2006 Bmw M3 Smg Convertible 2-door 3.2l E46 on 2040-cars

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Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

The BMW 2002 Hommage is a retro concept done right

BMW has been building hommage cars for years now. They're teases that let us know the designers remember what was great about BMW design past, even if that's not always obvious in the new cars. The latest tribute car is this 2002 Hommage, which makes its debut at the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este this weekend. Like past hommage cars, the 2002 is more about design than mechanicals. BMW doesn't even mention what theoretically powers this car, and frankly we don't care. There are clues, however, from the classic livery, which includes an M tri-color front splitter with "obrut" ghosted over it, similar to the reversed text on the original '02 Turbo. We'll guess it's a powerful turbocharged engine under the hood, whatever the specifics are. View 17 Photos Neat details abound. There's a carbon-fiber band at the beltline that is supposed to recall the original 2002's chrome trim. The greenhouse is more slick 2 Series than boxy '02, and the flared-fender goodness is a definite nod to the homologation 2002 Turbo. The off-center roundel at the tail is another nice 2002 touch. We're into the ducktail spoiler out back, and, although not quite '60s-specific, the snowflake wheels are pretty great. Even the lighting elements are retro-tinged. The headlight lenses have a gold hue since this is the golden anniversary of the 1966 model. There are also separate turn-signal units embedded above the headlights, here stuck into a piece of carbon trim. Of course, this hommage is likely nothing more than eye candy. BMW uses them more as design exercises than forecasts of future styling. It's good daydream fuel, at least. Image Credit: BMW BMW Coupe Concept Cars Performance villa deste concorso deleganza villa deste bmw 2002 bmw 2002 hommage

BMW 4 Series production coupe caught on commercial shoot

Despite filming at 2:00 AM and at an undisclosed location, BMW minders filming a commercial for the fast-approaching 4 Series coupe were unable to ward off the long lenses of spy photographers. The result, as you can see here, is our first-ever look at the production version of BMW's new coupe, completely uncovered.
The night shots may be a little bit grainy, but the fast-moving 4 Series still looks pretty good with its camo closeted, matching the svelte lines of the concept car we saw in Detroit this winter. Expect that the 4 coupe will come to market with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder in 428i trim, and a turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder in 435i spec.
Take your time looking through our gallery of movie-star 4 Series photographs, and tell us what you think about the uncovered Bimmer, in comments.