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 beige blurs in the still above are sheep, and they’re apparently very excited about something in that little blue car. Supposedly, a farmer in the Caucasus was just trying to get through a lane, and this, dubbed the “sheep cyclone,” is what developed.
for the video. If you put on headphones and listen closely, you might be able to hear the car whispering Or whatever that would be in Russian.
Based on the of the , the public hasn’t gotten tired of Hyundai’s “fluidic sculpture” design theme. Based on this commercial for the , we admit that we haven’t either. The five-door sold in Europe and based on the Kia Cee’d platform shows us what we can generally expect from the upcoming replacement.
The last Elantra wagon didn’t get big play here three years ago, but neither the nor Hyundai were in the position they’re in now. In Europe, the i30 five-door will get a choice of four engines and three transmissions, but we shouldn’t expect to be so spoiled for choice. to see the video.
commercial gives good look at coming Elantra five-door
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.
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.
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.
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.
A few months ago, Steve Shannon, vice president of marketing at said the brand would to the game, instead of focusing just on features, and with this peppy quip: “We’re making Super Bowl spots. We need to get that headset on. The bar is high.”
The first three ads are, and in one of them, “All for One,” a designer needs a little extra support getting a job done. He gets it from his coworkers. And plant workers at Hyundai’s Montgomery, Alabama facility. And Rocky. to check that one out along with “Cheetah” (pictured) that features the and “Think Fast,” which introduces the revamped You’ll also find the press release describing Hyundai’s Super Bowl gameplan and find link links to watch the behind-the-scenes videos for each, as well.
Today’s vehicles are more powerful, more efficient and safer than ever before. In fact, today’s car buyer would be hard pressed to spend his or her money on a genuinely bad vehicle. But those overall improvements may have also led consumers to believe there are no real differences between the various products offered by the world’s major automakers. According to the Consumer Reports 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey, , , and have all seen their scores drop by double digits compared to last year.
The survey asks consumers to rate brands across seven categories. Consumer Reports says that by combining those categories, the organization can get a handle on how each brand is perceived in the marketplace.
This year, Toyota continued to lead in the survey, though its persistent recalls saw the brand’s perception fall by 17 points this year. Ford, Honda and all saw their perception scores plummet more than 20 points. The results may indicate consumers are seeing fewer differences between automakers as products continue to improve. While that’s good news for smaller automakers like , and , larger names in the industry should be worried. Head over to for the full report.
Car dealers have a strange and oftentimes contentious relationship with the carmakers. Stories of automakers shoveling unsaleable models down the pipeline with unreasonable expectations are legion in the car sales world. With the number of family-owned, single-brand dealerships dwindling, dealers often field competing franchises. The concept of loyalty is as quaint as a . So it’s worth noting the automotive brands that are actually liked by the guys selling them.
The National Automobile Dealers Association conducts its Dealer Attitude Survey twice each year, and results from the summer survey are in. stayed on top for the third time in a row, followed by , , , and . The survey measures three factors: “franchise value, automaker policy decisions that affect the dealership and the automaker’s field staff who visit dealerships.”
Sixth place went to , while , , and followed. and tied for tenth. NADA received responses from over 14,700 dealerships, representing almost 54 percent of all dealers nationwide.
Hyundai’s has been on fire, with sales up 41 percent last year. The compact sedan won in January, and the icing on the cake will be a that will soon be landing at dealers. But all is not completely well, according to a report from Bloomberg.
expects Elantra sales to run into a brick wall of limited production capacity, as the company’s Montgomery, Alabama plant is already operating at 110 percent. The plant, which builds the Elantra and its big brother, the midsize , churned out 338,000 units in 2011. Hyundai sold over 186,000 Elantra models in the U.S. last year.
With Hyundai posting 20 percent overall sales growth in the U.S. in 2011, it clearly needs to address its capacity bottleneck. Speculation is building that the company another North American assembly plant.
The California Air Resources Board () is holding meetings that could put the hammer down on getting more zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) on the road – or so it seems at first glance.
CARB, which always looks far down the road, is discussing how it will change the ZEV program that concerns model year 2018 vehicles and beyond. The proposal (, but watch out: it’s 670 pages that are not searchable!) could force automakers to add half a million pure electric or fuel cell vehicles and another 900,000 plug-in hybrids by 2025, writes The New York Times. Overall, CARB’s proposal would increase the market segment of advanced clean cars from four percent in 2025 to 15 percent in the future. CARB is also asking for more hydrogen stations to be built.
