MotorTrend September 2011

With June about to wrap up, there are four new campaigns on the chart. BMW’s entry depicts a 1M zooming through cloned cutouts in concrete walls. Fiat’s 500 blends high class with cool to the soundtrack of a Vivaldi remix. Ford’s campaign responds to “Facebook Questions” about the new 2011 Explorer. The most viewed of the response videos features the JabbaWockeeZ performing a dance-off. * First appearance on chart ** Back on chart Source: Visible Measures (www.visiblemeasures.com) The Motor Trend Top 10 Online Video Auto Ads Chart focuses on brand-driven viral video ads that appear on online video sharing destinations. Each campaign is measured on a True Reach basis, which includes viewership of brand-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements.…

“STUNNING ADVANCES IN COMPUTER POWER OVER THE PAST HALF-CENTURY MEAN TODAY’S AUTONOMOUS CARS DON’T NEED CLEVER ROADS; THEY CAN FIGURE IT OUT ALL BY THEMSELVES.” THE DEPRESSING reality of the new car biz? Most buyers aren’t that interested in driving. For every one of us who savors the sheer joy of running a fast car through the gears, there are 10,000 others who couldn’t care less. To most people, driving is a chore. They’d much rather be guzzling a soda, snarfing a burger, texting their buddies, and watching TV—preferably all at once—instead of enjoying the interaction with a finely tuned piece of machinery while getting from A to B. It’s because of all these non-drivers that today’s cars are heavier, less efficient, and more expensive than they need be. If…

OUR INTREPID, very undercover spy photographer (so undercover, we can’t reveal his name) caught what appears to be the much-anticipated small Jaguar sports car. Paul Horrell reported in August that the car, codenamed X152, will indeed be called the F-Type, though the name XE also has come up. Note the long hood and very short deck. Jaguar originally considered a mid-engine layout for its small sports car, designed to compete in price and placement with the Porsche Boxster. Instead, Horrell reports, it will be the first built off a new front-longitudinal engine/rear-drive platform that also will spawn a compact sedan slotting under the XF, and a new crossover utility vehicle launching later in the decade. The base engine in the F-Type is expected to be a V-6 of about 3.8…

ONLY GENERAL Motors could launch this kind of assault on the compact car market in 1962. It added the quickly developed Chevy II/Nova to the Chevrolet compact lineup when its Corvair didn’t match up to Ford Falcon sales. It turbocharged the Olds F-85, and complemented the Buick Special’s new-for-’61 aluminum V-8 with a new V-6. Now, GM’s two-car compact, or C-segment lineup, is poised to expand. First up is a potential coupe version of the 2012 Buick Verano sedan that launches this fall. At press time, the Verano coupe was not an approved plan, though it would be an Opel Astra GTC with Buick-style tweaks. The GTC is, strictly speaking, a two-door hatch, though it’s a “low-roof” hatchback with a coupelike appearance. One issue is how to insert a Buick-style…

AT LAST, I can report and comment on a management shuffle not at GM, but at that other post-bankruptcy company, Chrysler Group. The New Age hero of the musclecar, Ralph Gilles, has been relieved of his post as president and CEO of the Dodge brand. He remains chief designer for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram. And Gilles is now in charge of the newly formed Street Racing and Technology (SRT) brand. Reid Bigland, president and CEO of Chrysler Canada, takes over Gilles’ Dodge chief title, and Bigland also takes Fred Diaz’s job as head of U.S. sales, while retaining his Canadian duties. David Buckingham, previously sales veep for Chrysler Canada, becomes Chrysler Canada’s chief operating officer. Diaz remains president and CEO of the Ram Truck brand and takes on the…

FORD’S announcement that it will offer the Focus-based C-Max multi-purpose vehicle in the U.S. exclusively with hybrid and plug-in hybrid drivetrains was revealing for what the company did not say. It will not sell the conventional internal-combustion model here, so Ford brass has come to realize that Americans still like American-style cars and trucks. The three-row, seven-passenger Ford C-Max, the only version initially planned for the U.S., will not be imported here. The hybrid versions we will be able to buy will have a two-row, five-passenger configuration. Ford showed the C-Max last January at the Detroit auto show. The Blue Oval may not have received the public reaction it was expecting. Ford may have discovered that non-traditional models are a hard sell in the States. It has touted the “success”…