| Why do automakers spend a ton of money on TV commercials? Because it sends people to the internet to find out more. The 2014 Infiniti Q50 has been at the No. 2 spot for the past two weeks, essentially since the day it went live. This week it surpassed the Jeep Cherokee at No. 1 thanks to an onslaught of commercials touting the car's precollision system. 1. 2014 Infiniti Q50  from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/ | |||
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| What better way to finish one month and start a new one than going through our traditional World Roundup? None, I know. Enough of the world? That's fine, I knew some of you would feel that way, and I've prepared something else: you can check out new car sales data for 176 additional countries and territories on my blog. Go on, you know you want to! Now if you want to know what happened worldwide in the magical world of car sales, jump in!
Before we start, may I interest you in the two photo reports I lovingly uploaded in the last week: Italy ("It's a Fiat 500-mania") and Monaco ("Millions on display"). Yes I am in this part of the world right now, lucky me! Let's begin by an overview of the main worldwide markets: again a fascinating contrast this month: on one hand we have the two biggest car markets going gangbusters: China is up 10% on July 2012 to 1.52 million units and the USA is up 14% to 1.31 million… On the other hand, markets that normally display explosive growth are in recession: Brazil, India and Russia are all down 8%! Add to this Japan (ex-Kei cars) down 13% and it makes for a pretty sad picture. In Europe, we are getting mixed signals. While most of the continent is still wobbly, the market as a whole delivers its 2nd year-on-year growth in the last 2 years, up an encouraging 5% this month but still down by the same amount year-to-date. Illustrating this, Germany is back up 2%, the UK posts its 17th consecutive month of year-on-year growth at +13% and Spain seems to be coughing its way out of depression, registering the largest year-on-year increase for a month of July since 1999 at +15%. Most analysts however (my good old self included) don't see Europe getting back to sustainable growth before 2016 at the earliest. But will the European new car market ever grow back? I wrote an article on this subject here. Now onto the heroes that made the worldwide headlines in July, and I have been generous this month, awarding 6 accolades!
1. Some good news for Chinese-Swedish manufacturer Volvo: the V40 tops a country's sales charts for the first time since the model was launched on year ago, and surprise surprise, it's not Sweden but the Netherlands where its low emission versions benefit from a preferential price that boosted its sales in the country to 1,616 units for an excellent 5.3% market share. Given the Dutch market is much bigger than the Swedish one (244,000 units vs. 147,000 so far in 2013), this is indeed a good operation Volvo.
2. The 2nd heroes of the month are the General Motors pick-up trucks: now that the new generation of both models is starting to be available across the USA, the Chevrolet Silverado is up 45% year-on-year in July to 42,080 sales at #2 overall while the GMC Sierra is up an even more impressive 49% to 16,582 units at #19.
3. Would Chinese consumers be finally reconciling themselves with their own cars? This month the Great Wall Haval H6 is up a fantastic 12 ranks on June at home to land at a record 7th place. This is the first time since April 2011 that a Chinese model ranks within the Chinese Top 10, and the best ranking for a local since January 2011! Its little brother the Great Wall Haval M4 is also making waves this month: beating both its ranking (#23) and volume records.
4. The Skoda Rapid reaches a new milestone at home in the Czech Republic, breaking its ranking, volume and market share records all at once to rank #2 for the first time at 1,059 units and 7.3% share. However as we have studied last month, this doesn't result in Skoda improving its market share (29.3% in July vs. 29.4% year-to-date) which could mean the Rapid is a cannibal… Note the Rapid also breaks into the Top 10 in Israel (#10) and Croatia (#6) for the first time this month.
5. This month sees the birth of a new popular nameplate for Honda: the Crider, positioned between the Civic and the Accord in the Japanese manufacturer's range and for now exclusive to China, shines very bright for its first full month in market, selling 10,357 units and already the brand's best-selling passenger car in the country!
