Perhaps there is hope for car culture after all. Citing consumer demand (and not just internet bickering), Ford will be offering a five-speed manual transmission option for the 2012 Ford Focus Titanium. "Buyers migrating from higher-priced import brands frequently prefer manual transmission," Ford said in a statement. Nearly 40 percent of trade-ins on Focus are imports.
Previously the manual transmission was only available in the S and SE version of the Focus with a six-speed automated manual being the only option on the top-trim Focus Titanium. Too bad, too, because the Titanium is the one that goes best with a manual. It gets 18-inch alloy wheels and a sport-tuned suspension. The only thing missing was a transmission that reacted as well as the chassis did.
Ford says that this decision was based on a manual take rate of 7 percent. That figure is 50% higher than Ford expected and surely has something to do with the complaints Ford is getting about the automated manual. You'll remember that Consumer Reports downgraded Ford's reliability rating due to complaints revolving around the automated manual transmission and MyFord Touch.
Related: 2012 Ford Focus Titanium vs. 2011 Hyundai Elantra Limited
Categories: Ford,Hatchbacks,Sedans
We decided to switch things up this week and present Week in Review as stop motion animation featuring a Jean-Luc Picard action figure. I mean, works for Robot Chicken, right?
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Categories: Videos
If you're this new driver, approximately 4:44. In her defense, the spot is ENORMOUS, it must be difficult deciding exactly where, and at what angle, to park that tiny car.
(*video contains grown-up language. Headphones or mute*)
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Categories: Miscellaneous,SMART,Wagons
At this year's Geneva Motor Show, Infiniti will be showing off an all-new range-extended sports car concept they've now named EMERG-E.
The press release is thin with information saying only, "The INFINITI EMERG-E will be the first car from the brand to have not only a range-extender drivetrain offering vivid performance with zero emissions capability but also one mounted in a mid-ship package for optimal handling."
The market for a mid-engined range-extended Infiniti seems small to me. I could be wrong, but let's just go ahead and assume that the EMERG-E will not make it out of the concept stage. We'll bring you more next month from Geneva.
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Categories: Geneva Motor Show,Hybrids,Infiniti,Sports Cars
BMW is a big player in the automotive industry, and to prove it, they're spending a ton of money on Super Bowl ads. BMW is also a company that is highly profitable, so they're not spending as much money as some other big names.
Instead, BMW is airing two thirty-second spots during the Big Game promoting the all-new 3-Series and running a total of six 30-second spots on YouTube. The first two after the jump "the Big Grab" and "the Close Call" will be aired on Sunday.
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Categories: BMW,Miscellaneous,Videos
When January auto sales were tallied earlier this week, sales for the broad industry were up 11 percent and analysts and industry watchers were encouraged by what appears to be steadily improving health for the U.S. auto business. But January's sales numbers also showed some intriguingly bad numbers for many interesting cars.
The thought process started with the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, which went on sale sometime around October last year and evolved into one of the most buzz-less launches for a specialty car we can recall. Volkswagen had its best January since 1974 -- sales were up 47.9-percent to 27,209-- and the company might be pleased with the comparative sales increases for the butched-up new-generation Beetle, but the Beetle's raw sales numbers are pretty weak: 1,401 for the month.
The Beetle's January sales performance was a 417-percent leap compared with last January, at least. And maybe VW's pending launch of its MQB architecture heralds a safe future business case for low-volume specialty cars throughout the industry?
Here are the January sales results for a few other cars -- many some of our favorites -- that are selling at worryingly lame pace:
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Categories: Auto Industry,Miscellaneous
Ferrari went all sorts of crazy in 2011 releasing an all-wheel-drive hatchback bearing the Pracing Horse. They called it the FF and love it or hate it, a Ferrari capable of driving in the dirt and snow has given us some pretty slick images and videos. Here's the latest.
It stars the 6.3-liter, 651 Horsepower hatchback and Finnish rally driver Markku Alen on the Arjeplog ice track in the North of Sweden.
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Categories: Ferrari,Hatchbacks
I'm going to spoil the 2012 Chevy Silverado Super Bowl ad for you: Zombies do not swarm at the end only to be turned to goo by a fleet of trucks picking them off like it was Grand Theft Auto meets Shaun of the Dead.
