is having some pointed fun with its featuring the called “2012,” only the fun is pointed directly at , which finds it a little too sharp to be all that much fun. So on the eve of the big game, Ford sent Chevy a cease-and-desist letter to pull the ad and “pressured” NBC not to run the commercial, according to a report on blog. Chevy has released a statement in response, which you can read , indicating that the ad will run despite Ford’s protest.
Ford found no reason to chuckle at some of the commercial’s claims, “particularly around durability.” One in particular comes from a character that says of their now-deceased, F-150-driving pal, “Dave didn’t drive the longest-lasting most dependable truck on the road. Dave drove a Ford.”
Ford spokesman Mike Levine says his company has more trucks with 250,000-plus miles on the road than any other brand, which would appear to contradict the small print that appears in the “2012″ ad that reads, “Dependability based on longevity: 1981-2011 full-size pickup registrations.” Ford says its lawyers will decide what to do (if anything) after the ad airs during tonight’s game, but Chevy’s legal minions must have vetted the spot closely well before time.
Or Ford could take Chevy marketing honcho Joel Ewanick up on his offer and bide its time. Said Ewanick, “We can wait until the world ends, and if we need to, we will apologize.”
has been targeted by Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy organization, over the automaker’s 40 mpg fuel efficiency claim on the Hyundai Elantra. The group says Elantra owners have seen fuel economy averages of 18 and 19 mpg instead of the the 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway reported by Hyundai and the Environmental Protection Agency. As such, the group has sent letters to both Hyundai CEO John Krafcik and President Eok Jo Kim warning that if the automaker advertised the 40 mpg claim in the company’s Super Bowl spots, Consumer Watchdog would release a retaliatory video of its own. The group has since followed through with that threat.
Hyundai has since released a new, updated version of its Super Bowl ad, and Consumer Watchdog claims the Korean automaker has now promised not to include the 40 mpg figure in any of the spots. Hyundai, meanwhile, released a statement saying the company’s advertising was “in no way” influenced by the Consumer Watchdog claims, comments or statements. for a look at the Elantra Super Bowl spot, the Consumer Watchdog clip about the vehicle’s mileage claims and a press release from the non-profit.
Also worth a read is of two cars boasting 40 mpg EPA highway ratings: the SFE and the Hyundai Elantra. Ultimately, when you get past all the noise, it’s important to remember that “your mileage may vary” is a mantra for a reason.
The eBay Motors smartphone application has a clever new feature. Users can now take a photo of any car they see on the street and the app will find similar listings for them automatically. Want to know how much that in the parking lot is going for right now? Just point and shoot. We tested the app ourselves and found it to be fairly accurate. It had no trouble honing in on a , but struggled a bit with editor-in-chief John Neff’s 1991 Ford Taurus SHO.
The good news is that if the app gets confused, it just asks you for more information about the vehicle. Users can also be notified when they’ve been outbid on an item, share their auctions via Twitter, and watch special racing coverage with host Justin Bell. to check out the full press blast.
There’s something inexplicably mesmerizing about watching a factory in action. Seeing the innumerable complex mechanisms mesh in perfect harmony to create the products we know and love is part of what makes shows like National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories so interesting. Now the program is headed to Dearborn for a look at how the and come together on the line in crystal-clear HD video. The show will also spend time with both trucks out on the company’s proving grounds, which means there’s a good chance we’ll see the Raptor bashing over various obstacles.
Consider us excited. Last year, the Ford plant in Dearborn produced 344,446 vehicles, making it the third most productive plant in North America behind the facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico and the plant in Puebla, Mexico.
The show will air on Saturday, February 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern on the National Geographic Channel, but you can get a glimpse of what to expect in the video .
be built on Ultimate Factories this weekend [w/video]
Most days, California must seem like Kazakhstan for the Big Three. Domestic products aren’t so popular out West, where and have long stood atop the sales charts. But not in 2011.
According to a report in Automotive News, both General Motors and managed to bump Honda from its silver medal position in 2011, though Toyota still holds a commanding market share lead. In a storyline we’ve heard before, the twin natural disasters in Asia curbed Japanese production, causing a 4.5 point loss of market share. Toyota’s market share dropped from 22.8 to 19.2 percent, while GM and Ford tied at 12.6 percent – ahead of Honda at 12.1.
Booming sales in the Golden State helped the domestics to their 1.8 point gain. New vehicle registrations in California were up 9.9 percent, according to the report. The biggest sales gains last year were made by and , which were up 53 and 49 percent, respectively.
Though the may be a niche player in the North American market, the small van market is big business in Europe. According to , it accounts for some 700,000 units annually, and that’s a pie of which Daimler wouldn’t mind getting a bigger slice. And so it has announced its new Citan.
