ZA Car

There was a time where Americans had to wait until Big Game Day to see what the country’s most creative marketers had been working on to air in the singularly most expensive advertisement slots on prime-time TV. But with that ‘internet thing’ you can’t keep anything under wraps anymore. A full couple of days ahead of the big day most of the adverts are available online so there isn’t really any reason to have to hang in there and watch the game unless, of course, you like the American version of  rugby. We’ve collected and put all of the auto manufacturers’ Superbowl 2012 ads right here in one place. Aren’t we a nice bunch? Be amazed, be appalled, be disappointed. Let us know what you think?

It looks as if Toyota invests as much creativity in its ads as it does in designing dull and boring family cars. The one’s titled ‘It’s Reinvented!’ but we’re still trying to figure out what, you can’t reinvent boring obscure rubbish.

Another one from Toyota although, as with its cars, Lexus is more exciting than its parent, if only just a little bit. Lexus has even gone as far as calling its advert, ‘Beast,’ in the way that people ironically call their lapdogs ‘Beast.’ Very edgy for Lexus.

Hyundai: Hey, it’s different we guess. Hyundai has included people from its plant in here, so it gets a couple of points for company involvement, but the alignment to ‘Rocky,’ yeah, we’re just not so sure.

Hyundai, then, provides us then with a the perfect segue into the adverts involving movies, movie references and old movie stars. No one seems to have realised that if  they’d include Ryan Gosling, ladies will be in the dealership while the men watch the game.

Honda’s piss-take on Ferris Beuller’s Day Off gets Matthew Broderick clearly looking 25 years older than he did in the original Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and and places him in an ad that he will surely regret  one day.  What are out-of-work actors supposed to do, we suppose? We’d certainly fake an illness to spend a day in a Ferrari 250, notsomuch in a Honda CR-V.

Honda redeems itself (only slightly) with this remotely funny advert involving the Saab-loving, in the Seinfeld series at least, Jerry Seinfeld and car-nut funny man, Jay Leno. But it’s actually only the sound of the NSX that makes this advert worth watching — a pure tease.

Volkswagen’s ‘The Force’ advert last year with mini-Darth took the ad world by storm (49 million views on YouTube to-date) and went viral by virtue of the fact that it was cute and clever. VW had some pretty big shoes to fill and showed some promise with the teaser, “The Bark Side”…

…but ultimately let the side down with, “The Dog Strikes Back.” Poor form after last year’s great success.

Volkswagen shows that its alright to use pets, and so Suzuki also gets in the action with some pooches, these being some huskies in for a head-bopping time…

These are the ones that are actually quite good. Cadillac is first up with ‘Green Hell,’ a reference to the Nurburgring that unashamedly punts its performance credentials and actually communicates the values of the car. Imagine that? There’s the crafty inclusion of the advertising boards stating “Wir sind Opel,” “We are Opel” for the english types, which is important because this is the BMW 3-series/Mercedes-Benz C-Class/Audi A4 competitor. It’s clearly intent on telling the Germans that Cadillac is no longer a fat American pig and it’s roots, in fact, lie very close to home.

The former king of Superbowl ads, Budweiser has once again produced a hit and it only gets a mention here because there’s a car in it, a very famous car. And that’s what makes it funny and causes a smile to crack across even the most hardened 30 year-old’s face. The younger kids probably won’t get it, though.

Vampires are the rage. Everyone loves them, don’t they? Even Volvo. Audi pulls off a clever ad and actually ties it into one of its product’s selling features, the LED headlamps. Amazing what sticking to the basics can do, of all the leaked adverts so far, this is one of the best in our opinion.

Update: Chevrolet has held out until now so showcase five ads for Big Game Day and all of them are BRILLIANT, well four of them are. In our humble opinion, of course.

Chervrolet Sonic’s Bug Advert hits the cute spot with this one…

Chervrolet’s Volt advert gets the message across succinctly, “Smartest car in the galaxy” while dispelling the myth that electric cars have a very limited range. Clever.

Hitting the youth market and doing something clever, simple and effective but more of a teaser for the full new Chev/OK Go video on Sunday.

A very funny graduation video for Chev’s Superbowl Sunday madness.

