Looking for a BMW Car ?

If you're looking for a BMW, you might take this notes for consideration.

For only the second time in four generations of the performance-oriented M3 - and for the first time in 13 years - BMW is to offer a four-door version. With the added practicality of this body style, BMW hopes the car will appeal to a new range of buyers.

Under the hood will be the same 4.0-liter V-8 engine as in the coupe, developing 420 hp at 8300 rpm. It's a light-alloy block manufactured alongside BMW's Formula One engines and weighs 445 pounds, 33 pounds less than the six-cylinder engine in the previous-generation M3.

The engine redlines at 8400 rpm, but to highlight the real-world driving flexibility of the engine, 85 percent of the torque is available over an engine range of 6500 rpm. Power is transferred to the road by BMW M's six-speed manual gearbox and variable differential. This conveys up to 100 percent of available power to the wheel with most grip.

The newcomer will hit 62 mph in 4.9 seconds - only 0.1 seconds slower than the coupe - before going onto a limited top speed of 155 mph. It's also equipped with BMW's latest 'EfficientDynamics' technology, including Brake Energy Regeneration. However, the carbon-fiber roof panel from the coupe is being ditched. BMW's official fuel consumption figure for the sedan is 22.8 mpg on the combined European cycle.

Like the coupe, the sedan features 18-inch Dark Graphite double-spoke alloy wheels as standard, with a forged-and-polished 19-inch wheel available as an option. Another BMW M trait, the side gill in the front wing, has been elongated for the saloon, mirroring the design from the M5. And at the rear twin double exhaust pipes protrude from beneath the valance.

It's price may be high enough, but I'm betting that for every penny you spent on this baby is worth it.

Are you Sporty enough for a KIA Sportage

Close your eyes and try for a moment to picture the Kia Sportage. Tough isnt it? I write about cars for a living and my recall is patchy. Its like trying to remember how an old song goes with a different track playing in the background. Try as I might, I keep coming up with either a previous generation Toyota RAV-4 or a Suzuki Grand Vitara.

The Sportage itself slips from the memory as if it were coated with so much Teflon. In a bid to make the Sportage more memorable, Kia went back to the drawing board and returned with the current facelifted version.The underpinnings of the Sportage are the same as those of Hyundais Tucson 4x4 which is no great handicap. In fact, the Kia inherited a decent tarmac biased chassis with either two-wheel-drive or part time four-wheel-drive and some modest off road ability - a perfect set-up, in other words, for the target market. Kias credibility when it comes to building 4x4s has been boosted enormously by the excellent Sorento family 4x4 and the smaller Sportage augments this reputation. Its a vehicle with a very different focus to its predecessor. That car was surprisingly capable off-road but felt unsophisticated on it. The current car is at its best on the tarmac with a modicum of ruggedness thrown in for light off-road jaunts, which is just how like their compact 4x4s. With tweaks to the styling introduced on the latest car, it looks well capable of making an impact. Power is supplied by one of three engines. The overwhelming majority of buyers will pick either the 2.0-litre petrol engine or the 2.0-litre CRDi diesel but there is also a 2.7-litre V6 petrol alternative for those with deeper pockets and a hunger for extra power. Of the two 2.0-litre units, the petrol has fractionally more horsepower with 140bhp to the CRDis 138bhp but its the oil-burner that feels more forceful with 305Nm of torque between 1,800rpm and 2,500rpm. This slug of pulling power arrives all at once so smoothness and flexibility arent particular strong points of the CRDi engine but it feels significantly more muscular than the petrol which delivers 184Nm at 4,500rpm. The V6 has 173bhp and is the only engine that makes the Sportage anything approaching quick.

Show the Sportage a straight, well-surfaced road and it serves up a good standard of ride comfort and refinement. In the past, the problems tended to start when the going got twisty or the surface deteriorated. The recent facelift aimed to address this however and the current models feature revised dampers as well as a tweaked power steering system. The ride has grown firmer and that helps the Sportage resist body roll when cornered vigorously its also less liable to become unsettled over bumps in the road.

