2008 Bmw M3 Base Convertible 2-door 4.0l 23905 Miles on 2040-cars

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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Bosch has an advanced self-parking system slated for 2019

Self-driving cars are the future of the auto industry, but there are many years and intermediate steps between now and driverless roads. Bosch made one of those important baby steps earlier this month when it unveiled its Home Zone Park Assist, which takes automated parking to the next level. The system works like this: a driver pulls up to where they'd normally begin to angle into a preferred parking spot. The driver then sets the start point and slowly drives the car into place so the system can learn the route. After the route is entered, the driver can let the car take control by either holding down a button inside the vehicle or on a smartphone app to engage the self-parking program from outside the car. Twelve ultrasonic sensors, a rear-facing stereo video camera, and four radar sensors work together to slot the car safely into or out of a spot perfectly every time. If you don't start in the same place every time that's okay, because the car can deviate from the original start and stop points by up to six and a half feet. The system can track up to 100 meters' worth of complex maneuvers, perfect for anyone tired of backing out of long, curvy, or steep driveways. Bosch says the system will be available in a few years but doesn't mention any specific models. Other companies have similar technologies, but they're not quite as advanced. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently cleared a similar technology called Park Assistant Plus for use in the BMW 7 Series. BMW's technology allows drivers to move the car in and out of parking spaces with the key fob. Tesla's Summon feature allows the Model S and X to come when called up to 10 meters away. But Bosch seems to have pushed the boundaries of what autonomous features on cars can do. Besides superior distance, the really amazing aspect of Bosch's system is that it allows cars to sense obstacles within its path and make the decision whether to proceed with minor course adjustments or stop and wait for its owner. That's right, a decision-making car. Welcome to the brave new world. Related Video:

BMW stripes up X6 M Design Edition

There's something that makes red, dark blue and light blue stripes running up the fenders and down the flanks of a white car just that much more eye-catching. Whether it's a Martini Racing liveried racecar or something from the BMW skunkworks, they just draw long looks nothing else can. And here's the latest.
The BMW X6 M Design Edition upgrades on the standard X6 M with such special touches as 21-inch alloys, a carbon front splitter and rear splitter, black grilles and diffusor, and of course, those iconic racing stripes, which come as an option on this model.
The interior has been done up in black leather with Mugello red accents and piano black trim. Only 100 individually-numbered examples will be offered, and given that this one's wearing German plates, we doubt there's much chance many (if any) will make it Stateside. But then again, you could always spec up your own X6 M with most if not all of the same trim and forgo the little number plate on the dashboard.