Garaged, Good For Daily Driver Or Weekend Queen, Recent Exterior Restoration on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW X7 rumored to get BMW's best interior, 130,000-euro price

Spanish outlet Motor.es has some info on the coming BMW X7, the sport activity vehicle that will take the Munich brand to the penultimate SUV segment. Unnamed sources said BMW has been working on both the X7 and the future Rolls-Royce all-terrain vehicle for almost two years, and that in BMW guise it will ride on the CLAR (CLuster ARchitecture) platform that will make an appearance later this year under the new 7 Series. The Rolls-Royce, on the other hand, will get its own aluminum spaceframe. The two vehicles will share components, though, which are now being tested. Running gear and engines will borrow from the X5 and X6 tool chests, with rear- and all-wheel-drive configurations mooted and engines ranging from the TwinPower 3.0-liter six-cylinder to an uprated version of the 6.0-liter V12 in the 760iL. The 4.4-liter V8 is mentioned as the middle child and perhaps the base for an X7 M, should one be made. A plug-in hybrid offering could swipe the unit from the X5 xDrive40e PHEV, good for 55MPGe in that current application. The interior, we're told, will be the nicest seen on any BMW, said to surpass that of the new 7 Series. We'll have to wait two years to find out how close all of that is to the mark, but the tidbit that might need some salt sprinkled on it right now is the predicted price: Motor.es says 130,000 euros in Europe, to start. That's not the first time a sky-high price has been predicted, but a leap that far beyond the six-figure mark would readjust all of our expectations for the vehicle when an X5 cost 53,700 euros in France and an X6 costs 70,900 euros. Other outlets predict US pricing to start from around $60,000; the X5 costs $53,900 here, the X6 is $59,600.

2015 BMW X4 gets its small-screen debut

It's easy to dismiss the 2015 BMW X4. On one hand, the high-style crossover seems more like a boardroom decision than a practical one. In a world with the 3 Series, 4 Series, X3, 3 Series GT and 4 Series Gran Coupe, is BMW really being inundated with requests for a baby X6? Of course, when we finally got behind the wheel of the CUV for our First Drive, it proved rather entertaining, and certainly the X6's global sales success suggests that it's worth the relatively low-cost risk for the Bavarian automaker.
Now, it's the general public's chance to weigh in on the latest crossover Bimmer and vote with their dollars. The X4 is just hitting showrooms in the US, and BMW is beginning its marketing campaign for it with the slogan "Embrace the Unknown." The first TV ad shows off the CUV driving through the world's major cities as they undulate like the rolling ocean. A woman flatly says phrases starting with "Go," while a synth-heavy score plays underneath that wouldn't be out of place over the end credits in an '80s sci-fi movie.
Visually, it's actually kind of a cool ad and evokes some of the special effects from Inception. Focusing on an urban atmosphere is probably a good idea, too, because the percentage of X4s going offroad is likely to be in the low single digits, if that. Now, let's see if BMW buyers are willing to embrace the unknown of the X4. Scroll down to watch it for yourself.

BMW pitting self-drifting car against drift champion

The BMW M235i certainly makes a capable drift machine. Last year, the Bavarian brand had five of them with the tail out in unison in South Africa for the Driftmob. The coupe even proved that it could slide without a driver's intervention. For the latest sideways stunt, the company wanted to know which was the better drifter: an autonomous car or a human. This clip is just the trailer for BMW's entire drift challenge video, and it seemingly gives away the ending of the whole thing. We're sure, though, that there must be something more to the stunt than what's on display here. The driverless Audi TTS from Stanford University was reportedly slightly faster than an amateur racer around Thunderhill Raceway Park recently, and BMW has also been working at this problem for years with things like its Track Trainer. Regardless of how you feel about driverless cars, it's amazing how quickly autonomous tech is progressing – even on the track. Related Video: News Source: BMW via YouTube BMW Technology Emerging Technologies Coupe Autonomous Vehicles Performance Videos drifting bmw m235i bmw connecteddrive