Very emotive, brilliant. Very Clever. The advert for the Chevy Sonic.

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It’s the last show from the team for the year and what better way to wrap it up than with the ZA Car Show Car of the Year awards? Whether you’re looking for a hatchback, sedan, fun car, practical car or want to find out what each of the team picked as their overall car of the year for 2011, then go on take a listen, the results will surprise you, that much we are sure of.

The third and fourth doors are deceptively hidden in this image. Click on the image to see a full gallery and decide whether you like this new BMW or not (you will be redirected to another page -- right click and select 'open in new tab' to avoid this.)

The smart fortwo pickup expected to be unveiled in the US early in the new year. Our Trevor van de Ven is really excited about this. He really is strange.

The ZA Car Show Car of the Year features a Lexus, Honda, Citroen, BMW, to name only a few. Take a listen to find out what each member of the team chooses for their favourite cars of 2011.

Episode 144 hi-fi download (18MB) 
Episode 144 lo-fi download (9MB)

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Our friend and contributor John Beale needs a new car so Thomas Falkiner, Christo van Gemert, Trevor van de Ven, Patrick Gearing and journalism student Dean Venter put their collective heads together to show what sensible options can be thought up if you crowd source.  The team, without Mr Beale who was eating sushi without us, also review the new Honda Accord 2.4 automatic and give you the low down on the motoring news from the past week.

The rebirth of the exciting Toyota. This flat four developed in conjunction with Subaru looks as if it has all the right ingredients to steal customers from the hot-hatch market. Click on the image to see a full gallery (you will be redirected away from this page).

Machbach is dead, Merc is pulling the plug. They are not the most handsome or striking cars but Trevor van de Ven still gets a bit teary eyed knowing that he will not see another all-white Landaulet again.

Patrick and Trevor love wagons. They also love Jaaaaags, so this car should put them both in a flat love-induced coma.

The new Honda Accord sports a dramatically revised front-end even if it's only the hawk-eyed that will spot the changes. Under the skin, this car is phenomenal. Take a listen to the show to find out what we think. Click on the image to view a full gallery (you will be redirected away from this page).

Episode 142 hi-fi download (18MB) 
Episode 142 lo-fi download (9MB)

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Chatting to some listeners of the show the other day, we were accused of having a bit of a bias for Lexus. We’ll admit we see many of the Japanese luxury brand’s cars in a positive light – except for the indescribably terrible SC430 hard top convertible – but it’s hard to dislike something so plain and honest.

The cars aren’t perfect. The soon-to-be-replaced GS sedan is very old inside, featuring even a Corolla-alike digital clock in the dashboard. Something Lexus chose to address by giving the new GS an analogue ticker. The Lexus entertainment/nav system is frustrating to use. Even now, with its mouse-like controller, it’s still impossible to control music playback, or enter an address, while moving. Most of the company’s cars come standard with USB jacks for iPod playback; a handy feature until you try changing albums or artists as you cruise down the highway. You’ll have to come to a complete stop before you can do anything about it.

And coming to a coming to a complete stop is something you’ll do often in the company’s flagship SUV offering. Either at petrol stations, because it’s very thirsty, or at the top of a mountain, because it’s very, very capable on the less-beaten track.

Based on Toyota’s Land Cruiser 200, the LX 570 is a more luxurious offering than Toyota’s “poor man” off-roader. Where the Toy gets either a 4.7-litre petrol V8 or 4.5-litre turbodiesel V8, the Lexus makes do with a 5.7-litre V8. 270kW and 530 Newtons are ample for both on and of road performance, but that’s not what the car’s about. Start with the interior: It boasts a DVD entertainment system for rear passengers, a centre-armrest refrigerator for front passengers, and a full Mark Levinson audio system for all passengers. This is first-class 4×4-ing. And it’s quite capable of wafting along in silence when you hit the highway. Adaptive air suspension irons out wrinkles and undulations, and it’s pretty much like you’re driving any other luxury sedan.

Except when you aim it at a corner. Try as it might, even in sport mode, the chassis still has to obey the laws of physics. 2.6 tons of metal is a lot, and those big bouncy tyres that make it great off-road don’t really flatter the handling through the bends. Come to think of it, though, it’s a little bit more comfortable in the twisties than a Landy Discovery 4.