6. The Peugeot 301, the French carmaker's first attempt at a – relatively – low-cost product (although it still denies the 301 is low-cost), manages to break into the Top 20 in the land of Dacia, Romania, and is up to a fantastic 4th place in Egypt while maintaining itself on the Algerian podium at #2. Could the last two announce the rebirth of Peugeot in Africa? Why the French lost this continent is one of the 10 things I don't understand…
Email me at matt@bestsellingcarsblog.com for an in-depth analysis of any of the the markets mentioned in this article. In other news, the Hyundai ix35 lands on the Austrian podium for the first time ever, the Chevrolet Spin is starting to carve itself a nice spot in Japan-obzessed Indonesia, up to a record #13, the Dacia Sandero is on the French podium for only the second time ever, the first for this generation, while the Duster ranks 4th overall for the 5th time in Russia where it is sold as a Renault.
In Italy, while the Top 5 is 100% Italian for only the 2nd time in 16 years, the Fiat 500L ranks #4, above its lil sis the 500 for only the 2nd time after last March, it is also #1 in Serbia where it is produced and #10 in Slovenia.
Star of the month in June, the Renault Captur delivers another very impressive month at #5 in France while its archenemy the Peugeot 2008 breaks into the French Top 10 for the first time at #10, as expected last month.
The Mercedes E-Class continues its impressive progression in Germany, now up to #5 which is its highest ranking in the country since October 2010, the Fiat Palio above the Uno in Brazil for only the third time in the last 3 years, the Fiat 500 is up to #3 in Hungary, the Ford Ecosport is now in Indian Top 10 while the Peugeot 208 breaks into both the Swedish and Argentinean Top 10 for the first time, and thanks to the new generation of the model and in a climate of uncertainty for local manufacturers after Ford announced it would stop local production by 2016, the Holden Commodore climbs back to #4 in Australia, its highest ranking there in 16 months.
A few changes of guard this month: Selling 5,590 units more than the Prius this month, the Toyota Aqua reclaims the year-to-date top spot in Japan, the Hyundai Grandeur takes the lead in South Korea where the race to the 2013 #1 spot is the tightest it has ever been, the Honda Civic reclaims the #1 passenger car spot in Canada year-to-date, passing the Hyundai Elantra, the Toyota Hiace is now above the BMW 5 Series in pole position in Hong Kong (China) and in Mexico the VW Clasico (a facelifted 1990s VW Bora) ends 19 months of reign of the Chevrolet Aveo, but remains #2 year-to-date.
Among recent launches, at #22 the Opel Adam is now the brand's best-seller with private buyers in Germany. Handicapped in France where its registration has been temporarily blocked (this has since been cancelled), the Mercedes CLA delivers its best performance worldwide in… Turkey where it ranks #37! That's all for this month! Hope you enjoyed. If you want more info, just email me at matt@bestsellingcarsblog.com for an in-depth analysis of any of the the markets mentioned in this article. Here is the full last 12 months' worth of World roundups: World June 2013 Roundup: Renault Captur surprises, Skoda Rapid cannibalises World May 2013 Roundup: Europeans buy more local World April 2013 Roundup: Toyota RAV4 means business World March 2013 Roundup: Don't take this the wrong way, but… World February 2013 Roundup: Nissan Qashqai pumps up the jam World January 2013 Roundup: Low-cost range brings Renault back World Full Year 2012 Roundup: Last Year's Top 5 highlights World December 2012 Roundup: Has the Chinese invasion started? World November 2012 Roundup: When Hyundai cracked Brazil World October 2012 Roundup: China, Japan and Austria in focus World September 2012 Roundup: Ford Focus shines in China World August 2012 Roundup: Subaru XV topples almighty Golf in Switzerland World July 2012 Roundup: Geely CK writes history in Ukraine Sources: all usual sources for each country mentioned. Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars Blog, dedicated to counting cars all over the world. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com | |||
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 If you'll forgive the 35-year-old pop-culture reference, there's a scene in 1978's "Superman: The Movie" where a motorist pulls up to the filling station and, asked by the attendant if he wants regular or premium, replies, "she hasn't had a drink in a while, give her a tank of the good stuff." Don't try this at home, kids. The notion that putting premium fuel in your regular-fuel engine will do anything but empty your wallet is as dated as the Christopher Reeve movie's visual effects. Follow manufacturer instructions, and the link below, and you won't need Superman to save you — money, that is.  from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/ | |||
