BMW South County

One of our recent articles on car insurance and BMWs have created some further discussions around the factors that influence the insurance premiums and overall costs. We reached out to some of the insurance experts out there for further clarification.

Whether it is the BMW M5 series or regular BMW, these luxury cars are a favorite choice for many car enthusiasts. However, if you purchase BMW M5 series vehicle, sports car buffs will tell you that you are getting an extremely powerful fast car with a sleek and sporty design.

Since 1972, BMW has been making the BMW M Series. This series consist of mid-size and executive luxury cars. Currently in its fifth generation, the M5 series is sold as a sedan and as touring body styles. When you purchase a BMW M5, you will be paying for style, performance, and its expensive features. When paying for such a fantastic fast car, expect such high costs as maintenance, fuel, financing, and insurance. When it comes to insuring the BMW M series compared to traditional BMW vehicles, expect to pay more.

In addition to the higher price, insurance companies will factor in the powerful series engine, acceleration rates, and top speeds, which make these cars a high risk. Insurance companies know that drivers will be more likely to drive faster to get the full benefits of these high performance cars. Therefore, drivers of these cars are placed in a higher risk category and the insurance premiums they pay will reflect that risk.

For example, the costs to insure 2010 BMW M5 Series Sedan for five years includes: Year 1 – $2,486, Year 2 – $2,448, Year 3 – $2,411, Year 4 – $2,375, and Year 5 – $2,341.

The traditional luxury and sporty BMW cars have a less powerful engine compare to the M series. The regular BMWs are less expensive, less powerful so the insurance companies classify them in a lower risk category. For instance, the cost to insure 2010 BMW X3 for five years include: Year 1 – $1,162, Year 2 – $1,149, Year 3 – $1,136, Year 4 – $1,124, and Year 5 – $1,111.

When purchasing insurance for the BMW M5 series or a Regular BMW, it is important to comparison shop for the cheapest policy. To find cheap auto insurance online, you can use a free insurance comparison quote service available on insurance information websites. You will be offered the cheapest possible auto insurance quotes from a number of different insurance providers. As well, make sure you take advantage of discount incentives to lower your insurance premiums.

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The new Rolls-Royce Ghost has received the prestigious “red dot: best of the best” award for the very highest level of design.

The red dot award recognises unusually high quality and groundbreaking design. The Rolls‑Royce Ghost has a unique character expressed by an exclusive, unmistakable appearance whose design reinterprets the classic values of the brand in a modern style for the 21st century.

Speaking on the news of this prestigious award, Chief Designer Ian Cameron passed credit to his design team. “This is a tremendous accolade for the entire Rolls-Royce design team”, said Ian Cameron. “As a designer the challenge lies in translating ideas into a medium which others can see, touch and feel. We are very proud of what we have achieved with Ghost and are delighted to have been recognised with this very special award.”

Ghost’s flowing lines are dominated by its majestic ‘Yacht Line’ styling. Large, uninterrupted surfaces flow between finely sculpted horizontal lines that provide definition, highlighting the solid, luxurious and supreme character of the vehicle. Powerful shoulders and flanks draw in sharply as they flow from the rear wings to the tail lights. While incorporating classic Rolls-Royce design cues – the elevated prow, long bonnet, short front overhang, sharply raked A-pillar and elegant tail – Ghost exudes an informal aura. Contemporary touches include self-righting wheel centres and the Xenon headlamps that frame the latest evolution of the Rolls-Royce grille. Here the sides of the intake have been curved inwards and the vanes set back into the opening. “We wanted this to be less reminiscent of the traditional Parthenon style and more like a jet intake,” says Cameron, which, along with touches such as the optional chromed exhausts, hint at a more dynamic nature of the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever built.

The red dot award is one of the most important awards in the world for product design. It was first awarded in 1955 and recognises outstanding design work in a wide range of categories including not only automobiles, architecture, household and home electronics but also fashion, life science and medicine. Previous winners include the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, which was acknowledged for outstanding design quality in 2008.

[Source: Rolls Royce ]

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Joy? Ultimate Driving Machine? Well, let’s put those slogans and buzzwords aside and have a look at an old school used car ad. The main character: a 1994 BMW 530i Wagon.

Young Casey wants to move this 1994 BMW 530i Wagon and he’s using a geeky approach to do so. While many of us tend to focus on the positive angles on the for-sale car, Casey goes the other route, sporting some disarming honest disclosures, from a leaky sunroof, to a broken cigarette lighter and close to 200,000 miles.

Humor all the way, very creative and…..some nice subtle touches. Pay attention to the video!