That may all sound good, but there’s another side to the story, one that’s . Plug In America is to oppose a portion of the proposal that could actually reduce the number of ZEVs on the roads in the future. Comparatively, anyway. In a letter to the DOE and EPA, CARB Chair Mary Nichols wrote:
California commits to propose that its revised ZEV program for the 2018-2021 MYs include a provision providing that over-compliance with the federal GHG standards in the prior model year may be used to reduce in part a manufacturer’s ZEV obligation in the next model year.
The details are that, for every two grams per mile of GHG overcompliance, an automaker could “cut the number of pure electric-drive vehicles [it has to offer] by as much as 50% over 2018 to 2021,” writes Plug In America, which also calls it a “sweetheart deal” and “a bad deal for California and for the United States.” PIA writes that , and lobbied for this overcompliance language. We’ll keep following this one.
The turn of the year didn’t merely lead us into the Year of the Dragon, but also the year of the . Solihull’s small softroader won a boodle of awards: Autoweek’s , Top Gear magazine’s for , Motor Trend magazine’s and the . For starters. Consumer Reports, however, isn’t as swayed, saying that the new “handily outpointed its European rival” in a head-to-head between the two compact luxury crossovers.
We expect there’s an Evoque out there with a sore backside because CR did not spare the rod, saying the Evoque scored near the bottom of its category because of “a cramped cabin, stiff ride, artificial-feeling steering and troubling emergency handling.” On top of that, its “rear view is poor,” its “cargo area is small” and its interior is “noisy” albeit “well finished,” and was outdone by the X3’s “lavish interior.” The baby finished so far in the hole that CR couldn’t give the vehicle its coveted Recommend rating.
That seems a bit harsh at first glance, especially since comparing interior measurements between the two seems disingenuous when the BMW is so much larger that it’s basically in another class. That said, we haven’t read the full piece yet, so we’ll withhold further commentary. For CR’s press release on the Evoque vs. X3 cage match and its comments on the , and , look no further than .
It won’t be long before we see the official reveal of the , but predictably, the Internet won’t be kept waiting. Consider us unsurprised that a set of grainy photos showing what is claimed to be a badgeless redesigned Santa Fe crossover has appeared ahead of schedule.
That said, we’re thinking the chrome-heavy maw depicted in these shots suggests that this is probably an overseas version (ix45) – not exactly what we’ll see in the States. At least, that’s what we’re hoping, as the wall of frontal brightwork seems out of step not just with the market, but also and its styling position here in North America. That said, our moles confirm that this is “some version of Santa Fe” and suggest that the image above was likely part of an illicit photo shoot taken inside the plant in Korea.
We should know more in April, when the North American Santa Fe is expected to launch at the . For now, however, check out AutoEvolution for a second look.
We can think of a handful of automobiles that appear to be closer to golf carts than what we’d otherwise think of as “cars”. Like the , for example. Or the Tata Nano. Rhys Millen’s rally car, on the other hand, is not the first vehicle that would come to mind for schlepping clubs around the fairway, but Rhys himself appears to think otherwise with this latest video just released by .
In the clip , you’ll see what happens when Millen gives new meaning to the notion of picking the right driver for the course. The added bonus of using competition machinery in place of the usual putter put-putters is that you just might get to the green before your ball does. And that could come in handy on the PGA Tour.
Finally, we suggest you watch all the way through to the end for the blooper reel.
Here it is, ladies and gents – the 2013 Coupe. The svelte new two-door will make its official debut at the in just a few weeks, but our intrepid spy photographers managed to catch this completely uncovered prototype on the back of a flatbed truck.
Not surprisingly, the new coupe relies heavily on the same Fluidic Sculpture design language of the award-winning sedan, though subtle tweaks have been made to give the two-door a bit more sporting flare. The foglight housings appear larger and more angular, giving the front end a slightly more aggressive appearance. Out back, a small lip spoiler has been added to the rear deck that both enhances the swoopy profile shape of the and adds another element of style to the rear end.