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| "We have, oh, I don't know, maybe four hundred and thirty miles behind us," William said, "and one-twenty-ish yet to go. But trust me, the worst is yet to come. Route 58 from the freeway to the four-lane before VIR is just… hateful, particularly with the tire trailer behind us. Not a single light on the road. No gas stations — the public-urination stories I could tell you, seriously. And the road twists and turns forever, one time we were towing the race car here and Jim literally freaked out, made me stop the truck in the middle of nowhere so he could calm down, he was convinced we were going to tumble down the side of a hill, a lot of spots there's a sheer drop. I think half of the reason anybody ever goes to Summit Point is that, frankly, it's an easier drive by a long shot. Same distance from Indy almost but so much easier. But, you know, one more fuel stop at the exit, then you can sleep, I'll go slow, and then we have the little condo rented on the Climbing Esses, you can wake up late, and you can sit out on the porch and watch me drive. If you want." "Oh, yes, I think I dooooooooo want to see you drive," Kristin smiled in response, stretching her long body out in the Corvette's confined passenger area, her bare feet scrunching the thin carpet and the line of her neck visible in the reflected glow of the arc lights above them along I-77. "Yes I do. And you can take me on the racetrack? We can race, right?" "It's not racing," he laughed, "but don't tell some of the other Vette Club guys that, they are pretty sure it is. It's called an open trackday, but there are no trophies, no prizes, and the focus is on safety." His pocket buzzed, and he ignored it. Although the cabin noise in his C5 Z06 wasn't nontrivial, both of them could hear it. A minute or so later it buzzed again, and they started in mutual fascination at the light of the screen visible through his jeans, then he slowly withdrew the phone from his pocket, and they saw his wife's face, and her name. Then it went silent, and for a moment he felt relief, before the screen lit once more, and he looked from the phone, to the road, then to Kristin, who challenged him with her eyes and whispered, as if the face on the screen could hear but not see her already, "You'd better answer that."
"When you don't answer your phone, I stay up until you do. It's been five hours, William. I've called once every half hour for five hours. Do you want to tell me why you aren't answering your phone? Is there something I need to know?" Not three months ago, he'd literally gotten on his knees before Jenny and cried: I fucked up, I betrayed our trust, I let you down. I slept with Kristin, he'd rushed out, it was a mistake, it happened three times, I know she's your friend, it was my fault, not hers, she was guilt-ridden about it, she couldn't sleep, we agreed you had to know even though it's already over. And the storm that had taken them then, he barely remembered what had happened, but hours later they were in bed and he was holding her, swearing on his life and the lives of their child that it could never happen again, how could it, I've learned now what happens, I was a fool. "No, nothing, the reception's bad, you know, I just was worried about the trailer, it's been acting funny, I wanted to keep both hands on the wheel, it seemed you always called at just the time when it was acting up, ah, um, you should be in the business of being like, ah, some kind of water dowser, only for trailers or something, ha ha," Christ, did he just say something about a water dowser? "Put her on." What? "What?" "Put her on, William. Put Kristin on the phone. I know she's with you. Put her on the phone. William, put her on the phone." For one brief moment, every moment of terror he'd ever felt at being found out merged into a bright ball that seemed visible before him. Behind him, as if to punish him for lying, the tire trailer attached to the Vette's rear crossmember briefly swayed in noisy fashion, requiring a correction that brought him back to the present. As if from a great distance above, he watched his hand move towards Kristin, who was facing him from just inches away over the broad vinyl center console. "She, ah, wants to speak to you." "Fuck," Kristin spat, "you, just fuck you, you fucking coward." Then she took the phone. "Hey. Uh. Yeah. No, I under… I mean, no, what I'm just trying to say is… no, I understand, I really… okay." She was holding the phone with just thumb and forefinger as she pushed it back at him. "Take it!" she hissed. William hesitated. "Jenny, I —" "Just listen, William. I want you to turn the car around and come home. I knew when you left that you were going with her, okay? You're never that happy about going to VIR in the dead of the fucking night. I'm not stupid, William. I want you to turn the car around and come home. I love you. We have a child together, William. His name is Jake and he needs his father. I need his father. I need you to turn the car around and come right home. If you do that, I forgive you, I forgive you again. Don't," she interrupted him as he drew breath to speak, "say a word, don't open your mouth to say another fucking lie to me, I can't handle it, just turn the car around, drop her off wherever you need to, just turn the car around and come home. To me. To our son. To our family. William. Come home to our family." Then the phone went dead and he stared at it for a long time before realizing that she had hung up. They drove in silence for minutes. His stomach churned and he thought briefly that he might vomit right there into the wheel and the dashboard. The track won't give me my money back for the suite. Where did that come from? So what? It's two hundred bucks, Jenny is at home and she could hurt herself, she's done it before, when they were kids and they were dating he dumped her for some stupid reason and she went right back to the dorm and drew a razor across her right wrist. "Bitch," he'd later on make a show of griping for his fraternity brothers, "it was supposed to be down the road, not across the street." But in truth he'd been horrified and he'd knelt on the ground before her at the hospital, never again, we were meant to be together, I was a fool. The two hundred dollars didn't matter. The cold rose up in his throat, the mechanical feeling. You can keep going, it said, run a 2:05 on the Full Course and fuck Kristin all night both nights, tell her it's the last time, then go home and she'll still forgive you. She's invested, after all. In the relationship. In the house. And he could let her sweat it out while he enjoyed Kristin's body one final time. Nothing will change between now and Sunday night. Tell her he couldn't skip the trackday, he had students to work with, something, the non-refundable room charge, something, something. And it seemed like the thing to do but meanwhile his hands were steering the Vette off on Exit 14, the regular exit, but his hands had no intention of taking the car to VIR. Once again he felt distant, detached, and Kristin's voice was thick with fear, "What's happening? Why are you stopping? What are you doing?" "She said," he offered, lamely, the words slow to come, "she said, to turn around." "ARE YOU SERIOUS? NO. NO! NOOOO! William," and now she had her hands on him, now her breath was in his ear, she was unbelted in a flash and across the console at him, "she's bluffing, you don't need to do that, you don't need to do that, I don't know what she said to you but just keep going, no, Christ, what's happening, why are you turning here?" "Just," he said, "to fill the car, I need to think." The first right turn took them up a hill to the gas station and he stopped the Z06 under the lights. "I need to think about this." But the minute the car came to a halt she was out the door, running. It took him a minute to understand what was happening. In her transparent blue dress, barefoot, she was running away from him, past the lights of the gas station and the lone semi idling in the back lot, into the darkness, then she was gone from his view even as he found his own feet, his legs complaining under him, fuzzy and prickly from the long drive, you're almost forty, not a kid to be running after someone, but he forced them into action, towards what appeared to be an unlit clearing with the woods behind it. Into the darkness he ran and the sound of her feet on the leaves and the sticks ahead was almost drowned out by the tramp of his shoes but he ran blindly after what he could hear then the sound stopped and he panicked for a moment, running in a night that seemed to be inside his own eyes it was so fucking dark out here, then he struck her motionless, crumpled body and went head over heels himself, sprawling then crawling back to her scent and her choked, ragged breathing. "Please," he begged her, "please." But what he wanted, he couldn't say or even think of. "Please." "Just love me," she cried, "just love me, it's not my fault, I didn't do anything wrong, I waited my whole life for you, I didn't know what I wanted until you, until you told me you loved me, it's not my fault." "Please," he begged again, and now he was crying too, "please." Then, when the mania had faded from them both, he stood her up, dusted her off with his knowing hands in the dark then walked her to the light of the gas station canopy, where she sat obediently in the car as he filled it up and bought them snacks that he observed himself buying from a great distance overhead and cranked the engine over. Down the hill and the left turn and over the freeway then left again and she began to cry once more as he gave the LS6 its open throttle and it roared and the back wheels spun and the trailer oscillated in their wake and something came from this throat, he was wordlessly screaming himself, beating the steering wheel then gripping it in a single terrified two-handed motion as the Vette began to slew sideways down the ramp, calming it down, getting the trailer in line, snagging sixth gear early and lugging onto the freeway back up the hill away from Exit 14. The road swirled in front of him. Kristin continued to sob in the passenger seat, curled up against the black plastic of the door. He didn't know whether he should call Jenny or not. Finally, when he thought Kristin wasn't watching, he fished the phone out of his dirt-crusted jeans and texted her, coming home love you love jake ive been wrong im sorry but as he clicked the "Send" button he looked up and saw Kristin regarding him levelly, the tears gone, replaced with anger, or contempt, or something. Something he'd never seen in her face before. For an hour they didn't speak and she continued to look at him. Measuring him, perhaps. Hating him, certainly. But then his eyes closed for a single involuntary moment and he realized what she must have known for some time: the four hundred miles home were too far to go. They were going the wrong way on I-81. He'd fucked up, made a mistake. It was because he was sleepy. Signs for Roanoke were starting to appear. "We need," he said, "to find a hotel. Sleep for a few hours. Then go the rest of the way." She said nothing. The first motel was completely booked. The one across the street charged him eighty-seven dollars for a smoking room, because it was all they had left. Wordlessly she followed him up the stairs, carrying her purse and her bag. His hands held only the one key he'd been given, an actual brass key, you're in the sticks now, Will, he thought. Then he remembered that somewhere, at the bottom of a drawer in his garage, was the keycard to the ocean resort they'd had that first night together and the sob rose unbidden from within him and choked him momentarily, dropped him to a single knee on the second to last concrete step to the motel's second floor. The room had a single bed. He heard Kristin brushing her teeth in the bathroom and in the momentary privacy he knelt down before the bed, folded his hands, bowed his hand. God Almighty, if you're there, if you're real, let me have my son, let me have my marriage and my family back, let me return to the path of righteousness, or something, wash me clean, Amen. Then as he stood he saw her in the dim light of the room's single working bulb. She was wearing a sheer blue teddy, her dark nipples shadowed against it, her hair still undone. He took her hand and laid her down on the bed, slipping her panties off, the brass key of the hotel room tossed to the floor and shining there. "If it happens," she said, even as he was making it happen, "this can't be the last time, I can't have it like this, it can't be the last time, it has to mean something." "It means something," he murmured into the soft thicket beneath her belly button, "it means something." But he knew what it meant. He thought of the time he'd been at VIR before this one, when he'd fed too much throttle in at the bottom of the Roller Coaster and for a brief moment the Z06 had nosed towards the pitlane at ninety miles per hour and the prospect of death had seemed both logical and imminent before the Vette's Comp Mode had reined things in, straightened the car, allowed him to blow past the gobsmacked lookie-loos on the second floor of the Paddock Suites with a whoosh and the thunder of the LS6 in full song. God or no God, allowances would be made. For him. For his behavior. For his selfishness. Something, somewhere, would straighten out the slide. He would arrive at the other side of this night safe and sound. He could keep his foot in it. He could do as he liked. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com | |||
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| Most legendary cars achieved their status thanks to unique ideas, original design, character (whatever may that be) or joy they bring to their owners and drivers. So, is it even possible for a pragmatic, coldly efficient and mostly derivative car to become a legend? When the first Lexus, called LS400, was introduced in 1989, it certainly wasn't the most original car on the market. In fact, it not only looked a lot like a W126 Mercedes S-class of the time, it was even named similarly (remove the L and the car would fit right into the naming system Mercedes started using a few years later). And it was no coincidence – the LS400 was a result of Toyota brass' decision to move their business upmarket. The Voluntary Restraint Agreement between the United States and Japan limited the number of Japanese cars that could enter the country, making it a smart idea to charge more for each of them and clear more profit. The LS400 might have been a bit of a loss leader at $35,000 for a base model that nobody ever saw in dealerships, but it paved the way for hugely profitable successors and showroom companions like the ES300 and RX300.
