Automotive News & Reviews, Cars & Prices, Test Drives, Crashes

Why would Australia ban the “Expression of Joy” TV ad?

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Herald Sun Australia reports that the new BMW Z4 campaign, “Expression of Joy” has been banned from the TV stations. The reason: [the ad] “would encourage car hoons to spin and burn their tyres.” The entity that forced the ban is the Advertising Standard Bureau, the Australian’s advertising watchdog.

Now those of us that live in the U.S. might find that quite ridiculous since we’re used to seeing a large variety of TV ads that are at least morally questionable, but truth is that even after watching the Z4 “Expression of Joy” clip, we can’t see eye-to-eye with them. True, there is some spinning in the commercial, but it all revolves around slow paced circles that have a single purpose: to paint the surface underneath in order to create the art work envisioned by the artist Robin Rhode and director Jake Scott.

The interesting part is that the campaign is being used across the globe and it has been successfully running in the U.S or UK for quite some time now.

So the question is: are those people really that conservative? “The board noted that the advertisement does depict in a number of places the driver intentionally allowing the wheels of the car to lose traction and perform . . . a four-wheel drift”. Come on….seriously? Lose traction….drifting….this commercial is all about art and there is obviously no intention to promote any street racing, Tokyo drifting or whatever they want to call it…

Of course, BMW responded back and they were pretty much in line with what we just said: “It is a bit of a case of a piece of art and the freedom of art being thwarted by Victoria’s anti-hoon laws”. Keyword: ART.

BMW spokesman Toni Andreevski continued: “We believe the audience can distinguish between fantasy and reality.”

We honestly don’t even see how could someone confuse that commercial for something else, when we first saw it, we were focusing mostly on the painting part and that part only.

BMW decided to let this one go: “….Safety is important to us, and we have agreed not to appeal.”

We love our Aussies friends very much, but we couldn’t let this one slide without reporting it.

Here is the full commercial:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Report: Toyota to pull Fuji Grand Prix from 2010 F1 schedule

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Toyota is considering abandoning its plans to host the 2010 Japanese grand prix, a spokesman for the Japanese carmaker has revealed. The admission comes after two waves of media reports insisted the event scheduled for Fuji Speedway next year is in doubt: most recently on Wednesday, but also dating back a month ago in the Asahi newspaper.

Wednesday’s reports, carried by other domestic newspapers as well as the national news agency Kyodo, cited sources in saying the decision to pull off next year’s calendar is expected to be confirmed officially later in July.

“It’s true that (Fuji Speedway) is making various considerations regarding its hosting of the event next year,” the spokesman said, without elaborating.

Toyota, also with a team in formula one that is based in Germany, owns the circuit located in the foothills of Mount Fuji west of Tokyo.

Toyota TF109 2009 Formula 1 race car

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Spied! Is this the 2010 Dodge Ram R/T?

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Photo by: Chris Doane for Brenda Priddy & Company

Chrysler has yet to announce if there are any changes to the Dodge Ram 1500 for 2010 but this spy shot of an instrumented test truck appears to give away two revisions intended for the performance-oriented, two-wheel-drive Ram R/T model.

First up: new 22-inch 5-spoke painted aluminum wheels with low-profile Goodyear Fortera P285/45R22 tires. The 2009 Ram R/T's rolling stock (see picture below) was 20-inch 5-spoke polished aluminum wheels with P275/60R20 Goodyear Wrangler HPs.

The second update to the R/T looks to be the addition of a removable soft tonneau cover. That's not surprising considering the R/T has a 4.10 rear axle and it uses a “loose” torque converter for strong off-the-line performance from its 390-horsepower, 407 pounds-feet of torque 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. The R/T can do zero to 60 in just under 6 seconds. The tradeoff for a short rear axle and loose torque converter is usually a hit to fuel economy. Using a tonneau cover to smooth out airflow over the cargo box could help the 2010 R/T marginally improve its gas mileage over the 2009 R/T.

One thing we think we can say with certainty if this is the 2010 Dodge Ram R/T: It looks like we'd have no problem getting (another) ticket driving this aggressive looking pickup.

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Officially Revealed: BMW X1 Photos

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

And the wait is over, we have finally received the first images of the BMW X1 production model. After months of teasing and prolonged marketing, BMW reveals one of the most talked about BMW in the last few months.

