By William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

January 30, 2013

BMW is hard at work on a front-wheel drive assault, with the company considering almost twenty-three FWD vehicles (Twelve for BMW, eleven for MINI). One of those vehicles could be a two-seat roadster, due out in 2015

“We are considering a car in the spirit of the original Z3. It is of similar size to the E36/7 [the codename for the Z3 produced between 1996 and 2002] but is planned to use the front-wheel drive platform to keep costs down and achieve a margin level that ensures it is sustainable at comparatively low production volumes,” a BMW official reportedly told Autocar.

Codenamed Z2, the model will sit underneath the Z4 and compete with the Miata/MX-5. The Z2 will come with a range of gas engine, including a 2.0L turbocharged engine producing as much as 300 horsepower.

Source: Autocar

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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THANK YOU! I always admired the Z3 and I've always disliked the Z4.

Shame about that FWD though....

... and how is FWD less expensive?

Well, would GM and nearly every other car maker had not gone to producing primarily front drive cars for the last 30 plus years if it hadn't been cheaper and saved lots of room?

Good and luck, BMW.

For some reason, this idea makes me think of someone gluing a BMW badge onto a Fiat Barchetta.

BMW is making 12 FWD vehicles? Chevy doesn't even have that many! (8 by my count for chevy)

The next MX5 will KILL this FWD poser!!----BIG mistake BMW!!--You should know better!

BMW is making 12 FWD vehicles? Chevy doesn't even have that many! (8 by my count for chevy)

They're considering making 12.. I'm thinking the count includes variations of the base FWD models (1-Series, 2-Series)

I know... I counted variations of Chevies with FWD. I only count 8 9.

Spark

Sonic

Sonic 5-door

Cruze

Volt

Malibu

Impala

Equinox

Traverse

edit: 9 - forgot the Volt

BMW is going down the WRONG road in doing FWD. People here see BMW as Luxury only with Performance Driving Road Machines and I see this backfiring for BMW. Oh well, they should use Mini Cooper to expand having Class 1 & 2 FWD appliances and not water down BMW. Europe might be used to this, but not the US.