2004 Bmw X3; Sharp And Clean! Low Reserve! on 2040-cars

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KBB 2013 Brand Image Awards has some obvious and oddball winners

The sixth edition of the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards have crowned a wide range of winners - in a couple of cases the recipient of the laurels might say more about KBB users than they do about the actual winner. Compiled from the responses of more than 12,000 shoppers on KBB.com over the past year, there are 13 categories broken into non-luxury, luxury and truck segments "representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public."
The award categories have been revamped this year, with some dropping off, some new ones appearing and at least one other given a new term. What isn't surprising is that Honda won Most Trusted Brand for the second year running, Best Value Brand for the third year in a row and took Best Overall Brand, which wasn't on last year's list of awards.
On our own shores, in the non-luxury categories Chrysler got Most Refined Brand and Buick took Best Value Luxury Brand. Neither one of those marques won anything in last year's Brand Image Awards, while Cadillac, which won Best Interior Design Brand and Best Comfort Brand last year - those awards disappeared this year - went home without a single accolade.

BMW ponders increase in i3 production capacity on early demand

The 2014 BMW i3 is not slated to hit US showrooms until the second quarter of next year, but the response BMW has received for the all-electric hatchback has been positive enough that the automaker is already considering boosting production capacity. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that more than 8,000 customers have reserved an i3 so far, which is high, especially considering that BMW only planned to sell 10,000 i3s total in 2014.
Talking to BMW CFO Friedrich Eichiner, the report says that if the demand holds for the i3, BMW would increase capacity accordingly. The i3 goes on sale next month in Germany before a global roll out in the US, China and Japan, and with a starting price of $41,350, it is priced slightly higher than current small plug-in vehicles offered in the US like the Chevy Volt, Ford Focus Electric and Toyota Prius Plug-in, though features more use of advanced, lightweight materials.

Old vs. new debate gets new life with $25,000 Fiesta ST vs. E46 M3 showdown

You know who you are. There's probably a few of you reading; the ones that say, "Why would I spend $27,000 on a new Mazda MX-5 when I could get a used Chevrolet Corvette with more power." Yes, we're talking to you, used car proponents. While it is a fair argument, it's not like used cars don't come with drawbacks of their own, though.
In an attempt to put this new-versus-used argument to bed once and for all, Matt Farah of the The Smoking Tire has picked up a pair of $25,000 cars - a used, but lightly modified, 2003 BMW M3 and a 2013 Ford Fiesta ST. Naturally, there's a comparison.
Farah, as he's wont to do, does get into the nitty gritty of what each car is like to drive, and discusses the merits of used and new-car shopping. But as he rightly points out while testing the M3, "So, it is a good car. But like any used car, it really does depend on the individual car."