BMW (72 Posts)
BMW had grand plans for the 507 in the mid-fifties. It could have been the car that brought the company a widespread presence in the U.S., but as fate would have it, the car's potential was never realized. Rather than being mass produced at the rate of 5,000 units annually and sold at a base price of $5,000, only 252 were built over three years at double the price. BMW ended up losing money on each 507 produced and nearly drove the company to bankruptcy.
Participating in high-performance driving events and track days are not only a lot of fun, but they're also a great way to sharpen your overall driving skills. Getting the most out of a track day is mostly up to the driver and how willing they are to improve and how open they are to expert coaching. Having the right kind of car also helps.
So with a top-end budget of $40,000, Associate Editor Mark Takahashi and Photo Editor Kurt Niebuhr face-off to see which track day weapon reigns supreme. The pre-grid lineup consists of Takahashi in a BMW 135i, while Niebuhr hops in his Mazda MX-5.
The first M Coupe -- not the Z4 M Coupe, the one based on the Z3 -- is one of my all-time faves. There was a time when an M Coupe once occupied my driveway and I have been mourning its departure since. The first time I first became aware of the M Coupe was when I saw a video of 2009 F1 Champion Jenson Button drifting and executing smoky donuts. In my opinion, if you want to get good at car control, this is the car to do it in.
Never judge a book by its cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah -- that's just something that ugly people say. I kid, of course. For automobiles, though, I generally believe that beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes down to the bone. History is littered with ugly cars with few redeeming qualities (Pacers, Calibers, Azteks, Pintos, Cimmarons -- you get the idea).
There are a few ugly cars out there, however, that have some good things going for it -- the pre-2002 BMW M Coupe and Prius come to mind. But here, I present to you, the top three ugly cars that I'd consider buying. These are cars that are somehow able to overcome their styling to impress me enough with performance, quality and features that I can forgive and forget their appearance.
There's a new BMW 5 Series coming out, in case you didn't know. We've got pricing, photos and a full review. Now the thundering powerhouse of the automotive blogosphere, WT3, is weighing in with the best new features found on the new 5. To come up with these features, WT3 exhaustively surveyed 1,728 sedan-driving executives from Fortune 500 companies. Or, ahem, we just went with the ones we thought were coolest after a recent drive in a 2011 550i. Either way, read on. You know you want to.
Can't decide between a BMW 335i or an M3? Well, starting in 2011 you'll have a third choice to fret about via the new 335is. Offered on just the coupe and convertible, the 335is comes with a handful of performance and cosmetic modifications to make it stand out from the base 335i. The price of admission is an extra $7,000 on top of the 335i.
That is, well, a rather hefty chunk of change. Is it worth it? Conveniently, I had a short opportunity to decide when driving a 335is coupe at a BMW press event. First, I'll point you to Inside Line's first drive article for all the nifty details. But in brief, you get a different version of the 3.0-liter turbocharged straight-6 engine (320 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque plus an overboost function to briefly raise torque to 370 lb-ft), a sport exhaust, an M Sport body kit, special wheels and the option to order the DCT automated manual transmission. Interestingly, the 335is is a North American market product only; Europe doesn't get it.
More often than not, when people find out what I get to do for a living, they ask for my advice on their future car purchase. I don't always have the best answer for them on the spot, but it's always a fun discussion. I was celebrating with some friends last week, and the question came up. This request was much more interesting than most, simply because my friend has some specific needs and a fun option to accompany the car choice.
Push-button start is a love-or-hate it feature. But it may be hard to find anyone who doesn't appreciate not having to take a key out of a pocket or purse to open a car door, especially on rainy days.
A 2010 BMW 328i Coupe I recently tested had a Comfort Access keyless entry feature, and during frequent April showers I was glad I could just touch the ridges on the driver's door handle to get inside and get dry. But such convenience comes at a price.
A heads-up display (HUD) is offered on only a handful of vehicles: several Cadillacs, the Chevy Corvette, BMW 7 Series and Lexus hybrids. In terms of tech, a HUD isn't exactly rocket science, although the automotive version did evolve from initial use in aviation.
