Wow, what an experience. While I had been to the BMW’s South Carolina outpost in the past for an M Driving School, and I was familiar with the setting for the delivery process, nothing prepared me for what was to come. As an alternative to the traditional new car delivery experience at a dealership, customers […]
With a population of more than 1.8 million people, the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg) is the second-largest city in Germany. Only Berlin, Germany’s capital, has more inhabitants. Similar to Berlin and Bremen, Hamburg is a German city state with its own government (Hamburger Senat). Hamburg was named the European […]
With a total length of 963.6 km (598.75 miles), the A7 is the longest Autobahn in Germany. The A7 starts at the border of Denmark near Ellund and ends at the German border to Austria near Füssen. After a few kilometers on the A7, the navi reported roadwork plus a traffic jam ahead, so I […]
On December 30, I left my brand new 335d in the care of the E.H. Harms, a unit of BLG Logistics, in Munich. Harms is BMW’s shipping agent and takes care of all aspects of shipping the car to the United States, including booking passage and customs brokerage. Harms booked the 335d on the Wallenius […]
No Speed Limit Before reaching Karlsruhe, I had to leave the A8 and continue on the A5 for the next 40 km (25 miles). The A5 starts at the Swiss border near Basel and its northern terminus is at the Hattenbach triangle, where it intersects with the A7. The first section of the A5, built […]
At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz announced the F-Cell, a hydrogen-electric B-Class compact and the automaker’s first compact to be sold in the U.S. The front-wheel-drive F-Cell runs on compressed hydrogen combined with a 136-horsepower electric motor and a 1.4-kWh lithium-ion battery. Fuel-cell economy will be equivalent to 4.3 l/100 km (54 mpg) although […]
PAGE 2 – THE ENGINE The new crossover comes with a 2.0-liter 163-hp (120 kW) diesel engine with an electric motor that provides 37 hp (27 kW). It delivers 221 pound-feet (300 Nm) of torque in the front and 148 pound-feet (200 Nm) in the rear. This is equivalent to the output of a 2.2-liter […]
Peugeot has unveiled the world’s first production hybrid diesel-electric passenger car, the Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4. The 3008 is a “crossover of a different kind” according to Peugeot. It incorporates elements of an MPV (multi-purpose vehicle), an SUV, and a luxury vehicle, as well as elements of a truly fuel-efficient vehicle. Since diesel engines are inherently […]
The $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize was awarded at a ceremony last week in Washington, D.C. to three teams that built cars capable of achieving 100 miles per gallon (2.35 l/100 km) or the energy equivalent (MPGe). After thirty months of planning and testing, which involved 136 vehicles from 111 teams across the […]
BMW carefully selected the 3er Series sedan and X5 SAV (Sport Activity Vehicle, BMW parlance for SUV) as the flagships of the BMW Advanced Diesel line. It doesn’t take long to understand the company’s logic after spending time behind the wheel of either car. While the 335d is the embodiment of the Ultimate Driving Machine, […]
Home » Diesel News By Greg Spira on 2 February 2011 There are many good reasons for purchasing a diesel-powered automobile. Our readers tell us these include the incredible fuel economy, the power that comes from the diesel engine’s torque, and greater reliability compared to gasoline engines. In addition, diesel engines are known to last […]
What may be most remarkable about the new Chevrolet Volt is how unremarkable it actually is compared to a normal, gasoline-powered automobile. Gone is the futuristic exterior of the original concept car; the Volt now looks like an early twenty-first century four-door sedan. Unlike hybrids, which command a large premium over their non-hybrid brethren and […]
The streets around Munich were heavily covered with snow as I picked up our second-generation BMW X3 xDrive20d but I wasn’t worried. It was the perfect weather for the X3 to demonstrate its abilities. The X3 came in an elegant space grey with beige interior leather. The look is softer; sharp angles have been replaced […]
BMW introduced the first generation X3 Sports Activity Vehicle in 2003 at the 57th Internationale Automobil Ausstellung in Frankfurt. Built in Graz, Austria, over 600,000 of the original X3s were sold, including 150,000 in the United States. The last first-generation X3 was built on the last day of August last year and production of the […]