2006 Bmw 650i Base Coupe 2-door 4.8l on 2040-cars

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BMW announces M235i xDrive, 7 Series Exclusive among summer upgrades

Like any automaker worth its lug-nuts, BMW is constantly striving to improve its products. And so it has announced a series of upgrades for the summer - none of them revolutionary, but a couple of them notable.
For one, the Bavarian automaker has announced that is is offering xDrive traction on the M235i coupe, a model that has been available until now only in rear-drive configuration. The all-wheel drive version comes with the same 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six with 326 horsepower (320 in the US market) and eight-speed automatic transmission as the rear-drive version, but now channels that power to all four wheels for a 0-62 time quoted at 4.6 seconds - two little ticks quicker than the existing version. It's the first time that all-wheel drive is being offered on the 2 Series, and will also be fitted on the convertible - at least, that is, in Europe. We're waiting on confirmation of North American availability.
Among the other announcements is a special edition of BMW's flagship luxury sedan. The 7 Series Exclusive Edition upgrades with metallic paint, 19-inch V-spoke alloys, Nappa leather upholstery and a leather-trimmed instrument panel. Buyers will also be able to opt for the Merino fine grain leather and Alcantara roof lining from the BMW Individual catalog, and choose between any available engine or either wheelbase lengths.

Five bikes from EICMA you need to know about

Each and every year, the world's biggest motorcycle manufacturers gather together in Milan, Italy to show off the latest and greatest machinery that will soon be offered to dealerships the world over. It's called EICMA (Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori), and this year's crop of new motorcycles is just as exciting as ever.
We've selected five of the coolest motorcycles shown at this week's show, including models from Aprilia, BMW, Ducati, Honda and Yamaha. Join us down below for a high-performance, two-wheeled Italian journey.

2014 BMW M235i

We know a number of BMW owners who reside in the Munich brand's core demographic - upper-five- and six-figure professionals who like to keep their automotive brand credentials as highly respected among their peers as their alma maters or the letters after their names. Before heading to Las Vegas to drive the new M235i, we asked four of those owners, "What did you think of the E30 3 Series?" Although phrased differently, every one of them had the same answer: "What's that?"
You can counter that we just happened to query a tiny and ignorant sample size, and it's possible that you're right. Nevertheless, in every case,we were speaking to BMW's core demographic, the increasing legion of buyers who have fostered another year of record growth and are responsible for BMW retaining its global luxury title for nine straight years. Question that, and we'll refer you to BMW's marketing department, its several hundred PowerPoint slides and several thousand pages of research that prove the point.
That second-generation E30 3 Series built a name, a brand and an entire segment by defining BMW-ness as superlative driving dynamics meets luxury - shortened to the phrase, "The Ultimate Driving Machine." Thirty years later, just being a part of BMW-ness and luxury is enough for the majority of buyers. The superlative handling, that's optional, and 150 hairy guys meet every Tuesday to keep the old religion going, light torches, sing dirges to the siren long gone and bang on their keyboards about the apostasies of modern buyers.