BMW X3 xPlore Tour - Exploring

The main purpose of the BMW X3 xPlore tour was to give us more insight into the final product consumers purchase from BMW. We got a glimpse of the X Lifestyle Park which opens in November, and got to play in a few of the obstacles the course has to offer, we toured Plant Rosslyn to view the upgrades made and to see first hand, the production line of the new X3. We were given a tour of the brand new training facility and lastly, toured the Bio2Watt plant to find out how they generate renewable energy and in turn feeds 30% of Plant Rosslyn. All that was left to do was drive the locally made product and see how it compared to the ones we drove on the launch, which were fully imported. 

BMW had planned a brilliant 2 day road trip which would see us travel through three provinces, on multiple types of surfaces, traversing through some of the best driving roads the country has to offer and not to mention the brilliant scenery along the way. For the trip, we had a choice between 3.0L Diesel or 2.0L Diesel engines to choose from, with the long journey ahead with some days consisting of 600km drives, diesel was the obvious choice for this tour. I'm a massive fan of BMW's diesel engines, light on fuel, plenty of torque, minimal lag and once they get going, there's no stopping them. First up it was a chance to get behind the wheel of the 3.0L, each car was also specc'd differently to the other, displaying some of the differences in styling options for both the interior and exterior of the car.  The car came fitting with BMW's 21" multispoke rims which would made things interesting for the gravel roads. 

One thing I have to say from the get go, the quality of the product was faultless, in fact if you had to take the locally made X3 and one assembled from another plant, it would be very very difficult to find a difference. So much has gone on behind the scenes to ensure the quality of product being delivered by BMW Group SA is top notch as these cars are to not only supplied to our country but also to most of Europe! The route for the journey encapsulated everything that is to love about our country as we meandered through breathtaking mountain passes and villages, but at the same time making us fall in love with the BMW X3 as it proved to be a match for every terrain, every obstacle that came in its way. 

Day two saw us tour through Mpumalanga stopping at some of the popular tourists hotspots, one of them being the Three Rondavels and Blythe River Canyon, place I last visited as a kid a good 20 years ago, so visiting it again brought back some fond memories of my family vacations which harked back to the car. The X3 is the perfect vehicle for family vacations, it's a brilliant drive, very spacious, loads of luggage space and with the wide range of options available to suit anyone's budget and preference. While the price would put some off, you have to realise what you getting for your money is worth every cent, yes there are cheaper options available on the market but with these you getting inferior quality finishes and materials. On the way back we got a pretty basic base model 2.0L diesel and even in this, you cannot distinguished any comprise in quality. While it didn't have any fancy finishes, nor lots of options, it still gave you that premium feel and more importantly, that terrific drive. 

Reflecting under the night skies of the Kruger,( where its so clear that you can actually see star belts with your naked eye!) of the past few days on tour, really gives you a sense at how far BMW SA have come, not only as a brand but as a company. Showing faith in our country, investing in it and it's people, and with that return of investment being this quality product. It still amazed me that Plant Rosslyn was BMW's first plant outside of Germany and that's a good heritage to hold, with over a million 3 Series being produced at the plant, I can only look forward to a million X3's running off the line in the near future. 

Bucket Seat: BMW Concept 8 Series

When BMW AG broke the news that the 6 Series production line had stopped, it meant one two things, we were never going to see the super luxury coupe again or something new and better was coming. Thankfully it was the latter, late last night the German manufacturer lifted the covers on its long awaited return of the 8 Series Coupe and, its magnificent! With rivals Mercedes Benz taking the market by storm with their S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet, BMW knew they had to do something to persuade their current clientele and new prospective buyers with something equally great or better than what the competition has. 

And suffice to say, they didn't just do that but they hit the ball out of the park with this one. The BMW Concept 8 Series is something to behold. It's bold, its sleek, it's something that personifies what BMW has planned for the brand in the coming years. Whats even more great about it, is that BMW say that this concept, is very close to what we can expect in the production car next year. Yes, this car will be made and much of what you are seeing here will be in it! 

