2004 M3 Mystic Blue/black Convertible, 12.7k Miles, Smg on 2040-cars

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Motorweek remembers the Bimmers that made us all fall in love

The enthusiast's tied-in-knots relationship with BMW makes the Bavarians one of those brands especially ripe for nostalgic flights. That's why as soon as we saw the opening shot of Motorweek's review of the 1986 BMW 325e and a 635Csi, we let out a long sigh and thought, "Ahhhhh, I remember those days..." The two red barons were the new entries for the year, the 325e offering a couple of extra doors for the first time, the 635CSi rounding up the powerplant's displacement compared to the 633CSi that preceded it. The inline six-cylinder in the current 335i sedan gets on with 300 horsepower; 28 years ago, the 325e made do with a 2.7-liter inline six offering 121 hp, taking 9.3 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour from a standstill. That's four seconds more than today. Those willing to pay $41,000 for the 635CSi got a 3.4-liter inline six with 182 hp, and Motorweek praised it as a "confident handling car that does feel big and clumsy at times." The more things change, you know... Check out the video for a reminder of how BMW got to be what it is, and to hear the most unusual use of the word "oriental" we've heard in a while. News Source: MotorWeek via YouTube BMW Coupe Luxury Classics Videos Sedan

BMW X4 hatches its fastback shape in Shanghai

The day has finally come for BMW to pull the covers off its X4 Concept at the Shanghai Motor Show. The machine brings few surprises - we've already seen an official image gallery from the German automaker, so its exterior shape was well known - but at least now we get to see it with our own eyes, and with the lenses of our very own cameras.
You can clearly see the fastback roofline in our high-res image gallery above, along with the jacked-up stance that allows BMW to call this machine a Sports Activity Vehicle, which basically means "Crossover" to our friends in Munich. We've seen similar vehicle shapes before, most notably in the form of the BMW X6, but also as far back as the 1980s from the likes of AMC.
We fully expect the transition from concept to production to be pretty seamless, so what we see here is, for the most part, what we'll see on the showroom floor in 2014. Feel free to peruse the press release below, but first, be sure to browse through our live images from Shanghai and let us know what you think.

BMW bringing X3 diesel, X5 PHEV concept to New York

We've seen the i3 and i8 plug-in vehicles at plenty of BMW auto show stands these past few years. At the upcoming New York International Auto Show, the automaker will spread out a bit by showing off both new diesel and plug-in hybrid SUVs. Bimmer will showcase its diesel-powered X3 vehicle, which starts sales this spring as a 2015 model, and a concept plug-in hybrid X5 SUV. There are lots of figures to digest for what will be called the X3 xDrive28d. The vehicle will be powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder twin-turbodiesel engine that will deliver 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. Propelled in part by an eight-speed automatic transmission, the SUV will be able to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about eight seconds. It will be priced with an MSRP of $42,825, which is represents a $3,500 premium over the base X3. BMW hasn't made fuel efficiency figures available, but they should be a nice improvement over the base X3's 24 mile per gallon fuel-efficiency rating in the US. Bimmer is also supposed to bring the X5 eDrive concept plug-in hybrid stateside. We saw it in Frankfurt last fall and then in some on-the-road spy shots more recently. The SUV pairs a 245-horsepower four-cylinder gasoline engine with a 95-horsepower electric motor, and will be able to go as fast as 75 mph and as far as 20 miles on electric power alone. BMW says fuel efficiency will be about 62 miles per gallon, per the more lenient European Union test cycle. That's more than double the current diesel powered X5's 26 combined mpg rating handed out by the EPA. And the model's 0-60 time is less than seven seconds. If you'd like to know more, you can take the better part of the day and check out Bimmer's mighty long press release below. BMW X4 Sports Activity Coupe and M4 Convertible Make World Debut at 2014 New York International Auto Show New BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe and BMW ALPINA B6 xDrive Gran Coupe to make North American debuts Updated BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle also makes North American debut including first BMW Advanced Diesel X3 model for the US BMW Concept X5 eDrive showcases new dimension of BMW EfficientDynamics technology Woodcliff Lake, NJ – April 3 , 2014 6:00pm EDT/3:00pm PDT. . . The all-new BMW X4 Sports Activity Coupe as well as the BMW M4 Convertible make their world debuts at the 2014 New York International Auto Show. North American debuts include the all-new BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe as well as the BMW ALPINA B6 xDrive Gran Coupe.