Here we are back with Nokia`s HERE Maps service being recently purchased by the joint venture BMW, Audi and Daimler, for a whopping $3.1 billion, each one holding equal share in the mapping service.

In case you missed out the latest news, Nokia has had a hard bargain with other media mammoths like Facebook, asking around $ 4 billion for HERE mapping service, but finally closing the deal with the joint venture mentioned above.

The Nokia HERE maps will be the third major player on the infotainment market, competing against Google or Nokia, and providing mapping service and autonomous driving for about 200 countries.

Harald Kruger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW, stated in an interview that HERE will provide “high definition maps and data from vehicles to make travel safer and easier for everyone”, adding thus a greater value to the digtal revolutionary.

Google will have thus a tough competitor from HERE mapping services, especially since the later is holding around 80% of the navigation systems in Europe and North America, and still predicting to go higher, once it will close the deal at the beginning of 2016.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Nokia`s HERE Maps Acquisition Confirmed by Joint Venture BMW, Audi and Daimler appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

I have always loved drag races, especially when they involved powerful models, like a BMW, Porsche or an Audi. Well, we are back for the moment with another interesting drag race between BMW M5 and Audi RS6. But mind that we are not talking about ordinary models.

This particular BMW M5 seen here is not the stock model, is a specially tuned up version, powerful enough to deliver an impressive 700 horsepower, as opposed to the original one, which outputs “just” 560 horsepower. This power was achievable thanks to some engine mods.

We are talking here about some modifications carried out under the hood, meaning that this BMW M5 has been fitted with the Burger Motorsports ECU tune, the AMS downpipes, or the AFE air intake and carbon scoops. Of course that the mods don’t stop here. The M5 is sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds, with a DCT gearbox.

Let`s have a look at the Audi RS6, which has also received some slight tweaks. We are referring to an all-wheel drive layout and a heavier load than the BMW M5, with the sports car developing 690 horsepower. So we are looking here about a 50:50 win-win situation. With this power, the Audi RS6 is capable of reaching 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, which might seem faster than the M5. But to have right, you should join us for the drag race by clicking the play button!

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post What Would You Chose for a Drag Race – A BMW M5 or an Audi RS6? appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Three German based automaker are claiming the crown of the overall sales, concerning the premium segment, with the Audi and the Mercedes-Benz carmakers to follow the top leader BMW, by just an inch.

The two luxury German carmakers are quickly and closely following BMW, as the latter is only showing a sales increase of around 10%, with 1.03 million cars, for last seven months.

The second place is taken by the Audi carmaker, with the company to grow its seven-month sales by 11%, meaning 1.01 million units to be sold.

From the third place, the Mercedes-Benz only managed to increase its deliveries for the same seven-month period by 13%, meaning 920,000 units sold.

But right now, the differences between the three uncrowned kings is extremely low and BMW will have to reflect on the gaps that are filled up by Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

Overall percentage, we are talking about an increase of 77,000 units in 2014 for BMW, 101,000 cars to be sold by Audi, while the Mercedes-Benz managed to sell around 100,000 units, compared to the same period last year.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Audi and Mercedes Tail BMW by just an Inch appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The BMW Group has been a top constant presence on the premium market worldwide, providing the best vehicles and it seems that 2014 is also a lucky number for the German automaker, as it still keeps the first place.

The BMW German based luxury automaker has just announced that last month the company managed to have record sales, with an overall 85% over the same period last year.

Thus, for the first quarter of 2014, the BMW manufacturer was ahead its competitors with around 11%, over the same period in 2013, reaching a total production of 569,100 units to be manufactured.

BMW managed the record sales due to the boost of the SUV lineup worldwide, like the X1, X3 and also the X5 range.

Ian Robertson, the sales chief at BMW stated in a press release that the German Group managed to have record sales in April, heading towards its plans of selling more than 2 million units for 2014.

With all that, the BMW Group must keep its head up, since the menace from the heavy competitors like Audi and Mercedes-Benz is still going on fast paces.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW Group Leads Ahead in the 2014 Premium Race appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The BMW is struggling to become the number one German automaker in the United States, against its tough competitors coming from the same country, namely Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

The plans involve building another factory in Mexico as well as manufacturing the US aimed models, in order to keep up with the demand.

The BMW automaker lost the battle for the US last year against Mercedes-Benz, which managed to bit up the company with 98,501 units to be sold from January to April.

Thus, the BMW lost with just 922 cars, with Audi coming in third place, with only 50,881 units sold for the same period.

On the other hand, BMW managed to sell 25,202 vehicles for the SUV and mid-size sedan markets, having an increase of 8.5% in April 2013.

The battle is still undergoing, as Daimler managed to pull record sales for the same period, with 25,887 vehicles sold, reaching thus an increase of 9.5%, due to the CLA models.

