Here is another F30 3-series render, courtesy of Bimmer Magazine. The front front fascia’s more upright stance and lower bumper borrows from the current 5 and 7-series bumper. We hope the headlights come out as sleek as the ones in this render.

The BMW Group UK has scooped seven awards from one of the country’s leading fleet publications. Business Car magazine has honoured the BMW Group with the headline accolade of ‘Manufacturer of the Year’, for the third year in a row, in recognition of BMW’s diverse product portfolio and class-leading running costs.

The title ‘Business Car of the Year’ was awarded to the new BMW 5 Series for its combination of superior build quality, driving dynamics and class-leading economy, while ‘Green Car of the Year’ was scooped by the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics.

Continuing on from their success in 2010 the BMW X5 was again named ‘Large 4×4 of the year’, the BMW 3 Series took home ‘Upper Medium Car of the Year’ for the second year in a … CONTINUED

Usually, there’s merely two options if you want a car, buy or lease. Automobilwoche now reports that BMW is considering a different approach for their Mega City Vehicle. BMW Board Member Ian Robertson mentioned with Automobilwoche that the Car-to-go program Daimler runs to rent out Smart vehicles on a short-term basis was “quite an interesting approach.” Referring to the Mega City Vehicle, he went on: “We don’t want to sell the car but its use.” BMW will test a similar approach in another model this year, likely the 1-series Active E.

This consideration makes sense as the technology used for the Mega City Vehicle makes for such tremendous development and production costs that it would be either too expensive to buy and lease or not profitable. Another … CONTINUED

Sad news for the M3post community. Fellow member Daniel Portela (Lucifer_m3) was killed in an accident involving his M3. Sadly, alcohol was involved. Daniel, of West Palm Beach had left the Player’s Club Bar and Restaurant in his BMW M3 series and headed northbound on South Shore Boulevard, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s report.

Portela, who was wearing his seat belt, could not “negotiate” a curve and lost control, said Sgt. John Churchill of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The car turned clockwise, made it on to the median and continued sideways until it stuck a tree, which split the car in half, the report stated.

The front half of the car continued to slide on the median until it struck a second tree, … CONTINUED

An important figure for M-cars is always its weight. No surprise there seeing as how weight is such a crucial component of how well (or poorly) a car performs. The lucky folks at Axis of Oversteer have managed to get their hands on the first 1M coupe on American soil. Their independent weighing of the 1M coupe with a full tank of gas resulted in reading of 3,351 pounds, really a rather impressive number given the specs of this car and the weight of the most new model cars.

This particular 1M coupe is the one spotted earlier today, heading from New Jersey to Daytona, Florida to serve as the pace car for the 24 Hours of Daytona race this weekend.

Yet another victory for the F10 5-series. ADAC, the German equivalent of AAA, held its annual car of the year contest called “Gelber Engel”. More than 230,000 ADAC members participated and picked their favourite new car 2011. The winner: BMW’s F10 5-series. As suprising this may sound, but this is a first for BMW as no other BMW model could win this price before. Among the contenders were the new Mercedes CLS and the Audi A1 which finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

We have posted the full official technical specifications of the 2011 X3 xDrive28i, xDrive35i, xDrive20d, and xDrive30d - including specs related to body, engine, transmission, performance, electrical, safety, connectedrive, and efficient dynamics. See inside.

Japanese tuner house 3DDesign has officially released its E89 Z4 M-sport product line. The aero kit package includes CF Addon Front Spoiler, CF Side Skirts, and CF Quad Rear Diffuser.

East Coasters keep your eyes peeled on I-95 today! A 1M coupe has taken to I-95 (southbound) for long-distance highway test and break-in. This is the first that a fully undisguised 1M coupe has been seen and photographed in public.