2001 Bmw X5 4.4i Sport Utility 4-door 4.4l on 2040-cars

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Ward's Automotive Ten Best Engines of 2014 dominated by diesels, turbos

With the Car and Driver Ten Best decided, the North American Car and Truck of the Year finalists announced and Cadillac, Ram and Subaru chalking up wins with Motor Trend, it's fair to say that the automotive awards season is in full swing. The next set of trophies to be handed out will be from Ward's Automotive, which has announced the winners of its 2014 10 Best Engines.
The latest contest was marked by the widespread emergence of diesel power and the continued success of turbocharged engines. There was even an electric motor on this year's list. In fact, only three of the ten winners were naturally aspirated and only two winners returned from last year.
"We weren't looking to throw the bums out, as they might say about an election. We were just really impressed with the flood of new powertrains," said Ward's Automotive Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter. Those new powertrains include the 83-kilowatt electric motor from the Fiat 500e, the 1.0-liter, EcoBoost three-cylinder from the Ford Fiesta and the 2.0-liter turbodiesel from the Chevrolet Cruze.

BMW mulling potential 9 Series production

Nine months may be long enough to bring another human being into the world, but it may take BMW a bit longer to make up its mind on the production of a potential 9 Series model. The idea was first mooted when the Bavarian automaker presented the Vision Future Luxury concept at the Beijing Motor Show last year. Billed (not unlike rival Audi's Prologue concept) more as a design study than a pre-production concept, the Vision Future Luxury show car nevertheless took a larger form than the 7 Series, prompting speculation that a new flagship sedan could be in the works. The better part of a year later, such a decision has reportedly yet to be taken, but over at BMW Blog they're reporting that the automaker's incoming chief executive Harald Kruger is a fan of the idea and could give it the green light after he takes the helm in May. If approved, the model likely to be dubbed 9 Series would reportedly compete with the Mercedes-Maybach S600 – but then that model was earmarked to take on the Rolls-Royce Ghost. BMW has typically been careful not to overlap with its Rolls-Royce division, but considering how it's also been going downmarket with front-drive models to close the gap to the Mini brand, we wouldn't be all that surprised to see the 9 Series positioned maybe just below the next-generation Ghost and developed alongside it, taking a page out of rival VW's playbook. Volkswagen has, after all, made a brisk business out of sharing platforms and slicing market segments between the various brands under its umbrella. And while BMW is nowhere near as large, its new leadership could find new ways to increase its market share.

How tariffs in China could cause a meltdown in the American South

While BMW is clearly a German company, the crossovers that are exceedingly important to it are actually made in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And more than that, the Spartanburg plant (physically located in the town of Greer) is where the corporate know-how and capability for those vehicles is concentrated. These are the vehicles – specifically, the BMW X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 – that drove record growth for the company in 2018, according to BMW. But whatÂ’s most notable about BMW Group Plant Spartanburg, given current events, is that according to the U.S. Department of Commerce it was the largest automotive exporter by value for the fifth year running in 2018. ThatÂ’s worth emphasizing: largest automotive exporter by value. Not GM. Not Ford. BMW. And where might one assume that more than a few of those X vehicles are shipped to? China. Some 360 miles southwest of Spartanburg is Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc., in in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. It started building vehicles in 1997. Since then, Daimler AG has invested in excess of $5.5 billion in the facility. It manufactures the crossover now known as the GLE, formerly the ML-Class. It also makes the GLE coupe and GLS. Daimler describes the Tuscaloosa facility as “the traditional home of SUV production” for those vehicles. When it reported its global 2018 sales, Daimler noted that on a global basis SUVs account “for more than a third of all Mercedes-Benz sales.” According to the Chinese finance ministry, on December 15th the Chinese government will impose a 25% tariff on automobiles (and a 5% tariff on auto parts) from the U.S. Certainly this is going to have a direct effect on the sales of vehicles that are manufactured in the U.S. and exported to China. BMW and Mercedes are going to take it on the chin for the vehicles that they make in plants that they invested in so heavily in the U.S. Which could potentially mean that people in places like Greer, South Carolina, and Vance, Alabama, are going to find themselves in the crosshairs of the combatants. Soo too could Lincoln, which produces vehicles in places like Louisville, Kentucky (Navigator), Chicago, Illinois (Aviator) and Flat Rock, Michigan (Continental). Although the Tesla Gigafactory 3 is rapidly nearing completion in Shanghai, it is worth noting that vehicles built in Fremont, California, are being sold in China in numbers that donÂ’t make Musk unhappy.