This year, BMW has changed its tactics, with number sales for the first quarter to be announced soon. We should expect a turn-over.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW Keeps Fire On in the US against German Competitors appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

According to the 6th annual Automotive News Europe/SupplierBusiness OEM-Supplier Relations Study the Bavarians at BMW AG are the automaker that most suppliers want to do business with.

This new survey shows that BMW rose to the top spot which if you consider that last year it ranked fifth.

VW was found to be the carmaker that applies the most pressure to drop the prices. BMW is trailed by Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen brand.

Toyota was the winner last year but due to the impact of the over 8.5 million vehicles being recalled over safety risks such as unintended acceleration and poor braking.

BMW’s feat of rising to the top can be seen as quite a turnaround. BMW has been slipping in this category since 2007, which is when BMW head of purchasing Herbert Diess was ordered to cut 4 billion euros the equivalent of $5.7 billion in costs by 2012.

Either way the recent progress at BMW is one that’s quite notable, even despite announcements of them joining forces with Mercedes to keep supplier costs in check. On a sidenote, VW was found to be the carmaker that applies the most pressure to drop the prices.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW is the automaker that most suppliers want to do business with appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Just as the title says, the Bavarians have won the fabled race that ended just hours ago with one of their new BMW M3 GT2’s run by Team Schnitzer.

The No. 25 BMW Team Schnitzer M3 GT2 of Jorg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen and Pedro Lamy was the car to finish first at the 2010 24 Hours of Nurburgring marking a great comeback to the event.

The offset of the race didn’t look too promising for team BMW as Porsche announced they were ready to make history with their hybrid and Audi had completely dominated the qualifying sessions taking the first four spots on the grid and a lap record.

In the end it turned out that Porsche’s Hybrid system great as it may be isn’t good enough to last a full 24 hours of racing and Audi… well they had lots of problems but we have a good right to feel smug as BMW fans that the Bavarians stuck it to the four ringed company once again.

In full admittance the BMW M3 GT2 was slightly slower than the top competitors but it was far more reliable despite some gearbox concerns towards the end and had backing from a very organised team that helped the car through a radiator change during the night.

The final results of the race were as follows:

1. 25 BMW M3 GT2 – 154 laps
2. 43 Ferrari F430 GTC +3:53.191
3. 97 Audi R8 LMS +1 lap
4. 76 BMW Z4 GT3 +2 laps
5. 102 Audi R8 LMS +2 laps
6. 20 Porsche GT3 Cup S +3 laps
7. 26 BMW M3 GT2 +4 laps
8. 18 Porsche GT3 Cup S +4 laps
9. 69 BMW Z4 GT3 +5 laps
10. 35 Porsche 997 GT3 +6 laps

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW wins at 24 Hours of Nurburgring appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW is the world’s largest luxury automaker, but it may be feeling Audi breathing down it’s neck which is why the Bavarian company announced a massive cost cutting program.

BMW will get some assistance from a partnership with Daimler AG’s, Mercedes-Benz unit, in order to significantly reduce spending on components and suppliers by $5.2 billion by 2012.

Mercedes may be a rival but BMW can’t really afford not to have this pact with the devil as the savings that are to be amounted boggle the mind.

In an interview for Bloomberg Herbert Diess, Director of BMW Motorrad, stated that the talks between BMW and Mercedes-Benz have lead to the creation of new projects over the past several months that will help both companies cut spending by about another 100 million euros a year by 2012.

Efficiency is always a key word within any BMW product and now it will be applied to the brand economy as well, BMW is looking into every cost lowering aspect and they will even be helping component suppliers improve efficiency as well as develop systems, such as start/stop technology, that they may be able to sell to other manufacturers.

It seems that BMW have realized that efficiency cannot be achieved just through high volume of sales and, according to Diess, new projects with Mercedes-Benz will lead to significant savings as well as technical advances.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW teams up with Mercedes in order to cut costs appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW fans have always found ways of revealing beautiful Photoshop concepts and not only, but the BMW M Concept is an example of how an R8 fighter should look like.

Who doesn’t love Audi R8 (especially the “power engine” lovers)? This beautiful concept was created by Idries Noah and it was specially designed to offer a better option for Audi R8, a car with 540 hp, 5.0 liter V10 engine and it was inspired by other amazing models like: Ferrari Dino, 250GTO and by many ideas from BMW’s M1 Hommage.

The “creator” of this beautiful model designed many of this M Concept elements being inspired by nature and by tuning elements, like the lateral sides, the rear and side view and modern front end. I really like what he did with its drawing and I think BMW design studio should have one talented designer like Idires Noah. Do you like it?

Source:[AutoBlog.com]

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW M Concept better than Audi R8 appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.