The upcoming 2009 BMW 7 Series has been caught undisguised somewhere on a German autobahn near Munich. With the official photos being released already by BMW, there is no need for the extensive  stupid necessary camouflage.

The rear end still seem to have a small camouflage on the trunk lid, but other than that, the car is pretty much the same one from the official photos.

Looking at this black exterior color, the new 7 doesn’t do much for me, but maybe just the quality of the photos might have something to do with that. The previous photos that we posted really made me change my opinion on the 7 and I absolutely started to love it, but I can’t say the same about these photos.

Anyway, nothing really exciting here, but I thought I would share with you these real life photos.

[Source: Autojunk.nl ]

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Exactly a month ago, Griot’s Garage, the most respectable car care company, became our exclusive BMWBlog sponsor. I have been a long time customer of them and ever since I bought my first bimmer, I have been using their products, among other companies as well. You might be asking what made me choose them over the many other car care companies and the answer to that is very simple: beside the high quality products, the main selling point for me was their manuals and DVDs that guided me throughout the detailing process.

I have to admit, I was far away from being a pro when it came to detailing my car and I felt like it was a “rocket science”. The first thing I did when I bought my first product from them was to watch their instructional DVD and refering to the printed manual.

I’ve come a long way since then and now I feel like I know what the hack I’m doing and boy, let me tell you, that feels really good, especially not worrying about ruining my car. So, right after they signed up with us, I decided that my new  BMW 335i was due for a complete detail. I bought my car in January and I didn’t really have any detail jobs since then.

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Mercedes-Benz recently released its all new SL  65 AMG Black Series. The AMG Black Series is a small amount of special car that Mercedes brands out to be the best of the best in their respective class. A couple of years ago they gave us the very impressive CLK 63 AMG Black Series and its younger sister, the SLK 55 AMG Black Series. While the CLK AMG BS was impressive it wasn’t a supercar for MB, and the SLK 55 Black Series wasn’t much more than a special edition AMG.

Now Mercedes-Benz has parted ways with McLaren, at least in terms of making cars again together. The SLR was such a failure that MB knew they had to come up with a car that could beat the SLR’s performance, have less GT styling inside and out and appeal to that boy racer in all of us… (more…)

I was looking through the BMW news on World Car Fans and found their new artist rendering of what the new 5-Series could look like. What do you think?

There have been a good amount of spy shots of the new 2011 5-Series that is supposed to debut in 2010, or the F10 as it will also be known.

Personally, I don’t like it at all. I think it is too bland and doesn’t represent what BMW has been trying to accomplish. I kind of like the headlights and the big kidney grills, but the rest of the car leaves a lot to be desired. The design is based largely on the BMW CS Concept. (more…)

Well, I was at it again. Not much news to cover this week, but the news that is covered is very good. I’ve been watching some ‘how to’ videos on how to make better videos for you guys. This way, hopefully soon, the videos will have better lighting, actually video effects, so on and so forth. But until then, here is the latest BMW Blog Video News.

P.S. How many videos is this now? I lost count, haha.

Enjoy,

BMW Ads Pt. 1

FREE BMW Blog Decals (more…)

This is probably the first video of the BMW Progressive Activity Sedan(PAS) that we have seen so far. Of course, as expected, the camouflage covering the cover is extremely well implemented and almost impossible to see what BMW is hiding underneath.

The interior makes no exception and it is pretty much covered up as well. To quote the BMW’s CEO, Herr Norbert Reithofer, the BMW PAS is :

another result of our strategy that we will not build a space-functional concept. It will be replaced by a fundamentally altered concept. What I am talking about here is a new segment. We currently call the concept Progressive Activity Sedan or PAS in short. Expect this concept to introduce its own interpretation of the sedan and to surprise you with intelligent features.

I am not sure what those words meant, but I am looking forward to this one, mostly since I’m curious to see how the bimmer fans will react to new products on innovations.

According to the guys at LeftLaneNews,  many rumors began appearing in the German press this week, with Autobild Allrad reporting the story of a BMW X2 being considered as a production model.

With the upcoming BMW X1 launch just around the corner, I was expected to see more rumors on other BMW models. If the BMW PAS might have its place in the BMW lineup, the need of an X2 is not justified.

I am convinced that the market segment between the X1 and all the way up to the X6 is pretty much covered. But, let’s give in into those rumors and assume that an X2 is coming down the road.

Take a look at the rendering and tell me what you think. Btw, the artists did a good job, I’m not saying the concept does not have potential, but there is no room for such car.

BMW X2

Driving down on one of the Chicago’s busiest highways, I noticed riding next to me a BMW 3 Series in a platinum bronze color. This is one of those rare colors that you can barely see it anywhere.

From my experience, the most common bimmer colors or at least the 3 series ones, seem to be either Silver, white gray or black, at least here in the Chicagoland area.

Maybe it was the sunset combined with the color and the tinted windows, but the 3er looked pretty damn good.

