How Far Would You Go For A Free Mini Cooper?

Andreas Mueller apparently would go pretty far.

Mueller, originally from Germany, heard about a contest a local radio station was having where the grand prize would be a free Mini Cooper. The way to win the contest was to do the most craziest stunt in order to get the car.

Mueller ended up winning the contest because he came up with the idea to tattoo the word “Mini” on his gentleman part. Seriously.

“Once I’m sitting in the car, it won’t matter anymore. The pain will be gone and it’ll be alright”, said Mueller.

Obviously that is the most tremendously painful area to get a tattoo (as evidenced by his facial expression in the picture), but did Mueller consider how this might affect his um, love life? I mean he’d constantly have to explain to his dates that the word ‘mini’ isn’t referring to his genitals but rather his car. And then he’d have to explain why he did it. And then he’d have to explain to the waiter that it’ll just be a table for one because the girl would surely run away at that point.

I don’t think I could do it. I mean, it’s just a regular Cooper, not even a Cooper S!

Would you tattoo the word Mini on your genitals to get a free Cooper?

[Anorak]

Audi Goes After Mercedes-Benz…Again

Audi is starting to act a lot like Stephen Harper. Just attack your competition rather than letting your product speak for itself.

Audi has taken several jabs at BMW over the past year to which BMW has responded to, but ultimately BMW has stopped responding to the prodding. Which is just as well. As entertaining as ad wars are, it does get old every now and then. Apparently Audi doesn’t know when to stop though.

They’ve also taken digs at Lexus and recently, they’ve turned their attention to Mercedes-Benz. Their last jab was in this ad.

But the latest jab targets Mercedes-Benz only insinuating that Benz’s are full of old non-innovative technologies, referring to the current S-Class. Audi is of course comparing it to their newly redesigned A8. Much like GM’s tig at an older Hyundai (posted below) this is a bit of an unfair fight. Of course the new A8 will have more new technology than an old S-Class design. When the redesigned S-Class comes out, then you can compare them, but until then this just seems like an unfair fight.

All these attack ads of late kind of make Audi seem like the bully of the sport luxury car world. You make great cars Audi. Let your products to the fighting for you.

[Youtube]

GM Says the Cruze is Better Than…

…a previous generation Hyundai Elantra.

Which is kind of like PC saying that Windows 7 is better than Mac OS 7.6. Of course it’s better!

I don’t know why GM wasted their time and money on this ad or why no one bothered to point out to them that they are comparing apples to oranges. Not only are they comparing their new product to an old product but they’re comparing the Cruze 1LT to the base Elantra.

I’m sure GM will argue that the comparison is still valid since there are probably remaining 2010 Elantras still for sale, but I’m fairly certain that there are also 2010 Chevy Cobalts still for sale. Comparing the Cobalt to the 2010 Elantra and the Cruze to the 2011 Elantra would be more fair.

So why didn’t GM do that? Because they know they would lose in both comparisons. Ha!

While I’m sure the Cruze is a fine step up from the Cobalt, I must say the 2011 Elantra looks way more impressive.

On another note, this is the first time GM has actually targeted Hyundai in their history. Usually they go after Honda and Toyota. That says something about the product now coming out from Hyundai. You have every reason to be scared, GM. The Koreans are coming!

[Youtube]

Oh Hi: Pagani Huayra

I actually almost put a NSFW warning on this post because this is terribly close to pornography. And I almost guarantee the looks of Pagani’s new supercar will cause arousal.

Despite it’s obvious good looks, one thing I will say is that the front end has a bit of Fisker Karma going on, or maybe something of a bottom feeder fish. It’s a bit odd, but definitely not offensive. Also Pagani has incorporated gull-wings to the Huayra which sort of make it look like a flying fish when the doors are open. Still, overall a very agreeable look.

Now on to the good stuff. There’s a 6.0 litre twin turbocharged V12 making 700 horsepower and 740 pound feet of torque. All that power is directed toward the rear wheels. A seven speed dual clutch transmission is the only option and with a curb weight of just under 3,000 pounds, you’ve got yourself one hell of a hypercar. Despite the light weight, Pagani has still managed to incorporate navigation and an audio system.  Not that you’d ever use the audio system since that V12 is a symphony of its own.

