1985 Bmw 635csi Base Coupe 2-door 3.5l Auto on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ram and Alfa Romeo top J.D. Power study of best automaker websites

Imagining a new car can be terrific fun, especially if the new car is an Alfa Romeo. So say the fantasy engineers at the J.D. Power agency, who’ve found that Alfa and Ram, sister brands under the Stellantis umbrella, offer potential buyers the most attractive consumer websites, which are often their first viable encounter with those vehicles. Power found that those marques lead the mass market and premium categories in its twice annual Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study. In the premium segment, Alfa Romeo led with 755 points, up six points over BMW, 10 points ahead of Infiniti, 14 points past of Jaguar, and 18 points up on Porsche. By contrast, Volvo and Audi trail the pack with 689 points, and are behind Genesis (699 points), Tesla (720), and Cadillac (721), all of which perform worse than the premium segment average of 724 points. The summerÂ’s study showed that in the mass market segment, Ram leads with an impressive 735 points, which puts it six points ahead of GMC, seven points atop its stablemate Jeep, eight points beyond Subaru, and 22 points ahead of the industry average. Volkswagen finished dead last among mass market names, but only one point behind Ford, 684 to 683 out of a possible 1,000. Segment average, as noted, was 713 points. “Website satisfaction can be volatile, and automotive websites are not immune to changing preferences,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “However, manufacturers have shown to be very agile when it comes to website design and ensuring their sites meet modern standards, more so than many other industries, as exemplified through the study data.” Marketing/Advertising Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Ford Volkswagen

BMW sets Guinness record for longest drift with new M5 [w/video]

In September of 2011, Chinese drifter Wang Qi broke the Guinness record for the world's longest sustained drift, doing 13 laps inside the Olympic Center Stadium in Tianlin, China for 5,802.3 meters. That was broken in February of this year by Abdo Feghali in Abu Dhabi drifting a new Chevrolet Camaro around a skidpad for 11,180 meters - almost seven miles. In March, BMW decided it wanted the record "back in the US," and set up a course at its BMW Performance Driving School near Greenville, South Carolina to get the job done. On May, 11 it was Mission Accomplished when Performance Center driver Johan Schwartz drifted an M5 around a skidpad continuously for 51.3 miles.
Despite that accomplishment, we're pretty sure that professional drifter Vaughn Gittin, Jr. isn't impressed. The way Guinness defines "drifting" can also describe a donut, which is effectively the kind of drifting that's been done for these last three records. BMW went even further by watering down the surface of the track, reducing the skill required and the need to change tires during the effort. On the other hand, you can't drift a car for long in a straight line, but perhaps there should be some clarification or classifications added to the milestones.
There's a short video below taken during the record-breaking run, and a press release from the company that did it.

BMW to change model designations, further yet from actual displacement?

Once upon a time, you could look at the back of a trunk lid of a BMW and come up with a pretty fair idea of what sat under its hood. For example, a 320i was a 3 Series with a fuel-injected, 2.0-liter engine, a 328i was a 3 Series with a fuel-injected, 2.8-liter engine and a 328Ci was a two-door 3 Series with the same engine. Those were good days.
Today, though, that simplicity is dead and gone. A 328i now has a 2.0-liter engine, just like the 320i, while the simple "C" designation that was affixed to two-door models has been replaced with a "4," so we have a 428i and a 435i. It gets worse, though. A 550i uses a 4.4-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 (it should be a 544ti, although we'd be willing to hear an argument for "tti") and a 740i uses a 3.0-liter, turbocharged six-cylinder, which is the same engine found in a 535i. It's madness.
And, well, it's about to get madder, if a post on a BMW enthusiast forum is to be believed. According to f30post.com, we could see a shakeup in at least the 3 and 4 Series nomenclature, thanks to an impending refresh that will see the addition of new, turbocharged four- and six-cylinder engines, codenamed B48 and B58, respectively.