BMW to recall 570,000 vehicles in North America

BMW has told safety regulators it will recall about 570,000 vehicles in the United States and Canada because of a faulty battery cable connector that can fail and cause an engine to stall.
The recall includes certain 3-series coupes, sedans, convertibles and wagons from 2007 through 2011, as well as 1-series coupes and convertibles from model years 2008 through 2012 and Z4 roadsters from 2009 though 2011.

In a Feb. 7 filing made public Saturday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Web site, the German automaker said it will notify owners of the defect and allow them to replace the battery cable connectors for free at dealerships, starting in March.

The 3 series is BMW's top seller and is the No. 1-selling luxury car in the United States, with 99,602 of all variants sold in 2012. The recall affects almost 450,000 of the 3-series nameplate in the United States alone.
BMW said the problem stems from a tin-coated connector that links the positive battery cable and the fuse box in each of the models. The coating can degrade over time until it disrupts the flow of power and stalls the engine.

BMW says it learned of the defect in July 2010 after receiving a pair of case studies on repairs performed in the United States.

The automaker later received three complaints from Canadian regulators of incidents where the defect caused vehicles to lose power. One of the incidents led to a minor crash, but no injuries.
The recall includes 504,000 vehicles sold in the United States and 65,000 sold in Canada.
BMW says it has already started using a silver coating instead of tin in new vehicles. The company says that when dealers repair the recalled vehicles, they will also use a different installation technique that will make the connector better at handling vibrations.

In a statement, BMW said once it "distributes the necessary replacement parts to authorized BMW centers, customers with affected vehicles will receive a letter via First Class Mail asking them to schedule a service appointment."

The Associated Press reported the recall over the weekend.
In another recall notice released Saturday by NHTSA, BMW said it will recall 30,265 X5 crossovers in the United States because a valve near the brakes can leak lubricating oil, harming the power braking system.
The brakes still met safety standards in that condition. However, BMW noticed an uptick in warranty claims and decided to recall 8-cylinder X5 vehicles from 2007 to 2010 after an analysis found that the number of warranty claims was likely to continue rising.

The 2013 Range Rover is the world’s best SUV

Through raging flash-floods and soaked rural roads, the 2013 Range Rover revealed its strengths. The 2012 Range Rover was swell — beautiful interior, powerful engines and styling that earned icon status about five years ago. Designed and introduced back when BMW owned Rover, the Range Rover was the rare design that survived a full decade without seeming dated. But ten years equals an eternity in the car business, and 2013 heralds a new Range Rover era. 

The new SUV looks much like the old one, embracing the Porsche 911 strategy of not messing with a good thing, but making it just different enough to tip off the neighbors. The real action lies under the skin, where Land Rover tackled the old machine's biggest problem: its weight. Thanks to an all-aluminum chassis (the only one in an SUV), the new Range Rover is about 700 pounds lighter than the old one. 

The bare body is in fact 50 pounds lighter than that of a BMW 3-series, and the base V-8 model weighs 4,850 lbs. Subtracting weight, rather than adding power, confers all sorts of advantages — handling, fuel economy and off-the-line quickness all improved.

So, is this the best SUV in the world? Well, I don't know what really competes with it. The Toyota Land Cruiser might be the most relevant competitor off-road, but the Range Rover leaves it for dead on the pavement. 

The new Mercedes GL is a fine hunk of metal, but it's more of a three-row people-mover that happens to have some off-road ability — the Range Rover is like an amalgamation of G-Class off-road chops with GL on-road modernity. The only major weak point is fuel economy, which will likely improve from the old model's 14 mpg EPA combined rating—but then only to perhaps 16 or 17 mpg. However, there's a diesel hybrid in the works that would address that concern, presuming Land Rover decides to ship it stateside.

Consumers name their 2013 top 20 car brands

 

When it comes to how people perceive car brands, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet stand above all others, based on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

The survey scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: quality, safety, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environmentally friendly/green. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score, as shown in the chart below. While the scores reflect a brand's image in consumers' minds, they do not necessarily represent the actual qualities of any brand's vehicles.

Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet scored well above the second-tier performances in our survey. When looking past sixth-ranked Volvo, many brands are clustered close together, showing that consumers are identifying with more brands than before, making it harder for most car companies to stand out from the competition. It also signals that buyers may be seeing merits in more brands, rather than so closely identifying single brands as "owning" a given category.

Best overall
Brand	Score
Toyota	133
Ford	118
Honda	114
Chevrolet	94
Mercedes-Benz	77
Volvo	77
Cadillac	66
BMW	66
Dodge	56
Tesla	55
Lexus	50
Subaru	50
Audi	47
GMC	45
Hyundai	43
Buick	42
Nissan	41
Smart	35
Lincoln	33
Chrysler	32

As the full report on the 2013 Car Brand Perception Survey shows, some brands are well respected in several categories, while others rest their brand image on excelling in fewer factors.
For instance, Volvo's score is based quite heavily on its dominating the safety category. For consumers placing a top priority on safety, this brand stands out. In reality, many companies offer excellent occupant protection and just as many cutting-edge safety features.
Overall, the top brands excel in many areas and aren't as pigeonholed as the more single-factor-focused brands. Toyota and Ford, for instance, stand out in several categories, giving them strong overall scores. But across the board, competition for brand mindshare is tough.