This commercial needs a sequel now. With zombies. Lots of zombies. You know the Raptor could handle a zombie attack.
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Categories: Chevrolet,Trucks,Videos
Ferrari F1 drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are the latest victims benefactors of the unholy profitable union of the Fiat and Chrysler empires. The Ferrari ambassadors were gifted the first two 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s in Europe and they aren't just off-the-line ones, no, these have been tweaked by SRT.
The normal 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 comes with 470 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque 00 so do these. Instead of giving these two obviously unqualified characters (Seriously, race suits fully zipped in a garage? Amateurs...) more power, they gave them more style. First comes a coat of Rosso Corsa paint, a matte black grille, an offset driver's side stripe with white accent, carbon-fiber mirror caps and the Italian flag painted on the bottom of the rear spoiler. The special edition SRT8s are dropped 1.5 inches to give them a better stance on the standard 20-inch wheels. Inside we've got -- shocker -- red leather with yellow dials on the IP.
European delivers start for real in the summer.
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Categories: Celebrities,Ferrari,Jeep,SUVs,Tuners and Modifications
Jeff Zwart is not quite the king of the mountain, because he’s never actually won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb overall, but he should be the prince at least, since he’s registered so many class wins, all in street-legal cars.
The wins also have been all in Porsches, since Zwart has been obsessed with them since he was a kid and used to ride his Stingray bicycle around Huntington Beach, California, with his pal Freeman Thomas (now the director of advanced design at Ford) just looking for the sports cars from Zuffenhausen. Though Zwart is now a well-known photographer and maker of commercial films (notably for Porsche), he still thinks his old Porsche 914 – the first car he ever bought with his own money (and not exactly from Zuffenhausen) – is cool.
So when we heard by chance through a friend that Zwart’s new street car happened to be at Circle Porsche in Long Beach, we drove over there to take a look.
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Categories: Celebrities,Motorsports,Porsche
The Chicago Auto Show is a special place for Mazda. That is where, in 1989, they first showed off the Mazda Miata. Since then they've gone on to sell some 900,000 of the tiny two-seat roadsters.
And so it should be no surprise that Mazda has chosen Chicago to show off a new special edition Miata. The Mazda MX-5 Miata Special Edition will have a black power retractable hard top (PRHT in Mazda speak), two new exterior colors, black gunmetal alloy wheels, black exterior accents, black heated leather seats and piano black interior finishes. The Premium package and the Suspension package will be standard -- that means sport-tuned Bilsteins, Bluetooth and Sirius. They will be offered with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic.
450 of the Special Edition Miatas will be produced. Pricing was not announced.
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Categories: Chicago Auto Show,Convertibles,Mazda,Sports Cars
We've already seen one ad for the 2012 Chevy Sonic. That one, "Stunt Anthem", was just a collection of web shorts we've seen before stitched together. This ad, "Joy" is a proper Super Bowl spot with anthropomorphic critters doing things that non-anthropomorphic critters don't do.
Watch it after the jump if you simply can't wait for gameday. You did remember that there's a game, right? Also after the jump is a Chevy commercial promoting all of the Chevy commercials that will be in the Super Bowl. That one's got Rainn Wilson, though, so I'm going with it.
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Categories: Chevrolet,Miscellaneous,Videos
During the Chicago Auto Show next week, Volkswagen will be officially releasing the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI which is "the only Clean Diesel offering in the compact coupe category."
Like the Jetta TDI, the Beetle TDI uses an iron/aluminum 2.0-liter turbocharged and direct-injected Clean Diesel that produces 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. Putting that torque to the ground is either a six-speed manual transmission or a six-speed dual-clutch DSG. The Volkswagen TDI gets an EPA estimated fuel economy rating of 29 mpg city and 39 mpg highway. The 2011 Volkswagen Jetta Diesel gets 30 mpg city, 42 highway and a 34 mpg combined rating.
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Categories: Chicago Auto Show,Diesels,Volkswagen
For the second day in a row we have a new Super Bowl ad for a family sedan that features bikini girls. We're not complaining, mind you, especially since one of the bathing-suited beauties here is Adriana Lima, but it does speak to who the main target of Super Bowl ads really is. The first one, of course, was the Toyota Camry's lady couch ad. Now Kia's in on the action with this ad for the Kia Optima.
