We do love it when car companies get silly on social media. Typically, car companies are very uptight and serious, specifically zee Germans. So it’s fun to see them let their hair down and play around a bit. In this case, whoever runs Cadillac’s social media department decided to have a bit of fun with its competition on Valentine’s Day. So on Twitter, Cadillac started to flirt with the likes of BMW, Jaguar and even Lexus. With mixed results.

With BMW, Cadillac tweeted “Is your GPS working? Because we’re lost in your headlights.” They also left a little heart Emoji. How nice. BMW responded with a bit of a boast, saying “That’s because our Angel Eyes are out of this world!” Maybe BMW isn’t the best at bedroom talk. Still, it seems to have worked because Cadillac responded by saying it wanted to shut off the lights and see where things went. Rawr.

After flirting with BMW, Caddy set its sights on Jaguar. All Cadillac said was “Meow” and left a heart Emoji. To which Jaguar responded by asking if they should “Escalade this to the next level?” Cadillac quickly responded with “Just don’t leave scratch marks” and a winking Emoji. Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Until Lexus showed up, that is. Cadillac reached out to Lexus by saying “We don’t care what anyone says. We think your big grille is really attractive.” To which Lexus shot back “Aren’t you a bit old for us?” Lexus grilling (pun intended) someone else for being old is a bit hypocritical, considering the average Lexus owner can’t send dirty messages without little blue pills. So Cadillac fired back with a line that genuinely made me laugh.

Leave it to Lexus to spoil the fun. Still, I tip my hat to Cadillac for having some fun on Valentine’s Day.

Source: BMW Blog | By Nico DeMattia | Febuary 16, 2019 | https://www.bmwblog.com/2019/02/16/cadillac-was-flirting-with-bmw-jaguar-and-lexus-on-valentines-day/

When the BMW M2 first debuted, it was tasked with taking on a few different cars. It would compete with traditional competitors, such as the Porsche Cayman S, while also competing with more unconventional ones, like the Audi RS3 Sportback. The latter of which is one of its biggest competitors, despite being completely different in almost every waye. It was also always much faster than the M2, thanks to its extra power and all-wheel drive grip. Now, though, the BMW M2 Competition is here, packing more power and performance. So can it now hang with its Bavarian rival? We find out in this new video from AutoTopNL.

These two cars are extremely different machines. The BMW M2 Competition is a two-door, rear-wheel drive coupe with a twin-turbocharged I6 under its hood that puts out 405 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. In this video, it also has a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. While the Audi RS3 Sportback is a four-door, all-wheel drive hatchback with a 2.5 liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine, making 400 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque.

Now that the M2 Competition is on sale, it’s the more powerful car of the two, whereas the standard M2 was out-gunned by the hot Audi. Does that help it be any faster, though, especially when you consider the M2 Comp is heavier than the standard car?

The answer, unfortunately for BMW, is no. According to AutoTopNL’s testing, the Audi RS3 is still faster than the M2 Competition to 100 km/g (62 mph) by one tenth of a second. The victory is marginal but a victory nevertheless. While technically down on power, Audi’s 2.5 liter five-pot is one of the best small engines o the planet.

Audi’s off-beat five-cylinder also sounds much better, giving the car some real character. While BMW’s M2 Competition sounds good, European restrictions limit its noise, so it sounds a bit flat. Even when opened up, though, Audi’s little fiver sounds much angrier.

So even with the new engine and extra grunt, the BMW M2 Competition is still not faster than its rival from Audi. It still doesn’t sound as good, either.

Source: BMW Blog | By Nico DeMattia | Febuary 17, 2019 | https://www.bmwblog.com/2019/02/17/video-bmw-m2-competition-vs-audi-rs3-sportback/

With a starting price of $73,900 for the base xDrive40i, the all-new BMW X7 is by far not your typical mainstream vehicle for everyday use. With just a few clicks in the options list, you can easily end up being quoted a six-figure price. Why are we saying all this? Because there’s some frustration in our heads when we watch BMW promote its first standard seven-seat vehicle as an everyday hero.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as you can afford to spend about $100,000 for a daily ride. To allure you to drain your Amex Black Card, BMW is releasing a one-minute promotional video of the X7 in which the SUV is driven to its limits.

The spot features Star Trek actor Chris Pine, the voice of BMW for years, who tells the story of Ol’ McLanden, a modern-day superhero who “outraced the rogues around Razorback Ridge and the trolls who dug holes on the Barnaby Bridge.” The character drives through all kinds of obstacles, including construction sites, broken bridges, and dockyards. At the end of the commercial, it turns out that McLanden is a woman who simply drives to a private school to pick up her kids.

“It boasts all the luxury and power of a BMW, despite its size,” says Roger Baran, creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners Baran, the agency that recorded the ad. “So we turned upside down the idea that this is an epic BMW that defies the norm to create a legend that has never been heard of, a normal commute from work to home but taken to epic proportions. And that’s how we came up with ‘Legend,’ a folktale praising the heroics of an unknown hero named McLanden. The hero could be any one of us.”

Source: motor1 | By Anthony Karr | Febuary 18, 2019 | https://www.motor1.com/news/305754/bmw-x7-ol-mclanden-commercial/

Through a new independent study, BMW is claiming that their share of the electromobility market is on the rise as 2019 rolls in. The Bavarian brand published a couple of interesting statistics about the electromobility market late last year, highlighting just how much of it the BMW brand accounts for. As 2019 came by, new numbers are being crunched up and it seems like BMW is further strengthening its position.

