Archive for BMW

This little Frankenstein of a BMW started off as a normal 4-door BMW E30 3-Series Sedan. Apparently the owner has decided to keep up with the times, somehow he managed to show-horn something that looks like a Z3 mixed with an E46 front end onto the front of the car. He also decided to bring the car a class above, so an E60 lookalike rear is slapped on. What do you think?

Now that we’ve seen the BMW M3 Concept in coupe form, what’s remaining is the upcoming Sedan and also Cabriolet version. The E9x series M3 will mark the debut of the 4-door M3, last seen back in the E36 days. The E46 skipped with 4-doors and went with the more rigid 2-door body exclusively.

So we’ll have an M3 Coupe, Sedan, and Cabriolet. Not sure if there will be an E91 stationwagon version. Oh well, at least there’s the 335xi Touring with all-wheel drive for wagon fans.

One thing you would have noticed from the spy photos above is the new front end on the sedan. The BMW M3 Sedan will use the front end from the 3 Coupe which has a more aggressive and pronounced nose rather than the sunken grille design of the 3 Sedan which has found disfavor among car enthusiasts.

Many have said that this new more pronounced grille is now the E90 3 Series was supposed to look like in the first place. I’m not sure whether the sedan with coupe nose design will be limited exclusively to the M3 Sedan, or a new 3 Sedan facelift will introduce this updated front end.

Related Posts:
BMW M3 testing at the Nurburgring track
BMW M3 Concept at Geneva 2007

The new facelifted BMW X3 is now available in Malaysia, in one variant - the BMW X3 2.5si. This model is powered by BMW’s updated straight-six 2.5 liter engine, now making 218hp at 6,500rpm and consuming 10% less fuel than the pre-facelift model.

Thanks to the new motor, the BMW X3 2.5si goes from 0 to 100 in 8.5 seconds, down from 8.9 seconds, and top speed is now 232km/h compared with 224km/h in the pre-facelift model.

Stocks will come from BMW’s Rayong plant in Thailand, to take advantage of the new ASEAN preferential CBU tax rates. Toyota has also recently made this switch with the Camry. It will be available in showrooms beginning tomorrow (17th March 2007) and will go for RM319,000.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Facelifted BMW X3 now in Malaysia

Here is a Best Motoring video with a spy footage of the upcoming E92 series BMW M3’s testing laps on the Nurburgring. What a lovely V8 sound. M3 fans will have to the new aural signature that the M3 is going to take though, the signature sports sedan has always used 6-cylinder engines, and the 6-pot from the previous E46 M3 lives on in the current BMW Z4 M Coupe and Roadster.

Video after jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW M3 testing at the Nurburgring track

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that it’s upcoming sporty crossover SUV model that has already been spotted going around on tests everywhere will indeed be called the BMW X6. Spyshots have shown a heavily disguised unit going around, but even under heavy padding the sexy sloping roofline towards the rear is very apparent. I wonder how it will affect rear headroom though.

Source

Rolling around in a BMW 3 Touring is certainly going to get you alot of stares. After all, how many Malaysians are used to seeing station wagons around other than the popular AD Resort workhorse? Some of my peers even commented to me they didn’t know BMW made station wagons. Apparently BMW is supposed to be making sporty driver’s cars, and it seems that station wagon can’t really fit into the typical equation. Call me weird, but I actually prefer the Touring body to the Sedan’s body!

Read my full report after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW 320d Touring Test Drive

BMW Malaysia Sdn Bhd has released a new pricelift for all BMW vehicles sold in Malaysia. The beautiful BMW M5 is now cheaper at “only” RM888,000, a very prosperous number, which you would have to be if you were to afford it. The sleek M6 remains near the RM1 million mark. The 7-series gains a new oil burner variant, the BMW 730Ld, while the BMW 5-series loses all turbodiesel variants until the end of this year. A pity, there’s a very nice 530d parked near my office.

BMW/MINI has finally announced that it’s upcoming stationwagon long wheel base MINI model will be called the Clubman. There was previously a stationwagon old school Mini called the Mini Traveller, however the chances of using that name was pretty unlikely as there were legal issues surrounding that name - someone else has the rights to use it. Therefore the MINI Traveller concept couldn’t go into production as the MINI Traveller.

Instead, it was said that the Clubman name would be used, from another old school Mini model. However, the Clubman name also had some legal problems with it, as Honda owns the name Clubman in Japan, but it looks like with this official announcement all those issues have been ironed out. We can now look forward to the new shooting-brake styled station wagon from MINI.

Look after the jump for a cheeky teaser video of the MINI Clubman.

Click here to read the rest of MINI confirms Clubman name

Here are some official press shots of the BMW M3 Concept that BMW is showcasing at the 2007 Geneva motorshow this week. It’s pretty much an evolution of the E92 Coupe design, with modified fenders to portray a more aggressive look, but I don’t really feel much for the strange bump on the bonnet.

The BMW M3 Concept is powered by the new V8 engine derived from the M5’s V10, and the same engine is set to go into the production BMW M3 as well. Gearbox will be a 6-speed manual or a new twin clutch automated manual. No official power figures have been released, but expect about 420 horsepower and more than 400Nm of torque.

Now the question that I want to ask is, will a lightly tuned BMW 335i give the BMW M3 a run for it’s money? Well, in straight lines perhaps, but the M3 will most likely have an M LSD differential, giving it the edge around the corners.

More photos after the jump, with enlarged versions available on click.

Click here to read the rest of BMW M3 Concept at Geneva 2007

Hybrid 7-series within the next 3 years?

DaimlerChrysler and BMW will be extending their hybrid drive system collaboration, developing a unique hybrid drive module for rear wheel drive cars, with commercialization of the module expected within the next three years. This joint venture is in the interest of saving costs in R&D as well as manufacturing.

Lexus has gone the mild hybrid way for quite some time now, with offerings like the Lexus RX450h luxury SUV, Lexus GS450h mid-sized luxury saloon and the flagship Lexus LS600h. Now when I say mild hybrid, that refers to hybrid powertrains that focus more on helping acceleration, and save a bit of fuel especially in stop and go traffic. Large displacement engines usually prove to be guzzlers in stop and go situations. It is not meant to focus on massive fuel savings like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

Now most of you who have been observing hybrid/electric car specs should have noticed most of them have crazy acceleration times thanks to the electric motor’s perpetually maxed out torque at all RPMs. Imagine a BMW 3-series coupled with a hybrid drivetrain system accelerating out of a corner, now that has got me licking my lips, though this technology will most likely first be used on both Mercedes Benz and BMW’s larger vehicles like the 7-Series (shown above) and S-class, as well as SUVs, as the relatively larger displacement engines in these two classes of vehicles would benefit the most from the fuel savings of an electric motor in stop and go traffic.