BMW 320i News

Kids aren’t usually a factor in Car of the Year judging.  But child friendliness rates highly with women buying cars – and with women judging cars.The countdown has been kicked off to decide the Women’s World Car of the Year, and the kid factor is one the judges pay a lot of attention to.“Statistics show that women drive children in cars significantly more often than men – and that means women need to take that into account, both when buying and as judges of cars,” WCOTY president Sandy Myhre said from New Zealand.“Any woman who has grappled constantly with child seats and belts and children considers those things when looking at buying a car.  Men might too but the fact is, women drive children in cars more than men.“Women would not consider that aspect in a Porsche 911 more than a bloke. The point is, it can be considered in these awards - and that is one of the points of difference in these awards.”Myhre points out that significant research into buying habits show that in addition to buying for themselves, women have a major influence in household purchase decisions for big ticket items.Ford Australia, for example, says their research shows that women are behind the majority of purchases of the Territory SUV – either as single women buying one, or in influencing the joint decision with their partner. “A report from Mattingly & Associates in Australia concluded, in part, that businesses that didn't understand this influence would be hard-pressed to stay in business.  That report was aptly called 'When I've Made Up Our Minds',” Myhre says.However, the kid factor is just one of the criteria by which the 2012 Women’s World Car of the Year will be judged.There are four categories in the Women's World Car of the Year – Family Car, Luxury Car, Sports Car and Economy Car. Points are allocated to each of ten criteria: driveability, engineering, comfort, child friendliness, style, interior, storage, dashboard efficiency, carbon footprint and colour range.The 20 judges from eleven countries have submitted their own personal short list and more than 300 cars were suggested. These individual choices were then whittled down to form a master list of 32 in terms of popularity. Judges will now allocate points for these cars from a criteria list.The announcement of the winning cars in each category and the supreme winner will be made before the end of March. The supreme award trophy and category certificates will be presented to the car companies concerned at the Mondial de l’Automobile 2012 – the Paris Motor Show – in September. The supreme trophy will this year be made in The Netherlands. Category-winner certificates will be designed at Peartree Studios in Colerne, UK.The first winner of the Women's World Car of the Year was the Jaguar XF in 2010 and the trophy made in South Africa was presented at the Jaguar boutique showroom in Knightsbridge, London. In 2011 there was a dead-heat between the Citroen DS3 and the BMW 5 Series. The two trophies made in India were presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011. 

BMW calls it the Estate and Carparazzi says the F31 continues as today, despite the arrival of the upcoming 3 Series GT, with features including an opening glass window in the tailgate, 40-20-40 split-folding rear seat and - crucially - more luggage space in a bigger back end.

It has the raised seating position of  the larger 5 Series GT, as well as its two-tier rear hatch, as well as the aggressive new nose of the latest Three.

Thousands of production line workers form a guard of honour as the first of the sixth-generation Threes emerge into the light for the first time, and every member of BMW's board of directors fronts to sprout the message.What's clear is that BMW has spent big on a car that promises more luxury and comfort without losing the driving spirit that's come as standard in the 3 Series since its birth in 1975.It's not particularly adventurous in design, but the detailing is everything you expect.When we get behind the wheel we're expecting much more efficiency and technology, but still with the driving dynamics you expect in any new BMW.After all, this car has to work. Benz has just done a great job on a mid-life update of the C-Class that includes more than 1000 new parts, Audi is pushing harder and harder with its A4 and A5 models, and even Lexus wants more BMW buyers in its showrooms.So BMW is pushing back and hitting out with more technology, better value and a car that is sure to work for the vast majority of its existing owners and a growing group of cashed-up shoppers buying their first premium car in lots of new countries - led by China - which are joining the luxury class.The signature tune for the advertising campaign for the new Three sums things up pretty neatly: it's 'Dancing with Myself' by Billy Idol.

Audi Australia managing director Joerg Hofmann has responded strongly in correcting remarks made by BMW’s local head of corporate communications, Toni Andreevski.

