The Auto World

A pristine 1977 BMW 320i went to auction and left without a buyer. Bidding climbed to $20,000 yet still came up short of the reserve. The original sticker read $9,620, close to a new 330i in today’s money. BMW is believed to have built more than 1.3 million examples of the E21-generation 3-Series , but you’d be hard-pressed to find one in the US in the same kind of pristine condition as this one. Offered at auction through Bring a Trailer, this E21 has been driven just 9,000 miles (roughly 14,500 km) and looked to be in excellent condition given its age. Read: What’s The One Generation Of 3-Series You’d Call Peak BMW? The coupe was originally delivered in 1977 by Boulder European Autos in Boulder, Colorado, and apparently remained in the possession of the original owner, Dr. Warren Valencia, for more than 40 years until his death in 2020. It was then acquired by the current owner in 2024 and has been serviced in prep...

Smart #2 urban EV exposed in Chinese regulatory filings. It packs an 80 hp electric motor and 186 miles of range. Full debut scheduled for the Paris Motor Show in October. A few days back, Smart teased its Fortwo successor with artistic murals splashed across big cities worldwide, all building toward a global premiere at the Paris Motor Show in October. So much for the slow tease. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology just published regulatory filings that lay the whole EV bare, months early and free of charge. The Smart #2 signals the brand’s return to the city car segment after a short hiatus. The new model was developed under the joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely , and it will be sold exclusively in fully electric form. More: The World’s Biggest EV Market Just Went Into Reverse After Years Of Growth The styling of the production car stays very close to the Concept #2 that debuted in A...

Mazda plans updates and safety push to revive struggling CX-70 and CX-90 sales. Large SUVs designed for America haven’t delivered the success Mazda expected. Meanwhile, the aging Mazda3 is quietly enjoying one of its strongest sales years. Mazda’s premium experiment has flopped badly, but the brand has decided the fix for its unloved flagship SUVs isn’t a bigger discount ( it’s tried that ) or more horsepower. Instead, it’s betting that reminding buyers how safe they are, alongside a handful of product updates, will be enough to turn things around. Through the first half of the year, US sales of the three row CX-90 dropped 24 percent to 21,271 units, while the two row CX-70 fared even worse, tumbling 29 percent to just 5,974 deliveries. Those aren’t the kind of numbers Mazda had in mind when it developed the pair specifically with American buyers in mind. Also: Mazda’s CEO Confirms Next MX-5 Goes E...