Taking its name from a combination of City and Titan, the Citan will slot in below the Vario, Sprinter and Vito in order to meet the needs of workers who need to get around crowded city streets and take their gear with them. Mercedes plans to offer it in a broad range of configurations, lengths and engine options once it hits the market in the fall.
The concept was unveiled at a logistics symposium held at the Mercedes-BenzDesign Center in Sindelfingen, and will be presented for the first time in public next September at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show. In the meantime, you can check out the details in the press release after the jump and the renderings in our high-res image gallery below.
continues its onslaught of Super Bowl ads released before this Sunday’s big game, clearly hoping that volume plays in its favor when the points are tallied by marketing analysts on Monday.
Today’s commercial, entitled “2012,” stars the in a post-apocalyptic world. In this ad, Chevy reminds us of its oft-repeated statistic that its trucks are the longest lasting, most dependable trucks on the road, and it does so by imagining that the Mayans were right and that 2012 is our last year on Earth.
It’s a well-done spot with lots of fun things to focus on – we’re even amused by the soundtrack, which isn’t what we’d immediately expect to hear as the backing music following life after an Extinction Level Event.
to view the end of the world through Chevy’s eyes.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama visited the Washington Auto Show, and he even had time to get a closer look at a few vehicles. We’re guessing that the carmakers were more than happy to set aside some time to talk to the Commander In Chief, but not every automaker got the chance.
Bloomberg says that the Association of Global Automakers is upset because the president only spent time with the Detroit Three, even though other automakers reportedly flew in executives from around the world for the occasion. The executives were reportedly on hand and waiting in a “bullpen” in the event President Obama had any questions about specific vehicles, but The Pres stuck to American cars like the , , and the .
AGA CEO Michael Stanton voiced his disappointment about the perceived slight, adding that many members “bent over backwards to meet the request from the White House.” Stanton also points out that AGA members have invested $43 billion in the U.S. and employ over 80,000 workers here.
Our sister site follows up on its with a new episode this week. This one is a smorgasbord of automotive tech, including a spin on the Solowheel, a mobility device that’s sort of like half a Segway.
The Translogic crew also talks to the chief technology officer at Panasonic, who draws some interesting comparisons between electric cars and refrigerators. shows off a new gesture-based, heads-up display. announces a new version of its and shows it off in some concepts.
The fabulously wealthy face all sorts of dilemmas that the rest of us never have to bother with. If you can afford a , for example, what color do you opt for? Red is clearly for the in your stable. Black belongs on your hearse, and… ? Well, that’s best left for your . What you want is something that makes a statement. A color that kicks puppies and steals candy from kids on Halloween. Green. You want the kind of green that will make owners look tasteful by comparison.
That’s exactly what the buyer of LFA number 250 went with. We aren’t entirely sure what the color is called, but our retinas won’t be the same for a week. The hue is almost a more violent version of the Emerald Green found on early ’70s models. The paint might not look quite as at home as it does on vintage Porsche sheetmetal, but we still love it (something tells tells us there will be plenty of you who fall on the other side of the fence). What do you think? Have your say in Comments.
Good news has been in abundant supply for the domestic automakers the last twelve months, and nowhere is that more evident than in the headline to this press release: “ Group Reports Full Year 2011 Net Income of $183 Million.” Now, $183 million isn’t exactly a king’s ransom in the auto industry (or elsewhere – Apple made $25.92 billion last year). But if Chrysler is making money again for the first time since emerging from bankruptcy, well, perhaps the U.S. auto industry has finally recovered from 2009.
The smallest of the Big Three automakers reported sales of 1,369,114 vehicles in 2011, up 26 percent from 2010. Chrysler , and finished fourth in U.S. sales, behind General Motors, and . To read the full press release, click .
has the honor of being this year’s top producing North American automotive manufacturer by a wide margin with its Puebla, Mexico facility. The factory managed to produce 510,041 units last year, beating out second-place and its Aguascalientes, Mexico plant by a staggering 149,245 units, according to Ward’s Auto. Nissan jumped from third to second place after and its Georgetown plant dropped from the top five. Toyota and both saw themselves ousted from the leader board after a year pockmarked by disruptions from earthquake and tsunami activity in Japan and flooding in Thailand.
The Japanese automakers’ vacancies made room for and its facility in Montgomery, Alabama with 338,127 units to take fourth place. , meanwhile, moved from fifth in 2010 to third in 2011 with 344,446 units from its Dearborn Truck plant. Nissan rounded out the top five last year with the company’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee taking the automaker’s second spot on the list.
