Archive for: BMW
M3 owners are in for a unique treat as BMW have announced that they will be offering a new range of carbon fibre accessories for the popular luxury vehicle. The super-rigid material has been used by the German car giants to create custom parts for the high performance coupe, sedan and convertible variations of the M3.
There are a range of components included in BMW’s vision for carbon fibre plated cars, with some being available across the M3 range. Door mirror caps and lower front splitters will be obtainable for all models, while coupe and sedan owners will have the opportunity to purchase a rear boot lid spoiler.
MINI have attempted to take some attention away from the dastardly vuvuzelas at this summer’s World Cup by launching their own fan item, the Countryman Makarapa. Fancy trading in your used MINI Countryman for a new model with a giant workman’s hat on the roof? No, I didn’t think so, but nonetheless, the Makarapa is a fun little addition to the party atmosphere currently enveloping South Africa.
This new Countryman may not be the most practical invention that BMW have come up with, but their novelty model with a giant Makarapa (a customisable South African workman’s helmet) attached on top has certainly caused a stir on the South African streets as fans embrace the fun and festivities that have been bywords of this first African World Cup.
Plucky car brand MINI are not giving up in their campaign to arrange a race between their famous Cooper model and the Porsche 911. Having thrown the gauntlet down to Porsche boss Detlev Von Platen, the BMW-owned brand, whose famous history has made them a much loved and iconic group of vehicles across the world, are refusing to give up despite Von Platen’s rather dismissive response.
German car manufacturing giants BMW have rolled out their one millionth X5, further cementing their place at the summit of the luxury SAV market. At just under 100,000 units a year for the past 11 years, the X5 has been a prolific vehicle for its manufacturers and has outsold its competitors for the past seven years.
It is an impressive feat for the X5, with its units per year ratio comparing pretty favourably with some of the most successful cars of modern times. The VW Beetle, the most produced car ever to be sold, averaged around 320,000 units per year. For the X5 to have even reached six figures per annum is remarkable given the level of competition it faces and the fact that it is deemed a luxury SAV.
BMW are no strangers to integration with smartphones – they were the first car manufacturers to incorporate the BlackBerry Address Book into their onboard applications, after all. Now, however, they’re going the dedicated application route.
The BMW Roadside Assistance application will soon be available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android users and with the range of features on offer, it’s easy to see why this app could prove useful. The app is aimed at cutting down the time it takes the user to get information to BMW in the event of a breakdown so that they can provide assistance sooner and also providing the same user experience which users expect from BMW.
It’s a busy time for BMW with new updates across its range. But how will these cars look in five years time? Will that bright sparkling Beamer be as attractive after a few visits to your local garage?
The German manufacturer is extremely eager for people to keep using BMW servicing rather than independents. To help its cause it is actively pushing its inclusive servicing offers with all of the new models.
In short this allows you to make a single advance payment which covers you for the first five years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first. It might seem like a big expense in the short term, but you will at least know the servicing costs in advance.
Never ones to shy away from a fight, it seems that BMW are wading into the electric vehicle battlefield. The German giants are heading into next month’s Detroit Auto Show with the impossibly posy-looking Concept ActiveE, with strong hints that it may actually see production.
The Concept ActiveE is the latest piece to roll out of BMW’s Project i campaign, which is dedicated to creating low-emission city cars and follows the MINI electric car out of the door and promises “CO2-free Mobility”.
BMW and Mini are on a collision course after it was announced that the German manufacturer are looking to introduce a new series called the 0-Series. As it suggests the new mini car will be designed to be smaller than the current 1-Series which means that it is likely that it will go into direct competition with the current Mini, which strangely is also owner by BMW.
It really does seem that the company is almost shooting itself in the foot with this latest move, admittedly having two cars competing in the market should mean that the company will grab large shares of the market, however it could of course backfire and the companies could end up taking sales off of each other.
BMW have just released a new car that is set to take the performance car world by storm. The new BMW M3 GTS is a hardcore version of the BMW M3.
The German manufacturer has decided to follow in the footsteps of Lamborghini, Porsche and Aston Martin in making an extreme race version of their supercar. This new M3 has been stripped of any weight and tips the scales at just 3300lb including the internal roll-cage and six-point race harness.
BMW fended off the competition, including Honda, to take their place at the top of the Fleet News reliability survey as the most reliable company car manufacturer.
Fleet News is a sister publication of the well respected car guide, Parker’s, and the annual survey covers 840,000 cars from 50 of the biggest UK contract hire companies.
Manufacturers were graded by counting the number of vehicles on a fleet per 1,000 that broke down.
BMW received the same points as Honda yet more companies voted for BMW as first placed manufacturer.
Although the German manufacturer’s profits have fallen thanks to this year’s trying economy, the BMW group remain optimistic. Thanks to recent indications of recovery, they are hoping to make a positive turnover by the end of the year across all their brands.
The fall in returns has been blamed on a decrease in consumer spending and has resulted in a loss of 73.8% (down to £70.5 million) with total sales of cars across the BMW group including BMW, Rolls Royce and MINI brands down 15.7% from the year before.
New images of the Lexus LF-Ch concept car, set to be launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show have been released, and the compact sportsback looks even better than Car Chat had first expected.
Following from the sketches of the concept car, leaked by Lexus a couple of weeks ago, these images of the actual concept car look stunning.
This model will aim to gain Lexus some of the market share in the sportsback sector, to rival the likes of the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3.
This new Lexus model will also be available in full hybrid making it the first fully electric car of its type.
The BMW 3 Series Saloon and Convertible have been named best compact executive car and best convertible. The two high-profile awards were awarded to the motoring company by th UK’s biggest selling weekly motoring magazine: Auto Express.
The panel of motoring experts from the magazine assessed the two cars and later awarded them the two prestiduous awards.
The road test team from Auto Express said: ‘BMW’s superior dynamics won the day. A model range that includes everything from a diesel variant capable of 62.8mpg to the supercar-chasing 414bhp M3 is unbeatable’ about the Saloon.
Just after they decided to withdraw from F1 at the end of this season, BMW announced that they will bring a highly efficient sports concept car to the Frankfurt Motor Show. The EfficientDynamics Vision will be taken to the show in September along with BMW’s production versions of the ActiveHybrid7 and ActiveHybrid X6 concepts that were shown at the show previously.
A member of the BMW management board, Dr Klaus Draeger, said in his statement: ‘the BMW EfficientDrive Vision will demonstrate how efficient a sports car can be.’
BMW are set to release a smaller and more affordable version of the X5 in the coming months.
Having just launched the MINI First – a cheaper entry level model – BMW look set to continue their pursuit of cornering the mid end as well as the high end of the market.
The BMW X1 will come equipped with all of the EfficientDynamics features aimed at eco-friendly motoring including start-stop technology and Brake Energy Regeneration, amongst other Green extras.
