BMW Canada counting on all-wheel-drive models

The days of rear-wheel-drive BMWs in Canada may be numbered, BMW Canada president and CEO Franz Jung says, because Canadian buyers - even performance-minded BMW customers - simply see rear-drive as too much of a negative in the winter.

"Our aim is not to bring any rear-wheel-drive cars to Canada any more," Jung said last week at briefing at BMW's new Canadian LEED-certified headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ont., provoking gasps of shock among the journalists present, most of whom were enthusiast drivers that have long associated fine handling with RWD BMWs.

"Most of the cars we sell are all wheel-drive, all over the world actually," said Jung. "We sell more AWD product around the world than our colleagues from Ingolstadt [Audi]- even though nobody knows that."

Early next year, there will be a seeming tidal wave of all-new AWD crossovers from the company, Jung confirmed. There will be the striking new BMW X3, promising to be the first vehicle to offer Blackberry users e-mail to speech technology; the smaller X1, which is already proving popular in Europe, that will slot in just below the X3, and the Mini Countryman will also appear, in either front or AWD versions, for the most family-oriented Mini ever.

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There will be news on the car side, although nowhere near as radical. The 5-Series sedan that BMW Canada can't get quick enough from Germany will see an AWD version arrive in early October, followed by a diesel version to counter that of main rival Mercedes-Benz's E-Class; there will also be a hybrid version (possibly in 2012). All of these will drive major traffic to BMW and Mini dealers, Jung predicted, and help the company surpass its record sales of 2008.

Seemingly contradicting Jung's anti-RWD stance, Canadian buyers are especially passionate about BMW's M-branded and rear-drive-only hot performance cars, purchasing the highest number of M products per capita, especially the M3 and M5. Jung acknowledged that an M version of the 1-Series Coupe will be joining the sub-brand, but also threw out the possibility that an M vehicle may not be synonymous with RWD for much longer.

"We will have the first AWD M products in the future," he declared, not counting (or momentarily forgetting) that current M versions of the all-wheel-drive X5 and X6 SAVs are already on the market.

So will BMW Canada's aim to phase out rear-wheel-drive mean the end of lurid tail slides on track days or in deserted wet or snowed-over parking lots? Not at all, Jung asserts.

"BMW DNA is practically only about performance," he said. "If we have all-wheel-drive cars, they will still perform like BMWs."

TESLA OFFERS TRADE DEAL

Tesla, which offers the only current highway-capable electric car in Canada, is offering a trade-through lease offer on its new Roadster 2.5, in anticipation of its upcoming Model S sedan, which it plans to bring to market in 2012.

The program offers buyers the chance to end their Roadster 2.5 lease early to trade it in for the seven-seat Model S four-door, which should be about half the price of the Roadster.

The lease program's avoidance of any early termination fees is unique in the automobile business, says Tesla, which stresses that the program is set to expire at the end of September. A regular walk-away lease is also now available, if you're worried about the depreciation hit that might be in store by financing a $130,000 or so all-electric sports car.

GM TO DEBUT AVEO SUBCOMPACT

The production version of the Chevrolet Aveo hatchback, scheduled to hit showrooms by next year, will be shown for the first time later this month at the Paris auto show; it will be little changed from the concepts seen in Detroit and Geneva.

The car takes many cues from the styling of the Spark minicar, familiar to those who watched the Transformers' sequel as the always-scrappy twins. Engines available here will likely be limited to the top 115-hp four-cylinder, which should give the new bumper crop of subcompacts like Ford's Fiesta and the Mazda2 another stylish hatchback rival.

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TRAFFIC FATALITIES ARE FALLING

U.S. highway traffic statistics show traffic fatalities in 2009 at their lowest level in 60 years. The total of 33,808 deaths is down by nearly 10 per cent from 2008, at 1.13 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports.

In Canada, fatalities have also been declining steadily, with Transport Canada reporting in March that fatality rates dropped 4.4 per cent between 2006 and 2007, part of an overall 32.5 per cent decrease in traffic deaths since 1987.

Over all, 2,717 Canadians died in traffic collisions in 2007, the most recent full-year numbers available.

In Ontario, Ministry of Transportation figures suggest that the province's roads are among the safest in North America, with 769 deaths reported in 2006, the latest year in which whole-year provincial figures are available; that is the second- lowest traffic death figure since 1948.