Ok now get back to work before your boss catches you looking at automotive porn.

[Autoblog.it]

Volvo CEO Hints at V60 Coming to North America

Much to the dismay to most North American Volvo wagon enthusiasts, when Volvo debuted the V60, they also said it would not be coming to North America due to poor V70 sales. However it now seems there is a possibility of the very stylish V60 being available for sale here.

Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby recently indicated that it’s possible for the V60 to come to this side of the pond as a sort of niche vehicle. He suggested that perhaps the V60 could be a hybrid only if sold here. The goal would be to keep Volvo loyalists happy all while ensuring they don’t jump ship for the Toyota Prius, Lexus HS 25oh or Audi A3 TDI should they want something more efficient. This would also help Volvo achieve its CAFE standards as they currently offer no hybrid or diesel models in North America.

Volvo is currently working on electric vehicles and has also hinted at a deisel powered C30 coming to our market as well.

Would you buy a hybridized V60 or would you rather just a pocket rocket version in T6 form? Maybe beggers can’t be choosers.

[Swedespeed]

Flagship Ferrari FF Debuts!

Behold, The FF!

For you twitter tweeps FF does not mean “Follow Friday”, it’s actually the name of Ferrari’s new flagship. FF  stands for “Ferrari Four” which essentially indicates that this 612 Scaglietti replacement is a four seater. It also refers to the number of wheels that receive power. That’s right, this is Ferrari’s first venture into the all-wheel drive world. Being a Ferrari, lightness was still top priority so this new all-wheel drive system weighs half that of a typical all-wheel drive system. By the looks of things, Ferrari is going to sell the FF as being an all-weather daily driving Ferrari and may be taking from Porsche’s cues.

Having four wheel drive standard is probably a good idea considering this Italian stallion has a V12 under the hood making 651 horsepower and 504 pound feet of torque. That’s a lot of juice! To effectively control the power and to get the most out of the engine, Ferrari has also fitted a Formula One style dual-clutch transmission. No word on if a manual transmission will be available, but considering one is not offered on the 458 Italia, it doesn’t look good. 0-100 is an expected 3.7 seconds hitting top speed at 335 km/h.

The FF will have a maximum 800 litre of cargo space available and of course a host of typical Ferrari options including six exclusive colours.

Hit the jump to see more pics.

[Auto 123]

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You’re Not As Rich As Ralph Lauren

If you were, you’d have a garage like this.

Vanity Fair has taken an inside look into Ralph Lauren’s garage where they found everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a 1930′s SSK Roadster. Very cool!

It’s a bit of the shame that these cars never, or very rarely see the road let alone the track, but it’s good to see them in such great condition.

Check out pics of all Mr. Lauren’s cars here.

[Vanity Fair]

Mitsubishi to Kill Off Struggling Models

Don’t worry, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are okay. I’m talking about car models here. Heh.

But seriously, Mitsubishi has decided the time has come for four of its struggling models: the Eclipse, Eclipse Spyder, Endeavor, and Galant. There’s probably no argument from anyone that these models are easily the weakest in the line up. The Eclipse gained fans with its styling, but really didn’t offer any kind of legit performance aspect to match its style. It was way too nose heavy for one.

The Endeavor has never sold well since the first day it was introduced to the market. Just think about the last time you saw one. In fact, do you even remember what it looks like? Compared to other SUV’s in the market, it really didn’t offer much to entice people away from their Honda’s and Toyotas.

And then there’s the Galant which has been around fortwo decades yet always ended up last place in the mid-size category for sales. The current version is quite dreadful in terms of, well, everything.

So that leaves a pretty significant hole in Mistubishi’s line up with just the Lancer, Outlander and the new RVR. So what does the future hold for Mitsubishi? Well, efficiency. The all-electric  i-Miev is on its way to North America and Mitsubishi has promised to bring eight hybrid and battery powered models to the market by 2015.

Fuel efficiency and the environment is fine and all, but when you’re capable of making something as brilliant as the EVO, why would you put all your eggs in one basket?