If you think of the Mazda Miata as probably the best classical British roadster ever built, the LS400 may too very well be the ultimate Mercedes-Benz. While the venerable S-class itself got very fat and a little bit vulgar in its W140 iteration, the LS400 closely resembles the W126, probably the most elegant S-class ever – just improved in almost every way. And, while the Mercedes' reliability record suffered greatly in the 1990s, the Lexus came in with unbelievable levels of quality and workmanship, and of course with fantastic reliability. Case in point, the 1990 LS400 you can see on pictures here. I borrowed it from my friend and fellow motoring journalist, who bought it after he drove it in head-to-head comparison test with a new LS600h, and found out the old one is not only more comfortable than the current one, and even feels more solid. For a 23 years old car, bought for equivalent of little over $2,000 and which probably wasn't exactly pampered, it is almost unbelievable. For one, the thing feels much more modern than any quarter-a-century-old car has any right to be. From the cool illuminated instrument cluster with recessed idiot lights, creating a strange three-dimensional effect like something from Star Trek, to the well-muffled and very sophisticated sound of the four-cam, four-liter V8 providing 250 horsepower. The only decidedly non-modern thing about this car is the suspension tuning. Especially for us Europeans, being force-fed with Germans' idea of the "good suspension" (which basically means using rocks instead of springs, so your big diesel limo can handle precisely at your standard cruising speed of 155mph) the LS400 is a revelation. The fact that the car was designed mostly for American market resulted in a suspension that combines the Mercedes' sophistication with Town Car's plushness. Which means that the big Lexus is able to corner quite competently, if you want it to, but it also means that you don't want it to. Instead of provoking you into a hurry, like many big German sedans do, the LS relaxes you and makes you completely satisfied with going 55 mph – so you arrived to your destination about five minutes later, but also well-rested, not dripping with adrenaline like when you drive BMW or Audi. It really does feel like someone took a big Benz and a Panther (or B-body), which count among my most favorite long distance cruisers ever, and combined the best things of both. So, it is only logical that I should totally fall in love with the LS, want to take it home, marry it and have little IS's with it. And, in fact, I have been looking at those for quite some time, and I even watched this exact car in classifieds, with only lack of cash stopping me from buying it. Based on everything I read about it, I thought I will be stunned by it, and I was nearly sure this car was exactly what I need and want. But it isn't. And after a full day spent with it, I suddenly realized I don't want to own it, and probably never will. But why? It's easy to answer and hard to explain. The car just has no soul. And while the absence of soul in Toyota Corolla sedan is pretty hard to explain to anyone who's not a car guy, explaining the absence of soul in a rear-wheel drive, V8 sedan which is amazing in nearly everything it ever does is downright nightmarish proposal. The LS400 mixes everything that's good about a Town Car and S-class Mercedes, and makes it better. It drives right, it sounds right (when you can hear anything at all), it's comfortable, it's supremely relaxing to drive and never tiring, it is executed flawlessly and works well even after a quarter of a century. But driving it brings no joy. Maybe someone of a different nature from mine might find joy and pleasure in the way the Lexus does exactly what it was designed to do. If it's sophistication and comfort that rocks your boat, and if you like cars not to bother you with lowly chores of driving and even thinking about it, you will love it. And if you have to drive so much it gets tiring, you will love it even more, as driving this thing is hardly ever tiring to drive. I can imagine doing two or three hundred miles a day in this thing, and getting out more relaxed than when I got in each time. But I love driving. And since I work from home, I don't have to drive very far or very often. So I want every drive to be an event for me. I want to enjoy it and savour each minute behind the wheel and each mile driven. And LS400 doesn't do this for me. It gets the job done, and it gets my admiration for its abilities. But it's so good at isolating you from the experience, it ultimately becomes dull and boring. Driving an LS400 is about as fun and memorable as sleeping. But also as refreshing… Myth or Legend? Do I need to drive it? Should I buy it?                  from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com | |||
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The 328i also has a few more standard amenities and is available with optional features such as adaptive cruise control and a head-up display that aren't offered on the 320i. The Cars.com Compare feature lets you put them side by side, and you can compare them in greater detail by selecting specific models of each. We set up a comparison of the two you can find here. Have a car question you'd like us to answer? Send us an email at tips@cars.com, or ask in the comments below. Related  from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/ | |||
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"What's the difference between the 2014 BMW 320i and 328i?"
The main differences are under the hood and on the window sticker. The 320i uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with 180 horsepower, and the 328i has a 240-hp version of this engine. Base price on the 2014 320i sedan is $33,475 (prices include destination charge), and the 2014 328i sedan starts at $38,025.