Besides girls, this ad has Motley Crue (wow, they god old), a cowboy riding a rhino, Chuck Liddell and the main character on a horse.
As a gift to humanity, Kia has provided a FIVE HOUR loop of Adriana Lima waving a checkered flag.
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Categories: Kia,Miscellaneous,Videos
The Fiat 500 was, in bluntest terms, a sales flop in the US. They estimated that 50,000 of them would fly off of dealer lots when in reality only something like 20,000 did.
To solve the problem of America they've taken the easy route and simply made the car BIGGER. Despite more doors, the 500L is less than 3-inches longer than the normal 500 at 13.6 feet. Width is 5.8 feet and the 500L stands 5.4 feet tall. The 500L (guess what L stands for) is a B-segment car with the "feel of a small SUV." Just what we've always wanted? Let's hope Fiat gets some more power out of the 1.4-liter Multiair; 101 hp barely cuts it in the 500.
The 500L makes its debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show and will go on sale in the US in 2013. It will be built in Kragujevac, Serbia.
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Categories: Fiat,Geneva Motor Show,Hatchbacks
Last week Suzuki released a teaser for their Super Bowl ad which they've called "Sled." Today they've released the entire ad. It still has dogs, but now it has 50 Cent. I didn't know he was still around.
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Categories: Miscellaneous,Suzuki,Videos
Here's Chevy's Volt ad for the 2012 Super Bowl. This one features a group of aliens exploring the advanced technology of the Chevy Volt. (Perhaps wondering why a civilization couldn't stick to one power source?)
It's better that it should be and is one of the frontrunners this year.
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Categories: Chevrolet,Hybrids,Miscellaneous,Videos
In case you haven't been following the case of Heather Peters vs Honda, here's the breakdown: Peters owns a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid that, like all of these cars, is not getting the advertised mileage. Peters, an attorney, opted out of the class action suit and instead filed her own suit against Honda in small claims court. Small claims court in this case would give Peters -- and future Civic owners who sue Honda -- a higher payout than the class action suit. (The class-action suit will settle for between $100 and $200 per person and a $1,000 credit towards a new car purchase -- lawyers will take home about $9,000,000.)
But lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court. Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnham agreed with Peteres and said that "Honda was aware...by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage," and awarded her $9,867.
Peters has set up a website, dontsettlewithHonda.org, to try and convince the other 200,000 2006 Civic Hybrid buyers to opt out of the class action and go to small claims court. It's a move that could cost Honda up to $2 billion.
But that's where this gets murky. Courts don't like settling the same case over and over and over again, that's why class action suits exist. And if Honda appeals this decision -- something they will HAVE to do to stop this from setting precedent -- it will go to a real court with real lawyers and a real judge. That case, when it comes, will be much harder to win.
Categories: Auto Industry,Honda
At last year's Frankfurt Motor Show, Erin Riches and I spent far too much time around the Mercedes-Benz Actros on display. In person it is spectacularly imposing.
I thought maybe, just maybe, if I moved back to the East Coast I could have enough land to park this thing and justify it as a daily driver. I did not, however, think about using it as a taxi. And if I had, I wouldn't have been clever enough to pick up employees of Volvo and MAN -- competing big-truck makers.
This is the kind of thing you can do when you have a giant budget and a solid sense of humor. Next time: Unimog to shuttle around former Hummer execs.
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Categories: Mercedes-Benz,Trucks
Apparently it’s hell being a Formula 1 driver.
What with all that racing around the world, debriefing with engineers, dealing with stupid questions from journalists, glad-handing sponsors, helicoptering to parties where fancy women rub up against you for no reason at all, and kissing babies at supermarket openings, there’s no time for a man to drive his own damn car.
As evidence, we present this Porsche 911 that McLaren F1 driver and former F1 world champion Jenson Button has put up for sale. Want to buy it?
This isn’t just any Porsche 911, either. This is a 1973 Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS — the Ferrari 250 GTO of collectible Porsches, the 911 that every driver with the soul of an F1 driver wants to own. The Holy Grail.
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Categories: Celebrities,Classic Cars,Porsche
