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Someone's willing to pay $16,000 for a hollow, non-working BMW i8

There is an unusual BMW i8 for sale on eBay right now. Unlike your average – and by that we mean "working" – i8, this one pretty much just sits there, looking pretty. See, the i8 in question is just a promotional body shell. It's fullsize and being sold (we think) by a legit BMW dealer (Laurel BMW of Westmont), so it's got strong ties to the real thing, but there's nothing inside. In fact, you can't open the doors or windows and the wheels don't move, unless you count the tiny rolling castors that are a part of the prop. There is no fancy plug-in hybrid powertrain – no powertrain of any sort, in fact – and it was "professionally crafted just for BMW dealers." The headlights do turn on, though, so that's something. What's most impressive, though, is that there are 50 bids for this non-working BMW. In fact, the bidding has climbed up to $16,000. For a car that can't fulfill its mission as a car, that's pretty impressive. Oh, and those bids have not yet hit the reserve price, so the dealer is obviously hoping it can get more money for this hollow BMW. The official base MSRP for a working i8 is $135,700. The first i8 delivered in the US, a special edition for Pebble Beach, just sold for $825,000.

BMW i3 misses top Euro safety rating [w/videos]

The Euro NCAP just tested a recent batch of new cars including the 2014 BMW i3, and the EV Bimmer scored less-than-perfect results. Though not horrible, BMW's all-electric/range-extended i3 was given a four-star (out of five possible) crash rating due to concerns with front-occupant whiplash and side-impact protection.
Based on the crash results, the BMW provided suitable protection for occupants in the frontal, side barrier, pedestrian and child-seat tests, but the i3 was tripped up when it came to the more severe side pole test and the rear-impact test. The pole test showed protection to the chest of the test dummy was "weak," and the front seats only provided "marginal" protection against whiplash for front passengers. Scroll down to watch two videos released by the Euro NCAP of the i3 being tested.

BMW recalling all 2000-06 3 Series models over airbags in US, 1.6M globally

We just can't seem to get away from recalls involving the faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata. There are already millions of vehicles in need of repair as a result of these ever-expanding campaigns, and BMW is adding another 1.6 million worldwide. The Bavarian automaker is issuing a recall for certain 3 Series models, including 574,000 of them in the US, to replace the passenger-side, front airbag inflator.
Specifically, the campaign covers 3 Series models from the 2000 through 2006 model years built between May 1999 and August 2006. "It's only the E46" generation of cars that are affected, which are now two model revisions old, according to BMW of North America spokesperson Matt Russell, speaking to Autoblog.
These models suffer the same problem as the rest of the vehicles with the faulty inflators. It's possible for the part to rupture during airbag deployment and possibly spray shrapnel at the occupant. However, according to BMW, the automaker isn't aware of any actual cases of this happening in any of its vehicles.