Ward’s Auto reports Volkswagen enjoyed a boost from the popularity of the . That model alone helped push the company’s Puebla facility to a 75,356 unit gain over last year’s figures. Head over to Ward’s to see the full report.
You’ve seen the S-Max. You’ve seen the C-Max. Now get ready for the B-Max.
The latest European-focused mini minivan from was at last year’s , but has now been confirmed for production release at the 2012 edition of the same expo this March. Based on the (the C-Max is based on the ), the new B-Max will arrive into a highly competitive segment overseas, so it will need to offer some alluring features to make its mark.
The edgy design should help, but the party piece for this diminutive people carrier is that it has no B-pillars. And we don’t mean that the windows have no frame: we mean the entire pillars are incorporated into the doors themselves, so that when you open the doors there’s no encumbrance to loading and unloading of passengers and cargo alike.
Motivation is provided by a 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine, with Duratorq diesels also on offer. After its unveiling in Geneva, the new B-Max will go on sale at dealers across Europe later this year. for the full press release and click the thumbnails below to view the pair of images released thus far in high resolution.
When 2011 ticked over to become 2012, something changed with the dynamic that had been in place nearly all of last year. We had become so used to the domestics seeing increased sales month after month while and struggled to keep their heads above water while fixing disaster-related production issues. No more.
January saw both Toyota and Honda report strong positive sales figures (up 9.00 and 9.25 percent, respectively). That’s good enough to out-trend (up 8.29 percent) and General Motors (down 6.11 percent), the latter of which saw its new year kick off with a decline after finishing 2011 with 11 out of 12 monthly sales gains. Conversely, Honda kicked off its new year right after posting eight straight months of sales declines to end 2011.
The Chrysler Group was King of the Hill in January, posting a 44.26-percent increase in sales.
Both Toyota and Honda should especially be pleased with how their traditional top sellers performed. The redesigned entered the market without skipping a beat and posted a 55.9-percent increase on 28,295 units sold. Likewise, the , which received a harshly criticized redesign in 2011, bounced back in January with a 49.5-percent increase on sales of 21,883 units. It replaces the aging at the top of Honda’s sales heap, which remained flat in January with just 13,659 units sold.
What about ? Shockingly, the Chrysler Group was King of the Hill in January, posting a 44.26-percent increase in sales compared to 2011, led by an indomitable Chrysler brand that reported an 81.39-percent increase in sales on the back of strong performances by its and sedans. (41.86 percent), (37.40 percent) and (29.37 percent) all reported strong sales, as well.
Additional mentions should be made for (up 68.19 percent) and (up 47.87 percent). Mazda enjoyed a 532.6-percent in sales to 3,032 units, as well as a 118-percent increase in sales to 4,929 units. Meanwhile, the went from selling just 108 units last year to moving 6,318 last month.
Check out the rest of last month’s sales numbers in the table below.
*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 24 selling days in January 2012 versus 24 selling days in January 2011, so the change in monthly sales volume will be the same as the change in average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.
We’d guess a thief’s favorite is whichever one he happens to be hooning around in – ahead of either illegally selling it, stripping it for parts or falsifying its VIN to pass it off as a legit car. But the ‘Stang that’s attracted the most attention from this scourge of society is none other than the 2000 Mustang.
While we’re not sure what it is about the venerable pony car in that model year that’s caused it to rise to the top of the inaugural National Insurance Crime Bureau “Hot Wheels Classics” report on Mustangs, we are finding the study to be compelling reading. Who knew that 411,155 Mustangs have been stolen since 1981? The report is similar to , but focused on just Mustang thefts, with data dating all the way back to 1964. Apparently NICB got the idea to do a Mustang-centric report after being asked for data from MustangEvolution last year.
Even more interesting than the report, however, is that NICB has also posted a six-minute documentary about how it helped reunite a Shelby GT350 with its rightful owner some 25 years after the car had been stolen. While not exactly part of the report, the video is a pretty cool showpiece for the nonprofit group that investigates car theft and insurance fraud.
To read the full press release and check out the NICB’s video, click .
What binds car enthusiasts to one another? A love for cars, certainly, but we’d argue there’s a deeper psychological connection. Namely that we’ve never quite grown up, and don’t really care to. We’re all still the little boys we once were, hanging posters of our favorite supercars on the walls of our childhood bedrooms. The only way to convince us of the reality of our own age is to show us how old the then-new supercars we pined for as kids have now become. So it’s with a big lump in our collective throat that we bring you the news that the XJ220 is now 20 years old – and along with it, that we’re all 20 years older than we were when it came out.