Expect the four models to be killed off gradually in the coming years with all of them being gone completely by 2014. In fact, Mitsubishi doesn’t even have the Gallant on its website anymore.

[Automotive News]

Chrylser 200 Convertible Photographer Rants About Leaked Images, Attacks Car Blogs

Webb Bland is the man who was hired by Chrysler to photograph the new 200 Convertible. Bland did an excellent job (ironic considering his last name), but he is fuming because the pictures leaked ahead of the official Debut.

Bland took to his Facebook page to let loose on pretty much everyone. He blamed Chrysler for letting the photos leak so easily, specifically the “lone, misguided idiot” responsible.

But Bland also took aim at car blogs who have already posted the photos and “cropped the photos awkwardly without any back story”.

Oh hell no! Now it’s personal!

Here’s the thing, Mr. Bland. While I understand that you take your work very seriously and that you put lots of effort into your work,  you’ve obviously never dealt with the automotive industry before. Leaked pictures ahead of an official debut are as normal and as frequent as Charlie Sheen doing coke. For you to take some sort of egotistical and self centered stand, suggesting  you’re the only person this has ever happened to, is both immature and uninformed. This isn’t the art world and this isn’t the photography world. Leaked photos happen in the car world all the time.

Secondly, while I grant you the photos are well done and beautifully shot, no car enthusiast cares about the “back story” of them. All we care about is the car itself. You could have photographed the 200 Convertible amid a pile of vomit and we still only would’ve cared about the car. We don’t even notice the background 90% of the time.

Thirdly, and again, your lack of knowledge of the car world is apparent here, no one actually cares about the Chrysler 200 Convertible. We’ve already seen the 200 sedan and we can deduce from it what the convertible will look like. There are no real surprises here in terms of design. You’re lucky car blogs were even bothered to post the pictures at all. I certainly wasn’t. But the upcoming Chrysler 200 convertible is about as exciting as a prostate exam. Until Chrysler actually goes and redesigns it completely, it will still be as useless to the typical car enthusiast as the current Sebring is. To be blunt, your pictures really aren’t that important to us. The 200 convertible is the same as your last name which is also ironically hilarious.

And lastly, you got paid, didn’t you? And you got credit for the images didn’t you? Regardless of them being leaked ahead of time, Chrysler fulfilled their part of the deal. Just because it didn’t happen on your terms doesn’t mean the whole thing is ruined. And since it was their product that got leaked they should really be the ones pissed off about it, not you.

To attack car blogs for posting the leaked pics is kind of like biting the hand that feeds you. You need us to actually post your work, otherwise no one gets to see it, so I’d think twice before attacking us car bloggers next time. Just sayin’.

Click here to read Bland’s rant.

[Autoblog]

Test Drive: 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo X

By Kevin Harrison

As cliche as is it, the old adage “never judge a book by its cover” very much holds true in almost every day to day situation.

For example, have you ever seen the traditional Indian dish called dhansak? I mean, it honestly looks like cow dung, but my goodness is it ever tasty. I almost didn’t try it because it looked so completely unappetizing. That would’ve been a huge mistake.

The same can be said for people. Remember when Susan Boyle walked out on stage with that raggity hair, dodgy lower class dress and that cheeky smile? We all rolled her eyes and laughed in her face. Until she opened her mouth. Which then caused us to shut ours indefinitely. No one would’ve guessed such a beautiful voice existed underneath that exterior.

I have to say, I had a similar experience when I went to pick up the new Jeep Grand Cherokee to write a review. My experience with Grand Cherokees of the past had me dreading this test drive. I assumed my experience this new Grand Cherokee would be no different.

Boy, was I wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mercedes-Benz Shows Canada Some Love

Mercedes-Benz has just announced a new edition of the C63 AMG. It’s called the Affalterbach Edition and guess what? It’s only for us Canadians!

The Affalterbach Edition, which is named after the town where AMG guru’s work their magic, features exclusive Magno Allanite Gray paint, red calipers which help accent the black 19 inch wheels and a carbon fiber lip spoiler. Inside the AMG seats are wrapped in Nappa leather with red stitching, carbon fiber trim throughout and of course a host of Affalterbach Edition badges.