The Sportage adopts a few MPV-style practicality features. The rear seat cushion and the backrest are a case in point, adopting Kia’s Fold and Dive system. Whilst it may sound like a tactic taught by Argentinean football coaches, it is in fact a method of creating a spacious, square-sided and completely flat cargo area. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to house extra long loads and at the back there’s even a flip-up rear window which means that items can be dropped into the luggage area without having to open the tailgate.

The compact 4x4 sector has exploded of late with virtually every mainstream manufacturer having cobbled together an entrant of some description. Despite the improvements made, the Sportage still campaigns at the lower end of this market offering value for money and lots of equipment in a competently engineered package. With most of the entrants into this sector aiming quite a bit higher than the Sportage, it could easily carve out a profitable niche for itself by undercutting the major players and appealing to family buyers on a budget. Sportage diesel buyers expecting to recoup the extra outlay they’ve made to upgrade from the 2.

With other mainstream compact 4x4s growing progressively bigger and more expensive, the Kia Sportage has remained close to its roots at the lower end of the market sector. Even the latest facelift has done little to enliven its appearance but the Kia appeals on a different level to the fashionable offerings at the opposite end of the compact 4x4 spectrum and there’s something to be said for keeping things low key in the current anti-4x4 climate. With its industry-leading warranty and strong value proposition, the Sportage is an uncomplicated sort. It should prove that there’s a ready market out there for an average compact 4x4 at an eye-catching price.

Secrets for a New Looking Car

Your Car Looks Like New. What's Your Secret?

"It looks like new! I would have never guessed that car was Ten years old."

That is what we owners want to hear, but keeping our cars looking like the late models is tough, even with today's long-lasting finishes. Dents, dings and cracked glass are several items that age the appearance of a vehicle. Fortunately, technology has helped advance the solutions to these problems, making the fixes quicker and less expensive. With mobile repair units, these items often can be repaired on site at your home or work, adding to the convenience.

Many types of door dents or small dings are fixed without sanding, filler or painting, preserving the integrity of the vehicle's original factory finish. Technicians use specially designed tools that allow them to access the problem and actually massage it out. If paint touch-ups are required, the technology is available to match your vehicle and repair scratches, minor chips and blemishes on most surfaces. There are a couple of factors that have an effect on the success of this process:
The location of the dent on the car is important. For example, a dent on the edge of a door, trunk or hood probably can't be fixed using this process.

If there is paint damage or scrapes across multiple panels, this may indicate that the damage is too severe, as the paint may crack as the dent is removed.

Like dents and dings, chipped cracked glass can also diminish the value of a car. However, the fix is not necessarily a new windshield. Seventy percent of all glass damage is repairable. Using resins that are constantly being improved, technicians not only can fix your glass, but also make it stronger. In addition, the resin can create a repair that is difficult to detect. This technology can be used to repair the following types of glass damage in automobiles: star breaks, combination breaks, bulls-eyes and cracks of any length.

Be sure to take your car to a Prestigious Repair Shop to avoid hassle.

Got a flat tire ?

A flat tire can create an immediate emergency situation, But there's another failure that must be addressed right away, a more insidious and subtle tire epidemic that's compromising both our tires and other areas of driving: underinflation.

It's true, a large percentage of the vehicles on the road are operated with underinflated tires, and this can cause all kinds of problems. For one thing, it takes more energy to roll a tire with less air pressure, so the engine needs to consume more fuel.

According to the American Automobile Association, underinflated tires can cut fuel economy by as much as 2 percent per pound of pressure below the recommended level. Underinflated tires also cause more heat to build up in the sidewalls. Heat is one of the primary enemies of tires, and excessive heat can cause the tire to fail prematurely or substantially shorten its service life, meaning you could be shelling out for new tires sooner than otherwise.

Additionally, tires with low air pressure are more sluggish in their response to steering input and suspension dynamics, compromising your vehicle's handling, which could become a safety issue.

So before you head out to the road, check your tire first.