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BMW 2 Series, X5 get their M Performance parts on

BMW models come in a number of flavors, from their standard guises to M Sport variants and M Performance models to full-on M muscle machines. But if you want to pick and choose the degree to which you want your Bimmer upgraded along the path to M, BMW automaker offers its M Performance Parts line. The Bavarian automaker already offers these performance and stylistic add-ons for a number of models, and has now released new kits for both the 2 Series Coupe and the latest X5 crossover.
The catalog for the 2 Series includes an available lowered suspension kit, upgraded brakes, new alloys, carbon aero kit and interior trim enhancements. There's also a power kit available for the 220d model that squeezes out an extra 16 horsepower for a total of 200, and a limited-slip differential and exhaust silencer for the M235i.
Upgrades to the X5 crossover, meanwhile, also include a carbon aero kit and interior trim package. The X5 xDrive35i model also gets a power kit boosting output by 20 ponies to 326 hp and an exhaust silencer. Scope out the details in the pair of press releases below and the pair of high-resolution image galleries top and bottom.

Honda scores big in Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards [w/videos]

This year the Detroit Auto Show didn't just celebrate the automobile, it celebrated how we find out about the automobile, too. Partnering The One Club, this year introduced the 2014 One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year Award to Cobo Hall, celebrating winners in five different categories of advertising: broadcast television, online, interactive, experiential, and print/outdoor. Winners in those categories were judged by 50 creative directors and journalists, while a Public Choice category was chosen from among nearly 20,000 online votes.
Honda walked off with three of the six awards, its Hands spot taking Broadcast honors, its Sound of Honda getting the Online category and Illusions winning Public Choice. Hyundai made the grade in Interactive with Driveway Decision Maker, Fiat captured Print/Outdoor with its "Letters" ad, and Toyota's Tundra Endeavor Campaign spot and BMW's A Window into the Near Future were co-winners for Experiential.
You can watch all of the press release and winning videos below or check out all of the finalists, announced last month, for a refresher.

BMW, Mini aim to sell million cars off new FWD platform

Mini sold 301,526 cars in 2012; BMW sold 1.54 million of its own models. According to a piece in Autocar, analysts say the coming UKL1 platform that will form the skeleton of the third-generation Mini Cooper and coming front-wheel drive BMW 1 Series could be responsible for "more than 900,000 cars per year" all by itself.
That sale fire is fueled by the UKL1 wearing up to twenty-three bodies in total between the two brands, 11 for Mini and 12 for BMW, rendering hatchbacks, sedans, coupes, convertibles, wagons, crossovers and people-haulers from about 12.5 feet to 14.5 feet. In April the VP of Mini USA said we might find some current models don't make it to a next generation, but a graphic accompanying the Autocar story has them all there. If it's correct, then those 23 models will only base model lines and don't account for different engines and four-wheel-drive options for each model.
The big changes that would perhaps mean big sales for the Mini line are a five-door hatch with two smaller rear doors for children, the sedan talked about last year for Asian markets and an MPV perhaps wearing the "Traveler" name that could send the Countryman in a more SUV-like direction.