Power itself remains unchanged, but Mercedes-Benz’s optional AMG Performance Package is standard on the Affalterbach Edition meaning there’s 481 horsepower and 443 pound foot of torque. 0-100 is estimated at 4.4 seconds.

If you’re interested, you better stop reading at this point and get on the phone because Mercedes-Benz will only build 30 of them. Price is an estimated $81,000 and the Affalterbach edition will officially go on sale in the spring.

[Mercedes-Benz Canada]

Again?! BMW Targeted By Thieves at Auto Show

Talk about bad luck!

Last year BMW had four models destined to be shown at the New York Auto Show stolen at the docks.

This year, at the Detroit Auto Show, BMW appears to have been targeted again as thieves made off with a $140,000 7-series that was being transported onto a trucks from the show.

The thieves apparently just hopped in and took off before anyone could do anything about it. What’s up with BMW’s security? You’d think most manufacturers would take some sort of precaution considering they know they’ll be displaying expensive vehicles in very public places like auto shows.

Anyway, the 7-series is equipped with BMW Assit which means it’s essentially trackable by the police. So it’s likely to be found quite soon…jacked up on cinder blocks and completely gutted.

[The Detroit Free Press]

2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK Gets Official Debut

The 2012 SLK got its “unofficial” debut about two months ago when a television commercial for it leaked to the internets.

After presumably firing the person responsible for leaking it, Mercedes-Benz has released pics and information on its own terms.

Innovative features now found on the new SLK include “Magic Sky Control”, which is pretty cool despite its immensely uncool name. What it does is actually tints the glass pannels automatically. So when you feel like ridin’ like a gangta, you can tint the windows. When you’re picking up your grandma, you can un-tint them.

For Canada, we’ll get three flavours: the SLK 250, SLK 350 and of course the SLK55 AMG.

The SLK 250 will get a 1.8 litre 4 cylinder engine making 201 horses. The SLK 350 gets a 3.5 litre V6 making 302 horsepower. It was also get a 0-100 time of 5.4 seconds.

What I’m really interested in, though, is the SLK 55 AMG. This bad boy will get a normally aspirated 5.5 litre V8. This engine is expected to replace the 6.2 litre V8 found in many AMG models. As such, there are no horsepower ratings yet, but stay tuned.

Check out some more snaps after the jump.

[Mercedes-Benz]

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Bugatti to Make 435 KPH Capable Veyron

There’s no doubt that Bugatti has achieved one of the most significant feats in automotive history. Being known as the maker of the fastest production car in the world is quite the accolade, but the reality is, Volkswagen (who owns Bugatti) loses money on every Veyron they make.

But that apparently is not going to hold them back from keeping this impressive hypercar into production.

In fact, how do you make the Veyron better when it is seemingly as good as it gets? Well, you make it even faster.

The current Veyron Super Sport currently holds the fastest production car honour with a top speed of 415 kph. It achieves that amazing speed by a 1,200 horsepower 16.4 litre engine.

The next Veyron will reportedly get a top speed of 435 kph. Getting that top speed obviously doesn’t come easily. That means the brakes, the tires, the shape etc need to be absolutely perfect.

But if anyone can do it, it’s Bugatti.

[Auto Express]

Oh Hi: 2012 Honda Civic Concept

Honda had introduced it’s Civic concept and it is very significant for us Canadians because the current Civic is the best selling car in Canada.

While it technically is a concept, it’s safe to say that most of the styling cues will stick around for the production version. When you’ve got the best selling car in Canada, and let’s face it, most of the world, you don’t want to mess too much with a good thing. Those LED lights and gunmetal alloys likely won’t make it to production, but you never know.

The grille and headlights are apparently carried over from the current generation Civic, while new tail lights and a redesigned trunk lid can be found out back. Overall it’s an evolutionary look, not revolutionary. Still, it’s an attractive design.

The Civic coupe concept takes styling cues from its big brother, the Accord Coupe.

Since these are concepts there is no info on powertrains, but Honda did mention that the Si will indeed return along with a natural gas version. So far there’s no mention of the return of the Civic Hybrid.

Hit the jump to see a rear shot of the Civic sedan and the Coupe.

[Honda] Read the rest of this entry »