As we , the Elantra Coupe will get a sport-minded SE trim level, and all in, Hyundai hopes that the coupe will account for 20 percent of all Elantra sales. We’ll have the full details in just a few weeks, but scroll through our gallery of spy shots to see naked coupe from all angles.
CEO John Krafcik has confirmed that the Korean automaker will supply with transmissions for its new , according to Car and Driver. While the two automakers may seem like odd dance partners, the tie-up makes plenty of sense. Both companies use engines born out of the now-defunct Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance with . As a result, 2.0- and 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines found in the Dart share more than a few strands of DNA with the same displacement engines found under the hood of vehicles like the . Needless to say, it shouldn’t take too much effort to get the Hyundai gearbox and Chrysler engines to play nice.
We say “shouldn’t” because according to Car and Driver, the American manufacturer is reportedly having issues getting the transmission properly calibrated to obtain the lofty fuel economy numbers necessary to . Chrysler hasn’t confirmed the move as of yet, and Hyundai is keeping its lips sealed on which transmissions are headed to the Dart line. Even so, if Chrysler’s engineers are struggling over calibration, chances are it’s a six-speed automatic.
So… what about those lofty 40 miles per gallon claims claims Chrysler was bandying about at the Detroit Auto Show? C/D hypothesizes that figure may be reliant on a specific engine and transmission combination, be it turbocharged 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder and a dual-clutch gearbox or a 2.0 and a six-speed manual. Curiouser and curiouser.
J.D. Power and Associates has released its annual Customer Retention Study, and ranks the highest among brands in retaining buyers. Hyundai’s retention rate is up four percentage points to 64 percent in 2012, thanks largely to the and models. J.D. Power says that much of the manufacturer’s retention rate can be traced to its growing vehicle offerings and positively changing perceptions about Hyundai quality and market appeal.
and tied for second place with a rate of 60 percent. The report notes that enjoyed the largest improvement over the previous year with a jump of 17 percentage points to 51 percent in 2012.
The study also evaluated which buyers were more likely to return to an automaker for their next purchase, and the data revealed women and younger buyers had a higher brand retention rate than older consumers and males. Honda, Hyundai, and were all found to be particularly adept at keeping their female customers, while Ford, Kia, and Mercedes-Benz did a better job of holding onto buyers from Gen X and Y. for the full results of the 2012 Customer Retention Study.
Every year at the , the Eyes on Design awards honors the best designs among production vehicles and concepts debuting that year. Unlike, say, the , the only vehicles eligible for an Eyes on Design award are the ones that introduce themselves to the world – well, really just North America – in Detroit.
What’s particularly interesting is that the judges for these two awards (one for production vehicles and the other for concepts) are all active or retired designers themselves, so they know a little something about the topic. This year’s group includes, among others, head of design Walter de Silva, President and CEO of SRT Ralph Gilles, and GM Vice President of Global Design Ed Welburn.
This year, the Eyes on Design awards were handed out to the in the production category and the in the concept category. The Fusion’s fellow finalists were the and , while the LF-LC eked out a W over the and .
What Are You Willing To Sacrifice For A Low Price?
The compact car market is white-hot. The new , and have lifted the segment to new levels of refinement while at the same time improving fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon on the highway and beyond. Instead of turning their attention back to trucks and SUVs, manufacturers are going even smaller. Automakers have begun pouring vast resources into the smaller subcompact segment, and the result has been a wealth of all-new models. The , and are all-new or updated and vastly superior to prior subcompacts that still linger in our memories like an unpleasant aftertaste.
has put its subcompact under the knife, too, as the features all-new sheetmetal, revised powertrains and a fresh interior. The previous Versa was known for being larger and less expensive than its competition, and its sales reflected that – it’s been the most popular model in its segment. But we’ve been curious to learn if this latest redesign may help or hurt the Versa’s standing, so we borrowed the keys to a top trim 2012 Nissan Versa SL Sedan for a week to find out.
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.
Car dealers have a strange and oftentimes contentious relationship with the carmakers. Stories of automakers shoveling unsaleable models down the pipeline with unreasonable expectations are legion in the car sales world. With the number of family-owned, single-brand dealerships dwindling, dealers often field competing franchises. The 
What’s particularly interesting is that the judges for these two awards (one for production vehicles and the 
