Wednesday, 17 March 2010

BMW WILL PRODUCE FRONT-WHEEL-DRIVE CARS!


BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has announced that BMW will, in future, produce front-wheel-drive cars. At the company’s annual financial results press conference in Germany, Reithofer said smaller, entry-level BMWs are on their way and they will feature FWD. Currently all BMWs are either rear-wheel-drive (RWD) or AWD with the xDrive system.

“We are exploring the possibility of developing a joint architecture for the front and four-wheel drive systems of these cars,” Reithofer said. “In other words: There will be front-wheel drive BMWs in the smaller vehicle classes in the future.”

BMW has always prided itself for the way its cars handle. That’s largely due to the RWD system which says cars must be steered by the front wheels and driven by the rear wheels, not driven and steered at the front.

This piece of news will shock many BMW fans around the world and probably put a smile on the faces of Audi and other competitors who have, for years, sworn by the front-wheel-drive (FWD) model. Don’t worry though BMW fans, this FWD thing will only apply to very small cars, cars smaller than the MINI. Actually the MINI itself is FWD.


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