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2014 BMW M5 facelift leaked – by BMW’s own website

Fortunately, the BMW news specialists at BimmerPost were on the ball and managed to get some screen-grab photos of the new M5 before BMW realised their mistake, so we get to see what BMW has planned for the M5, and probably a guide to what the facelift for the rest of the 5-Series range will offer. The changes aren’t huge, and as far as we can see all that’s going on is a bit of influence from the M6 and 6-Series in general, with a new kidney grill that looks like the 6 Series, and a steering wheel looks like that on the new M6 too, together with the latest iDrive controller. The leaked images don’t tell us what BMW are planning under the bonnet of the facelifted M5, but it’s not too much of a stretch to expect a Competition Package for the M5 to give it similar clout to the new Mercedes E63 AMG S.

New VW Beetle gets new engines

Volkswagen has finally made the new VW Beetle available with the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre turbodiesel engines. When we reported the other day that the new VW Beetle Convertible was arriving at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November we did say that VW were about to announce the arrival, finally, of the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre TDI diesel for the Beetle to make it a bit more appealing. It seems VW must have been listening as they’ve now announced that you can grab a new Beetle with either the more powerful petrol or the diesel engine, which should help sales of the new Beetle.

Spy photos: BMW i8 hits Swedish test track

Spy photographers caught the new BMW i8 testing on a secret track wearing the company’s familiar psychedelic camouflage. The test car pictured is a preproduction model rather than a concept BMW i8, similar to what should appear in 2013. As reported earlier, we’re expecting BMW’s 2014 i8 hybrid coupe to get a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder direct-injection gasoline engine--essentially the same unit earmarked to head into the next-generation Mini and the front-wheel-drive BMW 1-series due out in 2014.