The first time we got a glimpse of the mid-engined XJ220 was actually back in 1988 when it debuted at the British Motor Show. But that was in concept form. It wasn’t until 1992 that the first customer took delivery. And while it was a fair bit different from the concept version (okay, so the drivetrain was very different, with half the cylinders and half the driven wheels of the V12 concept), what we got was still earth-shattering in its capabilities – particularly for its time, but still by any objective measure. The production XJ220 packed 550 horsepower, hit 60 in less than four seconds and hit a top speed of 213 mph… a new record in the early 90s.
By the time production ceased two years later, Jaguar and TWR had built just 275 examples. The one pictured above is one of ten pre-production prototypes, specifically the example that Andy Wallace piloted to that landmark top speed at Ford Stockton, Texas, in 1991. The yellow example (also pictured in our high-resolution image gallery) was one of the very rare XJ220 S homologation specials with carbon fiber bodywork and 700 horsepower on tap. Click the thumbnails to scope it out and follow the jump for the full press release to take a trip back to your childhood.
If you’ve been enjoying Forza 4 on your Xbox 360 but have been clamoring for some new cars to try out, you’ll want to mark February 7 on your calendar. That’s when Microsoft is releasing the new American Le Mans Series pack, complete with ten new cars in digital, downloadable format.
The February ALMS Pack includes some serious race machinery, including the Audi R18 TDI that reigns as current champion at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Mazda 787B that was the last Japanese car to win the race back in 1991, the new Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans”, and the iconic 1986 Sport Quattro S1. Also included are the Platinum Motorsport , Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s , the 1992 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4 touring-car-for-the-road, the 1995 Cobra R, the Holden HSV GTS and, for when a little hatchback is called for, the Volkswagen Polo GTI.
The downloadable content pack is included in the Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass, or can be bought for 560 MS Points (worth $7). Check out the new additions in the and the image gallery above.
The has just picked up a doppelganger in China. According to CarNewsChina, Jianghuai Auto Corporation has just unveiled its new 4R3 pickup, and sure enough, the vehicle looks to be a near carbon copy of America’s best-selling truck. JAC reportedly wants to provide buyers in China, Africa and South America with a larger, inexpensive work vehicle. While the appearances of the Ford F-Series and 4R3 visuals differ ever so slightly, the similarities far outweigh the incongruities. According to CNC, JAC is a fairly small automaker in the People’s Republic that specializes in rebodied cars, SUVs and pickups.
Word has it the 4R3 will be powered by a 2.8-liter diesel four-cylinder engine generating just 108 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. There’s no word on cost at this point. The JAC 4R3 is set to debut at the Beijing Motor Show in April, though there’s no telling how long the vehicle will be on the market before the company gets a call from the lawyers in Dearborn. Head over to for a better look at the F-150 twin.
BMW M goes Diesel, Ford Focus fleet sales numbers, California 2025 green car mandate
Episode #267 of the is here with Chris, Dan, Zach and Chris Paukert this week. Topics include the addition of diesel-powered BMW M models overseas, the surprisingly high fleet sales figure for the FordFocus, and a new green car mandate coming out of California. Your questions and comments power the end of the ‘cast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #267:
In the Autoblog Garage
Hosts: , , ,
Runtime: 01:15:33
Get the podcast
[] Listen live on Mondays at 10PM Eastern at UStream
[] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes
[] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
[] Download the MP3 directly
Feedback
Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com
Voicemail: 734-288-8POD (734-288-8763)
Review the show in iTunes and take our
Domestic automakers have much to be happy about, with , and General Motors all gaining market share last year for the first time since 1988. Yet according to Bloomberg, 2012 won’t be as good to Detroit. Total sales are projected to grow from 12.8 million vehicles last year to 13.6 million, according to the report, but increasing competition from Korea and a Japanese recovery from the natural disasters of 2011 mean those extra sales aren’t likely headed to the Big Three.
The news agency spoke to five analysts, and predictions have the U.S. automakers losing 1.3 percentage points this year. The analysts estimate that GM will drop 0.6 of a percent, Ford will lose 0.5 percent, and Chrysler will be down 0.2 percent. is seen gaining 0.9 percent, with grabbing an extra 0.5 percent, while and are only projected to see their combined market share improve by 0.01.
If all this comes true, GM would have the top market share in the U.S. at 19 percent, with Ford in second at 16.3 percent, followed by Toyota at 13.8 percent, Chrysler at 10.5 percent, and Honda at 9.5 percent.
When 2011 ticked over to become 2012, something changed with the dynamic that had been in place nearly all of last year. We had become so used to the domestics seeing increased sales month after month while and struggled to keep their heads above water while fixing disaster-related production issues. No more.
