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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.

BMW X4 tunes up its crossover game in Germany

Except for the fancy wheels and the overly expressive fascias, the production version of the BMW X4 looks like it will carry over practically untouched from what we saw in the X4 Concept several months back. With the same fastback roofline as the concept, these spy shots show that the X4 is taking shape to be a baby version of the BMW X6.
Sharing the same platform as the X3, the lower and wider X4 will be positioned slightly more upmarket - as is the case with the X5 and X6. We hear that this could mean that the X4 will ditch the X3's base engine to give an even sportier feel right out of the gate, but word has it that an M version will being showing up down the road as well.
BMW has already revealed what it plans to show off at the Frankfurt Motor Show (i3, 4 Series Coupe, next-gen X5, refreshed 5 Series, X5 Concept eDrive plug-in hybrid and Concept Active Tourer Outdoor), so barring any surprised we definitely won't be seeing the X4 there. At this point, with as close to production as these images would have us believe, our best guess would be that we'll see the X4's official unveiling happen either at LA or Detroit.

Mini might build a sedan because it's running out of shapes

Rumors suggest we could soon see a Mini with a trunk to haul your junk. Autocar cites unnamed insiders who claim the sedan is part of the brand's plan for upmarket growth. There's even a possibility the new model could use the Riley moniker in reference to the Elf (pictured above) from the 1960s, which was a Mini with a tiny trunk. The Mini sedan would use BMW's front-wheel-drive platform that underpins the X1 and Clubman and might share the wheelbase and frontend styling with the Clubman as well, according to Autocar. Mini's execs think the four-door would perform especially well in North America and China, where there's less demand for hatchbacks. Ralph Mahler, vice president of Mini's product management, hinted at the possibility of the four-door to Autocar. "For example, in Asia and the US, the sedan segment is very big. This is very interesting to us, of course," he said. Mahler admits that many people don't know about the Mini-based vehicles with trunks from the '60s, like the Riley Elf, so it would be hard to market the new model on that heritage. This could be the perfect time to add a Mini sedan to the lineup, and it might not be a completely new idea for the brand under its BMW stewardship; a rumor from 2012 shows that Mini's bosses considered a four-door at least once before. The company launched new versions of its Hardtop, Convertible, and Clubman, and even added four-door and all-wheel-drive versions of the Hardtop to further blur the lines between that car, the Clubman, and the Countryman. The next-generation Countryman crossover should debut later this year, and the brand reportedly cancelled the Superleggera Vision roadster and Rocketman compact, as Mini has chosen to go big with its new models and its lineup breadth. There are only so many versions of a hatchback a company can make, and the short-lived Mini Coupe wasn't exactly a huge success. If Mini is going to try a new body style, a sedan actually makes some sense, even if we'll probably prefer the look and practicality of the hatches. Related Video: