Jalopnik: BMW 3 Series

Facelift On 2009 BMW 3-Series Officially Minor

Ben Wojdyla — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:20:00 EDT

We're struggled to spot the differences between the beaten-with-a-broom-handle good looks of the 2008 BMW 3-series sedan and wagon and the just-revealed facelift of the 2009 BMW 3-Series sedan and wagon. We've actually been struggling since the first spy photos revealed tape over the changed body parts. Now, after an exhaustive morning of "Spot The Difference"-like game play, we think we found the changes.

On the exterior — changes to the head lights and tail lights, and umm — oh yeah, they changed the profile of the curves on the bumper.

Now that we have the exterior details differentiating the old from the new out of the way, let's talk about the interior. The dash gets extra buttons to further imbue i-Drive with irrelevance. Along with those new buttons you get a bigger, brighter 8.8" screen and an optional 80 GB entertainment-storing hard drive. No changes have been made to the powertrain, so these and any other changes you're able to spot to the baby Bimmer's beauty treatment, only go skin deep. [World Car Fans]

BMW X3 Powetrain Mule Probably Cooler Than BMW X3

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:20:00 EDT

What can be said about the BMW X3 that we haven't already been through? It's a compact SUV which would be better off as a four-by-four station wagon, just as AMC showed us. Funny thing though when you're developing a new X3 to come out sometime before 2011, you may need to wrap the test power train in something other than the final sheetmetal — like the modified body of an E91 3-series station wagon. Another funny thing about the situation is the resultant car looks freakin' great! With this mule we're really beginning to wonder if the X3 wouldn't be better off this way. What do you think? [Bimmerfile]

Obsessive-Compulsively Documented BMW Sold For $900

Mark Arnold — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:30:00 EDT

A big selling point for older cars is documentation. Though for most used cars, the line "fully-documented" in a classified ad indicates a glovebox full of assorted receipts from Meineke, Discount Tire, and Jiffy Lube. But in the case of this 1987 BMW 325i, "fully-documented" is an understatement. The E30 came with all oil change and service invoices, the original motor vehicle purchase contract, sales brochures, accessories catalog, owners manual, a vintage catalog from Dinan tuning, a receipt indicating installation of a Dinan chip and H1/H4 headlight conversion, and a thick BMW factory repair manual in mint-condition. Oh, and one more thing...

The pièce de résistance of the old 3-series was a highly detailed notebook that has record of every single gas fill-up. That notebook is so exhaustively thorough that for each fill-up it includes the date, mileage, dollars spent, exact amount of gasoline pumped, and even the name of the gas station where it was filled. That is some seriously obsessive documentation. And to think, the car was sold for just $900. Basically, the car was free with the purchase of the records. [VWvortex member mixedpartsbmx]