Free Republic

Drivers may hate rising gas prices, but some companies are delighted as they watch the oil price soar. Firms like BMW and Airbus, which are leaders in fuel efficiency. actually benefit from expensive oil. They are just two of a growing number of companies that are already developing technologies for a post-fossil-fuel world. …A few cents more and a liter of super unleaded gasoline will cost German drivers €1.80 (around $9 a gallon). That means that someone driving a BMW 3 Series will have to pay over €110 ($150) to fill up the tank, with its 63 liter (17 gallon)...

BMW has introduced a new range of M Performance Automobiles featuring a new 6-cylinder in-line diesel developed exclusively for those applications. The engines, which feature three turbochargers, deliver maximum output reaching 280 kW/381 hp and peak torque of 740 N·m (546 lb-ft). The new engine is applied in the BMW M550d xDrive Sedan, BMW M550d xDrive Touring, BMW X5 M50d and BMW X6 M50d. The vehicles are also equipped with an eight-speed sports automatic gearbox and the intelligent all-wheel-drive system BMW xDrive tuned to suit each model, as well as BMW EfficientDynamics technologies, including Auto Start-Stop and ECO PRO mode....

A leaked document has revealed that the asshattery of BMW drivers may be more than coincidence. Failing to use turn signals, cutting off other drivers, tailgating, flipping the bird and other affronts to road civility have become indelibly associated with the Bavarian Marque. Why? According to the document, it's all part of a totally illegal customer loyalty scheme. This template document, issued to all BMW dealers (click the image below to expand), comes to us from an anonymous informant known only as "The Whistleblower." It clearly outlines a list of driving behaviors, recorded on the black boxes that have been...

Last April, the Spartanburg BMW plant rolled out 23,059 vehicles — three-quarters of them for export. (The BMW Group’s U.S. sales went up by 10 percent in 2010 over 2009.) The plant’s latest and biggest addition was announced in 2008, amid recession, and completed in late 2010: The company invested $750 million and added 1,600 jobs to tool up for the next generation of crossover sport utility vehicles, which BMW calls sports “activity” vehicles. But back in 1992, when the plant was announced, people wondered whether South Carolina’s workforce could produce these prestige vehicles. Since the 1970s, the state’s manufacturing...

High-salaried Palestinian Authority officials are the smugglers' clientele. So in other words, they are paying for these cars with your UN relief money. "Smuggling in North Sinai Surges as the Police Vanish," by David D. Kirkpatrick in the New York Times, August 14 (thanks to Bill): RAFAH, Egypt — The smuggler’s car lot is so brazenly out in the open, it is hard to tell that the business is actually illegal. A Bedouin car smuggler in Rafah, Egypt, can expect to make at least $2,000 per vehicle, after paying suppliers and bribes. Cars are driven from the chaos in Libya...

Every working American should be dismayed by — and afraid of — what BMW is doing. By all accounts, BMW's parts distribution warehouse in Ontario was one of the jewels of the company's system. Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, it received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage. Times being what they are, when a Teamsters committee came to the plant in early June...

Ashley Turton, a former Democratic aide whose death last month shocked friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill, was under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car into the family garage early on the morning of Jan. 10, an autopsy found. According to a statement released Friday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia, Turton died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns” caused by a fire after her car crashed into the garage of the Turton’s Capitol Hill home. Turton, a mother of three, was also under the influence...

Ashley Turton, a former senior aide to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), was intoxicated when she died in an accident last month, according to an autopsy report. Turton, who was working as an energy lobbyist at the time of the accident, died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns,” according to Beverly Fields of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s office. “Acute alcohol intoxication” was a contributing factor in her death, Fields said. Turton was found dead inside of her burned SUV, which apparently caught fire in the early morning hours inside of her garage on Capitol Hill. Turton...

<p>Several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation tell WTOP fire and police investigators believe the radiator in Turton's 2008 BMW X5 was punctured when it rolled into a workbench. The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.</p>

An irate former employee has taken hostages at a the headquarters of BMW in France, in Montigny-Le-Bretonneux.

