1999 Bmw 528i Wagon on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW profit of $2.7B is down as automaker invests to keep luxury lead

Despite selling 6.6-percent more vehicles - a record by volume - and posting higher revenues in the second quarter of 2013, BMW Group's profit of 2.07 million euros ($2.75 billion) is down 8.8 percent from last year. Investments in new technology (e.g. the new i3) and personnel, in addition to a competitive market, are to blame, BMW states. But the automaker remains committed to its fiscal targets for 2013, which, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer, says will be "on a similar scale to 2012."
The BMW brand's sales performance in the first half of the year, which increased by 7.7 percent to 804,258 vehicles delivered, was good enough for it to maintain its lead in the luxury market, narrowly beating Audi, which delivered 780,510 vehicles, Automotive News reports. Mercedes-Benz delivered 694,433 vehicles to cement third place.

BMW M1 really was the Ultimate Driving Machine

Life giving you lemons? Make lemonade. That's the spirit in Munich that lead to BMW producing the only mid-engined sports car in its 98-year history. The project resulted from a collaboration with Lamborghini (now owned, incidentally, by arch-rival Audi) to meet Group 4 homologation requirements. Lamborghini withdrew, the FIA changed its rules, but BMW built it anyway.
Arguably one of Giorgetto Giugiaro's finest designs, the M1 packed a 3.5-liter inline-six, driving 273 horsepower to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual. The Procar racing version turbocharged that output up to 850 hp and attracted the top drivers in a one-make F1 support race series.
Over the course of three years, the Bavarian automaker only built 456 examples of the M1, and for BMW enthusiasts, there's no vehicle more coveted. But don't take our word for it - let Petrolicious tell one noteworthy owner's tale in the video below.

BMW planning X4 M Performance diesel? [w/poll]

With the arrival of the new X4 in March, BMW will expand its crossover portfolio by one more model. But while some enthusiasts may have been disappointed by the news that the Bavarian automaker isn't likely to authorize an M version of the compact slantback crossover, this latest development could help bridge the gap.
Although the line used to be quite clear between standard BMWs and M models, Munich has been blurring it with the M Performance treatment. Those have included models like the M135i hatchback and M235i coupe, the diesel-powered M550d sedan and wagon and X5 and X6 M50d crossovers. Now word has it that BMW could follow a similar formula with the X4, creating a sub-M performance model.
What's more is that the X4 M Performance model could go diesel, following a similar formula that Audi undertook with its first performance crossover, the SQ5 TDI. The major difference here is that when Audi brought the SQ5 to these shores, it ditched the diesel for a gasoline engine. Could BMW do the same?