Though some find HUDs distracting, the feature helped me keep my eyes on the road while testing a 2010 Lexus RX 450h Hybrid. And on my speed.
It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right? While I probably won't ever love Charles Bronson flicks or willingly eat a beef tongue sandwich, the following three cars definitely made me re-evaluate my vehicular attitude and change it in each case.
Many of the editors here at Edmunds are refugees from former print publications. I say "former" since magazines have been disappearing almost as quickly as home equity in the past few years. But by now for some of us former ink-stained wretches the idea of printing information on paper -- and waiting for it to come out months later, or even that you can't easily change it once it become public -- seems almost as antiquated as using a typewriter.
BMW takes a similar approach with the owners manual for its flagship 7 Series. In addition to a printed and bound book, the info is also contained on the car's hard drive and accessible via the iDrive interface. If you want to find out about a feature of the vehicle, you don't have to dig out the paper manual. Instead just call it up in pixel form on the screen, as I recently did in a 2010 750i xDrive.
Here's Day 2 from the Fuel-Sipper Smackdown 3: SUV Edition. It was a miracle we ended up in the garage at all after St. Patrick's Day in Las Vegas -- but we had fuel sipping to do to find out which SUVs get the best fuel economy?
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
If you've been reading my "Karl on Cars" blog entries for any length of time, you already know how I feel about modern vehicles. Essentially, there are no truly "bad" cars today. Sure, there are some subpar cars, but even they aren't truly bad.
(I could Focus on such vehicles, but that would be a low Caliber and unPatriotic approach to this topic, and might annoy people living in Colorado -- or in a Canyon. BTW, Cobalt blue is a nice color).
Anyway, saying there are no truly bad cars isn't news, but I think we've hit another paradigm shift in the last 12 months or so: There are an increasing number of downright great cars.
Sure, the "just fine" part of the graph is still the fattest, but the top part (representing "great cars") is taking on mass and could threaten to topple the whole thing over if things keep going in this direction.
If you were to stick to strict rationality when buying a car, we'd all own Priuses or minivans or the inexplicably absent Prius minivan. It would be a boring world. We don't need twin-turbo V12s, Ferrari Scuderias or leather-lined, reclining, heated, cooled and massaging rear seats with DVD entertainment systems, but darn it, we want them. Cars have always been more of an emotional purchasing decision than a rational one.
Yet, there are certain cars that utterly defy any pittance of rationality. Cars we scratch our heads at. Cars we can't fathom why any sane person with sufficient information at their disposal would buy one. Cars that are simply a poor buying decision. This week, two of our editors take a look at two cars they think meet those criteria -- and rather than defend them, they'll be prosecuting. Automotive Editor James Riswick prosecutes the BMW Active Hybrid X6, the first hybrid model to wear the label "Ultimate Driving Machine" and the first with a twin-turbo V8. Vice Admiral of Vehicle Testing Mike Magrath, goes a completely different route and prosecutes the Chrysler Sebring.
It was deja vu all over again. I was driving in a car with a locked up computer, which meant I'd lost pretty much all control over the media and navigation systems.
The first time it happened was back in 2002. I was driving the then all-new 2002 BMW 7 Series. Most people remember that car as the first year for the "Bangle butt" and forget it was also the first year for BMW's new i-Drive system. Neither item (Bangle butt nor i-Drive) was particularly well received, and I agreed that the execution of both left something to be desired.
And that was before the i-Drive system locked up on me as I was leaving the Long Beach Grand Prix in the 7 Series for my 70-mile drive home.
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Recent Posts
September 16, 2010 10:00 AM
Face-Off: BMW 135i vs Mazda MX-5
August 30, 2010 7:33 AM
Dream Car Corner: BMW M Coupe (1998 - 2002)
August 26, 2010 10:00 AM
Weekly Top Three: Cars That I'm Willing to Forgive For Being Ugly
June 11, 2010 6:00 AM
Weekly Top Three: Best Features Of The 2011 BMW 5 Series
May 28, 2010 6:00 AM
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