMW page.