2007 Bmw 550i, Salvage, Damaged, Wrecked, Bmw , Sedan on 2040-cars

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10 automakers shack up in Detroit hotel to talk Takata airbags

Since Takata has decided not to take the lead concerning potential issues with its airbag inflators, the automakers have. Perhaps that's unsurprising, since it's the automakers, not Takata, that will take a beating on the dealership floor if consumers decide its models are a health hazards. The Detroit News reports that Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Subaru met in a hotel conference room near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last week to sort out a way to understand the technical issues involved. So far, faulty airbag inflators have been ruled the cause of five deaths and 50 injuries around the world, but neither Takata nor investigators understands exactly why the inflators are malfunctioning. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently asked Takata to issue a national recall, Takata declined, citing a minuscule failure rate and the fact that it's still investigating the issue. Toyota and Honda then made an industry-wide appeal for "a coordinated, comprehensive testing program" that would pinpoint the problem inflators and get them replaced, and that's what the Detroit meeting was about. Numerous issues, however, will make this a long row to hoe: simply getting the parts to replace the nearly 20 million inflators in cars recalled around the world so far - even working with other suppliers - will take a years, but more importantly, no one knows if the replacement inflators currently being installed will suffer the same issue. Answers will hopefully come quickly with Takata, the ten automakers and NHTSA all independently investigating the problem.

BMW to offer carbon fiber wheels in a year or two

The Citroën SM sat on the first set of production glass fiber and resin wheels in 1972 when parent company Michelin developed the exotic hoops in order to take the SM rallying. It wasn't until 2008 that we got the first all-carbon-fiber wheel for passenger cars in the form of a prototype model from Weds Sports in Japan that remained a prototype. Australian company Carbon Revolution followed that a year later with its CR-9 all-CF wheel, first introduced on the Shelby Ultimate Aero and now available for independent purchase for about $15,000 per set. BMW could be the first OEM to offer entire wheels in carbon fiber reinforced plastic in two years.
The wheels - either all-CFRP or using a CFRP rim and alloy spokes - were shown off during BMW's Innovation Days in Munich and are products of the development work done on its i-branded cars. The full-CFRP wheel is 35-percent lighter than a forged alloy wheel, the hybrid alloy and CFRP wheel is 25-percent lighter, making for a decent drop in unsprung rotating weight. As demonstrators during a tech day the wheels aren't yet in the pipeline for production and EU approval, but an article in Auto Express claims that they could be on the market as soon as two years from now.
Other possible parts include a full carbon fiber steering wheel and propeller shaft, the latter of which is coming as a single-piece component on the new M3 and M4. BMW is also talking up its use of secondary carbon fiber - waste material from i3 and i8 production - that can be used for items like IP support structures, seat frames and spare wheels in place of traditional metals like aluminum and magnesium. There's an excerpt of the Innovation Day press release below with more details.

BMW M3 and M4 CSL not in the cards

We aren't sure whether to file this one under "good news" or "bad news." BMW confirmed to Top Gear that there "are no plans" for lightweight versions of the new M3 and M4, in the same vein as the E46 M3 CSL (despite rumors to the contrary). The reason?
"There wasn't a CSL on the previous generation, and the way we look at it is like this: the CSL was great because it had this real focus on lightweight engineering. But we've already done that with these new cars. We've made them as light as possible - they come in under 1500 kilograms (3,306 pounds), which for a car like this is incredible," said Matt Collins, BMW's product manager for small to medium cars.
Now, as much as we love the idea of a hardcore version of any car, we appreciate BMW's point of view that the newest Ms are already as light and tough as they need to be. Collins elaborated, saying, "Rather than doing a halfway house to begin with and then rolling out a CSL, we thought we'd make the 'real' car as light as we possibly could. So we've no plans whatsoever to make a lighter, harder version just yet."