BMW BLOG

gerittg, a member of E90post, decided to try a little experiment: how to change his new BMW 335i coupe from a black exterior into a beautiful white, WITHOUT having to re-paint the car. One of the reason why he decided to go this route was mostly to protect his paint, but also, he decided the black became too boring for him.

The experiment starts with the the order of 3M shiny white tape and having the patience to work on the car for two days. According to gerritg, the “foiling” of cars is a pretty common process in Germany and it is seen mostly applied on taxis and racing cars.

The tape will protect your paint from any scratches and stone chipping, but it is advisable to be removed once every 3-4 years. For those of you that worry about taking the car through a car wash and having the tape come off, gerritg guarantees that this is not the case

Even though the foiling process is cheaper than painting your car in a different color, the final price will still set you back at least $1500. Convenient price if you’re one of these people that buy a car in a color and become jealous when the neighbor next to you just got an amazing blue paint(yeah neighbor, sorry, but I’m ahead this time).

So, this proves again for “crazy” we, the bimmer fans, are, and we will do anything and everything to take care of our cars or satisfy our needs.

P.S I can’t wait to see my neighbor getting the same color as mine.

Thanks for the tip John!

[Source E90post via Autoblog ]

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If you’re a bimmer fan, then you should know by now what or who Alpina is. But just in case you don’t, here is a short wiki on it.

Now that we got that out of the way, the german automobile manufacturing company based in Bavaria, Germany, has just released their latest masterpiece: the D3 Twin-Turbo Coupe, based on the successful BMW 3 Series E92.

Without any further introduction, I will let the press release speak for the D3 Coupe.

PRESS RELEASE

The new BMW ALPINA D3 Bi-Turbo Coupe

The factor with which the new D3 Coupe is best compared to its rivals is its Power-To-Weight ratio; an equation commonly applied in motor sport. But, with heavily increased personal taxation designed to encourage energy saving and lowered emissions, the calculation is assuming wider relevance to drivers – especially those in the select niche at which this latest ALPINA is aimed.

As epitomised by the D3 Coupe, gaining extra performance simply by substituting a larger engine is alien to the ALPINA philosophy. Instead, the manufacturer, working closely with BMW, maximises the sporting potential of existing units.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two weeks ago, most of the BMW Client Advisors were invited to an official event where BMWNA has shown the upcoming 335d. The purpose of this training session was to get the Client Advisors acustomed to the new 3 Series diesel version and especially the newly redesigned iDrive system. ( video )

If you have been following the recent news, there is a debate on wether the 335d will be delayed until next year or it will launch a few weeks later than the original projected launch date, sometimes in November. The BMW Head of Public Relations stated that the new 3er diesel will be launching in November, but the availability may be limited until early next year.

In a recent development we learned that those of you looking to purchase the BMW 335d through the European Delivery program, will have to wait until early next year and most likely will pay a higher price, due to the fact that the car will come out of the dealer’s allocation.

To get back to the original topic, our friends at Bimmerfile got a hold of a set of photos showing the BMW 335d during the BMW training sessions for the U.S dealerships. Nothing really new there, but from our discussion with several client advisors, the new iDrive is a huge step forward compared to the so much hated first generation nav system.

The opinions on the 335d seem to be split among the bimmer fans, while many of them are excited about the first 3er diesel in the States, there are also many opponents that are mostly concern with the higher diesel price that will keep the car from being a hot sell.

[Source bimmerfile ]

With the new 3 Series Sedan facelift just around the corner, we thought it will be cool to post some new high quality wallpapers.

Just a few weeks ago, we posted the first official photos of the 3er sedan and wagon, but today, I will show you two of my favorite shots.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have just learned that the new BMW 335d has been delayed until early next year. No information on what is causing the delayed launch, but we’ll get back to you

Update: Conflicting information are being reported. According to cars.com, the BMW Head of PR, Tom Plucinski, stated that no delays are expected and the car should launch in November. We updated the title until we can confirm with another source.

We should find out more information soon and I really hope that the delay is not real. Many people I know are holding off for the 335d. As some of our readers commented already, at $5/gallon, the 3 Series diesel might not be so “hot” in the end.

This past week, the auto industry has been shaken by the very pessimistic reports and disastrous quarterly earnings reported by some of the largest automakers. BMW is one of them and with 1.6 percent drop compared to August ‘07, the future does not look too rosy.

While the overall sales for the BMW Group are up 2.2 percent (thanks to the Mini brand mostly), the year-to-date sales are down 8 percent, which for a giant automaker as BMW, can only announce new changes in their business strategy.

Last Thursday, in an important BMW Board meeting, the rumored X7 project was erased from BMW’s future plans, but that’s far away from the bad news to come. BMW is raising prices next year, with some of them being implemented by the end of this year for some of the MY09 cars.

Wait, did you think this was all? No, in the same time with the price increase, BMW will manufacture fewer vehicles in 2009, with a rumored number around 25,000 less cars globally, and it will sell 40,000 fewer units on the U.S market.

How is this going to affect the buyers? Jonathan Spira, a well known and respected Business Editor for BMWCCA, explains it very well:

This will change as BMW will return to a pull-oriented (versus “push”) sales strategy that will limit sales volume, requiring customers not only to pay full price but to wait for cars rather than being able to drive them off the lot (something practiced almost universally except in the United States).

Paying MSRP for a bimmer is something that us, BMW fans, have not encountered over the last few years, with the exception of a few new models that weren’t discounted the first few months.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, then the 60% of the BMW owners that are part of the leasing program, are in for a big surprise as well. The highly subsidized BMW leases were a gimmick that allowed many buyers to get some amazing deals on some quite expensive BMW models. It was pretty much common to lease a $40,000 bimmer for a monthly payment of around $500, a much lower payment that BMW’s competitors with cars in the same price range.

BMW will begin offering higher incentives to customers that are looking to finance a car or cash-purchase it, rather than going through the famous BMW Financial Services program. As a paranthesis, I remember leasing my previous BMW 325i with a finance rate of around 1% over a 3-year period, which combined with higher than normal residual values, it allowed me to lease my $36,000 car for $400/month.

There are many other angles here and tons of other details that can be discussed, but I will let our dear Jonathan Spira take over and give you some more detailed information over at BMWCCA forum.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you think. Let’s start a conversation on this and see what your future plans are.

P.S If you’re on the market for a new bimmer, now it’s the time to analyze the facts at hand and decide fast on which car to get.

Thanks again for the link Jonathan!

So my buddy Tom Cruz just got back from a nice little trip to Germany. Once he got to Germany he drove all around Europe, and at one point got the luxury of renting and driving a 2008 BMW 320d. He absolutely loved it! But I’ll let you watch his little review of it.

The reason it’s so dark in the video is because it was the only time when Tom could be alone with the car to talk about it, and he had to return it at 7 AM the following morning. Anyone want to know what that would have sounded and looked like? Yeah, me either. I’ve seen Tom at 12 in the afternoon, and that’s bad enough… He apologizes, but I think you can get the basic drift of what a great car it is. God, I can’t wait until BMW brings the diesels over here. Hurry please!

Also, I just added the video of Tom doing 220 KPH on the Autobahn.

Videos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The closer we get to the release date, the more marketing materials covering the 2009 BMW 3 Series E90/E91 facelifted versions are being released. Several photos and videos have been released already and you can check them out at your own leissure, by visiting our 3 Series category.

Today, we have a video showing the exterior and interior design of the new 3er Sedan and Wagon.

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.

Continued Read the rest of this entry »

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?