BMW Reviews & Ratings

2008 BMW M3 vs. 2008 Audi RS4

By Mike Solowiow
May 14, 2008 -

The fact that we’re even having this discussion tells you how far Audi’s come in the uber-sports sedan sweepstakes. Normally, this comparo would write itself. BMW M3 = driver’s car with super smooth, vicious punch. Audi RS4 = sure-footed supersonic GT with numb tiller. BMW fun. Audi fast. BMW wins. But since this contest was first mooted, The Boys from Bavaria have made the jump to V8 space, while Audi have finally figured-out how to make not dying entertaining. But has anything changed? 

2008 BMW M3 vs. 2008 Audi RS4 continued »

Posted in Audi | BMW | Car Reviews | 36 comments

2008 BMW M3 Review

By Jay Shoemaker
May 12, 2008 -

BMW enjoys vast reservoirs of consumer goodwill. How else can you explain the German automaker’s ability to flourish despite recent engineering and design faux pas? General Motors would have been a lot further along in its death spiral if it had introduced indigestible shapes, indelicate Bangle butts, interminable run-hard tires, unfathomable iDrive and the ubearable SMG transmission. And so, the M3. Does the new M3 Coupe restore the roundel’s rep, or does it signal another misguided attempt to perpetuate the ultimate driving “lifestyle?” 

2008 BMW M3 Review continued »

2008 BMW M3 rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 46 comments

2008 BMW 128i Convertible Review: Take Two

By Jonny Lieberman
May 5, 2008 -

My plan: drive the metallic blue BMW 128i Convertible down to San Diego. I could've clichéd down the coast, stopping off in Yorba Linda to do donuts in the parking lot of the Nixon Library. That's what a sensible person would do. But the true masochist always chooses the route less traveled. So, straight from the heart of Hollywood, I loaded up the Bimmer's minuscule trunk, saddled my semi-potent Deutsche-steed and set off through the seriously Lynchian Inland Empire. Unseasonably hot, 97-degree late-April weather be damned.

2008 BMW 128i Convertible Review: Take Two continued »

2008 BMW 128i Convertible rating summary and performance review: Take Two

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 33 comments

2008 BMW 128i Convertible Review

By Justin Berkowitz
May 5, 2008 -

My biggest kvetch about the BMW 1-Series: price. When you compare the 1-Series to the more practical 3-Series, the cheaper 1 might as well have a bone through its nose and wear a Fine Young Cannibals T-shirt. Still, no one ever lost any money selling BMWs to well-heeled consumers whose desire for status trumps… everything. Given that the majority of the brand’s fan base are insensitive to matters of relative worth-- other than new hotness-- the drop-top 128i has less of a hill to climb than the rest of the “I’m-not-a-3-Series, not yet an icon” 1ers. So, does it?

2008 BMW 128i Convertible Review continued »

2008 BMW 128i Convertible rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 19 comments

2008 BMW 135i vs. 335i Review

By Mike Solowiow
April 21, 2008 -

After testing BMW 135i and 335i coupes back-to-back, I can reveal that there are only two good reasons to purchase the smaller, cheaper car. Either you need a track day machine or you're an idiot. Otherwise, spend the extra bucks and buy the 335i coupe. The 335i coupe is more attractive, more enjoyable to drive, holds its value better and offers far more real road usability than the 135i. If BMW had made the 135i as a lightweight, no-frills, Bahn-burning turbo rocket ship, they would have created a truly unique, desirable automobile. But they didn't.

2008 BMW 135i vs. 335i Review continued »

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 65 comments

2008 BMW 135i Review

By Justin Berkowitz
April 11, 2008 -

History is bunk. Although cars like the Jaguar XK120, Shelby Mustang and Porsche 911 have become legends, their modern equivalents offer far superior driving dynamics. And greater reliability. And safety. But it is their "soul" that resonates: the combination of icnoclastic style and man - machine zeitgeist. So when enthusiasts (and BMW PR) started comparing the new 135i to Bimmer's venerable 2002, expectations were sky high. The reality is more like a fat guy limbo dancing under a pole raised six feet off the ground.

2008 BMW 135i Review continued »

2008 BMW 135i rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 169 comments

2009 BMW X6 Review

By Jonny Lieberman
April 7, 2008 -

To understand the new X6, you must go back a few years to the 2001 X Coupe Concept. This was the first time the world got a look at BMW's vision of a jacked-up sports car that "deliberately questioned existing preconceptions." Nothing whatsoever made it from the concept to the production X6-- save a bit of flame surfacing and the chutzpah necessary to give well-heeled motorheads what they didn't know they needed: a jacked-up five thousand pound, four-door, four-seat, all-wheel-drive sports car.

2009 BMW X6 Review continued »

2009 BMW X6 rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 131 comments

BMW 650i Review

By Jay Shoemaker
November 21, 2007 -

Journalists on this site have complained about how ugly and technologically complex recent BMWs have become. To that list I would also add a jarring ride, an overly aggressive throttle tip-in and jerky transmissions. Don’t get me wrong. In the main, the propeller people’s products still do exactly what it says on the tin: ultimate driving. But these defects make it difficult to drive most Bimmers smoothly, as one can an equivalent Mercedes, Audi or Cadillac (CTS). So when my BMW buddy nagged me to check out the 2008 650i coupe, I wondered: why bother?

BMW 650i Review continued »

BMW 650i rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 53 comments

BMW Z4 Review

By Justin Berkowitz
October 31, 2007 -

BMW’s next big thing is the 1-Series coupe and convertible. Propellerheads are positively dizzy at the prospect of a new, small-ish, rear wheel-drive BMW offering a modicum of practicality, brand-faithful weight distribution and one of the company’s legendary in-line six-cylinder engines. Why it’s the 2002 reborn! Hello? Has the entire enthusiast community been neuralized? They seem to have forgotten the fact that BMW already sells a model answering to this description: the Z4 Coupe. Or, in fact, doesn’t, much. And for good reason: the Z4 is a rolling condemnation of BMW’s evolutionary commitment to ultimate driving, a four-wheeled cautionary tale for anyone blinded by the BMW badge. 

BMW Z4 Review continued »

BMW Z4 rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 60 comments

X5 4.8i Review

By Justin Berkowitz
July 16, 2007 -

The vast majority of today’s SUVs and CUVs share the same modus operandi. They’re good for a bus, bad for a car. They’re thirsty, overpriced, overweight and over here. Most now come complete with a market-mandatory third row that’s as about useful as a werewolf at Trader Vic’s. So when I read BMW’s characteristically modest tagline for their new X5 SUV CUV SAV on their official website-- “Room for everything except improvement”-- I considered myself an honorary Missourian. Ultimate driving machine on stilts? Show me.

X5 4.8i Review continued »

X5 4.8i rating summary and performance review

Posted in BMW | Car Reviews | 44 comments