Our readers’ opinions have been split for months now, some of us enjoy the look of the new X1, while others don’t see the purpose of a new entry-level Sports Activity Vehicle. The BMW X1 will initially launch in Europe and we expect to see the X1 in the U.S. past 2010.

The X1 is mainly powered by diesel engines, five of these models will represent the core of the X1 family. The most powerful X1 model, xDrive28i, will be the powered by a petrol engine which outputs 258 horsepower and 228 lb-ft(310Nm) of torque at 2,600 rpm.

The highest end X1 diesel model will be sold under the xDrive23d naming convention and produces 204 horsepower and 295 lb-ft(400Nm) of torque at 2,000 rpm. This is the second fastest X1 vehicle with 0 t0 62 mph in 7.3 seconds.

While we’re waiting for more official information and the English press release, please enjoy the photos below.

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Be A Designer: We designed the BMW 3 Series the way you wanted to!

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Over a week ago, we launched one of the most unique and interesting projects involving the BMW community. We decided to give you, our readers, a  chance to express your opinion on the design lines of the current BMW 3 Series sedan. Your ideas and suggestions would have formed the base of future graphic renderings which will showcase the 3 Series just the way you wanted to.

We have always valued your input, comments, suggestions and this was a way for us to repay you and allow you to become more involved with our blog. To make this even more interesting, we teamed up with Automarket.ro, which presented the same challenges to their readers. A question has arisen from the beginning: will people across the globe share the same design opinions and passion for BMW?

Well, today we have our answer and thanks to the hard work of rendering artist Andrei Arvavarii, who had to scan through the tens of comments to find the most common requested design elements, we are able to bring you not one, but two different versions of the current BMW 3 Series Sedan.

As you can see, one version of the front-end is a bit closer to the reality, but the second one brings out a lot of the M1 Hommage elements and it’s rather quite interesting. Now let’s see what the Automarket readers came up with: Be A Designer for Automarket
This has been a fun project and judging by the positive reactions we’ve had, we will continue it in just a few weeks. Of course, many of you might wonder which model will we be choosing next and so far, our thoughts gear towards the new BMW 7 Series, a model that has been slightly criticized when it came out, but started to grow on everyone lately.

We would like to thank you everyone for the comments and we hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.

AutoCritical

• Have more of a light catching feature on the lower half of the body side.
• I was looking at the X1, and my favorite ‘feature’ in its design is how the crease around the DLO (seen at the C-Pillar) suggests the connection, under the belt line, to the lower light catcher at the base of the doors.

Mauro Corti, bm3rmy, Vaybach Khan, AiRi, Lariv

• taillights- changed like 3er coupe

Mauro Corti, bm3rmy, Lariv, Paul

• More integrated door mirrors.

Mauro Corti

• the car is too narrow and high in the back, I’d like it a lillte more like audi a4, lower and larger

bm3rmy

• front bumper- in the middle looks like passat, change that, make it to look that the car has some muscle.
• front lights – I would like to be more aggressive – to bi a little bit inside of the front bumper and to have a kinetic look with some new innovative features like audi but not like waves.

Vaybach Khan

• maybe a little more coupe side windows..with a longer trunk aiming to the ground…
• the front end and grill i would like to be profiled in opposite way then current, like e24 perhaps..with big grills

Lariv

• New alloy wheels

Lance

• Sportier bumper like the M3 Coupe, but more solid – not just fins.
• Headlights – must use white LED fed corona rings like the 5GT with chrome eyelids – not this white transparent colour of ice-cream tubs.
• Grille – larger and widerlike the Z4 in silver with chrome surrounds. Shape must be changed to a trapezium that is indented – not a flat nose.
• The bumper edges around the wheel is too sharp, there must be a more E36 type of premium look.
• The rear bumper must be more muscular and sporty.
• And that rear wheel arch bulge like the ones on the CS please

Moncho

• M1 concept front-end lights

Giom

• Widen the kidney grills slightly so they’re closer to the edging, and maybe enhance the chrome surrounds… ie, make it a little thicker.
• The windowsill line, raise that by not even an inch. This is to decrease the side window area, creating a more coupe like proportion.