The design is something completely new from them and BMW say it will influence their product range going forward in terms of design and technology. It also signals BMW's interest in making a move to a higher market in terms of their offering. Being the new range topper from the stable. the Concept 8 Series takes a swipe at luxury sports cars such as Porsche and Aston Martin, so it will be very interesting to see what the final product is and how close it is to the concept. 

The Concept 8 Series also has a new user interface which will follow in the brands lower segments. It see's a new interior layout, which is clean, sleek and very much driver focused and super luxurious while still maintaining key elements that made their simplistic but rational design great in the past. The driver has a full digital cockpit with the ability to view almost any information on it, including the navigation map. No word on whether the car will have the XDrive system which is offered on other high end sports models from them but there is no doubt this one will be fast!

Bucket Seat: BMW Powerhouses launched

In the space of under a week, BMW have launched two powerhouse cars, first the M4 CS last week and today they lifted the covers on the all new range topping diesel derivative of the new 5 Series, the M550d which has a quad turbo! Yes, you read right, it has FOUR turbos! The German manufacturer is staying true to it's roots by offering more aggressive engines to it's luxury line up of cars and this can only mean good things for their loyal support base. 

BMW M4 CS

The new M4 CS which is due to hit local shores in October see's it fill the gap between the M4 GTS and the M4 Competition Pack, it will be available in limited numbers so if you're interested in getting one, best you head down to your dealer now to book a spot! The car will be built in the original BMW plant in Munich, which saw many special edition M models being built there. The engine is a 3.0l high performance, which is tweaked to offer the driver a more responsive and power enthralled drive. The CS packs 10 more horses than the M4 Competition pack raising the brake horsepower to 460 which see's the 0-100km/h dash dip below the 4 second mark at 3.9 seconds. Top speed of the car is electronically limited to 280km/h on the M drivers package, standard should be limited to 250km/h. The CS will have a seven-speed M double clutch transmission, a cutting edge design which has a separate oil cooler and enables both automated gear changes in fractions of a second. So much so BMW claims that using the car in standard auto mode will be better than using the paddle shifts. Pricing on the CS is still not known locally yet but indications in Europe is that it would start around the EUR116,900 mark. 

BMW M550d

After driving the new BMW 5 Series earlier this month, I did feel that the smaller petrol engines were lacking that oomf you needed in a big car like the 5 Series. Dubbed the "Business Athlete", the new 5 does offer a remarkable lot of technology but all that will prove fruitless to the owner is if all his interested in is raw power and quick response times from the engine. I've yet to drive any of the diesel options but there's no doubt the new M550d will offer more than what you're looking for. It's the world's most powerful 6-cylinder diesel engine in the automotive area. It has a multi-stage turbocharging with four turbochargers for high output and powerful torque combined with impressive efficiency. So while you're blast your way around, you're still not using as much fuel as you normally would. The 6-cylinder engine produces 294kW at 400bhp with a maximum torque of 760Nm! The M550d will come with standard M sports suspension, integral active steering, M aerodynamics package, exhaust system with M Performance specific twin tailpipe trims in dark and chrome and M Sports brake featuring brake calipers finished in blue metallic with M inscription. I'm a big fan of the M diesel cars from BMW and cannot wait to get into this one!

Bucket Seat: BMW i3 Rex

As a kid, one of my favourite toys was my radio control car which my dad bought me for my 5th birthday. It was a Mercedes Benz 190E, scaled down to detail and one of the very few toys that lasted me a while before being dismantled to take a look at the inner workings of it. It seemed pretty simple, an electrical motor, battery being the key components to make it work. I then wondered why couldn't a normal car be made the same way? It was clearly evident that I wasn't the only one thinking this, there were problems to it though, at the time we didn't have much variety in the battery market with either lead-acid or alkaline on offer, both of  which were too big and weighed a lot. Not to mention the amount of charge either held was no where near enough to power a normal car for a kilometer let along an entire day. 

