Jamie Kitman's piece in the New York Times examines the Cobra's genesis as one of the best examples of Anglo-American collaboration. The 1962 New York Auto Show saw the debut of the MKI Shelby Cobra, using the British AC Ace as a starting point. Out went the wimpy inline six, and in went a 260 c.i.d Ford V8, with a 289 c.i.d V8 following shortly after. Upgrades, both cosmetic and mechanical followed in the later years, – the 427-powered MKIII cars, with their big-block engines and flared bodywork, are the most well-loved, and often the basis for the ubiquitous kit cars that still survive to this day.
While motorsports greats like Dan Gurney, Phil Hill and Bob Bondurant helped propel the Cobra to motorsports success, Carroll Shelby's marketing acumen was an even greater force for popularizing the car. The Cobra had a number of "product placement" gigs in Elvis films (such as Viva Las Vegas) and pop songs. It didn't hurt that some of NASA astronauts also drove Shelby Cobras, helping put them front and center in the public's eye.
Cobra production ended in 1967, with Carroll Shelby turning his attention to Shelby Mustangs and the Ford GT40 program. But the Cobra managed to survive in the hearts and minds of the public, and over the years, replicas, from third parties as well as Shelby American, have popped up in various forms. Some have been authorized by Carroll Shelby, while others have been the subject of frequent, well-publicized litigation.
The Shelby Cobra has managed to endure the test of time in a way that few cars have. Its shape, like that of the Citroen DS or the Datsun 240Z is at once a product of its time, but also avoids looking dated. A thriving kit-car industry (and a nearly endless supply of donor Mustangs) has ensured that new Cobras (regardless of provenance) hit the streets every year. Here's to another 50 years of this audacious, belligerent trans-continental hybrid.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
In the alleged police state China, speeders are not hunted down by testosterone-driven cops. Hey get fined through the mail. A system the Chinese have copied from Europe. Some Chinese have taken to using a little camouflage.
Some drivers use toothpaste. This lady used a sanitary napkin on her Mini. It did not take long for this trend to be commercialized in utterly capitalist China. Carnewschina reports the emergence of license-plate-number stickers that subtly and surreptitiously alter the original.
The stickers can be bought at car markets for as little as 5 yuan (80 cents U.S.) each. The standard traffic-fine in China is a modest 200 yuan ($32). The penalty for using the stickers however can be more painful: Up to 15 days in (an, ouch, Chinese) jail, 1800 yuan fine, and the driver's driving license will be revoked.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
More and more of the daily news we consume is not written by people, but by robots and spiders. The people at Motor Trend will be painfully aware of that fact when they come back to work on Monday. Today, MT reports that "General Motors is investigating complaints that XM radios installed in Chevrolet Volts do not pick up the satellite radio service's Fox station."
Motor Trend goes on to say:
"The apparent defect was first revealed late Friday on the Fox News television broadcast, "Your World Cavuto."
"Viewers of this network have called in to complain that Fox's XM channel is not available on President Obama's car, the Chevrolet Volt," host Neil Cavuto asserted on his TV broadcast, which is simulcast on XM 114. "Does this sound to you like payback time to Barack Obama from Government Motors?"
"How dare Government Motors?" responded Ann Coulter, a guest on Cavuto's show. "But I'm not the least bit surprised. This is a liberal car for left-wing liberal socialist Marxists."
A read all the way to the end reveals that "a GM spokesman said Chevrolet engineers would continue to test Volts through the weekend to see whether they could pull in Fox XM and would issue a report by the end of the day today, April 1." This, and careful consultation of the calendar, makes a halfway assertive human reader doubt that the article is real news.
Most lazywebs from Carnewsarchive to Car Newsticker run the piece and pay the price for automatically scraping automotive sites in the hope for Google dollars. Even AOL News has the story. It is only a matter of minutes before the story will be eternalized in "verifiability, not fact" Wikipedia.
The suddenly, a few days ago, Fox lauded the Volt as a car that can "help win the war in terror." Steve Doocy, drove a Volt and attested that the drive was "smooth as glass." A few days earlier, Foxbusiness declared the Volt the best electric car on the market" and could find only one flaw: The price.
Speaking of price, some people point to the fact that GM had started running Volt ads on Fox.
Truth is funnier than April fools jokes.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
Chrysler most likely will announce record growth in market share for March. No such luck for Chrysler's owner FIAT. Again, Fiat's Sergio Marchionne is getting in front of a horrible story in order to soften its inevitable blow. Sergio told Italy's newswire AGI that "March will be a terrible year for the Italian market."