[Source: Autoblog | Thanks for the tip Chris! ]

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BMW 5 Series GT vs. BMW 5 Series Touring? One of the questions we have been seeing for months now. While both cars are targeted towards a different demographic, the general consumer and BMW fans still see an overlap.

Ever since its inception, BMW’s marketing line on the 5 Series GT revolved around the classic definition of a Gran Tourer: high-performance luxury automobile designed for long-distance driving, with the emphasis on “high-performance luxury”. The idea behind the 5 Gran Turismo is to give customers who want the utility of an SAV, but want to drive a car that isn’t a station wagon. With a coupe-like stretched roofline, proportions of a typical BMW four-door sedan, a panorama sunroof and frameless windows, the car stands out from other BMWs. Some may say in a positive way, while others, more conservative BMW fans, would use the opposite adjective.

The BMW 5 Series GT launched in the U.S. market in November of 2009, and there are currently two models offered: BMW 535i GT and the 550i GT. BMW expects to sell more than 4,000 units per year, a high sales number based on the initial idea that the 5 GT was built and designed for a niche market, a new segment that focuses on interior space and luxury, while not neglecting the performance.

On the opposite side of the table, we have the old-school, classic and somewhat under-appreciated 5 Series Touring, or Sports Wagon, as it’s being advertised in the North American market.  And by old-school, we’re simply not referring to the design language since the latest 5er Touring has been considered one of the best looking wagons in BMW’s present and past line-up; but rather implying that the 5 Series Touring is one of those established models in BMW’s history, a very successful vehicle in Europe and a benchmark for many competitors.

Unfortunately, the U.S. market has not shared its love with the previous generation E60 Sports Wagon and as a consequence, the new F11 5 Series will not be offered to U.S.-based consumers. At least in the near future…..

In 2009, BMW of North America reported 878 5 Series Sports Wagons sold, a comparable difference between then and four years ago when the 5 Wagon sales peaked at 2,351 units sold.

Compared to the new and somewhat controversial 5 GT, the 5 Series Touring has a well established  place in the BMW line-up. It has always been labeled as a family-oriented car, a spacious automobile that is perfect for long trips and suitable for many occupants. Pets included.

Looking at the photos we’ve prepared for you, we feel obligated to reiterate our previous statements: it all comes down to personal preferences. While some the BMW buyers, us included, have never been fond of the Sports Wagon, there are still plenty out there that love the idea of a wagon vehicle and the 5 Series Touring has always been one of the best offerings in that segment.

On top of this, we’ve been under fire from our readers many times in the past for being somewhat supportive of the 5 Gran Turismo, “a hideous hybrid design” as some called it, but one that made sense to us from a marketing perspective.

Before we jump into the full photo comparison and the usual voting people, let’s recap some of our the main points. BMW 5 Series GT is a upscale vehicle, a high-luxury automobile that comes to fill a gap between the 5 Series Sedan and BMW’s flagship, the 7 Series.

The BMW Tourings/Sport Wagons remain attractive for larger families and a great buy in Europe. The latest iteration, F11, combines the new design language with a spacious interior, increased performance and reduced fuel consumption, four valid reasons why any driver should take it into consideration.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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Looking for some Sunday thrill? One of our readers, Raoul, sent in yesterday a great story on a ALPINA Roadster S Supercharged. Along with the great write-up and photos, a very well produced video summarizes the story.

“The story began in April 2006, when I was looking into buying a fun car to take on weekend trips. After considering several options, I decided to focus on the Alpina Roadster S as I liked the Z4 body style and the typical Alpina refinements to the exterior, interior and engine. At the time, a mildly used Roadster S was available at € 30K (Dutch price) less than a brand new Z4M Roadster while offering roughly the same level of performance. I had a memorable drive up and down to Nuremberg, Germany, to view a sterling grey Roadster S and picked up the car the next week on April 28th, 2006. With just 6000 kilometers on the odometer it was like brand new. In the summer of 2006 I took it out on a holiday to Norway, unknowing the car would later return to the Nordic countries to receive a massive power upgrade. The car remained mostly untouched during 2006 with the only mods an iPod interface, Helene Performance air filter and a Strong Strut strut tower brace.

