Police pursued the stolen vehicle to a stop when four young men ran from the car only for three of them to be apprehended shortly after.

The teenagers are alleged to have stolen the vehicle from Little Bay in southeast Sydney and later drove off without paying for fuel at a nearby station. The individuals have been charged with taking the vehicle without consent and one of the arrestees has had assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest added to his charges.

It appears that no matter how wonderful BMW cars are to drive, they don’t come with cloaks that make your theft and terrible driving invisible to the police.

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.

The parts have been tested in the company’s Munich-based wind tunnels, but besides looking strikingly cool, what is the point in carbon fibre parts? BMW say that their accessories will reduce lift and minimise drag, thus enhancing high speed stability and maintaining fuel efficiency. The parts are yet to be priced up for the public, but they will be covered by a two year warranty and will be available from authorised dealers.

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.

Makarapa helmets have proved to be popular fan items at the tournament, although unsurprisingly they have been overshadowed by the sound of the vuvuzela, a horn that almost every person in the country appears to have purchased. BMW have used MINI to display how in touch they are with popular culture in a country that has all the world’s eyes focused on it until June 11th.

Using Facebook to create a campaign to encourage support for the idea of a race at the Road Atlanta track in the United States, MINI have ruffled a few feathers at Porsche and have set up a petition for fans to try and convince Porsche, whose 911 model should, on paper, wipe the floor with the Cooper, to show up on June 21st. The response from Von Platen to the idea was somewhat flippant, with the Porsche CEO belittling the campaign and pointing out his company’s rich racing heritage. It remains to be seen whether Porsche will decide to represent themselves at the event, which seems set to go ahead regardless and will be streamed on the MINI USA Facebook page.

The Spartanburg assembly line in South Carolina churned out the milestone vehicle, a fitting accolade given that the plant has proven to be integral to the success of the model. The centre has existed for 15 years and become the centre for expertise on BMW X models.

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.

Features include: Roadside Services (allows you to connect to Roadside Assistance by selecting the service you require including towing, battery, tyres and lock-out), Dealer Locator, Service Detailes and VIN Registration.

With the amount of BMW drivers who are also smartphone users, it’s easy to see where this app’s audience lies, and providing it works well, its success is all but guaranteed.

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.

On top of that you get the reassurance that yours will remain a genuine BMW with genuine parts throughout the course of its life.

There is a healthy trade worldwide for faked auto parts. Even reputable mechanics can be taken in as they’re often packaged and sold as the genuine article. The only answer, says BMW, is to make sure you stick with genuine BMW services throughout the car’s life span.

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”.

The company were mocked when they left Formula One in order to dedicate the resources to their Green R&D, but the decision seems to be paying off: with the range of exciting hardware coming out of the company lately, including the Concept ActiveE, the cleaner, greener Beamer seems to be becoming a reality.

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.

It could of course signal the fact that BMW are planning on phasing the Mini out, they have literally made every form of Mini possible since the takeover and they are now very limited in their moves. Any significant changes to the brand are bound to be blocked vigorously by the Mini owners club, which means that BMW could be about to put all their weight behind a new project.

With the 0-Series BMW could take the car in any direction that they want. It gives them a completely blank canvas to make a modern design that will appeal to the modern audience.

I don’t think the Mini will ever die out, not even if BMW decided to stop manufacturing the car, the fan base that it has acquired over the years, plus the new fans that it adopted with the creation of the new series will give it enough firepower to outgun any of its competitors even if the new 0-Series is a huge success.

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.

The what? Oh yes you did read it right, the back seats of the car are missing and in its place is a race specification roll cage and a fire extinguisher. It fills you full of confidence doesn’t it? The front seats have been removed and replaced with special race seats and the rear spoiler is definitely built for the assistance in downforce and not just simply for styles sake.

Surely you would imagine that the changes would end there. Well you would be wrong. BMW felt the need to tweak the 4.0 V8 engine in the standard M3 and this new hardcore version will feature a massive 4.4 litre V8 which will kick out a colossal 450bhp.

BMW certainly knows how to make a sports car, they have produced a long line of successful and incredibly fast sports cars, but whether this latest super hardcore version will be a success is another matter completely. There doesn’t seem to be a long line of individuals queuing up with a stack of cash waiting to waste it on a car that can in effect only be driven on a race track.
BMW usually seem to hit the nail on the head but this car just seems like complete and utter madness and not a major money earner, although I have been wrong before.