In Germany, at the very least, BMW is the best selling brand of electrified cars since January 1st. The data compiled in Munich shows that BMW accounts for 20 percent of the market, whereas last year it stood at 19 percent. Volkswagen, on the other hand, lost 1 percent, dropping from 17 percent in November last year to 16 percent in February 2019. Third place goes to Smart, unsurprisingly so, as the Daimler-owned company offers a really cheap EV choice for interested customers.

Increasing the scale and moving to the entire European continent, BMW is still the best selling brand, accounting for 17 percent of all electrified car sales, followed by Volkswagen with 12 percent and Nissan with 11 percent. The top three is unchanged from last year, even though the percentages changed a bit, VW losing 1 percent to Nissan. On a global scale ,some might be surprised to learn that Tesla is not the biggest seller of electrified cars.

Instead, the Chinese company BYD (Build Your Dreams) stands on the top spot, boosted by sales in its home country, claiming 12 percent of all electrified cars sold worldwide in 2019 so far. Second place goes to Tesla with 10 percent while Beijing Auto comes in third with 9 percent. BMW just missed out on the podium with 8 percent. Compared to the results posted in 2018, this marks a swap between the top two positions, while former third-place BMW now no longer sits on the podium.

Source: BMW Blog | By Gabriel Nica | Febuary 18, 2019 | https://www.bmwblog.com/2019/02/18/bmw-share-of-electromobility-market-increases-in-2019/

If you have any of the new iPhone models that lack the famous lone physical button, you know about Face ID. It’s Apple’s new way of unlocking the phone, now that the button-mounted fingerprint scanner is gone. The Face ID tech uses the front camera to scan your face to make sure you’re you and then it unlocks. It actually works surprisingly well and I use it myself (despite my distaste for the internet knowing my face. Now the government is going to make a robot clone of me and I’m going to have to kill it) Now, though, Apple has filed patents to use its facial recognition tech to unlock cars.

According to this report from Futurism, Apple has two ideas for the way this will work. One of which is to have an actual camera on the exterior of the car that can see your face as you approach the car, possibly on the B-pillar or something similar. That would theoretically scan your face as you reach to open the door, and unlock it for you.

The other idea is to have some sort of connected app on your mobile phone and you can use it to scan your face, which will then unlock your car.

To be honest, this technology is cool but only really practical if you lose your actual keyfob. With most modern cars, especially luxury cars, you just touch the inside of the door handle and it unlocks via NFC recognizing the proximity of the key in your pocket. That’s much simpler than putting your face in front of a camera or taking out your phone. Though, we could see this Face ID tech being useful is your lose your key and still need to get into your car.

There’s the additional benefit of having your in-car settings saved to your facial profile, so when you unlock and enter the car it’s already set up for you. However, a lot of luxury cars already have those settings programmed to the key. So you have the main key to the car and it has your settings saved, while your spouse can use the spare key and have their settings saved to it. So while interesting, it seems like an answer to a question that nobody asked.

What was wrong with this?

Considering BMW’s penchant for partnering with Apple, we can see this tech being used on future BMW models. While wholly unnecessary, it seems like the sort of thing that BMW will utilize, as it’s overly complicated and gimmicky.

Does anyone miss old school metal keys that you actually put into a slot and turned? When did that become too difficult?

Source: BMW Blog | By Nico DeMattia | Febuary 18, 2019 | https://www.bmwblog.com/2019/02/18/apple-to-possibly-use-face-id-to-unlock-cars/

The Ranger’s official fuel-economy estimates apply to both extended-cab and crew-cab models, both of which come with a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine which makes 270 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque and is paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Rear-wheel drive is standard, four-wheel drive is optional, and the EPA ratings stand at:

• Ranger 4×2: 23/21/26 mpg (combined/city/highway)
• Ranger 4×4: 22/20/24 mpg (combined/city/highway)

Beyond the official EPA numbers, the Ranger will have a tall task beating the Ridgeline’s result in our real-world 75-mph fuel-economy test: an all-wheel-drive Ridgeline achieved 28 mpg in our hands, beating its EPA estimate by 3 mpg. Among other rivals, the Toyota Tacoma and the GMC Canyon (mechanical twin of the Chevrolet Colorado) have hit 23 mpg and 24 mpg in C/D‘s highway fuel-economy test. The Ridgeline is our current 10Best Trucks and SUVs winner in the mid-size pickup category, and our long-term Ridgeline is averaging 21 mpg so far in its 40,000-mile test.

The other wild card in this category is the turbo-diesel 2.8-liter four-cylinder engine, which is offered in both the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon. That engine matches or bests the Ranger’s EPA fuel-economy ratings, reaching the same 23 mpg combined and hitting up to 30 mpg on the highway, but it offers considerably more torque, at 369 lb-ft compared with the Ford’s 310 lb-ft.

We’ll have to wait to get our hands on a Ranger to see what numbers it delivers in the real world, but in the meantime you can check out more information on the new mid-size pickup from the Blue Oval that’s scheduled to hit dealerships early in 2019.

Source: Car and Driver | By Joey Capparella | December 11, 2018 | https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a25470574/2019-ford-ranger-pickup-mpg/