Kia Motors America has signed up Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima to convert US football fans to futbol fans during the FIFA World Cup. Any excuse, we suppose.
The TV spots are aimed at NFL fans, but a similar approach could easily be taken here in Australia with AFL and NRL fans.
You can check out the videos after the break.
Like us you probably haven’t had a chance to duck over to Europe to check out the Geneva Motor Show. So here’s the first of a two part series bringing you a selection of the cars on show. Here we start with Alfa Romeo and go through to Lexus.
In case you’ve missed it there’s a big game of football on tonight. And we don’t mean the Man City v Chelsea game either. It’s American football and, of course, it’s the Super Bowl.
That means all the big wig advertising agencies have been locked away in rooms for months trying to come up with something clever and memorable. We’ve taken a look at the motoring-related TVCs and we’re sorry to say the standards from the big auto makers has slipped.
Most of these ads are pretty lame. Subaru should just be embarrassed. Audi, Kia and Volkswagen can perhaps keep their heads above water for producing moderately entertaining ads, but the rest are just shit.
The Geneva Motor Show is still underway over in Europe and while we’re sure almost all of our readers would love to be there we’re doing the best we can to bring you a little closer to the action. Here is the first installment of over 250 pictures from the show, from Alfa Romeo to Lamborghini, which includes some of the great and not so great models on display.
That Lamborghini’s not getting any prettier is it.
Let’s forget for a moment that this stupidly named Kia pro_cee’d GT is powered by a comparatively meek 150kW 1.6 litre turbo diesel, on looks alone, could you see yourself ditching your Golf GTI (or similar hot hatch) for this rather snazzy looking Kia?
The three-door pro_cee’d GT and its mate, the five-door cee’d GT, will be revealed in full at the Geneva Motor Show in early March. For Kia’s part they’re rather proud of them too, and rightly so. They’ve labelled the GT models as their “most performance-focused production cars ever”.
Although, that comment does put things into perspective. The 150kW/265Nm engine is driven through the front wheels and exclusively coupled to a 6-speed manual transmission (when a low revving diesel is probably better matched to a dual-clutch jobbie). They have a claimed 0–100 time of 7.9 seconds.
Judged purely on performance, they’re not great numbers. And without even knowing how well the cars handle, it’s hard to see the Kia GT winning over too many hearts and minds in the lucrative hot hatch segment.
But in the minds of budget conscious buyers the pro_cee’d GT presents a more compelling case. Assuming, of course, that the price is right. It looks fantastic! European-based Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, deserves a pat on the back.
For some years now Kia has improved its styling no end. Indeed, they make some of the best looking cars on the market; see current Rio and Optima models. Even the Cerato Koup looks pretty good. And the Track’ster Concept was on the right side of quirky to be very damn cool.
On the one hand, then, we applaud Kia for making inroads into the hot hatch market. Yet, while acknowledging they’re now very serious about style, we bemoan the fact they bottled it when it came to performance. Perhaps in time they’ll catch up there as well, but just imagine if the pro_cee’d GT had an engine with 180kW/400Nm or so.
That might make GTI buyers think twice.
Well done Australia, for the first time on record you’ve bought more than 1 million new vehicles before the end of November. The year-to-date figure at the end of last month was 1,016,605, a 10.9% increase compared with the same time frame last year.
As always, string demand for SUVs in the private sector has fuelled the growth, but so too has a resurgence in sales of passenger vehicles.
Meanwhile, Government fleet sales have dropped off by a total of 35.1% compared with November 2011 and by almost 21% since the start of the year.
The top three selling brands in November were Toyota (19,312), Holden (10,354) and Mazda (8,732). While the three best selling models were the Toyota Corolla (4,190), the Mazda3 (3,703) and the Toyota HiLux (3,059).
Congratulations to Mazda, too, who has recorded its best ever annual sales results, with a month still remaining in the year.
To close out our 2012 Australian International Motor Show coverage we bring you the highlights and lowlights from the rest of the manufacturers on show.
Our top three highlights:
Our top three lowlights
And a special mention to the Nissan Pulsar SSS. My first new car was an Australian built N14 SSS, it was awesome and is still better to look at than this comeback horror story. AUSmotive’s assistant on the day described it as the ugliest car he’d ever seen. I put forward the new Honda CR-V as an alternate suggestion, but he wouldn’t be swayed.
The monthly update from VFACTS brings word that 94,627 vehicles were sold in September, an increase of 9% (7,808 vehicles) on the same month in 2011.
Increases in the sales of hybrids helped to boost the result, so too the ongoing demand for SUVs. While government sales remain on the decline.
Toyota remains miles ahead of anyone else in overall sales, thanks to its 17,300 buyers. Mazda, though, has cracked the 10,000 monthly sales barrier for the first time (10,093) and found itself as the country’s second best selling marque last month. Holden (8,955) was demoted to third.
Year-to-date figures show 822,674 new sales have been recorded in 2012, 9.4% increase (70,546 vehicles) compared to the same period last year.
The high selling Mazda3 was Australia’s favourite purchase, with 4,276 September sales. The Toyota HiLux (3,479) was in second on the sales charts, ahead of the Hyundai I30 (3,144).
The 2012 Paris Motor Show is well underway and for those of us who can’t make it we’ve assembled a photo gallery, which highlights what a blue collar show this has turned out to be. There’s no real theme of haute coutoure motoring here. It’s mostly off the rack bread and butter models.
Thankfully, the Jaguar F-Type brings some style and class. Conversely, when you stop and think about it, someone must have actually signed off an be responsible for the Honda CR-V. They should be fired. It is just horrible.
After the break you’ll see manufacturers listed alphabetically from A–L. Stay tuned for part 2 from Paris soon.
In the most recent test results published by Euro NCAP the newest Audi A3, Renault Clio and Volvo V40 models were all awarded the maximim possible five star safety rating.
The A3 scored 95% for adult occupants and was praised for its strong performance in the side barrier test. However, Euro NCAP state the A3’s bonnet design resulted in marginal to poor protection for pedestrians.
Renault’s fourth generation Clio rated best in the safety assist criterion with 99%, but registered only marginal protection against whiplash in the event of a rear-end collision.
A perfect score was recorded by the Volvo V40 for its safety assist systems. With a score of 88% for pedestrian safety the V40 was praised for its under-bonnet airbag.
Pictures and links to the full reports and videos can be found after the break.
[Source: Euro NCAP]
Not content with May’s sales figures—an all-time record for that month—Australian car buyers have now set a new record for any month, registering 112,566 vehicle sales in June. That’s a staggering increase of 16,409 sales compared to June 2011.
Year-to-date sales total 547,854 vehicles and you’d suggest that means Australia will once again top one million annual sales.
The Toyota HiLux was the country’s highest selling model in June with 4,308 sales, ahead of the Mazda3 (3,924) and Toyota Corolla (3,804).
It’s no surprise, then, to see Toyota continue their stranglehold as the best selling manufacturer. They sold 21,649 vehicles last month, compared to 10,632 by Holden and 9,672 for Hyundai.
Last month Australians set a new vehicle sales record for the month of May. A total of 96,069 vehicles were sold, representing a very healthy increase of over 24% (18,668 vehicles) compared to May 2011.
Year-to-date numbers are up almost 9% on 2011 numbers, with a total of 435,288 sales in the first five months of 2012.
Toyota, as usual, claims the major monthly honours of top selling manufacturer (20,443) and highest selling individual model with the HiLux (4,626). Holden (9,017) and Mazda (8,346) fall in behind Toyota on the sales charts.
With such a bumper month it’s no surprise to see so many manufacturers releasing brag sheets. You can read them all after the break.