2005 Bmw X3 on 2040-cars

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Why won't automakers slap on a turbo badge anymore?

Where have all the turbos gone? Not the actual pieces that go in the engine, mind you, those are everywhere these days as automakers downsize cylinder counts and boost efficiency and CO2 claims. But the turbo badges and fanfare are missing. Back when turbos were something to get excited about there was "turbo-driven," "turbonium," and "The Turbo Zone," among other silly lines. But now that basically every car is getting some sort of boost even on the lowliest trims, automakers are almost sliding in the turbos under the radar. Or if you look at some of the nomenclature, pretending they don't exist at all. The 911 Turbo badge shows where the car goes from being sane to lunatic. It's an important border. The latest automaker to hide that it has boosted the turbo presence is Porsche with the 2017 911 lineup. Even the standard Carrera models now get turbocharged flat-six engines, meaning the 911 Turbo models aren't quite as special as they once were. Porsche is in a sticky situation with this. The 911 Turbo, after all, signifies where the 911 family takes off from being a sports car and becomes the Ferrari fighter. The 911 Turbo badge shows where the car goes from being sane to lunatic. It's an important border, but now Porsche has crossed it and is trying to downplay the fact. There are a lot of exaggerations with displacement badges today, with claims the 2.0-liter turbo four in a Mercedes C Class equates to a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter six to make a C300. Volvo is pretty far up there, too, saying an XC90 T8 means V8 power, even though it's a 2.0-liter turbocharged and supercharged four with electric assist. I don't know why BMW can't just call the car a 330i Turbo, rather than inflating the numbers up to 340i. Saab tried all of this back in the '90s when it decided to turbocharge its entire lineup, from light pressure units all the way up to models actually called "Saab 9-3 HOT" (for high-output turbo). But then the brand deleted any external reference to the turbo under the hood and people wondered why they were buying a $42,000 four-cylinder convertible. And that didn't turn out well. Even though these turbo replacements often make more power than their naturally aspirated predecessors, they're very different engines. People knew something changed when they exchanged their leased 328i with a 3.0-liter six for a 328i with a 2.0-liter turbo four.

BMW X4 Concept is no Shanghai surprise

"One in four new BMW cars is now a BMW SAV." If you're new to BMW parlance, SAV stands for Sports Activity Vehicle, a vehicle type most of us more commonly refer to as a crossover, and that statistic, which comes straight from the automaker itself, tells you all you need to know about why the X4 Concept you see above exists.
Like its larger X6 sibling, the BMW X4 Concept tries to shove a crossover in a mold shaped vaguely like a fastback coupe. Put another way, the X4 is likely to be a polarizing design, though perhaps not to the extent that the X6 divided opinions. As for us, we definitely prefer the styling of this X4 Concept, with its strong character lines and impressive wheel-to-bodyside ratio, over that of its bigger brother. That said, we're sure the AMC Eagle comparisons will begin in earnest starting right about... now.
Dimensionally, it seems the most obvious machine with which to compare this X4 Concept is the 3 Series Wagon - we're not sure if it will be as spacious inside as the 3 Series Gran Turismo. A two-inch stretch in the wheelbase ought to bring a commensurate improvement in legroom, and a body that's nearly five inches longer should be a boon for cargo capacity. Of course, that fastback roofline will surely cut down on the car's roominess inside, but we'll have to wait for the final production model to judge its true capabilities.

Official pics of BMW M235i surface ahead of coupe's debut

BMW isn't supposed to debut the 2 Series until tomorrow, according to Carscoops, but that hasn't stopped these photos of the 1 Series Coupe replacement from leaking onto the web. First picked up by a BMW 2 Series enthusiast site, the photos eventually found their way around the web, and complement the spy images we showed you of the uncovered 2 Series from almost six months ago.
This particular car is the M235i, and will serve as the range-topping 2 Series. As the number "35" is affixed to this car's tail, there's no question that the engine powering this example is BMW's turbocharged, 3.0-liter six-cylinder. As we reported earlier this month, power for the M235i should sit around 320 horsepower, blessing the 3,240-pound coupe with a 4.8-second sprint to 60 miles per hour when equipped with an eight-speed automatic (a six-speed manual is also available, but drops the time down to an even five seconds).
While this isn't a full-bore M car like the 1 Series M Coupe, it has been touched by the company's in-house tuning division, which means it sports a racier body kit, blacked out grilles and M-labeled interior items, like the steering wheel.