With new styling and a raft of new features the new 3 Series will start at $54,500 _ $3500 above the discontinued base model _ and top out at $111,700 for the 3351 Touring.BMW says the value equation is ahead of the increase with the 320i Executive winning standard Dakota leather trim, power front seats, light alloy wheels, active front headrests and standard six-speed automatic transmission.Also now standard on all 3 Series Sedan and Touring models is the exterior lights package that illuminates the door handles when the unlock button on the key fob is pressed. It also includes puddle, footwell and ambient interior lighting.However, if you enjoy customising your car don't panic. BMW will still offer its traditional lengthy options list. 

TELEVISION is a very busy world for Simon Reeve. He is a sports and news presenter for Sunrise, hosts the kids quiz show It's Academic, warbled his way through celebrity singing contest It Takes Two and was a gymnastics commentator at the Beijing Olympics. As the host of the new police reality show The Force: Behind the Line, Reeve has heard plenty of crash horror stories.But it is one of his own, during a road trip in Africa, that remains the most vivid. Still, Reeve is a car enthusiast who dreams about owning a 1955 Ford Thunderbird convertible.What was your first car? An 1968 XT Falcon. Dad had always had Fords, going back to a gorgeous old Zephyr when I was a baby, then a couple of XPs. The XT was my pride and joy until a bloke ran fair into the back of me on the Kwinana Freeway in Perth. Alas, she was never the same again.What do you drive now? A 2004 BMW 320i. Do you have a favourite drive and who would you take? Busselton to Esperance, around the southwest coast of WA. My company would be the family -- wife Linda and two kids -- and the kids would have to sign a no-whingeing clause.How far would you drive in an average year? About 20,000km. Do you have a favourite motoring memory? Driving in Botswana on the edge of the Moremi National Park and getting horribly bogged in lion and hyena country. Linda and I had our two-year-old daughter with us and we'd run out of water. A half-hour slog of digging and panic between Linda and I finally got our old LandCruiser clear as a blistering October sun went down. I think we'd convinced ourselves it might be our last sunset.  A great relationship moment.What would you buy if money were no object? Nothing too extravagant, just a 1955 T-Bird convertible. I think it's shape and somehow its sense of optimism and fun make it the perfect car of any era. I know I'd look like a right wanker driving one around now, but I'd blissfully take the barbs. What music is playing in your car? There are two tracks that get high rotation: Mio Amore by The Flamingos and Easy to be Hard by Three Dog Night. Go figure.How much is too much for a new car? The way it's headed, I think the Flintstones got it right.What should be done to make driving safer? A heavy emphasis on driver education as an integral part of the school curriculum, visits by road-accident victims, and a comprehensive approach to this area of education from age 15. So many episodes of The Force feature booze, speed and young blokes who, like young blokes everywhere, think they are 10 feet tall and bulletproof.Are you sponsored by a car company? No, but I'm cheap, easy and shameless. All offers welcome.The Force: Behind the Line, Channel 7 Mondays at 8pm.

Within three years, production-line workers will build cars with names they can't pronounce.It's nothing new but when the Russians start pumping out Mitsubishis and Peugeots and Citroens, it is another step in the process that sees car makers move out of their backyard and onto foreign soil.The reasons are cheap.Picking a developing country with available employment, low yet aspiring standards of living and government incentives such as free land and tax breaks is the financial equivalent of a Stephanie Rice wall poster.And there's no reason to feel shy about deserting the homeland in search of reduced manufacturing costs even if Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking is scathing of the practice — though the Cayenne body is made in Slovakia — and says so in his new (only) book “Don't Follow The Crowd”.Look around.You probably know it because you're on the carsguide.com.au site, but most car owners haven't a clue where their metallic ego in the driveway was born.The Honda Accord and Jazz are from Thailand, the Volkswagen Caddy in Poland, the Suzuki APU (named after the 24-hour shop owner in The Simpsons?) van in Indonesia, the Chrysler Grand Cherokee in Austria — on the same line as the BMW X3, no less — the Volvo XC70 in Belgium and the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus hatch and BMW 3-Series four-cylinder models in South Africa.As these countries grow richer on their ability to make cars cheaper for the world, so their prices — of labour and taxes and energy — will rise.Are there any countries left that have even lower costs that car makers can exploit? While you sift through the Atlas (get a current one, some countries and borders have changed in the past decade) let me tell you about one that has it all.And only recently is word out that this could be the next big think in car manufacture.Unlike Russia or Thailand or Slovakia, this country has English as its predominant language.It has an able workforce and rising unemployment.Its needs are many because the country has high consumer goods consumption.Yet the workforce — perhaps through desperation — can be turned to receive a modest wage.There are tax breaks and land going on offer throughout the country, most close to the ocean or rivers for easy transportation of raw materials and finished product.The icing on the cake is that it has existing infrastructure to support car assembly.The country is the USA.Now the focus turns from outward looking to the manufacturing equivalent of navel gazing.Now European countries have seen a weakened USA become ripe for domestic manufacture.The US dollar is so weak that it makes importing European cars too expensive.Far better to look at camping on US soil, in the way a cuckoo camps in another nest to exploit its personal needs.While General Motors seeks manufacturing in China, Volkswagen is looking at the USA.Volkswagen is not alone, European suppliers are also sniffing out what the USA can offer.The tide has unexpectedly changed and perhaps the only hindrance will be a revival in the US economy.Preoccupied with the 'war with no end' in the Middle East, the US is poised to become the world's next big car factory.Who would have thought that possible?