As time went on, technology evolved and whilst we all had fantasy's of what the future would look like for transport, whether a flying car would be a reality or even worth the effort or will scientist have found a way to teleport beings from one place to another? All that sounded cool but the fact is we're still miles away from inventing them right now and we have to look at what we can do now to improve something that the human race relies on so heavily on a day to day basis. With the increase in oil price and attention being made to pollution, car manufacturers were forced to develop cleaner, greener cars as way to stem away from combustion engines and find a new source of power for them. 

Step in BMW, they launched their electric BMWi range in 2013/14 and I've had the opportunity to drive both the i3 and the i8 during this time. Both of which are fantastic cars but for each one it was a short period so I couldn't really get a sense on how being an owner of such a vehicle would be like. Last week I was spinning around town in the i3 Rex, the Rex being the slightly pricey version which includes a petrol range extension engine should you run out of power in the batteries. My time with the car was nothing short of amazing, the car that BMW have created simply blew me away. 

STYLE

Quite honestly, every time I look at the BMW i3 or the i8 for that matter, I think it looks a decade ahead of its time and I think that's what they were heading for. It is the future of motoring so to capture that they had to break design barriers and create something to catch peoples eye out when it's on the road and boy did I get a lot of stares and pointing as I drove past people. Everything about the design still remains practical and pivotal to the car though, the cars design is to create minimal drag thus use less energy, the large wheels aren't for style either, when breaking the car uses the large brake discs to generate kinetic energy which then recharges the battery. The doors negate the use of a center pillar, hence saving on space as well as weight to the body. The entire car is made from a new weave of carbon fibre created by BMW for extra strength and minimise weight. They now feature this same carbon core for some of their other models in the range. 

PERFORMANCE

When talking performance on an electric car it is difficult because the motor is completely different and the figures it spits out might not seem as impressive as a normal day to day run around but driving it around will prove otherwise. The motor pushes out 125kW and 250 Nm Torque which doesn't raise any eyebrows but because the car only has 1 gear it's take of speed and reaction time is almost triple that of a normal car. On a 0-100kph sprint the i3 will out race many hot hatches on the road. The car comes with three driving styles being, Comfort, Eco Pro and Eco Pro Plus. Comfort making full use of the battery power as well as allowing the car to reach its' top speed of 160kph, move down a notch the Eco Pro, the cars top speed is limited to 105kph and on Eco Pro Plus mode it's brought down to 90kph and no use of the air-conditioning. Much like normal combustion cars, the more you put the foot down, the more juice it uses but with the i3 , it's always ready to shout you when doing so, helping you conserve the power.

COMFORT

The i3 is full of surprises, the car looks small but its more spacious than most cars on the market. The ergonomic and modern design of the cabin makes use of lighter and stronger materials which minimises space used and thus giving the passengers more much room. The seats are really comfortable and give of a good driving posture. The boot is pretty big as well, I managed to get a set of golf clubs in there with no hassle. Even though the car rides on 20"rims and rather large but narrow tyres, the ride quality is still great.

CHARGING

Now to the most important part, while the car does have a petrol engine, I never actually made use of it. Which I suppose is silly on my part seeing that I am testing the car and should have done so but the car tends to make you a better driver. I said earlier how it warns you when you accelerate too rapidly, well it also warns you when you brake too suddenly. Nothing about the i3 is like a conventional car, you hardly make use of the brake pedal when driving. Soon as you take your foot of the accelerator, the car instantly starts braking on its own to build up a reverse charge to recharge the battery. This helps when driving around urban areas with many stop streets and slow driving and will work well in inner city commuting. when you feel the range anxiety is going to hit, charging the car is as simple as popping the hood, take out the charge cable and plugging it in to your wall socket. While I didn't have a BMW wallbox installed at home, I had to opt for the long charge which takes about 8 hours to fully charge the car. With the wall box this figure is halved but for quick charging, you can head down to you BMWi dealership and make use of their DC fast charge station which charges the car in 24 minutes. 

