The advertising overdrive that was the
Super Bowl featured several auto makers vying for attention. We go through the best and the worst of the commercials, which of course leads us to a discussion of
Dodge Ram and Jeep's efforts.
The goal of those ads is awareness and ultimately sales, and given that
sales incentives were down in January, perhaps not as much money was needed for those fancy ads.
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| Too lazy to plug it in? |
One place where more money is going is toward gasoline. While the
overall fuel economy of the new-car fleet has gone up, the price of gasoline has pushed up the
percentage that families pay to drive each year.
Much of that fuel goes to engines that are idling in traffic, particularly in these
cities where you should budget hours for trips that should take minutes.
Fuel economy suffers in all kinds of engines while stuck in traffic, but Consumer Reports says the batch of new
smaller turbo engines aren't as efficient as auto makers claim. Perhaps
induction charging can help drive demand for electric cars because it eliminates the need for the cord.
Finally, a daft
driver in Ireland tries to thwart the boot.
