The sixth generation of the BMW 3 Series celebrated its debut in Munich last Friday. The whole world was able to attend the presentation in the BMW plant and BMW Welt live, via Facebook. The BMW Group’s most important volume model will be taking off at the beginning of February 2012. The launch campaign for the new BMW 3 Series underlines the sportily dynamic positioning of the vehicle, coupled with maximum efficiency and impressive design. Across all sales channels, the campaign consistently shows sportiness and passion as the central themes.

The first online measures can already be viewed at www.bmw.com and www.facebook.com/bmw. The online description on the BMW website provides all the information about the vehicle. Alongside details about the design of the vehicle, handling, … CONTINUED

BMW M division’s top development head, Albert Biermann, in a recent interview, lets known that the M division has aspirations to develop its own car, instead of just models based on production series. In this interview, he also discusses briefly about alternative powertrains for M models.

Here is the first look at the BMW M3 DTM decked out in full M Performance gear. It was revealed this evening, two days prior to the car’s debut at the season ending DTM event at Hockenheim.

Speaking at the event, BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt, revealed that “The car’s aerodynamics were developed in close collaboration with the engineers from series production. The BMW Group boasts impressive resources in this field and the wind tunnels are ultra-modern. This – and the Title Partner BMW M Performance Accessories – shows that the entire company is behind the 2012 DTM project and is working hard towards it… Old-school DTM fans will recognize from the typical BMW M stripes that the appearance is based on the original BMW M3 cars … CONTINUED

Tiff Needell of Fifth Gear pits the two 335bhp little german beasts head to head in this latest comparo featuring the BMW 1M coupe against its direct rival. Joining Tiff in the battle is Mark Higgins

In the future, whenever that may be, a consortium of automakers have envisaged “car-to-x”, a system which allows communication between cars via a mini WIFI network. Not only would the cars communicate with each other, they could also communicate with traffic signs, traffic signals, bridges, tolls and even dangerous roads. BMW has now joined the party, with the primary intent of using car-to-x for vehicle safety and efficiency.

The basis of the car-to-x network is usually a WLAN network, which is run on open standards between a consortium of automakers, and has been under development for over a decade. The consortium wants to create a brand agnostic system in the end.

The system itself does present some interesting real world use examples. For instance, the system could have … CONTINUED

Autocar UK is out of the gates with a short driving review of the new MINI Coupe JCW.

The review itself is a mixed bag with compliments given for the car’s steering and body rigidity as well as the unique interior and exterior elements. The mixed bag part comes in the fact that Autocar wasn’t a fan of the suspension as it was deemed to harsh.

Here’s more F80 M3 renders, in many colors - Melbourne Red, Singapore Gray, Black Sapphire, Carbon Black, Havana, and Estoril Blue II.

Albert Biermann, the Head of Product Development for BMW M Division, spoke recently in an interview about some hot F10 M5 topics.

First, Mr. Biermann finally puts to rest the speculation of a potential all-wheel-drive model for the F10 M5, which he says is a no-go for the F10 model, but leaving open the possibility for future M models.

He then discussed manual transmission for the F10 M5, confirming that it is coming to the US next year, but also hinting that manual transmission will eventually not be offered in future models.

We’re thrilled to post the world’s first photos of the F32 3 series (or 4 series) coupe! Despite the heavy camouflage you can see a very sleek and sporty design. As usual for BMW coupes, there are frameless windows and a B-pillar for structural rigidity. There’s a lot of camouflage around the rear windows so the shape of the window or the famous Hofmeister kink can’t be made out yet.

We expect the F32 to get the same engines as the just-unveiled F30 3 series sedan, i.e. the 4-cylinder turbo engine in the 28i and the 6-cylinder turbo 35i. As the F32 is supposed to take on a more upmarket image than the F30, perhaps BMW will offer a higher output for the 35i. Just speculation for … CONTINUED