COST FACTOR

Once fully charged the car will give you roughly 110km on comfort mode with this range extending when switching to either of the Eco modes. Having the car for a week made a big difference in how I found the car out, you will learn quickly how it works and you will adapt your driving style to suit the car. It ends up almost as a game where you see how much charge you can build up and in the end I found myself going 3 days without having to charge it. BMW say an over night charge will cost you in the region of R60, I'd say the most you can do is about 160km on a single charge if you really drive carefully. Thats about 40c a kilometer, which essentially is peanuts. The car is a bit pricey but you have to take into account not only the technology but the materials used to manufacture this car and it can do everything a normal car can do and more! The return on your investment is there, it will just take a little longer to show it.

VERDICT

I said at the very beginning, this car is a decade ahead of its time, it not only looks that way but theres no other car like it on the market. Yes in due course there will be other competitors but what BMW have done here is put down a marker and other manufacturers have taken up the challenge which can only spell good things for this segment. With more of them investing time and money into this technology it would only mean making this technology better and and the rapid rate we're creating new things, we could have this perfercted sooner than we think. It really is an eye opener of a car and if your daily commute is nothing more than 50km, I suggest you give this car a try. I've convinced quite a few people with my time with it and I'm sure it will continue to not only turn heads in the feature but also get people being more proactive in it. 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine	Electric
Gear Box	Single speed automatic
Power	125kW
Torque	250Nm of torque
Top Speed	150 Kph
0-100kph	7.2 seconds
Price	R630,000

Bucket Seat: BMW M760Li xDrive - First Impressions

For those who visited the Festival of Motoring held at Kyalami last year, you would have noticed something really special parked off at the BMW stand. Tucked away at the back was the range topping model of the 7 series stable, the M760Li. It's presence was well felt, as soon as you entered the room it caught your attention, from it's large 20" rims, to the flared front bumper and grill to the various M badges and V12 badges that adorn the car. Even the paint work was something to be admired, a dark charcoal grey in matte finish. The car has the long wheel base which means extra room for the passengers at the back, visitors to the festival got to experience this first hand with the rear seats being able to recline with the optional foot rest which forms part of the front seat deploys to give you the ultimate limousine effect. 

Even though the car was on our shores last year, the official worldwide launch of this car only happened this past weekend in the US. From it we learn't more about this spectacular car. The power plant consists the most powerful engine in BMW's arsenal, a 6.6 litre V12, which develops an output of 448kW, 610bhp at 5500rpm.  It is a beat of note, the peak torque of the motor is 800Nm all of which is produced by the help of the high performance unite with leading edge M Performance TwinPower Turbo Technology. The claimed acceleration for 01-00km/h is just 3.7 seconds, the car is electronically governed to a top speed of 250kph. There is an optional M Driver's package, if specified it pushes up the limited speed to 305Km/h. With immense power as that being produced by the engine to haul the 2.2 tonne car along, BMW felt it needed something else to hold the car in place, hence the car come with xDrive. 

What is xDrive? We in SA don't get many BMW models with xDrive, especially the sedan's simply because there is no need for it. xDrive is BMW's all wheel drive system and why the M760Li needs it is quite simple, that power going to just two wheels could be a bit much so it's distributed to all four wheels to enhance the grip and efficiency of the power produced. Not to mention it also adds to a more smoother ride, after all this is a luxury sports limousine. Another cool feature of the M760Li is the rear wheel steering, yes the rear tyres also rotate when steering but just a tad bit and not as noticeable as the front. The car also has innovative Executive Drive Pro suspension, which BMW said adds to the dynamic sharpness and unbeatable ride comfort. The Active roll stabilization minimises body movements and the systems team up with performance tyres. 

We know the car goes very fast but it can also stop fast, the car is fitted with the new 19" M Sport brakes, boasting blue metallic brake calipers and M branding, set the seal on the dynamic armory of the BMW M760Li xDrive and ensure unbeatable deceleration at all times. As with the regular 7 Series, there is a lot to this car and while we didn't even cover half of what it can do here in this post, we got the important bits, for the rest of it we have to wait till this beast makes it's way to the country, yes, this one is coming to South Africa so if you're looking at getting a luxury sedan that packs enough power to rival some of the fastest cars on the roads, this one should be high up on your list.