April 7 at 12:46 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos
By Reuters
The efficient Mini was the car with highest percentage of women buyers. (Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty)
Men prefer their cars beefy or fast, while women go for lower price tags and higher miles per gallon, according to a survey released Thursday. TrueCar.com, which studied data from 8 million purchases in the United States last year, found BMW AG’s Mini had the highest percentage of female buyers at 48 percent, while 93 percent of buyers for Fiat SpA’s Ferrari were men.
“The study shows that women car buyers are more cost-conscious and purchased fuel-efficient vehicles while male buyers were completely the opposite, purchasing vehicles that were either big and brawny, like a large truck, or chose a high-priced, high-performance vehicle,” TrueCar analyst Jesse Toprak said in a statement. Get the full story »
Oct. 26, 2010 at 11:37 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Recalls
By Reuters
BMW AG said Tuesday that it would recall more than 150,000 vehicles in the United States due to the possibility of fuel pump failures.
BMW said some 130,000 of its 2007 to 2010 model year vehicles equipped with twin-turbo six-cylinder engines would be recalled for software updates and a potential replacement of a high-pressure fuel pump. Get the full story »
Oct. 1, 2010 at 10:01 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Recalls,
Updated
A Rolls Royce car at a showroom in London, Oct. 1, 2010. BMW is recalling some of its own brand and Rolls-Royce cars because of a potential braking problem. (Reuters/Paul Hackett)
Bloomberg News | BMW, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, said it’s recalling almost 350,800 BMW-brand and Rolls-Royce models worldwide to repair a power-brake system fault.
The voluntary recall involves fixing brake-pressure pumps on 345,000 BMW 5-, 6- and 7-Series models and 5,800 Rolls-Royce cars built from 2002 until 2010, Frank Strebe, a BMW spokesman, said today in a phone interview from the Paris Motor Show. The new version of the 5-Series sedan isn’t affected, he said.
The fault was detected when drivers complained that they needed to push harder on the brake pedal on cars with high mileage, Strebe said. The Munich-based carmaker is telling customers to bring in their vehicles as a “pro-active” measure, and that the fault poses no safety issue, he said, adding that he doesn’t have an estimate of the cost to BMW. Get the full story »
Sep. 7, 2010 at 12:01 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Energy
By Mary Jane Grandinetti
Ask Jim O’Donnell, president and chief executive of BMW North America, about the automaker’s plans for alt-fuel vehicles, and he assures that the luxury nameplate will be there — with the 5-Series passenger cars and X3 crossover front and center.
But he also is convinced that hybrids, electrics and any combination will remain niche markets rather than supplant internal combustion for autos for some time.
“The price of gas in Newark (N.J.) was $2.38 a gallon when I left to come here this morning,” said O’Donnell, in town for the BMW Golf Championship this week at Cog Hill in Lemont. “Without a substantial increase in that, the U.S. market is not going to turn to alternative fuel vehicles.” Get the full story »
July 2, 2010 at 3:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Investigations
By Associated Press
The government is opening investigations into possible power steering problems in Mazda3 and BMW Z4 cars.
The investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involve more than 290,000 Mazda3s from the 2007-2009 model years and nearly 50,000 Z4s from the 2003-2005 model years. Get the full story »
June 28, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Management,
Personnel moves
From Automotive News | Lotus Cars reportedly has talked to former GM product chief Bob Lutz and retired BMW executive Tom Purves about advising on its five-year plan.
