Three-row crossovers present a dicey challenge for luxury brands, particularly those that have built their name on sporty sedans. Should they prioritize comfort over cachet, or do they stay true to their mission at the expense of practicality? BMW does the best job of any automaker offering crossover practicality while still meeting the brand's promise. The X5 may not be the most powerful or the quickest crossover you can by, but it does have the best powertrain. That's thanks to skillful calibration of the best hardware in the business: a responsive, energetic, turbocharged in-line six-cylinder and a snappy eight-speed automatic transmission. BMW's expertise in suspension tuning is obvious as well. The BMW's ride is comfortable and the handling is impressive even without air springs or adaptive dampers.

The BMW 328i has spent three months with us, and by this point we've already driven it across the country, sent it to a racetrack, and made a fair number of trips to the grocery store. In other words, we've already spent hours behind the steering wheel, in the leather seats, pressing buttons and shifting gears. After driving just over 10,000 miles, our editors have contributed their fair share of comments on the BMW's interior.

Here's a new version of the world's quintessential sport sedan and perpetual All-Star, the BMW 3-series -- the designated target for car manufacturers everywhere. There'll be sleek convertibles, sporty wagons and coupes, and clumsy-looking SUV variants of this design from BMW in the coming months, but the whole of this iteration's character is embodied in the first-out four-door, the volume seller. At first glance, the 3-series sedan seems softer, more consensual, and less idiosyncratic than the last couple of Bangle-body 3s, but there is a lot more to this car than jumps to the untrained eye. I can confidently predict two things: that it will be another best-seller, and that it will evolve considerably during its production period. The first because it looks very good, the second because it has been cleverly designed to be easily and inexpensively changed visually.

200. That's the number of new and updated cars that are scheduled to debut over the next twenty-four months. You don't really want to read about every reskin or 5-hp bump, so we've filtered that list down to the twenty-five cars you most need to know about. Much of our information is hard fact, while some of it is educated guesswork or pure conjecture. We have included a "speculation meter" for each car to indicate what's what. Here, then, is the scoop on the cars you will be hearing a lot about over the next two years.

The decision to purchase a minivan is a pragmatic one. Drive a minivan and you admit to the world that you have children and a Costco membership, and that you want one vehicle that can transport your offspring and multi-packs of toilet paper.

The new F30-chassis 328i is the first U.S.-market 3-series to be sold with a four-cylinder engine in fourteen years. In that time, the in-line six-cylinder engine and the 3-series have become nearly inseparable, and many of us here at Automobile Magazine wondered if the iconic 3er would lose the magic with its new engine.

Without question, the redesigned 6-series is better looking than its predecessor. The biggest improvement can be seen from behind, where the squaring-off of its previously rounded rump has done wonders for the vehicle's side profile and overall proportions. The cloth top's unique C-pillars -- which extend another foot or so past the rear window -- are a carryover from the last 6-series but, being such an interesting design element, it was a good decision for BMW to hold onto them. And from inside the cabin, these "flying buttresses" have a secondary functional benefit that makes the 6-series easier to live with: in moving the rear window from its steeply raked position into a vertical position, closer to the driver, BMW has made the 6-series' rearward view a bit better than the average sporty, four-seat convertible. It also made it possible to have a functional rear window that can be lowered independently of the convertible top.

From an enthusiast's standpoint, BMW is possibly the most well-rounded, consistent carmaker in the world. In the 1950s, however, the company was struggling to remain alive, World War II having reduced it from a builder of successful sports and racing cars to a bomb-devastated wreck. BMW's primary prewar automobile operations in Eisenach, Germany, fell under Soviet control in 1945, and unauthorized "BMW" products built at that location undermined what little brand equity remained. American occupying forces began dismantling the remnants of the BMW factory in Munich, which had manufactured Luftwaffe aircraft engines during the war. (Some of the structures ultimately survived, but not before valuable machinery was put in crates and dispersed by railcar to sixteen countries as part of war reparations.)

If you were the proud owner of a luxury convertible and you lived in the snowy Midwest, late January might seem like the perfect time to drive your droptop to Miami, Palm Springs, or some other sun-baked locale.

The BMW i program is so big one could almost be forgiven for calling it the reinvention of the car; not only because of the revolutionary engineering and design concepts, but also because of the scale of the whole operation. Project i is way past the point of no return.

It appears the rumors were true: BMW's M division has had its way with the latest Euro-spec 1 Series hatchback. The result is called the M135i, and it'll make its official debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show in March, albeit in a so-called "concept" form.

