11 Bmw X5 50i M Sport Premium 8k Financing Premium Sound Park Distance Beepers on 2040-cars

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2014 BMW 535d xDrive

I absolutely love to travel, but man, do I hate flying. Not the act of flying itself, but air travel in general - slogging through the airport, dealing with security, fighting with delays, only to finally be crammed like cattle into a too-small airplane seat where you're offered $8 sandwiches that are half-frozen. (Okay, it's not always that bad, but still.)
So when I was tasked with attending the launch for the 2015 Subaru WRX STI in Carmel, CA, I had a choice to make. I could fly into San Francisco and find my own way down to Carmel, or I could grab a turbo-prop out of SFO and fly directly into Monterey. And since you're reading about all of this in a car review, it's pretty obvious which option I chose.
The current BMW 5 Series isn't a new car, despite receiving a couple of updates for the 2014 model year. But what is new is the 3.0-liter turbodiesel inline six-cylinder engine found underhood, borrowed from the larger X5 xDrive35d and also seen in the upcoming 740Ld xDrive. It's a honey of an engine, and here in the 5 Series, it makes for a truly first-class experience.

Audi and Mercedes both outsell BMW in January

There won't be any celebrations in Munich this month, as BMW was outsold by arch-nemeses Audi and Mercedes-Benz. The Bavarian company finished behind Audi in January, which took the top spot for the first time since June of last year, Bloomberg reports. Ingolstadt rode high on a 10-percent bump in sales, while Mercedes saw a larger 14 percent increase. BMW, meanwhile, only saw a modest 6.3-percent sales increase last month, thanks in large part to its struggles in China. The company's sales there increased at about half the rate of its chief competitors, with a 7.9-percent jump to Mercedes and Audi's roughly 15-percent increases. Perhaps more worrying for BMW, though, is that this could become something of a trend for the company. According to Bloomberg, issues with Chinese dealers who cancelled orders over sales targets and bonuses combined with what the publication calls aging models, could spell bad news for the German marque. "This looks like a pretty significant decline in growth compared to Mercedes and Audi," Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper told Bloomberg. "I think this will continue during the next few months." News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Matthias Schrader / AP Earnings/Financials Audi BMW Mercedes-Benz

2021 Acura NSX leads this month's list of discounts

The 2021 Acura NSX is an especially good deal this month. Not only does it carry the torch as the vehicle with the biggest discount measured by the percentage off its sticker price, that discount is also the largest of any vehicle currently sold in the United States when measured in sheer size. Here are the numbers: The average sticker price of all 2021 NSX models sits at $161,040. Buyers are paying an average transaction price of $142,907. That equals a discount of 11.3%, or $18,133 of savings. No other vehicle comes close to that kind of discount, with the next largest being for the 2021 BMW 7 Series. Buyers of that luxury sedan are saving an average of $11,661 for a transaction price of $94,884. There's another sharp dropoff after the BMW. In third place is the 2021 Maserati Quattroporte, which actually kicks off a party of savings at Trident dealers across the United States. The '21 Quattroporte is seeing $7,743 cut off its sticker price for an average transaction of $121,962. After that comes the 2021 Maserati Ghibli, which is averaging $7,394 off for a sign-on-the-dotted-line price of $78,592. If you don't want a sedan, the 2021 Maserati Levante's $6,738 discount equals an average transaction price of $78,592. For a look at the best new car deals in America based on the percentage discount off their suggested asking prices, check out our monthly recap here. And when you're ready to buy, click here for the Autoblog Smart Buy program, which brings you a hassle-free buying experience with over 9,000 Certified Dealers nationwide.