Also, this was the perfect opportunity to test my iPhone 3G camera and posting this blog from my phone along with the photos I hope you’ll excuse that.

So, does any of you have the platinum bronze color and if you do, what made you choose it?

Nothing good in this case. Without picking on our beautiful ladies(you know we love you, the geeky women), somewhere in Europe, two girls, quite attractive girls, driving a BMW 650i, managed to flip over an SUV.

But here is what really cracks me up: I would assume that after such a pretty serious accident, you would get out of the car, be concerned a little bit and maybe STOP THINKING for a second of your purses. I like how they just got off the car, but their purses were hanging on their hands

Bottom line is that I hope no one got hurt and I also feel bad for the “poor 650i”.

BMW 650i crash

BMW 650i crash

A few months back I posted an article about the E-Series code BMW’s, or as I titled it “Secret Code“. I hope it helped. But, now, as the new 7-Series BMW is upon us, we have a new coding system that will start to label all BMW’s present and future. It is now an F with two numbers after it, just as it was with the E code.

Yes, I know it can get quite confusing. But have no fear, Josh is here… I know, corny. But here are the new codes that you will see start popping up. Hopefully you can learn them and have them in your memory so that you can help others know.

F01-7-Series i

F02-7-Series Li

F03-7-Series Protection

F10-2010 5-Series Sedan (more…)

Enough said! Look at these new pictures and maybe it will change your opinion. As I have stated before, my first thought was …not very pleasant when it came to the new 7, but after keep seeing new photos and more, then I completely changed my mind.

What do you think? Still hate it?

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Another set of real life photos of the upcoming 2009 BMW 3 Series Sedan facelift have surfaced onto the web. This happens just shortly after two weeks ago, the first set of 2009 3 Series photos were posted by us.

Last week, all of BMW's client advisers in the country were invited to a hands-on training on the 3 Series Sedan and Wagon models that will be launched in October. They had the opportunity to play with the new iDrive system as well and their reaction was very positive: easier to use, more polished look, friendly interface and most important, new useful features.

Now, let's go back and take a look at the 3 Series sedan photos that were taken in Munich just a few days ago. The friends at Bimmerpost made this happen for all of us. 

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Japanese tuning specialist Wald International has introduced a nice carbon outfit for the BMW M5 sedan. The aerodynamic kit consists of a front apron with integrated carbon fiber wings, side skirts, bolt-on carbon fiber air intake pockets, carbon fiber outline for the M5’s twin-kidney grille, a new lower rear bumper part with carbon fiber detailing and a carbon fiber deck lid spoiler. The carbon fiber body parts can be combined with a set of mutlispoke forged alloy wheels in black and new exhaust tailpipe outlets.What do you think?

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Could this be a sign that BMW will indeed build an M1 Hommage concept? Well, we're not so sure, these photos that were released yesterday, might belong to the same set of pictures taken around the official M1 Hommage unveiling. 

Regardless, we thought it will be cool to see the Hommage in "action" again since it has received some good press back in April.

High-Res BMW M1 Hommage Gallery

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I have been meaning for a while to put together an article on what BMW is preparing for us next year. A while ago, more exactly in January this year, we published another roadmap for '08 and '09, but I think it's time to revise it a little bit, even though the previous roadmap proved to be quite accurate.

BMW 7 Series

It will be launched in the first quarter of 2009. The new 7 will be launched in its both version, F01 and F02 and one of the few options missing from the beginning will be the AWD.

BMW 3 Series

The BMW 3 Series sedan and wagon facelift will be released this fall as a MY09 model. As mentioned before, it will indeed get the new redesigned iDrive along with a few small but necessary exterior changes. The BMW 335d will be launched in the same time, as being the first 3 series diesel to be launched in the States. No news on the coupe or convertible models, but we do expect some slight changes next year. Stay tunned for that.

BMW Z4

The highly awaited and expected new BMW Z4 design will be launched in 2009 as well. We have just learned yesterday that the Z4 will stop its U.S production soon and as expected, the manufacturing process will move to Regensburg, Germany. Expect the Z4 to come in a single version(yes folks, no coupe or M models) and with a single choice when it comes to the roof: hardtop. Back in April, BMW was planning on having a soft top version as well and many bimmer fans were excited about the news, but unfortunately, the soft top version never made into production and most likely it was used as a testing mule against the hardtop model. 

BMW X1

It will be unveiled at the Paris Auto Show in October, but the secrecy around this new interesting model is fairly high, no clear spy shots and no other official information. 

BMW X5

The X5 diesel will make its debut along with the 335d and they will share the same engine. Expect some models to arrive in dealerships before October. The expected petrol engine refresh is in works as well. The BMW X5 3.0 liter twin-turbo will be featured in the 2009 models, but we just don't know YET if they will be launched later this year or sometimes in the second half of '09. We're working on that as well.

That's it for now, these dates are pretty much set in stone and accurate. Of course, there will most likely be some 2010 models released later next year, but we can't offer any exact dates nor information at this point(BMW 5 Series, PAS..etc..)