BMW Faqs

The new BMW 335i Coupé has been given another victory in being named the New Zealand Autocar magazine Car of the Year 2007. The BMW 335i Coupé topped the field of quality entries including the HoldenVE Commodore to sweep this year’s awards, winning both the Best Performance Car and the overall Car of the Year awards. “We were convinced by the compelling combination of high performance and reduced fuel consumption that the innovative powertrain of the 335i offers,” said NZ Autocar managing editor Mark Petch.

The new BMW 335i Coupé utilises a new twin-turbo, direct-injection, 3.0 litreinline six-cylinder engine to achieve levels of performance normallyassociated with large-displacement V8s. Running a high compression ratio fora turbocharged engine, and modest amounts of boost, it is also capable of9.5litre/100km fuel consumption according to EC tests. The BMW 335i Coupé features BMW’s first ever twin-turbo six-cylinder engine.The use of two smaller turbos has ensured virtually no turbo-lag in thecar’s acceleration. During testing with a VBOX data acquisition system, themagazine found that the 335i Coupé accelerated from 0-100km/h in 5.7 seconds.

NZ Autocar identifies 11 category winners from the models released on theNew Zealand market during a calendar year, then drives off six ‘finalists’picked from these category winners to judge the Car of the Year. The chosensix this year were the BMW (best performance car), Holden VE Calais V8 (bestexecutive car), Nissan Maxima Spec-R (best large car), Mazda3 SP23 (bestcompact car), Mitsubishi Outlander (best crossover), and Suzuki Swift Sport(best small car).

The magazine’s chief editor, Paul Owen, said it was fitting that the overallwinner came from the performance car category this year. “2006 really was the year of the Performance Car, and this category saw morenew model launch activity than any other. There were no less than 27 newperformance cars released on the market this year, and the BMW faced thebiggest fight of any of the class winners,” he said.

Receiving the award, BMW NZ sales manager, Peter Heuzeroth, said he felt “proud to be part of a passionate BMW team who are dedicated to delivering engineering innovation, superior performance and luxury.” Pictured Above: BMW NZ Sales Manager, Peter Heuzeroth (centre), with winning BMW 335i Coupé and Tim Kerr (left) and Ross Collett from sponsor AMI Insurance.