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BMW, Sixt carsharing making money most places

The DriveNow carsharing service, which is a partnership between BMW and Sixt, is growing quite rapidly. "We've been surprised about the explosion of new subscriptions, which has helped boost revenue," says Sixt CEO Erich Sixt. The number of DriveNow users has increased from 215,000 at the end of last year to 300,000 today. Sixt says that DriveNow has been profitable in cities in which it has been established for over a year. Perhaps encouraged by its unexpected success, DriveNow is set to expand even further. The service is currently available in five German cities, as well as in San Francisco, California, and the involved parties are considering a five-year plan to expand to 25 more cities in Europe and the US. Still, Sixt expects DriveNow to report a "small-to-medium, single-digit" loss for this year, according to Sixt CFO Julian zu Putlitz. It's no big deal, just the result of startup costs in new areas. Sixt, which is Germany's largest car rental company, also reported that its own second-quarter income rose 12 percent to $37.7 million, while sales rose 7.6 percent to $585.78 million. DriveNow uses a membership and pay-per-minute model that allows customers to rent BMW and Mini vehicles as they need them. The service also acts as a way to let potential customers try out the vehicles and familiarize themselves with the brands before they buy cars of their own at some point. Depending on the location, DriveNow's fleet includes the BMW 1 Series, ActiveE and X1, as well as several Mini vehicles like the Cooper, Clubman and Countryman. Featured Gallery 2012 BMW ActiveE: First Drive View 31 Photos News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Copyright 2014 AOL Green BMW MINI car sharing profit revenue drivenow sixt

Man criticized for filming rather than helping road rage victim

A man from Cheshire in England was criticized on social media after he filmed a road rage brawl and provided color commentary for it instead of helping the victim. According to the Daily Mail, Alec Wall was traveling through Cheshire when he came upon a strange scene. A red Mini was stopped at a light, and standing next to it in traffic was a woman in a white dress. As Wall watched, the woman lunged for the Mini's driver's door, wrenched it open, and began fighting with the woman behind the wheel. While the women fought, Wall pulled out his phone and started recording. "Road Rage!" he shouted as he filmed. Apparently finding the situation extremely funny, Wall continued to film, giggling all the while and providing commentary on the scuffle. "Oh my God, actual road in a rage!" he shouted. Once he returned home, Wall uploaded his video to a Facebook page called Idiot UK Drivers Exposed where it racked up nearly 90,000 likes. Not everyone found it as funny as Wall did, however. Comments began piling up chastising Wall for his flip attitude and his failure to intervene in the fight. "How about instead of laughing and screaming 'road rage' like a moron you do something productive like get out of your car and try to defuse the situation? Use some intelligence..." said one commenter. "I really have failed to see what the camera man is laughing at," said another. "It looks to me like someone being seriously assaulted. Why is that funny?" There is no report on the cause of the incident, or how it ended. Related Video: News Source: The Daily Mail Auto News Weird Car News MINI road rage fight

Mini finally lands its full blackflip

French stuntman Guerlain Chicherit hit the ski slopes of Tignes, France over the weekend - not to enjoy the fresh snow but to perform the first-ever unassisted backlip in a car, which was teased last month.
The unassisted part of the stunt comes from the fact that he Chicherit, in a special rally-prepped Mini Countryman, uses a regular, solid ramp rather than any specially modified ramps that have been used in the past to pull off this stunt. Unfortunately, after 18 months of practice, you'd think the video would be more entertaining by showing more closeups or better angles of the stunt.
Either way, you can check out Chicherit and his Countryman nail the back flip in the video posted below, and Mini has provided a press release and some high-res shots for the stunt as well.