2007 started off with an amazing London Tunnel Run, which I attended with some of my mates from Driving-fun.com. A few days after returning home my LSD with reduced final drive ratio arrived from Drexler Motorsport in Germany, marking the first serious performance upgrade for the car. March ended on a down note after kissing a tree, damaging the left rear suspension, wheels and body work. At this time I was already planning a massive round of modifications. In early 2007 the car had visited Reiger Suspension to measure the suspension mounting points and to corner weight the car. Other mods in the planning were a big brake kit and a quad pipe exhaust. During the process, the scope of the project grew larger and shifted towards the goal of building the ultimate street driven Z4. In the end, the car received a complete rebuild with a new suspension, new brakes, modified exhaust, racing seats, facelifted light units and a full body repaint, all using the best possible components.”

Continued here

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Our friend Richard Aucock has recently completed a 24-hour trip from South France to Middle of England, aboard the new 2011 BMW 5 Series. While present at the 5 Series launch, he also had a chance to sit down with several key people involved in the 5er project. One of them is the BMW Group Driving Dynamics Director, Jos van As.

Let’s find out what he had to say about the new 5 Series.

“BMW Group Driving Dynamics Director Jos van As says it was owners of the old BMW 5 Series that led direction for the new one.

‘Feedback from owners of the old car was that handling impressed but the ride was too hard.’

This is why the F10 BMW 5 Series rides better than before. You notice it right away at low speed: van As admits they’ve used ‘quite moderate spring rates,’ giving the cushier, plusher feel.

‘Double axle front suspension also helps. We have more grip, so there’s more freedom to tune ride and handling. We have more possibilities to tune the dampers.’

There’s more: ‘Don’t forget, we’re now in the 4th generation of runflat tyre – the old car used 2nd generation. This is a huge jump. We have been able to optimise the tyre wall stiffness – this is a crucial point regarding how absorbent the ride is.

Ride on some more, too: ‘With the new car we have been able to choose a new tyre size, keeping inflation pressures on the healthy side. If you have a smaller wheel, you have a smaller air volume, therefore need higher pressures.’

Story continued here

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It was a mixed weekend for BMW Motorrad as the checkered flag waved down the main straight. Troy Corser and Rueben Xaus were left wanting more after solid qualifying positions on the second and third row of the grid, and terrific race starts saw both riders battling at the top of the field for the first half of both races. At one point, Corser was racing in 3rd place, but a loss a grip at the halfway point of race 1 saw both Corser and Xaus fall back through the field to 9th and 10th place respectively.

Race two played a similar scenario with Corser racing in 4th place before falling back down the grid due to a lack of rear tire grip. Corser and Xaus went on to finish 9th and 10th place respectively in race 2.

It appears that the S1000RR is suffering from a lack of grip over long distances – though fast over a shorter number of laps. Team Director Berti Hauser plans to correct this issue with further testing, “First of all I am happy that Ruben is back, as this weekend helped him to recover his self-confidence. Although we hoped for better results after the great race starts of Troy and Ruben, we have to improve some chassis settings, as they simply do not have the needed grip on the rear tire when exiting corners, and they just can’t really push hard at the moment. For sure we would have loved to move up the ranks quicker, but we have to accept that racing in this championship is really tough.”

Congratulations to Max Biaggi of Aprilia who won both races on his V-4 Superbike.

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Completed in 2001, the two-seater BMW Z29 Concept car was a result of a collaboration between the BMW Technik GmbH and the M Division. Optimization of the vehicle weight by deploying the most advanced high-tech materials was the focus of development for the BMW Z29 concept study.

The vehicle exerts fascinating appeal with flowing lines and lambo-style doors. The principles underlying the outstanding potential of the BMW Z29 for dynamic driving can be found under the engine bonnet and below the surface of the paintwork.

The power was generated by the in-line six-cylinder engine of the BMW M3 which at the time generated 252 kW/343 hp. The passenger cell was manufactured from carbon-fiber reinforced plastic while the rear axle, and front and rear module were designed in aluminum. The most important results of this combination: a weight-to-power ratio of 3.4 kg/hp and an acceleration ratio of 4.4 seconds for the sprint from a standing start to 100 km/h. The Z29 boasts an impressive top speed of 270 km/h.

The lambo-style doors clearly marked out the visual appearance of the concept car from all the series models manufactured under the brand. The BMW Z29 accommodates a maximum number of two occupants in the passenger cell with a structure comprising a monocoque made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic. A front module manufactured in aluminum is bolted onto the monocoque to accommodate the six-cylinder power unit mounted as a front mid-engine and the double wishbone front axle also made of aluminum. A sequential M six-speed gearbox transfers power to the rear axle. Aluminum for the rear module and rear axle also plays a role in reducing the weight of the vehicle still further.

The engineers garnered further weight savings with innovative structures in the cockpit. The air outlets from the ventilation system were designed as a structural member on which the instrument panel is mounted. This measure and similar design features reduced the kerb weight of the vehicle by some 26 kilograms.