Paul

• try to use an orange light rod like those used for the halo lights. I always liked the constant orange rod on the 5ser and it was a shame it just wasnt used for the repeater
• Also, there´s just to much going on on that back bumper…needs to be more clean with less lines
• and the front bonnet always looks like its open and it needs to be straight instead of having all those grooves that fit the kidneys, that need to be maybe bigger but for sure thicker – try the m3 i like the way they are slightly “in” the bumper if you now what i mean.
• also the chrome surroundings on the windows are a bit out of date…i am sure bmw already working on this as the new 7 and GT have them thicker.
• Also ditch those fog lights..they are just so 90´s with that glass housing…dont go audis way as fiat and merc have but instead of the boring LED´s try to use a rod or something like the new RR has.

Edox

• Front apron of the 135i coupé

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Cars.com Reviews the 2009 Mazda MX-5 Miata

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

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F-150 Takes Backseat to Camry in Cars.com American-Made Index

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

The Ford F-150 has fallen out of the top spot of the Cars.com American-Made Index for the first time, displaced by the Toyota Camry.

Cars.com's American-Made Index highlights the cars that are built in the U.S., have the highest percentage of domestic parts — with eligible models having parts-content ratings of 75 percent or higher — and are bought in the largest numbers by Americans.

Why the change? The difficult sales environment and changes in cars'
domestic-parts content — both major factors in AMI rankings — play a large part.
The redesigned 2009 F-150 has taken a larger chunk — about 5 percent more
— of overall F-Series sales in 2009, Ford sales analyst George Pipas said. But
overall F-Series sales have tumbled nearly 40 percent year-to-date, and the
F-150 has seen a steady drop in its U.S.- and Canadian-made parts over the past
few model years. The Camry, meanwhile, has seen sales fall, too, but not nearly
as badly, and its domestic parts content is on the upswing. Those developments
led the Camry to edge out the F-150 by a small but decisive margin.

If you're only looking at domestic-sourced parts content, the F-150 doesn't even make the top 10 list of vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Toyota Tundra has the highest U.S. parts content of any pickup, at 80 percent.

Check out the full results after the jump.

[Source: Cars.com]

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Dakar Yellow E92 M3 “IND Portfolio Project”

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Our friends at IND-Distribution have another surprise for us: the first E92 M3 Dakar Yellow in North America. As a recognition to our great community we have here, they decided to release two exclusive photos of this car prior to the full press release which will go out on Friday.

We know that many of our readers are interested in modding or tuning up their BMWs, so it’s our pleasure to post from time to time photos of unique projects that revolve around BMW vehicles. With that being said, I asked the guys at IND to give us some more details about the mods used on their Dakar Yellow E92 M3.

In order to be an “IND portfolio build” the entire cars modification must be carefully selected by Ilia, one of the guys over at IND. We don’t have the final cost of this project, but be sure we’ll get that number after the press release goes out, it wil be interesting how much it would cost to turn a BMW M3 into an even more unique model.

Eisenmann Sport Performance
Brembo 365

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Porsche hints at electric 911

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Electricity and high-performance cars may or may not mix, depending on your frame of reference, but whether you’re a Tesla fan or a Formula 1 devotee, it’s easy to agree that an all-electric Porsche 911 would be a welcome creation. Porsche’s Wolfgang Durheimer recently discussed the issue, but despite his hints, revealed no plans for production.

Even if Porsche does build an all-electric 911, it’s too late to be the first to do so – RUF has completed and is preparing for production of the Greenster (pictured below), a pure EV built from a production 911 Cabrio.

But don’t let your mouth start watering with dreams of unlimited torque, instant response, four-wheel motors and continuous traction control – all marshaled with Porsche finesse and handling – just yet.

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2010 Detroit Auto Show expected to lure big marques back to Cobo

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by admin.

Fear-mongering reached new heights in the automotive world on the eve of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, with naysayers predicting more somber processions and hushed voices than the average state funeral. And while the show did prove somewhat subdued, it was far from dead. Now plans for renovations at Cobo Center are sparking new hope for next year’s show.

The Michigan state legislature enacted a plan late last week to let the city of Detroit regain control of the aging Cobo Center and to use hotel and liquor taxes to fix its main problems – notably a lack of space and a leaky roof.

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