What makes the LX great is its proper dual-purpose approach. Unlike a BMW M3, with its Jekyll/Hyde personality where it’s a regular 3-series by day and batshit insane by night, the 570 your daily-driver luxury car that will conquer mountains. It’s less subtle in its two-sided approach: you’re always aware that it’s a big SUV, but it manages to filter out enough of the outside world to cancel out the fact that it’s a ponderous old so-and-so. It retains its composure and refinement when you hit dirt roads, and the air suspension keeps it level when you start hitting the cross-axle obstacles.

And even then, it’s still a technological tour de force. Even off road, you’re still a Lexus driver and you want to do things with ease. Land Rovers and Range Rovers have Terrain Response, a dial you use to select clever off-road programs. Lexus has something even better. You just push three buttons: one to raise the ride height, one to select low-range, and the final to select crawl mode. Now take your foot off the brake and steer. No drama, no mucking about with technical settings. It’s a big hammer approach, but the elegant simplicity disguises that. It goes everywhere.

Except when your runner boards bottom out on a rock – doing this in a R1-million+ test car isn’t advised, or pleasant. Neither is getting stuck because your tyres have too much air in them. Just pray you’re not wearing your board room loafers when you have to get out of the car and  manually deflate those 18-inch donuts. We’re some way off from having an all-inclusive off-roading experience, with onboard tyre inflation systems, you see.

That said, the LX goes where nobody dares take their million rand SUVs. And it’s capable of going even more places. In comfort and… questionable style. The fact that most people will see this as a rebadged Toyota – seriously, next to the LC 200 this is only distinguishable by its L badging – is probably not going to do your street cred wonders. Whether you care about that, though, is another matter.

Lexus LX570

Power: 270kW at 5600RPM
Torque: 530Nm at 3200RPM
Safety: All electronic aids, front airbags, front and rear side airbags, front and rear curtain airbags, front knee airbags
Tech and toys: 7-inch colour touch screen with satellite navigation, voice commands, Bluetooth, hard drive and iPod connectivity. 19-speaker Mark Levinson audio system. Reverse parking camera. Lexus A-TRAC. Keyless entry and start. Adaptive air suspension. Cruise control. Climate control. Heated seats. Automatic xenon headlamps. 9-inch rear DVD entertainment system. iPod prep. The kitchen sync.

Website: http://www.lexus.co.za/model/LX570/
Price: R1 138 600

ZA Car rating: Two thumbs up

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This week the team of Christo van Gemert, Trevor van de Ven, John Beale and Patrick Gearing (who is now on Twitter) is back in full force and so is the news that every BMW fan has been waiting for, the announcement of the new BMW 3-Series.

Take a look at the various galleries of these cars by clicking on the images below and if you’re eagle eyed, you will even see the first pictures of BMW’s 3-Series M-Sport which we’ve managed to sneak into the gallery without many people noticing yet. But, BMW is not the be all and end all as you’ll find out in our review of the 2011 Lexus IS-F, the quintessential gentleman’s sledgehammer in a Handy Manny toolbox. We also review a green car, quite literally, in the form of the Volvo C30 D2 and the review might just surprise you.

Agressive, bold, purposeful, what do you think of the new BMW 3-Series unveiled on 14 October? Click on the picture to se a comprehensive 82 image gallery of the various trim lines and vehicles including the ActiveHybrid.

The Toyota that will contest races in the LMP1 series next year including a return to LeMans, this time running hybrid technology.

This is a digital rendering straight out of Forza Motorsport 4 of Christo van Gemert's very own car, a Renault Twingo RS. Can you believe that games have come this far. Click on the image to see some more renderings from the game that Christo has been taking for us. Stand back and be amazed.

The gentleman's super performance saloon. You might not have considered it, but this car can hold it's own amongst the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG but for all the other reasons, reasons that the other two long forgot were actually the key attractors to those specific models. Hail the new king of Q-car-dom. Click on the image to see a gallery of images.

Green motoring at its finest in more ways than one. Oft-overlooked take a listen to the review to hear why this is such is a cool car.

Episode 137 hi-fi download 
Episode 137 lo-fi download

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