It sounds like a cliche, but the BMW 3-series really is the standard by which all other sport sedans are measured. Its influence has permeated the engineering halls of automakers on every continent: Cadillac used to manufacture rolling living rooms, Mercedes-Benzes were once Teutonic isolation chambers, and Infinitis were...well, nobody quite knew what they were. But today, all three -- and their collective competitors -- make cars directly aimed at the BMW 3-series.

As I depressed the Engine Start button in the BMW 650i on December 22, I thought to myself, Christmas has come early this year. The 6-Series is the most expensive and most fabulous vehicle I have had the fortune to drive, and snagging the keys over the four-day Christmas weekend was a real treat. Heck, the options alone on our test car cost several times more than my personal car.

Here we go again: a new engine in a new 3-series, and just like last time, the Internet blows up with rumors that the Bavarians have underrated the power output. As always, there's only one way to find out, so we strapped our 2012 BMW 328i onto a DynoJet dynamometer and measured what happened.

For the third time since 1987, BMW is launching a new high-performance car based on the 6-Series line: the latest version of the M6. But they're taking a decidedly unconventional approach with it. The convertible comes first as a 2012 model and will be shown in April at the 2012 New York Auto Show. The M6 coupe will be a 2013 model, but it will be shown to the world a month earlier than the convertible at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. To recap, that's 2013 BMW M6 Coupe in Geneva, 2012 BMW M6 Convertible in New York. Why? Who knows.

The new F30-chassis 3-series is, like all of its predecessors, a calculated evolution of its predecessors. History's been clear on this: first BMW makes evolutionary changes to a 3-series, then it does a revolutionary re-think. The E21 was updated into the E30. The E36 was a big change -- followed by an evolutionary update that became the E46. The E90 was again a big change, and that means the step from last year's 3-series into this new one is evolutionary.

I know BMWs are expensive because they are premium cars with premium equipment and lots of technology inside. But this car is far too expensive. How can a roadster that's no more fun than a Miata start at $49,525? That feels about $8,000 too expensive for a four-cylinder roadster in my book. Yes, the Z4 is far more refined than the Miata, but it doesn't bring as big of a smile to my face as the little Mazda does.

At BMW, hybrid powertrains have gotten off to a slow start, but they’re about to pick up steam. The company rolled out a mild hybrid version of the 7-series and a full-hybrid X6 in 2009. The X6, however, was quietly dropped at the end of last year, and the ActiveHybrid 7 hasn’t exactly been a big seller. This year, however, sees the debut of the hybrid 5-series, out this spring, followed this fall by a hybrid version of the new 3-series sedan.

The sixth generation of the BMW 3-series arrives this February in the United States -- in sedan form, at least -- and it's safe to say that the biggest question on the mind of most enthusiasts is: did BMW screw it up?

For nearly four decades, the BMW 5-series has walked the tightrope between luxury and sport, satisfying the demands of both buttoned-up executives and driving purists. It has been the benchmark -- often an unmatched one -- for just about every automaker looking to build a mid-size sport sedan. Even the last-generation 5-series, distracted by flawed iDrive technology and controversial "flame surfacing," possessed the magical ability to indulge and engage.

Fun fact: if you try to spec and price out a 2012 135i on BMW's site, the configurator tacks on the dual-clutch gearbox -- a $450 option -- without your input. Talk about a sign of the automatic-obsessed times. Still, it isn't exactly a curse -- the seven-speed transmission, which is a new option for 2012, behaves fairly respectably. When cold, it occasionally is reticent to engage off the line, but otherwise proves smooth and lightning quick.

My colleague Kelly Murphy and I both live out in the country and frequently make use of the high beams on test cars. Like him, I was very impressed by the candlepower that the 7-series headlights throw out onto the road. BMW has done brilliant headlights for years, but, wow, these are really amazing. The German car companies REALLY know how to make good headlights; the ones in a Porsche Panamera that I drove recently were also superb.

BMW's 6 Series has traditionally consisted only of two-door offerings, the new 2013 6 Series Gran Coupe may throw that convention to the wind.

BMW has divulged all the details on the ActiveHybrid 5, a new hybrid luxury sedan based on the existing 535i. The car is the first BMW hybrid to employ an inline-six engine. We had long expected the arrival of this car, and had even spied a prototype version testing in California.

The sixth generation of the BMW 3-series arrives this February in the United States—in sedan form, at least—and it’s safe to say that the biggest question on the mind of most enthusiasts is: Did BMW screw it up?