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2014 BMW M235i

We know a number of BMW owners who reside in the Munich brand's core demographic - upper-five- and six-figure professionals who like to keep their automotive brand credentials as highly respected among their peers as their alma maters or the letters after their names. Before heading to Las Vegas to drive the new M235i, we asked four of those owners, "What did you think of the E30 3 Series?" Although phrased differently, every one of them had the same answer: "What's that?"
You can counter that we just happened to query a tiny and ignorant sample size, and it's possible that you're right. Nevertheless, in every case,we were speaking to BMW's core demographic, the increasing legion of buyers who have fostered another year of record growth and are responsible for BMW retaining its global luxury title for nine straight years. Question that, and we'll refer you to BMW's marketing department, its several hundred PowerPoint slides and several thousand pages of research that prove the point.
That second-generation E30 3 Series built a name, a brand and an entire segment by defining BMW-ness as superlative driving dynamics meets luxury - shortened to the phrase, "The Ultimate Driving Machine." Thirty years later, just being a part of BMW-ness and luxury is enough for the majority of buyers. The superlative handling, that's optional, and 150 hairy guys meet every Tuesday to keep the old religion going, light torches, sing dirges to the siren long gone and bang on their keyboards about the apostasies of modern buyers.

BMW rethinks all-wheel-drive M cars

BMW M hasn't been able to decide whether it wants to jump on the all-wheel-drive bandwagon or not (with the exceptions of the X5 M and the X6 M, which are based on AWD architecture). That might be changing though, since M's president Friedrich Nitschke recently realized that 70 to 80 percent of Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs are ordered with all-wheel drive. Earlier this year, Nitschke said that there were no new AWD M models planned, so this comes as somewhat of a surprise.
"On our cars we are thinking of all-wheel drive, but it won't come before we get the successor of the M5 and M6," Nitschke said in a Motoring report. "That's the timing and it's not practical to react in the current life cycles."
"On our cars we are thinking of all-wheel drive." - Friedrich Nitschke, BMW

BMW 4 Series Convertible basks in the sun

The BMW 4 Series Convertible will show its non-camouflaged face sometime later this year, but our spies recently caught this nearly naked prototype out getting some sun. As you'll recall, the droptop 4 Series replaces the 3 Series Convertible in the BMW range, and if our recent stint behind the wheel of the new 435i Coupe is anything to go on, this topless 4er should be quite a fun runabout for sun-drenched motoring.
To no one's surprise, the 4 Series Convertible shares all of its design with the 4 Series coupe, save, of course, the obvious roofectomy. Beyond that, the topless 2+2 will use the same engines and transmissions as the coupe, meaning it should arrive in the US in both 428i and 435i guises, powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four and 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six, respectively. Both six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic transmissions will be available.
The car spied this time around has the full M Sport visual treatment, with the revised (and better-looking) front fascia, larger 19-inch wheels, and attractive Melbourne Red paint. Interestingly, it appears this prototype has the standard xenon headlamp setup, rather than the full-LED option that's also available.