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You might be able to get a BMW i3 for just $24,944

Who wouldn't want to save 44 percent off the price of a new car, especially one as high-tech and green as the BMW i3? For some lucky buyers in Colorado, the luxury plug-in car will be purchasable for just $24,944. Compare that to the standard base MSRP of $42,400. The special deal is being organized by Drive Electric Northern Colorado (DENC), a group of EV advocates that, among other things, organizes group purchases of plug-in vehicles to get every participant a discount. This group buy lops $6,000 off the price of a 2015 i3, and when you combine that with the Federal tax savings of up to $7,500 and the Colorado state tax incentive of up to $6,000, you can end up paying around 44 percent less than the base MSRP. Of course, there are asterisks involved. The fine print says that the deal is only valid at the BMW Center in Loveland, CO, which is the dealership that DENC negotiated with. Supplies are also limited and you have to use BMW Financial Services Owner's Choice program to finance the vehicle. If you want in on the i3 deal, you'd better hurry, because the special price only lasts until January 4, 2016. Colorado seems to have a thing for group buys, with offers for $10,000 Nissan Leafs (also organized by DENC) and cheap rooftop solar available this past year. As good as this latest deal is, it's not the best price we've ever seen for an i3. That would be free, with the tiny requirement that you need to buy a half-million dollar tear-down report from Munro Associates. Featured Gallery 2014 BMW i3 View 107 Photos Green BMW Green Culture Electric colorado

Alex Zanardi back in the driver's seat with BMW

If there's ever been an inspirational story in the pantheon of motor racing history, surely it's that of Alessandro Zanardi. The Italian driver worked his way up the motor racing ladder, making it into Formula One and winning two CART championships for Chip Ganassi Racing back before the series re-merged into IndyCars. Tragedy struck in 2001 when he lost both his legs in a crash at the Lausitzring in Germany, but rather than accept his fate, Alex pushed on. Fitted with prosthetic limbs, he learned to drive a racing car with hand controls and got back in the driver's seat.
Zanardi drove for BMW in the European Touring Car Championship and then in the World Touring Car Championship that replaced it, landing on the podium several times despite his physical disadvantage. He left racing in 2009 to train for the Paralympics, winning two gold medals in London, but Alex apparently couldn't shake the racing bug. BMW modified one of its M3 DTM racers with hand controls for him to test later that year. And now he's returning to motor racing full time.
BMW has just announced that Zanardi will be driving a Z4 GT3 in the Blancpain Sprint Series, the successor to the FIA GT Series and short-distance counterpart to the Blancpain Endurance Series. The car has been modified with the hand controls the Bavarian automaker's racing department fitted to the aforementioned M3 DTM and will be fielded by the ROAL Motorsport team with which Alex challenged for the European Touring Car Championship last decade.

BMW, Toyota warn about Chinese market slowing down

BMW and Toyota are the latest automakers to become concerned about the closing throttle on the once rapidly accelerating vehicle market in China. There might be drastic effects on their ledgers at the end of the year. With the Chinese stock market no longer looking so healthy, the people just aren't buying as many new cars as in the past. Things got really bad in June after the first drop in deliveries in two years. BMW has already reduced Chinese production by 16,000 units so far this year. Despite the slowdown, the company has kept a brave face. "We experience that volatility in all emerging markets," BMW CEO Harald Krueger said in a conference call, according to Automotive News. The problem for Toyota is a bit stranger. Through July, the automaker's Chinese deliveries were actually up 12 percent. However, the gain was offset by falling sales prices. "This is making our business in China quite difficult. The business environment is getting tougher," Toyota Managing Officer Tetsuya Otake said, Automotive News reported. Much of the weakness in China has come in the middle part of the year, and from January through June deliveries were still up 8.4 percent. This means the effects haven't hit the financial results of some automakers too hard quite yet. In the second quarter, General Motors referenced the "challenging conditions" there but still posted a growing net income of $1.1 billion. Despite falling global sales, Toyota managed record income for the quarter, too.