2008 Bmw 650i Convertible 2-door 4.8l on 2040-cars

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6 luxury car brands to watch in 2024

2023 was a healthy year for the auto industry, and even with incentives returning and dealer lots filling up, there's plenty to like about the market if you build luxury automobiles, and we expect 2024 to be more of the same, which makes luxury-segment rivalries all the more interesting. Top luxury car brand rivalries? Well, that sounds downright uncivilized. But we know better, don't we? And when every quarterly sales update is an opportunity to remind somebody else that they bought the wrong status symbol, well, who can resist? Certainly not the diehard customers who fly their favorite brands' banners high.  Read more: Auto sales: Industry records best year since 2019 Read more: 2023 auto sales and 2024 preview: Ford Bronco vs. Jeep Wrangler This is a tricky segment to define, but essentially, we're looking at luxury car brands with depth to their portfolios and dealerships that exist to attract real-world customers. The Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and McLarens of the world are luxury cars, certainly, but we're more concerned with brands that have a bit more mass appeal — manufacturers who treat supply constraints as fiascos rather than features. If you disagree with our selections, feel free to let us know in the comments.  And since we're mostly concerned with finishing order, the luxury brands and totals featured here may change as new data come in throughout 2024. Due to the wild swings of the past several years, we're treating 2023 as the baseline by which we'll measure sales performance. And rather than rank brands vs. their finishing order in 2022, when supply-chain and inflationary issues still played havoc with sales figures, we're starting 2024 off with a clean slate.  The mainstream luxury segment is always a dogfight, but with their varied approaches to electrification all of the major luxury brands are in the midst of reshaping the premium landscape. Who is doing it right? Well, according to U.S. shoppers, the usual suspects are up to their old tricks.

Bimmerfest puts BMW's heritage on display and in motion

The typical Memorial Day weekend is celebrated with family and friends and plenty of food, but for thousands of BMW fans it was spent at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, for the 17th annual Bimmerfest. The event expanded significantly in the last few years with a move to the massive racetrack complex outside Los Angeles in 2016, and a second day was added this year. The celebration of the Roundel is the largest of its kind, boasting 4,000 cars and 10,000 people in attendance. There's something for just about every type of owner. For those wanting serious time behind the wheel, the oval and road course were open to hot laps, and there was the Bimmer Challenge race from Speed Ventures. An autocross course was set up in an adjacent parking lot. Those wanting to compete in less dynamic fashion had a Battle of the Bimmers car show, and the Heritage Corral and Centennial Corral put the century-long history of the brand on display. Perhaps our favorite part of the event was the BMW Fan Zone display, which showcased a few of the company's most iconic contemporary racecars. A V8-powered 2001 BMW M3 GTR and a McLaren F1 GTR sporting a BMW-developed V12 provided some fond memories of their historic on-track endeavors. If you missed Bimmerfest 2016 then you can check out our massive photo gallery above, and for those of you on the East Coast there will be a Bimmerfest East at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, from July 30-31. Visit www.bimmerfest.com for more details. Related Video: Featured Gallery Bimmerfest 2016 View 80 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / AOL Design/Style BMW Classics

BMW Concept 90 Motorcycle debuts at Villa d'Este

The Concept 90 is one of two new vehicles BMW is showing off at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on the tony shores of Lake Como in Italy. This year is the 90th anniversary of BMW Motorrad and the 40th anniversary of the R 90 S (inset) - the first production motorcycle to come with a front fairing - and BMW has worked with custom bike builder Roland Sands Design to craft a homage to the Daytona Orange boxer from the Seventies.
While following the line of its forbearer, obviously the Concept 90 has been sexed and sleeked up. The bodywork is of hand-worked aluminum, the giant halogen lamp of the 1975 model (which is when Daytona Orange was introduced) has gone LED, and the front engine cover, valve covers, exhaust and wheels have been made with a contrast-cut milling process.
For a finer description of the Concept 90 check out the press release below, or skip the words and go straight to the high-res images above.