BMW Tops Competitors for 5th Consecutive Month

BMW continues to expand its lead in the US luxury car market against its main rivals Mercedes-Benz and Lexus. August was the fifth consecutive month in which the Munich-based carmaker was at the top spot with 20,815 deliveries, an increase of 6.5% compared to the same month of 2010.

On the contrary, Mercedes’ sales decreased by 1.9% in August, to 18,477 units while Lexus, which still suffers from the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, dropped even more, by 7% to 18,103 cars. Thus, it is almost certain that,after 11 years at the top, Lexus will be relegated to second or perhaps even third place among luxury car manufacturers.

“This has been a very strange August for our industry, with both difficult news and unfortunate events –consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricanes and floods in the Northeast”, said head of BMW North America, Jim O’Donnell.

Despite this, BMW expanded its sales lead from the beginning of the year with a 12% increase, delivering 155,929 units. Its August sales were boosted considerably by the 41% increase in 5-Series deliveries and by the new X3, which almost tripled its sales, from 892 cars in 2010 to 2,382 this year.

Mercedes-Benz' year-to-date sales have also increased, albeit at half the rate (6.1%) to 148,409 units and Lexus, as we said, faced a sharp decrease of 17% to 120,652 cars.

Analysts, such as TrueCar’s Jesse Torpak, comment that the increased incentive spending has also contributed to BMW’s rise: “They are being aggressive: $299 a month for a 3-Series versus what you’re going to get for an Accord? Of course you’re going to get a BMW. It is selling down its inventory before offering a new version next year, as well as trying to secure the sales race victory over Mercedes.”

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Video: Canadian Police Confiscate 13 Supercars after Youngsters Speed Race

Ocean’s 13 got away with stealing diamonds, earning millions of cash and ruining their adversary’s life. British Columbia’s 13, 12 young men and one woman, all under 21 years old, got away with racing each other, reaching speeds of over 125 mph (200 km/h) on a metro Vancouver highway with a $196 fine each.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that the cars impounded had a combined value of $2 million. These are the supercars that were temporarily seized: 

2007 Ferrari 599

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

2010 Lamborghini Gallardo

2009 Lamborghini Gallardo

2009 Audi R8

2012 Nissan GT-R

2010 Nissan GT-R

2010 Nissan GT-R

2010 Maserati Turismo

2010 Maserati Turismo

2011 Mercedes SL63

2011 Mercedes SLS

2005 Aston Martin DB9

According to a police report, two drivers would block traffic behind them by running side-by-side clearing the road ahead, while the rest would race each other.
“These drivers seemed to be looking for attention. Well, they definitely got the attention of the police” commented Lower Mainland District Regional Police Service spokeswoman, Cpl. Holly Marks.
However, the 13 offenders, of which only was the registered owner of the vehicle he was driving, will get away just with the ticket after being charged with “driving without reasonable consideration.” That’s because they didn’t actually get caught on the act, but the police acted on reports based from eye witnesses.
According to the Vancouver Star, if the police had been able to charge them with more sever offenses, they could have forfeited their vehicles!
Now, the young drivers will only have to pay the ticket and the costs of towing and storing their cars, which were impounded for seven days.
Guess when you drive a 599 Fiorano, a Gallardo or an SLS AMG, after this punishment you’ll just laugh your way to the impound yard…
Story sources: CNN & Vancouver Star

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Mercedes b class

Mercedes b class

Mercedes b class

 Mercedes b class

Mercedes b class

With this new vehicle concept, Mercedes-Benz is once again asserting its role as the trendsetter among car brands and preparing the way for a young market segment with a promising future. The Sports Tourer meets the wishes of today’s motorists for a car with generous space, exemplary comfort, excellent practicality, an exciting design and a high level of driving pleasure. The new B-Class takes the advantages of different vehicle concepts and combines them into an interesting and distinctive profile of its own: as a Compact Sports Tourer, the B-Class is a touring, family and recreational vehicle with incomparable added experience value in terms of design and dynamism.

One of the major advantages of the Compact Sports Tourer is the sandwich concept developed by Mercedes-Benz. Thanks to the space-saving arrangement of the engine and transmission partly in front of and partly beneath the passenger cell, the new B-Class offers the interior spaciousness of larger saloons and estate cars despite its compact external dimensions. The body has a length of 4270 millimetres, corresponding to the compact car class. Inside, however, the new Mercedes model offers more than other cars of comparable size in this segment in all comfort-related respects, e.g. shoulder-room, legroom and headroom.

Occupants in the rear benefit from the long wheelbase (2778 millimetres); this allows a distance between seats and generous kneeroom which almost matches that in the S-Class.

The B-Class also reaches new dimensions where variability and load capacity are concerned. Thanks to a height-adjustable load compartment floor, an asymmetrically divided, folding and removable rear seat unit plus an optionally removable front passenger seat, the Compact Sports Tourer is quickly and easily converted from a comfortable touring car to a practical van. Depending on the number and position of the seats, the load capacity can be increased from 544 to up to 2245 litres (with rear seats and front passenger seat removed). This corresponds to the load capacity of large estate cars. The maximum loading length is 2.95 metres.

Mercedes S63 AMG + Rodas aro 20"

Mercedes S63 AMG + Rodas aro 20"

Mercedes GLK Urban Concept Design

The Mercedes GLK Urban Whip features LED lights, a 64mm lowered ride height, 26" Asanti AF 150 chrome wheels with custom black accents and front and rear Brembo performance brakes. For the interior of the Mercedes GLK Urban Whip, Boulevard Customs worked with Mark Kraus and John Lancaster and used black and white color theme with diamond-stitched and perforated leathers.

Mercedes-Benz GLK Urban WhipThe most outstanding feature of the Urban Whip is that it does have a roof. While the original brief required the design to preserve the structural reliability of the GLK, the powerful appearance of the custom-built wide-body kit, which was designed in collaboration with RoBrady Design, made the roadster enticement quite difficult to refuse. Boulevard forwarded models of its roadster concepts to Mercedes-Benz USA and approval was quickly received. Collaborating with NBS Performance, Boulevard detached the roof, reduced windshield height and put in the essential structural bracing to produce a roadster with superficial changes to the door tops

It is a design study exploring a new type of vehicle that offers a luxury experience in a diminutive size which compact dimensions with the design, features and technology for which Cadillac is known.

Cool Mercedes GLK Diesel Concept

Good news for pengggemar SUV on the American mainland. Those who had been longing for a fuel efficient SUV, now Mercedes will soon realize it by introducing a more economical GLK. While most manufacturers are considering the hybrid and electric vehicles, the Mercedes instead is considering a diesel version of the GLK crossover to the U.S. market.

Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Ernst Lieb, said in an interview to wardsauto, that indeed the U.S. market will see a diesel version, as an attractive vehicle in 2012. The new GLK will use the engine capacity of 2200 cc four-cylinder is also likely to be used by the C-class next generation.

GLK 220 CDI Blue Efficiency is available now in Europe has a power of 170 hp at 3200 rpm and 400 Nm of torque starting as high as 1400 rpm engine speed. With such power, enough to make the GLK reach top speed to 205 km / h, and can sprint from 0 to 100 km / h sprint in 8.8 seconds.