Motorists who own the flashy German built cars are more likely to tailgate, flick the finger and speed than anyone else on the road, a poll revealed. More than half of all drivers said they had suffered a 'bad experience' at the hands of a BMW driver. Much-maligned white van men came second in the poll, followed by Audi drivers and those who own Fords and Land Rovers. Other motorists to make the top ten included Vauxhall drivers who were seventh. Drivers of Range Rovers, Volkswagen and Mercedes complete the top ten. The study of 3,000 motorists also showed 17...

The Paris Motor show is going on now. The usual car unveilings are a given, but also the shows are becoming a place for automakers to showcase and release exciting new tech. Take BMW, for example: they are known around the globe for making the “ultimate driving machines.” Now, they are entering the realm of being the ultimate connectivity machines....Well now it’s official, BMW will have it out this year, and it’s also going to support the iPad—but they call it “Original BMW Accessories – BMW Carrier for Apple iPad Office Mode.” (How official!) What’s cool about this is that...

When BMW AG Chairman Norbert Reithofer declared last week that his company would start making front-wheel-drive BMWs, there were screams from Stuttgart to Sacramento. BMW, after all, had built the Ultimate Driving Machine franchise on rear-wheel-drive cars. Now Mr. Reithofer appears to be chipping away at what made luxury cars so luxurious. Auto enthusiasts—including many automotive designers and engineering executives, as well as wealthy car buyers—generally prefer cars to have the driving wheels in the back. It makes a difference in the way a car handles and steers. That difference is instantly recognizable but hard to define. A rear-drive car...

Vladislav O. Orlovskii, 24, of Bellevue, was booked into King County Jail on Saturday, March 20 for suspicions of DUI and reckless driving after a trooper spotted his vehicle traveling over 135 mph in the eastbound lanes of SR-520 across the floating bridge between Seattle and Medina.

NARDO, Italy -- BMW tuning company AC Schnitzer has build the Schnitzer ACS 3.5d coupe, which recorded a top speed of 288.7kph (179.2mph) on the famous Nardo Ring in Southern Italy - setting the new world record for the Fastest road-legal diesel car. The Fastest road-legal diesel car uses a twin-turbocharged 282bhp three-litre diesel with 428lb-ft that has been tuned to produced 310bhp and 501lb-ft. (enlarge photo) The Fastest road-legal diesel car capable of reaching 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds, and it also gets racing suspension, two racing exhaust-pipes, front and rear spoilers and skirts, and 20" alloys with the power...

BMW's EfficientDynamics Vision concept car combines the best of all worlds with incredible fuel efficiency, breaktaking performance, and sensational looks. It's powered by a three-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, lithium polymer batteries, and electric motors front and rear. The BMW Vision gets a U.S. unveiling next week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Dec. 4-13. The only bad news: The BMW Vision is more vision than production-ready concept car. What you'd most likely see on sale would be the key components such as the drivetrain and battery technology transplanted to a more mainstream body. On a stopover from Europe en route to...

BMW profit skids 74% By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- BMW Tuesday reported a 74% decline in third-quarter net profit, as the recession deterred buyers of luxury cars. Third-quarter net profit dropped 74% to 78 million euros ($115 million) from the same period a year ago. Revenue fell by 6.6% to 11.76 billion euros. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a profit of 39 million euros on sales of 11.97 billion euros.

BMW confirmed this morning that they are to leave Formula One at the end of the season stating that the resources ‘freed up’ from its exit from the sport will be deployed in other areas. The German car maker took over the Sauber team in 2006 and has since gone on to record one victory. “Of course, we, the employees in Hinwil and Munich, would all have liked to continue this ambitious campaign and show that this season was just a hiccup following three successful years,” said BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen. “But I can understand why this decision was...

BMW's profits tumble nearly 90% BMW makes the Mini car in Oxford BMW's net profits tumbled nearly 90% to 330m euros ($423m; £306m) last year, as the global economy weakened and reduced demand for cars. Earnings were hit by 2.4bn euros of exceptional costs linked to bad debts, personnel costs and provisions to cover risks on used car markets. Separately, the European Investment Bank made a 400m euros loan to BMW as part of a wider industry package. The EIB approved 3bn euros in loans to the European auto industry. The money will go to German, Italian, French and Swedish...

Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in jail after admitting sleeping with and blackmailing a succession of rich women out of millions of pounds including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten. The 44-year-old wined and dined a string of rich wives and widows, including Germany's wealthiest woman Mrs Klatten, winning their confidence and then asking for money.