The explosive growth of the BMW model range is about to be defused in Australia, with the line-up being trimmed to cut competition and duplication, making it easier for customers in showrooms.The plan is to have only three choices of any individual model, with two petrol engines and one diesel.The current list includes 36 individual models in the 3 Series sedan line-up ... without counting the coupe, convertible or station wagon.“We get a lot of questions about whetherwe have too many models,” BMW Australia managing director Guenther Seemann says.“I think we do have too many.”He believes BMW must cut the choices to streamline business, though he says there will still be all-new models in future — with the X6 four-wheel-drive and M3 sedan up next — asthe German company looks for customers.The work has begun, though there are a dozen individual BMW lines, from the baby 1 Series to the four-wheel-drive X5 and flagship 7 Series, with 50 official engine choices. BMW has 189 individual models on the list.“We've already begun tidying up. The 116i hatch has been removed from the range, there are the manuals in the 3 Series and one of the X3 manuals,” Seemann says.“In the 5 Series range, one of the V8s will go.I believe for each and every model line-up in the future, as we add models, we need two petrol and one diesel variant in each case. No more. We have so many different model lines, it is not practical or possible to display them all in a showroom.”He says it will take time to get things sorted, partly because there are so many models.“It will happen in the next two years. Globally, there are five petrol and five diesel engine choices. And that is just in the 3 Series range,” Seemann says. But there is definitely space for some additions, like the four-door M3 sedan.“We will bring the four-door version, but I do not know at what price. We have to price it lower than the M3 two-door.” 

The explosive growth of the BMW model range is about to be defused in Australia. The line-up is being trimmed to cut competition and duplication, making it easier for customers in showrooms.The plan is to have only three choices of any individual model, with two petrol engines and one diesel. The current list includes 36 individual models in the 3 Series sedan line-up . . . without counting the coupe, convertible or station wagon.“We get a lot of questions about whether we have too many models. I think we do have too many,” BMW Australia managing director Guenther Seemann says.He believes BMW must cut the choices to streamline business, though he says there will still be all-new models in future — with the X6 four-wheel drive and M3 sedan up next — as the German company looks for customers.The work has begun, though there are a dozen individual BMW lines, from the baby 1 Series to the four-wheel-drive X5 and flagship 7-Series, with 50 official engine choices. BMW has 189 individual models on the list.“We've already begun tidying up. The 116i hatch has been removed from the range, there are the manuals in the 3 Series and one of the X3 manuals,” Seeman says.“In the 5 Series range, one of the V8s will go. I believe for each and every model line-up in the future, as we add models, we need two petrol and one diesel variant in each case. No more. We have so many different model lines, it is not practical or possible to display them all in a showroom.He says it will take time to get things sorted, partly because there are so many models.“It will happen in the next two years. Globally, there are five petrol and five diesel engine choices. And that is just in the 3 Series range,” he says.But there is definitely space for some additions, like the four-door M3 sedan.“We are starting the business case. It looks good, I must say,” he says.“We will bring the four-door version, but I do not know at what price. We always follow the normal BMW pattern, where a two-door is more expensive than a four-door. We have to price it lower than the M3 two-door.”