Bmw E36 318i 325i 328i M3 Brake Pedal Assembly With Brake Light Switch #157 on 2040-parts.com

BMW i3 revealed: The BMW Megacity lives

BMW i3 Revealed - on sale in 2013 The BMW i8 – also revealed today –  may be BMW’s answer to a supercar with a conscience for the 21st century, but the other end of the scale is the BMW solution to city mobility – the BMW i3. Known as the Megacity Vehicle – at least until BMW gave us all the detail of the i3 and i8 a few months ago – the BMW i3 is an upright box with a choice of pure electric or range-extender powertrains and is – in size – somewhere between the MINI and the current 1-Series. Just like the i8, the BMW i3 has a predominantly aluminium chassis and a body made of CFRP so it’s reasonably light for an EV (1270kg) and should be nimble thanks to its low centre of gravity which, just like the i8, is due to its batteries and the other heavy stuff sitting low down.

Next generation BMW 6 Series Preview

Rendering of the next generation (2010) BMW 6 Series - a sleeker and lower car than the current generation Not due until late 2010, the next generation 6 Series looks set to be a lower, sleeker car than the current model. In fact, it looks like BMW may have found a use for a lot of the work they did on the shelved BMW CS project, which was to be BMW’s A7/CLS challenger until the project was shelved a few months ago. Current opinion is that the next generation Convertible will stick with the rag-top, but recent spy shots seem to show a pretty bulky roof camouflage, leading to speculation that BMW may go the folding tin-top roof with the next generation 6-series.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.