Imagine This! Self-Driving Cars a Reality by 2025 Says Major Parts Supplier Continental

Traffic, inclement weather and road construction add up to headaches and frustration for motorists. According to automotive supplier company Continental the typical driver spends an average 50 minutes per day commuting to work. Add it up and that’s roughly 300 hours per year that could be spent doing more productive things.

Autonomous driving or automated driving might be the solution to these problems and more. Like autopilot on an airplane, advanced driver-assistance systems can relieve motorists of the sometimes-tedious, oftentimes-stressful task of driving.
In an effort to lead the industry, Continental is investing heavily in this Star Wars-grade technology. In 2013 alone the German corporation is set to spend 100 million Euros (approximately $133 million) on research and development for advanced driver-assistance systems. Additionally, they already have about 1,300 specialists working on hardware and software to make it a reality.
The company already offers a comprehensive suite of technologies that reduce the burden of driving – things like adaptive cruise control, emergency brake assist and lane-departure warning, all stepping stones on the road to automatic driving.

According to Continental, the road to self-driving vehicles will come in three stages. The first is partially automatic driving. An example of this is a vehicle operating by itself at low speeds in stop-and-go traffic. Their system is expected to work up to 18 miles an hour and would be able to control a vehicle’s acceleration and braking, bringing it to a stop and starting it again as needed. The driver still has to steer, but pedal modulation is controlled by the system. Representatives say a version of this technology could reach the market as early as 2016.
This system builds on what’s already available today. Adaptive cruise-control generally works at high speeds though only a very few systems are capable of stopping a vehicle and restarting it again. These systems also only work for stops of less than three seconds, after which the driver must tap the gas pedal to re-engage the system. During the entire period, it’s still the driver’s responsibility to steer and accelerate from a stop, though.

The next step for Continental is highly automatic driving, which can handle greater speeds and more complex situations than partially automatic systems. Automated steering at both low and high speeds would be part of this system. It’s projected to hit the market around 2020.
Finally, fully automated driving is expected to arrive about five years after that. This technology could control a vehicle on a long road trip for instance, freeing the driver to do other things like reading the newspaper or checking e-mail.
But convenience isn’t the only reason automated driving makes sense, safety is just as important. According to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in 2011 a little more 32,000 people died in vehicle crashes in the United States. The good news is that’s the lowest it’s been since 1949, the bad news is it works out to about 89 fatalities every day.

Honda recently debuted its own autonomous driving systems with the goal of zero collisions, though the Japanese automaker’s plan includes both car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications.
There’s no question, automation can help save lives, but it has to be implemented properly. “Guaranteed road safety at the highest level is the indispensable basis on which automated driving must be built,” said Dr. Elmar Dagenham, Chairman of the Executive board of Continental. He also said “that means the architecture must be failsafe so that, in case of a malfunction, the vehicle will remain safe to drive.”

Of course to enable automatic driving vehicles will have to be equipped with a battery of sensors and microchips, but there are other technologies in development as well. According to Continental, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication will play a crucial role in the future of self-driving cars.
Continental has already estimated when various automatic driving technologies will reach the market but what about the cost? The estimated price tag for one of these systems is between $2,500 and $3,000, but there are so many variables it’s virtually impossible to name a figure at this time. But one thing’s for certain, automated driving systems are coming, and a lot sooner than some people realize.

2013 Jaguar ...Luxury at its Best

Jaguar XJ Interior

XF Sportbrake Center Console

XJ Ultimate Rear Seats

The Jaguar XF is a four-door luxury sport sedan with an appealing exterior, top class interior, and premium technology. With a new and diverse powertrain lineup for 2013, the XF will definitely have appeal to a larger section of the automotive market.

We love The 2013 Ford Explorer!!

The 2013 Ford Explorer receives a new performance-oriented Sport trim level that features a turbocharged engine and sport-tuned suspension. All Explorers this year have a new front passenger knee airbag, while a heated steering wheel, a power tilt-and-telescoping steering column and lane-departure warning with lane-keeping assist are offered for the Limited trim level. The available xenon headlights now feature automatic high-beam control.

it has an Upscale cabin; abundant high-tech features; excellent ride/handling balance; excellent crash test safety scores and an available fuel-efficient turbocharged four-cylinder.

Take the first look at the 2013 Range Rover Luxury SUV

 The Range Rover SUV is crucial for Land Rover as it's not only the model that best defines the brand, but it’s also the one that most of Land Rover’s other vehicles are based on. Models like the Range Rover Sport, LR4 (Discovery) and LR2 (Freelander) all share their basic design and technology with the Range Rover, so as you can expect engineers have a lot of pressure resting on their shoulders developing the next-gen model.

 The vehicle looks to be slightly longer than the current model, with its roofline considerably lower as well. This should result in lower drag and a smaller overall look. The new headlights will also feature a cluster of LED daytime running lights as revealed in some of the spy shots.