FIAT's CEO forecasts that around 1.5 million vehicles might be sold in 2012 in Italy, down from 1.75 million in 2011. Until recently, Italy was a 2 million unit market.
Fiat traditionally owns about 30 percent of the market and takes the full brunt of the bottom that's falling out. To make matters worse, FIAT's market share in Italy has dropped to 28 percent. FIAT's market share elsewhere in Europe also is tanking.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
The 2013 Infiniti JX35 is the luxury carmaker's first soiree in the full-size crossover category. You can tell that Infiniti kept families in mind when it designed the JX, according to Cars.com Senior Family Editor Kristin Varela. The product manager even used his wife and two kids as genuine pigs when designing the vehicle, Varela learned. To read more about the JX, and the other most popular car reviews of the week, continue with the links below:
If you sell anything, a house, a car, a company, you always appreciate a good bidding war. Rivals Audi and Daimler could be in such a bidding war, if Italy's Corriere della Sera is correctly informed. They are feuding over a troubled maker of motor cycles, Ducati.
Less than a week ago, Corriere della Sera had reported that the negotiations between Audi and Ducati are "in the home stretch," that Volkswagen wants to pay €750 million ($1 billion) and that the deal is one step away from being signed.
According to Reuters, rumor has it that the price for Ducati already has crept up to around €870 million ($1.16 billion). Daimler had a loose marketing agreement with Ducati, and an old beau is always good for inflaming jealousy in a new suitor.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
However, if the whole of Europe is too much for you to handle today, that's fine because I have sales info for 160 countries for you to visit in my blog, all one by one. So don't be shy and click away!
Back to your Grand Tour of Europe.
First a bit on the methodology, as 'Europe' is a vague geographic notion these days. This data was sourced on Automotive News and includes sales from the 27 European Union countries minus Bulgaria and Malta, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.
The VW Golf continues to be the best-selling car on the continent by far with 493,855 sales in 2011, it has now been on top of the European ranking every year since 2008…
The Ford Fiesta takes the 2nd spot at 372,977 units…
…just above the VW Polo at 371,454 sales.
The Opel Corsa ranks #4…
…followed by the Opel Astra, Ford Focus and Renault Clio.
The VW Passat is the big winner in the Top 10 at #10, up 10 spots and 43% on 2010.
Outside the Top 20, great performers include the BMW 5 Series, up 30% and 12 ranks to #24, the Dacia Duster landing directly at #26 with 141,961 units, and the Opel Meriva up 22% and 8 spots to #32. Notice the Nissan Juke up to #39 for its first full year of sales.
Other great performers this year in Europe include the Audi A1 at #42
the Peugeot 508 at #48
the Alfa Romeo Giulietta up 138% to #56
Kia Sportage up 131% to #69,
Mini Countryman up 335% to #83
and Lexus CT landing directly at #161 and by far best-selling Lexus for its first year in market.
Fully electric cars make a discreet appearance in this year's ranking but 2012 should see some of them really take off: the Mitsubishi i is #250 with 2,608 sales, followed by the Peugeot iOn at #258 with 1,926 units, the Citroen C-Zero at #260 and 1,830 sales, the Nissan Leaf at #264 with 1,726 units and the Opel Ampera at #304 and 304 sales.
The DR Motor DR1 manufactured in Italy (in fact a rebadged Chery Riich G1) is once again the best-selling Chinese model in Europe but it has lost its spark at #259 with 1,886 units, down 40%.
Let's conclude this article by observing that the Lamborghini Aventador sells its very first 63 units over the continent to rank #310.
You can see 2010′s Top 371 best-selling models in Europe here:
Now for the usual golden nugget: those who have read up to here, I thank you profusely but you must be wondering where the heck is the best-selling car in the world, the Toyota Corolla? Yes I have kept the suspense up till the end. Well. Fact is when the Corolla hatchback was renamed Auris for the European market for the launch of the 11th generation 2007, it took most of the sales as the Corolla sedan has never been a favourite in Europe… Result: the Corolla is only #129 in Europe with a bit over 26,000 sales! Pretty lame…
There. You are now an expert in all things European cars…
Till next week dear readers! Thanks for listening.
Source: Automotive News. I need to thank Tuga and Lancia Lover for sharing the data.
Note 1: The 2010 figures beyond the Top 50 are calculated based on the 2011/2010 variation in percentages, therefore the exact sales number for 2010 may be slightly different.
Note 2: The Top 318 list is incomplete and doesn't account for absolutely all models sold in Europe in 2011. If you have sales data for any additional model in the whole of Europe please make sure to get in touch by commenting on here!
Note 3: This ranking includes sales from the 27 European Union countries minus Bulgaria and Malta, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.
Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
