2012 Bmw M3 Base Coupe 2-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW i3, i8 sales strong enough to reach almost 17,800 in 2014

BMW makes its futuristic i brand vehicles – the i3 and i8 – at a plant in Leipzig, Germany. But the customers most willing to buy one of these plug-in cars live in the country where the lightweight carbon fiber used in the body structure is made: the United States. Speaking at the Detroit Auto Show this week, Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management at BMW AG, said, "The US is already our largest market for our electric vehicles, the BMW i3 and BMW i8. Worldwide, we sold close to 18,000 BMW i models last year. Nearly three-quarters of these sales occurred in the second half of the year, when the global rollout – including the US – really got underway. Demand for these vehicles continues to be high and I'm delighted that we've been able to increase production to meet that demand." That sounds great, but the numbers aren't huge. BMW sold 6,092 i3s and 555 i8s (for a total of 6,647 i vehicles) in the US last year. Globally, BMW sold over two million vehicles in 2014, and 17,793 of those were plug-in i vehicles (16,052 of the i3 and 1,741 i8s). The production increase wasn't huge. BMW was making just 10 i8 vehicles a day at the beginning, but doubled that to 20 last fall. Since last spring (around April or May), the company has been making over 100 i3s a day, BMW spokesperson Verena Von L'estocq tells AutoblogGreen. Getting production right this first year has meant slow going, but "We're comfortable now," she said, adding that BMW expects more production increases in the future. Related Video:

2014 BMW 4 Series Convertible is easy, breezy, beautiful

BMW debuted its 2014 4 Series Convertible today at the LA Auto Show, and the sporting two-door will feature a folding hardtop - like the convertible 3 Series before it - and be offered in 428i and 435i guises.
The 428i Convertible is equipped with BMW's 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine, which pumps out 240 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque - good for sprinting from 0-60 miles per hour in 6.2 seconds. The 435i Convertible gets the 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine, which steps up output to 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque. The topless 435i drops the 0-60-mph time to 5.5 seconds. Both cars come standard with an eight-speed automatic transmission, and BMW says that a manual transmission will not be offered on 4 Series Convertibles in the US market.
The 4 Series Convertible will be offered in Sport Line, Luxury Line and M Sport trims. Pricing starts at $48,750 for the 428i Convertible and $54,900 for the 435i. Head on below to peruse the (long) press release for details.

BMW's Quandt family in hot water over Merkel campaign contributions

The mysterious and elusive Quandt family is in hot water again, nearly two years after its Nazi connections during World War II were exposed. The German family's patriarch, Herbert Quandt, nearly single-handedly saved BMW from being bought out by Daimler-Benz in 1959. Now, three living family members own nearly half of the German brand, and stand accused of buying votes with donations to the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mere days ahead of a European Union vote that would cap vehicle emissions.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union accepted three donations, one from each shareholding member of the Quandt family.
Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union accepted three donations, one from each shareholding member of the Quandt family, totaling 690,000 euros ($935,000), on October 9. The CDU, for what it's worth, claim the donations weren't related to any political decisions and that the family have been donors for years. A Quandt family spokesperson, meanwhile, said that the family had been waiting for Germany's September 22 elections to pass before making a large contribution to the CDU.