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Zombie cars: A dozen discontinued vehicles people still buy new

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.

Motor Trend first to compare Jaguar XE and BMW 3 Series

How many automakers have loaded up how much ammo and taken how many shots at the BMW 3 Series? Yet here we are, decades on and at least a decade away from the 3 Series' halcyon days, waiting for someone to give the sport sedan something beyond a flesh wound. In this most recent episode of Head 2 Head, Johnny Lieberman goes to Spain to figure out if the Jaguar XE is the sedan to do it. Here the champion wears the guise of the 335i M Sport, powered by a 3.0-liter, turbocharged, inline-six with a square 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque run through a ZF eight-speed transmission. After a short time behind the wheel Lieberman quotes from a familiar hagiography, saying it's evident "just how great this car is and why it defines the segment." The all-aluminum challenger from Jaguar comes in XES trim, meaning a 3.0-liter, supercharged V6 with 340 hp and 332 lb-ft. It uses the same eight-speed transmission as the BMW, but with different programming. According to the specs in the video, some of which are manufacturer estimates, the Jaguar is heavier, more expensive, and much thirstier at the pump. Away from the spreadsheet, Lieberman holds that the XE looks better and feels more special inside. In case you're wondering, the comparo was done before MT could get its mitts on the 320-hp BMW 340i. Lieberman says the English company spent its money on the XE suspension and it shows, but there have been other efforts from other automakers with excellent dynamic chops that weren't enough to threaten the BMW. His final assessment is that one of the two cars is awesome, and one is quite a bit better. Watch the video to find out which is which. Related Gallery 2016 Jaguar XE View 74 Photos Related Gallery 2016 BMW 3 Series Refresh View 57 Photos News Source: Motor Trend Channel via Carscoops, YouTube BMW Jaguar Luxury Performance Sedan motor trend jaguar xe head 2 head

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