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Six luxury-car features I'm ashamed to admit I love

A hot compress felt wonderful on my sore back. The methodical kneading of my shoulder blades loosened the knots that formed over several hours of driving. The Swedish-style pulses firing into my lumbar region released more tension.
I wasn't getting a much-needed massage following a recent road trip. I was getting it during the road trip.
I grew up riding in the back seat of a 1976 Chevy Nova. But once you use these lux features, it's easy to go soft.

BMW 4 Series configurator comes online

The best money in the world might be configurator money - you never run out of it and you can never spend it the wrong way. We hope you're ready to dip into your configurator savings account, because it's time to start speccing out the 2014 BMW 4 Series, the coupe having just arrived in the virtual world.
There are four possible opening gambits: the 428i for $40,500, the 428i xDrive for $42,500, the 435i for $46,000 or the 435i xDrive for $48,000. After you've chosen your first move, there are three trim options: the $1,400 Luxury Line that features lots of chrome and wood (shown), the $1,700 Sport Line that adds lots of gloss black and contrasting trim color and stitching, or the $3,100 M Sport that offers the M Estoril Blue hue and lots of M-division specific accessories.
Starting with the 435i xDrive and M Sport, we then added items like the 19-inch wheels ($900), the Dynamic Handling Package ($1,000), Cold Weather Package ($700), Premium Package ($2,200), Tech Package ($3,150) and the Lighting Package ($1,900) on top of any other box we could check. The total, after the $925 destination and handling charge: $66,749.

BMW, Mini aim to sell million cars off new FWD platform

Mini sold 301,526 cars in 2012; BMW sold 1.54 million of its own models. According to a piece in Autocar, analysts say the coming UKL1 platform that will form the skeleton of the third-generation Mini Cooper and coming front-wheel drive BMW 1 Series could be responsible for "more than 900,000 cars per year" all by itself.
That sale fire is fueled by the UKL1 wearing up to twenty-three bodies in total between the two brands, 11 for Mini and 12 for BMW, rendering hatchbacks, sedans, coupes, convertibles, wagons, crossovers and people-haulers from about 12.5 feet to 14.5 feet. In April the VP of Mini USA said we might find some current models don't make it to a next generation, but a graphic accompanying the Autocar story has them all there. If it's correct, then those 23 models will only base model lines and don't account for different engines and four-wheel-drive options for each model.
The big changes that would perhaps mean big sales for the Mini line are a five-door hatch with two smaller rear doors for children, the sedan talked about last year for Asian markets and an MPV perhaps wearing the "Traveler" name that could send the Countryman in a more SUV-like direction.