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BMW vs Winter: all you need to know about BMW xDrive

By the CAR editorial team 21 January 2014 15:00 According to BMW, its ‘xDrive’ all-wheel drive system is more popular than any other premium brand’s four-wheel drive drivetrain. That’s right: in the UK, xDrive outsells Audi’s famous quattro system, not to mention Mercedes ever-expanding 4Matic range, and all-wheel drive version of Jaguar’s XF and XJ. If you had to name an all-wheel drive BMW off the top of your head, you’d probably plump for the X5, but the truth is that xDrive has infiltrated the majority of BMW models.

Grab the sunscreen for those summer drives

You can get sunburned while driving a convertible, but driving with the top up can also result in sun damage to the skin. New research from the University of Washington suggests that people in the United States are more likely to develop skin cancer, such as melanoma and merkel-cell carcinoma, on the left side of their bodies, likely as a result of the fact that the left arm receives more ultraviolet rays while driving. Studies by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology show that, when skin cancer shows up on one side of the body, 52 percent of melanoma cases and 53 percent of merkel-cell carcinomas occur on the left.

Google hopeful over driverless car

GOOGLE says it has turned a corner in its pursuit of a car that can drive itself. The leader of the technology giant's driverless car project wrote in a blog post that test vehicles are becoming far more adept at city driving. They can already comfortably handle motorways, he said, but city driving presents a virtual obstacle course of pedestrians, cyclists and blind corners.