Would you like to own a used Olympics BMW?

Some great news for all Beemer fans here in the UK. BMW plans to sell off most of their Olympic fleet cars. This includes the 320d and 700 520d EfficientDynamics as well as the new 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles, MINI E (electric vehicle) and 5 Series ActiveHybrids.

The great news is that there are more cars then their dealers here in the UK can distribute and more than 50% might go up for auction, where some lucky fellow might be able to get them at a bargain (or maybe not). No cofirmation yet as these are all rumours.

It's about time to upgrade my old car for a new one and a Beemer would be ideal. Not sure whether I can afford the Olympic cars even though they are used. I would love to try out the 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles or Minie Es.

An electric car is an option I am considering for my daily commute to work as we have free recharging points in our car park. I was really jealous when I learnt that several bloggers in Malaysia had been given Nissan Leaf cars to review for a few weeks. That's another car I would love to try out.

Read More

Bad news for BMW

As the Official Automotive Partner for the London 2012 Olympic, BMW has been taking full advantage of the association. However, a new report from Which? the UK consumer group, has some damning findings.

The BMW 3 Series Convertible and the BMW 5 Series Touring were listed among the top 5 cars likely to be off the road due to faults. The soft top convertible was listed as the worst spending nearly 3.5 days in the repair garage and it was also among the highest in terms of annual repair costs.

The best cars - i.e, cars with the least breakdowns are

1. Honda Jazz
2. Toyota Avensis
3. Suzuki Swift
4. Kia Picanto and the
5. Peugeot 107.

Read More

Sportiest Mini

There’s new exclusive MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS GP content on "The Source" app on Facebook.

Check it out

Read More

Hilarious Mini Orchestra

Minis play the British anthem.

Read More

Looking for classic car insurance

A couple of days back there was a story in the British press about a vintage Bugatti while had been found in a garage under piles of rubbish. Apparently the car is estimated to get about £100,000 in an auction. What is even more amazing is that the car is not even an authentic one but a good replica model Bugatti Type 51. This story shows the level of interest generated by some of these vintage models.

1931 Bugatti Type 51
Originally posted to Flickr by Brian Snelson

Some people collect really vintage models, spending time and money to maintain and keep them running. They even go to the extent of building new engines based on original plans as there are no one selling the replacement parts anymore.

However, the term "classic cars" can be very misleading. The AARP classic car insurance site defines these as those vehicles which are 10 or more years old and differentiates them from Antique auto which refer to autos more than 25 years old.

The great thing about driving cars more than five years old in the US is that you actually pay less car insurance as compared to newer cars.

So if you have 10 years or more old car, there are some great discounts out there and special offers which allows you to get even more affordable classic and antique Auto Insurance coverage.

Read More

Lesser impact of automotive sponsored events

According to newly released results of the 2012 Automotive Marketing Communications
Study, carried out by Foresight Research, the automotive research specialists, it was found that:

• Overall, 10% of new vehicle buyers in 2011 attended an automotive sponsored event in the 12 months prior to vehicle purchase (down from 13% in 2010).
• Overall, 5% of all new vehicle buyers were highly influenced in their purchase decision by an auto sponsored event, down significantly from 12% in 2010 and 10% in 2009. Among event attendees, however, 24% were highly influenced by the event they attended.
• Purchase incentives, previously the most influential element of events were less available or less enticing resulting in lower event influence on purchases.
• Buyers who participated in a ride and drive were influenced by the event at a 42% higher rate than those who did not participate in a ride and drive.
• Interestingly, Mitsubishi, Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Cadillac and Jeep buyers reported the highest purchase influence from events.

The study was based on interviews of 7,851 new vehicle buyers in the U.S.

Read More

Buying car tyres online

If you need tyres most people would usually go to the nearest tyre shop, choose one recommended by them and get it fitted. However, because of the current economic climate, an increasing number of people are searching for ways to get the best possible prices. The growth of the Internet has helped facilitate this process and it is not only possible to find the best prices but you can buy car tyres online and even search for a place to get them fitted.

It's time to get my tyres replaced and while searching for discount tyres, I recently came across the ValueTyres site which besides helping you find the best tyre prices via their competitor price checker tool, also has several helpful features like an online tyre size calculator to help you choose the right tyre and you have the choice of getting them delivered to your address or find a fitting centre in your area where you can take your car and get the tyres fitted.

If you are looking for great deals on tyres, check out the ValueTyres site.

Read More