The prototype has a length of precisely 4 meters and a height of 1,265 millimeters. The weight of the vehicle ready to roll is only 1 160 kilograms. The resulting weight-to-power ratio is 3.4 kg/hp and is at the level of a thoroughbred racing car. The axle load distribution achieves the ideal value of 50:50.

Another interesting concept from BMW and we cannot stop wondering what other “secrets” are hiding behind the Munich-gates…..some that we might see at the next important anniversary.

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The folks over at Autoblog.nl continue their video reviews with the new 760Li, BMW’s flagship. The new BMW 760i and 760Li are powered by a completely new 6.0-liter V12 all-aluminum engine with Twin-Turbo Technology, High Precision Injection with fuel injected directly into the combustion chambers, and to BMW’s infinite double-VANOS camshaft adjustment as well as the eight-speed automatic transmission featured for the first time in a BMW.

The V12 engine outputs 544 horsepower at 5,000 rpm, with maximum torque of 533 lb-ft at 1,500. The wheelbase has been extended by 5.5 inch providing more passenger space and comfort. BMW 760Li runs from 0-60 mph in just 4.6 seconds and it offers improved fuel consumption over the previous model by 4.5 per cent.

BMW 760i and 760Li will be offered in both rear-wheel-drive but also all-wheel-drive.

The exterior design has been slightly modified to differentiate the 760 models from the others, the kidney grille for the radiator boasts an extra-wide chrome frame in slightly concave design as well as bars extending powerfully to the front. The 19-inch wheels are only available on these models and together with the V12 model designation on the chrome-plated gills with their integrated side direction indicators at the transition point between the front side panel and the driver’s and, respectively, front passenger’s door likewise help identify the high-end 7 Series.

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Nürburgring, 27th March 2010. In the first round of the 2010 VLN Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife Team BMW Motorsport crossed the line after fours hours of racing in third. Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Pedro Lamy (PT) put in a faultless performance at the wheel of the no. 742 BMW M3 GT2 and were rewarded with the first podium of the season. Their team-mates, Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE) and Dirk Adorf (DE), however, were forced to retire with the BMW M3 GT2 (no. 743) after two laps. The reason for this was a technical defect with the power steering which couldn’t be repaired.

The new BMW Z4 GT3 celebrated a successful debut at the Nordschleife: The Schubert Motorsport run no. 91 car – with, among others, BMW works driver, Jörg Müller (DE), at the wheel – finished ninth in the overall classification. The second BMW Z4 GT3 came 11th.

Charly Lamm (Team Manager):
“It’s great to be back at the Nordschleife. Today we saw once again just how exciting and fiercely fought the races at this circuit are. Of course I view this result with mixed emotions. The car number 743 BMW M3 GT2 had to retire early due to a problem with the steering hydraulics. The no. 742 car, however, proved that we are competitive with the BMW M3 GT2 at this track. After yesterday’s changeable conditions it stayed dry today. Our Dunlop tyres worked very well.”

Augusto Farfus (Car Number 742):
“It feels great to be on the podium here at the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife. We wanted to clock as many kilometres here as possible and to learn as much as we could. This worked out fine with our car. However, our rivals also proved that they will be a hard nut to crack at the 24-hour race. We will keep on working hard in order to be well-prepared for this event.”

Uwe Alzen (Car Number 742):
“It was good fun out there today. My start was okay, although I had to let a few cars pass. But then the Dunlop tyres performed at their best, and I was pushing hard – almost as if it had been a sprint race. I was able to close the gap to the front-runners again and to hand over the car to Pedro Lamy running in second. There lies a lot of work ahead of us over the next weeks. But the start was promising. It’s nice to stand on the podium after our very first race.”

Pedro Lamy (Car Number 742):
“My stint was alright. At this track there are always many yellow flags and incidents over the course of the lap. You think that you lose too much time due to this, but the others have the same problem. This race weekend was perfect for me to tune myself in for the Nordschleife and the car. I had the chance to drive in the dry as well as in the wet. It didn’t take long for the right rhythm to return.”

Dirk Werner (Car Number 743):
“Our car was good in qualifying. We had approached the session quite relaxed, as grid positions are generally not too important in such a long race. The start itself was a bit unlucky for me. A car in front of me slowed down, and I got passed by some competitors. But then I managed to work my way up into tenth before we had to stop. It’s a pity that we could only complete two laps, as every kilometre counts in preparation for the 24-hour race. Congratulations to Uwe, Pedro and Augusto. They showed the potential of our car.”

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