Car Automotive and Design: BMW 3 Series

Showing posts with label BMW 3 Series. Show all posts

Three of a Kind: BMW Classic Returns with a New Short Film About the 3-Series

Bimmer Stories is back with a new short film entitled “Three of a kind” that celebrates its world premiere at this week's Techno Classica 2012 show in Essen, Germany.

The film adopts a similar style to last year's “A perfect match”, which followed the story of a man and his search for an appropriate replacement for his scruffy BMW 1602.

This time, however, the film revolves around the first three generations of the BMW 3-Series. The two-door E21 is owned by Zach Galifianakis lookalike dressed in 1970s gaucherie, while the E30 convertible is driven by a stereotypical yuppie holding an oversized mobile phone and the E36 coupe by a cool and relaxed female driver.

SCOOP: New BMW 3- or 4-Series Hardtop Convertible Nabbed Playing in the Cold

The convertible edition of the BMW 3-Series may be the least popular body style in the range, but it's one that is widely considering to be leader in its segment while also returning higher profits per unit compared to the regular models.

And whereas most manufacturers prefer to offer either a coupe and a soft top cabriolet or a single hardtop convertible model, with the presentation of the fifth generation 3-Series Convertible in 2006, BMW decided to do both.

AC Schnitzer Turns the BMW 328i Saloon to the ASC3 Turbo with 291-Horses

We won't have to wait until the Geneva Motor Show's grand opening on Tuesday to find out what AC Schnitzer has in store for us, as the German tuner of all things BMW related has published details on its first take on the new 3-Series sedan.

The tune is based on the 328i, which in stock form is fitted with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four churning out 240hp and 350 Nm (258.1 lb-ft), allowing for a zero to 100km/h (62mph) sprint time of 5.9 seconds and a limited top speed of 250km/h (155mph).

Spy Shots: BMW's Answer to the Audi A5 Sportback is the 3-Series Gran Turismo

You just got to hand it to die Deutschen for their imagination and über clever marketing tactics.

What Japanese carmakers simply called liftbacks and the French didn't even bother naming differently as most of their family cars featured a sloping tailgate anyway (Citroen BX, Renault 25 etc.), the Germans came up with all sorts of fancy names.

For example, Audi calls its five-door vehicles with a top-hinged liftgate "Sportback" while BMW went one-step further baptizing its own lineup with the sporty sounding "Gran Turismo" moniker, which is a smart move if you think about it. I mean, would you be interested in a car called the 3-Series Liftback GLi?

Scoop: 2013 BMW 3-Series Touring Loses the Heavy Camo

With the market launch of the new F30 3-Series sedan well underway, there's no point of BMW overdoing it with the camouflage on the soon to be revealed Touring variant, a prototype of which was caught by our scoopers while testing in Europe.

These photos afford us our best view yet of the new 3-Series Touring that follows the practice of its predecessors choosing style over substance.

That doesn't mean you won't find a little more cargo room at the back which can be accessed easier thanks to the tailgate, but don't expect it to be a load-lugger in the traditional sense.

AC Schnitzer to Showcase BMW 3-Series F30 Performance Program in Geneva

Joining ABT Sportsline at next month's Geneva Motor Show is another well-known tuning company from Germany, BMW-specialist AC Schnitzer.

The German tuner will use the Swiss auto show to present a variety of styling and performance parts for the new 2012 BMW 3-Series sedan, which is also known by its internal codename F30.

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