Volvo teams up with Swedish House Mafia to promote the new XC60 (w/VIDEO)
DJ trio Swedish House Mafia split up in March after less than five years at the top of the dance music scene. And while their final appearance was at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami USA, they had one more collaboration in mind, with Volvo and Linnéa Martinsson of Scandinavian band Lune. The project, led...
Adwatch: Audi’s Star Trek Challenge pits Leonard Nimoy’s Spock against Zachary Quinto’s (w/VIDEO)
If you’re a Star Trek fan you’ll love this new ad for the Audi S7. It features 82-year old Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock from the 1966–1969 Star Trek series who goes head-to-head with newbie Zachary Quinto – in a Mercedes versus Audi face off. After a game of on-line chess, in which Nimoy check-mates...
Driving a Land Rover is like falling over.. in control (w/VIDEO)
Sometimes brands and their agencies ‘over’-think their ad campaigns, to such an extent that all the audience can see is the video rather than the meaning behind it. The latest commercial from Land Rover North America (entitled ‘Roam Free’) is intended to show the ‘go anywhere’ capabilities of Land Rover vehicles, featuring four parkour athletes...
Investindustrial completes equity investment in Aston Martin
Following their announcement in December, Aston Martin and Investindustrial have now completed the transaction which brings £150 million of capital investment to the car maker in exchange for a 37.5 per cent equity stake. The investment underpins a significant new product development programme, which will see more than £500 million (US$800 million) spent in developing...
4 cars which are way ahead of Alfa’s 4C (w/VIDEO)
The Alfa Romeo 4C Launch Edition made its début at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, featuring the same 237bhp 1,750cc turbocharged petrol engine as the standard car, but with a few extra tricks – most notably its special matte-finish Carrara White paintwork (also available in Alfa Red) and contrasting carbon aerodynamic kit. To encourage Alfisti...
Aston Martin Vanquish: where beauty comes from within
Aston Martin’s stand at the Shanghai Auto Show is worth a second look, not just because it features the Skyfall DB5, but you’ll also find, right at the back, a cutaway of the latest Vanquish. It’s been developed to show the evolution of the VH architecture, now in its 4th generation, and demonstrate the beauty...
McLaren continues its promotional foreplay with the P1 interactive web experience (w/VIDEO)
One of these days we’ll try and rank which car maker is the ‘biggest tease’ – I suspect we’ll have a stand-off between McLaren (with the P1) and Jaguar (F-TYPE), although Lamborghini has always enjoyed stringing us along with its numerous concepts. In Jaguar’s case, I’ve lost count of the number of times people have...
Ford and GM set out to build a 10-speed auto transmission
Ford and GM will jointly develop a new range of nine and 10-speed automatic transmissions for their cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. The new transmissions, to be built in both front and rear-wheel-drive variants, are aimed at improving performance and increasing fuel economy and marks the third time in the past decade that GM and...
Ken Block goes all Cyrillic in Russia (w/VIDEO)
It’s a bit of an oldie this one, as you’ll note by the use of Ken Block’s former Ford Focus WRC. Block took to a snowy stage in Igora Park, Russia, to demonstrate Pirelli’s latest studded competition tyre and show off GoPro’s new HD HERO2 cameras. His mission, which he showed little hesitation in accepting,...
Why Jaguar Land Rover’s results raise more questions than answers
You could be forgiven for thinking it was ‘game, set and match’ in the premium car sector as car makers line up this week to each announce record quarterly sales performances. If you’re in the UK, none will have shouted louder than Jaguar Land Rover – doyen of the British car industry and brand of...
Audi will bring more RS models to market more quickly
Audi’s quattro GmbH division is celebrating its 30th anniversary, with the promise that in future it will bring the company’s high-performance models to market more quickly. In an interview with Headlineauto, Axel Strobek, the Audi board member for finance and organisation said “RS models in the past were delivered in the second half of a...
VIDEO: The all-new Kubota Grand X – it goes from zero to whatever speed this is..
There’s a school of thought which says ads should be free from hyperbole, stripped of unnecessary fluff and focused on a brand’s key messages. Sometimes humour makes us laugh, but fails to leave a memorable impression of the product being sold. But when you’re flogging a new tractor, all bets are off – at least...
BMW rains on Audi’s parade with even higher record sales in the first quarter
Yesterday’s news of Audi’s best ever first quarter was reinforced this morning as BMW raised the bar even further. Audi sold 369,500 units for January through to March, while BMW managed 448,200 units, up 5.3 per cent on last year. If there’s any consolation for Audi, they’ve managed to close the gap ‘very’ slightly –...
Bugatti gears up for a big announcement..
Over on Bugatti’s Facebook page the stage is being set for the launch of something new, but is it yet another Veyron or something truly worth getting excited about? All we know so far comes from the picture above and the following sentence.. “It’s almost time for us to share the latest example of exceptional...
Fisker lays off workers after failing to find a white knight investor
Less than three weeks after its namesake left the building, the remainder of Fisker’s staff have joined its founder as the company seeks to stave off the inevitable. In a statement this evening, a company spokesman said it had laid-off 75 percent of its workforce as “..a necessary strategic step in our efforts to maximize...
Three lessons to learn from Renault’s Va Va Voom Button Clio campaign (w/Sponsored Video)
If you’ve missed Renault’s latest #pushthebutton Clio ads then you’re in for a treat, and that’s not just my opinion, the interweb is abuzz with talk of this ‘advertising’ campaign in a way that’s usually reserved for ‘proper’ content. The film(s) were made by Scorch London’s Director, Steve Jay together with Unruly Media’s Creative Solutions...
Infiniti confirms new high-performance sports model is on its way (w/VIDEO)
Amidst the launch of Infiniti’s new compact executive Q50 model, Johan de Nysschen, the company’s president, has confirmed they’re working on a high-performance sports model to lift the aspirational threshold of the brand. His statement came in response to an interview, given at last week’s New York Auto Show, when he was asked about Infiniti’s...
The Best Automotive April Fools’ pranks of 2013
Every year we gather together the best April 1st pranks produced by the car industry, some of which might generate a laugh, while others fall flat because, let’s face it, humour isn’t normally a core competence for PRs. As usual, BMW lead the way with two dead-pan gags from MINI and BMW cars – while...
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