BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo by Trussardi
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
Italian fashion house Trussardi celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion has teamed up with BMW for a special edition 5 Series Gran Turismo.
bmw 5 series gran turismo
Italian fashion house Trussardi celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion has teamed up with BMW for a special edition 5 Series Gran Turismo.
Mercedes-Benz To Build "Shooting Break" CLS
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
Mercedes Benz continues to try and redefine what is meant by a luxury coupe by greenlighting the "Shooting Break" for production, which means it will soon enter Mercedes showrooms slotted, price-wise, between the E-Class and CLS Class.
The car, which debuted at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show, has five doors with an actual rear cargo area. It will be built at Mercedes's Sindelfingen plant.
Traditionally, a "shooting brake" refers to a two-door extended-rear, coupe-based car. The term stems from the 19th century, and was a name given to carriages used to "break" in wild horses and restrict or "brake" their urge to move, so that they would be good work horses.
The MB Shooting Break concept includes LED headlamps, a panoramic glass sunroof, a full-length center console, plus a custom leather appointed luggage compartment with a wooden floor. Under the hood is a new 3.5-liter direct-injection V-6 with 306 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. This engine is from the automaker's new "MoVe" family of engines, which feature direct injection and turbocharging technologies.
The idea of the car is probably to counter-act BMW's 5 Series Gran Turismo, which has been widely criticized for somewhat gawky styling.
Review: 2010 BMW 550i Gran Turismo, Ultimate Riding Machine
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
2010 BMW 550i Gran Turismo – Click above for high-res image gallery
Last year's introduction of the BMW 5 series Gran Turismo marked the entrance into yet another mark segment for the Munich based automaker. It was immediately apparent that this machine was quite unlike anything ever to carry the blue and white roundel before and most observers were not immediately impressed when they first laid eyes on it.
However like Porsche's Panamera, this machines shape was driven more by function than style. While BMW's tag-line since the mid-1970s has been "The Ultimate Driving Machine" the new Gran Turismo is more like the ultimate driven machine. This is a car shaped more for the passengers than the person sitting behind the wheel. It's also a machine with no shortage of technology throughout. With this change in emphasis, is it now less of a driving machine?
Photos Copyright ©2010 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
Lexus, Infiniti Not Currently Planning BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo Competitors
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
BMW 535i Gran Turismo – Click above for high-res image gallery
Depending on who you ask, BMW is either at the forefront of an exciting new automotive genre with the 5 Series Gran Turismo, or is inventing market segments with no real purpose other than to grab several thousand new sales from those who simply must be seen in the latest trendy niche. In other words, the 5 Series GT is nothing if not polarizing.
For now, it seems that you can put such luxury brands Lexus and Infiniti in the latter camp, though fellow upmarket Japanese automaker Acura is headed down a similar path as its German counterpart with the new ZDX – at least with regard to the X6. Speaking to Auto Observer at the New York Auto Show, Ben Poore, Nissan North America's vice president of the Infiniti business unit, said, "What [we are] seeing is a much stronger preference (among consumers) for a trunk."
Granted, some may see little difference between such vehicles as the 5 Series GT and Infiniti's own EX and FX crossovers, but Poore suggests the machines aren't direct competitors. "I'd rather be on (either) the crossover styling or the trunk styling," he said. Dave Nordstrom, Lexus' vice president of marketing, concurs, saying, "We don't have any plans for it right now. We have not seen the demand from our customers – but we continue to look at it."
[Source: Auto Observer]
The Classicist: Back to the Future in the New BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, The Classicist
The GT or Gran Turismo ("grand tourer") designation, first used by Italian marques in the 1920s to denote a vehicle combining sports car performance with luxurious appointments and enhanced luggage capacity for long-distance travel, has been abused to the point of absurdity - hello Ford Escort GT. But BMW has brought it back to life in a wholly modern incarnation with their newest creation, the 5 Series Gran Turismo, managing to invent something brand new in the process. These days "brand new" has also lost its appeal when it comes to automotive styling outside of supercars and ultra-luxury rides; witness the deluge of melted minivans and beastly breadboxes clogging up the freeways. The 5 Series GT triumphs because while undeniably breaking new ground, at heart it's basically a mélange of two of the famed German marque's longstanding successes: the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle and 7 Series luxury sedan.
There's been a lot of debate about whether the 5 Series GT should be considered a car, a mini-SUV, a crossover or some other damn thing altogether. What we can tell you is that when we recently took one on a drive up through the scenic byways of New England that was the furthest thing from our mind. The inside is incredibly spacious, with the same legroom as the 7 Series combined with the headroom of the BMW X5, the elegance, comfort and class of both, and an extremely practical, well-designed and capacious rear cargo area with a two-piece tailgate adaptable to a number of different configurations. A stretched and sleek coupé-like roofline, frameless windows, a commanding, slightly elevated seating position, large windows and a panoramic glass roof, upright BMW kidney grille, large air intakes and dual round LED headlights slanted back at rakish angle all give the car its distinctive good looks.
Under the bonnet, the V8 TwinPower Turbo engine delivering a maximum output of 407 hp borrowed from the stellar 750i is paired with the innovative eight speed automatic transmission that can otherwise only be found in the new twelve-cylinder 760Li. In the 550i GT that means a masterful 0–62 mph time of 5.5 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph. A fourth generation iDrive system, black panel instruments and giant displays give the cockpit the feeling of a private jet. Add options like high beam assist, night vision, and even an electrically swiveling trailer hook and you begin to see the versatility of a vehicle of this caliber. Expect to see the competition rushing out copies in record time.
2009 Frankfurt Auto Show: BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo
German automakers have elevated the crossing of traditional market segments into an art form, BMW arguably chief among them. Joining the X6 – a sort of cross between a sport-utility vehicle and a sports coupe – is the new 5 Series Gran Turismo, revealed in production trim to the public at the Frankfurt auto show.
Combining what BMW claims is the head room of the X5 and the legroom of the 7 Series in a more compact form, the 5 Series GT bridges the gap between a tall wagon and a short sport-ute. A strange concept, to be sure, but one which BMW appears to have pulled off with aplomb. Available with a range of engines starting with a 245hp diesel and topping out at the 407hp twin-turbo V8, the Gran Turismo is slated to replace the 5 Series Touring wagon variant in the American market in the near future, but you can see it now in our high-resolution image gallery below.
BMW shows off 5 Series Gran Turismo Concept
Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos
BMW has made a habit these last few years of creating new niches in the already crowded luxury automotive segment. Things started to get convoluted when the Bavarian automaker began referring to its SUVs as Sports Activity Vehicles, and it only got worse with the introduction of the slantback X6 crossover, which BMW calls a Sports Activity Coupe. Now, the company is planning to further carve that market into smaller chunks with the 5 Series Gran Turismo Concept that it's calling a Progressive Activity Sedan. The new concept is scheduled to make its first public appearance at the Geneva Motor Show next month.
The new 5 GT uses a shape that's familiar to anyone that's gotten a good look at the X6, but the new car is much lower to the ground and has no pretensions of being anything but a people mover with style. There's room for four passengers in the new concept, who will each get their own adjustable bucket seat flanked by a center console that runs the length of the interior compartment. Out back, there's up to 58 cubic feet of storage for those moments when moving large quantities of stuff is more important than personal space. Expect a production version of the GT to make an appearance in short order.
[Source: BMW]
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