BMW BLOG

Since late 2005, when BMW announced it’s new E90 entrant for the World Touring Car, Championship(WTCC), I’ve  been enamoured by the BMW 320Si as BMW had to homologate the car by producing 2,600 road-going versions to compete. A lucky few in countries outside the U.S.(typical) were able to snatch up the low production series cars when they were first sold.

While the 320Si is only a 2.0 liter, 4 cylinder engine, it produces 175 horsepower (275 horsepower in full race spec) and comes without Valvetronic as it limits the revving and performance capabilities of the engine. Even better, the engine was hand-built in the United Kingdom in the same BMW engine plant that also builds the engines for the BMW-Sauber Formula One program.

The 320Si came in sedan(saloon) form only and could only be purchased with a manual transmission. The sedan was decked out with the then-new M Sport body kit and custom 18 inch Style 216 wheels – straight off of it’s race car brethren. The major difference from the race-spec 320Si body and road-going version was the widebody kit front and back – and the racing livery along the sides!

About a year ago, while researching the WTCC 320Si, I came across a BMW 320Si by way of Japan. Yoshina, the owner, was one of the few lucky Japanese BMW fans to import a left-hand drive 2006 E90 320Si. That’s impressive to even import a car but he went many, many steps beyond that and decided to essentially build a road-going, partially racing-spec 320Si. Read the rest of this entry »

I am currently attending the BMW live webcast which covers the upcoming launch of the diesel engines in the U.S. BMW has just announced the pricing for the BMW 335d and the X5 xDrive35d:

• BMW 335d – $44,725
• BMW X5d -$52,025

All prices include shipping and handling and both qualify for the IRS Alternative Motor Vehicle Tax Credit.

The premium over the 335I vs. the 335d is $3200  and $1300 over the xi, definitely not the best price out there, but let’s wait and see if the bimmer fans will embrace the diesel movement. 

Update: Great webcast and many good questions. I will summarize some of them later on. It was an interesting question about the gas prices decrease and how would it affect the diesel engines launch. A graphic was shown, hopefully we will get access to that. Read the rest of this entry »

Another day, another award for BMW. This time, their highest seller, the 3 Series, has been voted the most reliable car in a survey of Britain’s vehicle leasing companies. 

The survey compiled by Fleet News looked at multi-marque leasing companies. In all 881,000 cars were reviewed based on the number of breakdowns per 100 of each type of model on each leasing company’s fleet. Point awards were given depending on the number of times particular brands or models come out in the tables supplied by the leasing companies as well as the position in which they were found.

Besides the BMW 3 Series, the Mini Hatch and the 1 Series made the top ten, finishing on the fifth place, respectively seventh. A great win for BMW in one of their largest markets, especially since the Japanese car manufacturers are always at the top of reliability surveys.

Well, I thought I will give you a few more photos of the BMW 3 Series facelift, continuing our earlier coverage on the sedan LCI. I have to say that I am definitely not a fan of any red shade paint on a BMW, but the 335d in these photos looks absolutely stunning.

Could it be the beautiful surroundings? The immaculate new paint? Not sure, but I dig it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Simon, a reader of our blog, has just sent in some photos of an Alpine White BMW 330xd with the gorgeous M-Package on. The M-package includes  a different steering wheel, an M gear stick, the M logo on the doors and many other nifty things specific to an M car.

Also, the 330xd comes with BMW Professional Navigation system which offers live TV stations along with DVD playback. Unfortunately, the live TV is not a feature available for us in the States, but we’re excited to see the BMW ConnectedDrive system in the new 7 Series.

I once again have to say that the E90 Facelift is one of the most successful LCI BMW has ever done, and it has improved the 3 Series sedan appearance tremendously.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seems our friends at BMW are ramping up to place some BMW Performance Products on the 09 Sedan. I ran across this video today. Couple of things I noticed where the new wheels, new front spoiler, new rear apron, and what looks like a Big Brake Kit.

The other thing that was interesting to me was the fact that it looks like this Performance Kit is on a 328i and not the higher-end 335i.

Enjoy the video

Video BMW E90 LCI Performance

I hope you’re not tired of comparison articles since I have one more for you. We have pretty much seen all the reviews that involved the 3 Series, M cars, Audi’s, MB’s, etc..What I haven’t seen so far was a review on some European only models, such as the BMW 330d or Mercedes C320CDi.

Since many of our readers live in Europe, I think it will be fair to cover some of their models as well. With that being said, the German folks at Autobild put together a comparison test drive between the previously mentioned BMW 330d, the Audi A4 3liter TDI, Mercedes Benz’s C320CDi and…..a new contestant, the C5 HDI from the French manufacturer Citroen.

For those of us that don’t master the German language, I have a Google translation for you, not 100% accurate, but it will give you an idea.

But just to spoil the conclusion a little bit, all I want to say is that the 330d takes the trophy home.

BMW 330d

• 245 PS @ 4,000 rpm
• 520 Nm (383 lb-ft) @ 1,750 – 3,000 rpm
• 0-62 mph in 6.1 sec
• 49 mpg hwy / 32 mpg city / 35 mpg combined
• 152 g/km CO2

1: BMW 330d (0-60 6.3 sec)
2: Audi A4 3.0TDI  (0-60 6.6 sec)
3: Mercedes-Benz C320CDI (0-60 7.2 sec)
4: Citroen C5 HDI (0-60 9.6 sec)

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Karl, one of our readers, I’m going to show you some photos of a BMW 335i Sedan, facelift version of course, WITH some BMW Individual options added.

Apparently, a member of E90post, Alpina B3 Lux, will be the proud owner of this car next April, when he takes it over from a BMW employee.

You might be wondering what makes this car so unique, well, beside the BMW Individual options added, you might know that not all the Individual goodies found in the European catalog are available for us in States.

So, let me show you the photos and then tell you what we have different here:

Exterior Paint: BMW Individual Anthrazite Black

Read the rest of this entry »