Automotive Einstein

The BMW 328i has spent three months with us, and by this point we’ve already driven it across the country, sent it to a racetrack, and made a fair number of trips to the grocery store. In other words, we’ve already spent hours behind the steering wheel, in the leather seats, pressing buttons and shifting gears. After driving just over 10,000 miles, our editors have contributed their fair share of comments on the BMW’s interior.

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 328i – Four Seasons Update – April 2012 – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 328i – Four Seasons Update – April 2012 – Automobile Magazine

Here’s a new version of the world’s quintessential sport sedan and perpetual All-Star, the BMW 3-series — the designated target for car manufacturers everywhere. There’ll be sleek convertibles, sporty wagons and coupes, and clumsy-looking SUV variants of this design from BMW in the coming months, but the whole of this iteration’s character is embodied in the first-out four-door, the volume seller. At first glance, the 3-series sedan seems softer, more consensual, and less idiosyncratic than the last couple of Bangle-body 3s, but there is a lot more to this car than jumps to the untrained eye. I can confidently predict two things: that it will be another best-seller, and that it will evolve considerably during its production period. The first because it looks very good, the second because it has been cleverly designed to be easily and inexpensively changed visually.

Photo Gallery: By Design: BMW 3-Series – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: By Design: BMW 3-Series – Automobile Magazine

200. That’s the number of new and updated cars that are scheduled to debut over the next twenty-four months. You don’t really want to read about every reskin or 5-hp bump, so we’ve filtered that list down to the twenty-five cars you most need to know about. Much of our information is hard fact, while some of it is educated guesswork or pure conjecture. We have included a “speculation meter” for each car to indicate what’s what. Here, then, is the scoop on the cars you will be hearing a lot about over the next two years.

Photo Gallery: 2012 Sneak Preview: European Cars – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 Sneak Preview: European Cars – Automobile Magazine

The decision to purchase a minivan is a pragmatic one. Drive a minivan and you admit to the world that you have children and a Costco membership, and that you want one vehicle that can transport your offspring and multi-packs of toilet paper.

Photo Gallery: Four Threes: 2013 Infiniti JX35, 2012 BMW X5, 2013 Lincoln MKT, 2012 Acura MDX – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Four Threes: 2013 Infiniti JX35, 2012 BMW X5, 2013 Lincoln MKT, 2012 Acura MDX – Automobile Magazine

The new F30-chassis 328i is the first U.S.-market 3-series to be sold with a four-cylinder engine in fourteen years. In that time, the in-line six-cylinder engine and the 3-series have become nearly inseparable, and many of us here at Automobile Magazine wondered if the iconic 3er would lose the magic with its new engine.

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 328i – Four-cylinder Engine – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 328i – Four-cylinder Engine – Automobile Magazine

Without question, the redesigned 6-series is better looking than its predecessor. The biggest improvement can be seen from behind, where the squaring-off of its previously rounded rump has done wonders for the vehicle’s side profile and overall proportions. The cloth top’s unique C-pillars — which extend another foot or so past the rear window — are a carryover from the last 6-series but, being such an interesting design element, it was a good decision for BMW to hold onto them. And from inside the cabin, these “flying buttresses” have a secondary functional benefit that makes the 6-series easier to live with: in moving the rear window from its steeply raked position into a vertical position, closer to the driver, BMW has made the 6-series’ rearward view a bit better than the average sporty, four-seat convertible. It also made it possible to have a functional rear window that can be lowered independently of the convertible top.

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 650i xDrive Convertible – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: 2012 BMW 650i xDrive Convertible – Editors’ Notebook – Automobile Magazine

From an enthusiast’s standpoint, BMW is possibly the most well-rounded, consistent carmaker in the world. In the 1950s, however, the company was struggling to remain alive, World War II having reduced it from a builder of successful sports and racing cars to a bomb-devastated wreck. BMW’s primary prewar automobile operations in Eisenach, Germany, fell under Soviet control in 1945, and unauthorized “BMW” products built at that location undermined what little brand equity remained. American occupying forces began dismantling the remnants of the BMW factory in Munich, which had manufactured Luftwaffe aircraft engines during the war. (Some of the structures ultimately survived, but not before valuable machinery was put in crates and dispersed by railcar to sixteen countries as part of war reparations.)

Photo Gallery: Collectible Classic: 1964-1971 BMW 1800 – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Collectible Classic: 1964-1971 BMW 1800 – Automobile Magazine