BMW has been exceptionally proactive over the past decade in fattening up its model line-up with a dizzying array of coupe-wannabe SUVs, chop-top sedans, ‘Active Tourers’, M-tweaked road rockets and electrified vehicles. Yet, it’s taken until now for the Bavarian marque to dip its toes in the potentially lucrative luxo seven-seater SUV segment.
News in April 2019 includes BMW who is preparing to recall the models that they have already recalled once before.
If there is an automotive segment that can use some panache, it’s the crossover market which is now flooded with a large number of models, most of which are more or less similar in character. BMW has high hopes to add the required spice to this class of cars with their new offerings. With up to 503 hp under their hood, the 2020 BMW X3 M and X4 M debuts along with a plethora of other performance upgrades.
The current generation of BMW’s flagship sedan, the 7-Series, hasn’t created the kind of hype that they were hoping for. So to refresh the appeal of its limo, BMW facelifted the sedan for the 2020 model year with a new engine and — love it or hate it — a massive kidney grille.
With very few recalls rising up, November 2018 has been a pretty peaceful month.
Roadsters aren’t the big-volume players in BMW’s line-up, but this genre has thrown up some of the Bavarian marque’s most iconic models over the years, dating back to the timeless 328 (1936-40) and sublime 507 (1956-59). In more recent times, we’ve had the offbeat Z1 (with its unusual vertically sliding doors) and the beautiful Z8 that served as James Bond’s ride in the 1999 blockbuster The World is Not Enough.
With a couple of recalls accounting up to more than a million vehicles each, the month of October did have some impact on the car industry.
Remember the BMW 8-Series? A large, eye-catching coupe built from 1990-99, it was in many ways a pioneer for the Bavarian brand. Apart from the low-volume M1 sold in the early-’80s, the 8-Series is the only BeeEm to date with pop-up headlights, and its other claims to fame include being the Bavarian brand’s only V12 model to be offered with a six-speed manual gearbox. What’s more, it was one of the company’s first vehicles to feature a multilink rear axle.
BMW came up with the new-generation X5 SUV last June. Now they’ve modernised the lineup by electrifying the X5. The BMW X5 xDrive45e comes in as a replacement for the xDrive40e X5 model that was already offered.
Climbing to the top of the unloved BMW X2 crossover range is the first ever four-cylinder M-Performance branded model, called the BMW X2 M35i.