BMW USED CARS

Exclusive Interview with the Head of BMWNA Product Planning and Strategy/BMW Motorsport Manager, Martin Birkmann – A Look into the Future World of ///M Cars, Racing, and Current Engine Tech.

At the recent 2010 NAIAS, we got a chance to speak with Martin Birkmann who is the Head of Product Planning and Strategy with BMW NA, as well as BMW Motorsport Manager in the U.S. If you haven’t already, we advise you get some coffee brewing or pop-corn popping – what follows is extremely interesting information about current and future BMW products.

With every new model launched or redesigned, comes another photos comparison. The topic of the week revolves around the 2011 BMW 3 Series Coupe and Convertible LCI that was unveiled yesterday and which will go on sales this Spring.

Judging by the photos and information released, the general consensus is that BMW is looking to align some of its models to the current design language, and features like “angel eyes” are starting to become standard across the line-up. LED taillights are also becoming the norm at BMW and the new 3 Series LCI comes to emphasize that.

Together with our Senior Editor Andrew, we outlined some of the changes below, both visually and in writing.

With information about the updated 3-Series coupe and convertible comes new upgrades. Most see this as a design refresh, but there are some very appealing things just beneath the surface. Just to highlight the exterior enhancements that are easy to see; the front, lower fascia is now presented with subtle winglets on the air-dam, but more than that, the actual area for air flow is slightly larger than the outgoing design, also allowing for larger splitters at each end of the fascia.

If you look very closely, you can see the slight increase in kidney grille size. But if you look even more closely than that, you’ll see the actual top corners have been become rounded out, no longer with a bit of an edge. One more styling difference; the corona rings, or halos, as some like to call them, are now bright LED units, with the updated E90 3-Series headlights making a coupe appearance.

Yesterday, BMW of North America accepted the Ward’s 10 Best Engines award for its groundbreaking 3.0-liter BMW Advanced Diesel engine at the North American International Auto Show. For the 2010 model year and the second year in a row, BMW’s sequential twin-turbo inline-6 diesel engine was elected to the 10 Best Engines list by the Ward’s AutoWorld panel of expert judges. To win a place on the 10 Best Engines list, an engine must score highly in measures of horsepower, torque, refinement, technical relevance, and comparative data.

“When we accepted this award last year for BMW’s then-new Advanced Diesel engine, no one could predict for certain how Americans would adopt BMW Diesel in the coming months,” said Hans Hohenner, General Manager of Drivetrain Development for BMW Group.