Auto blog

Toyota tops Consumer Reports best, worst used car values

We often mock Toyota for building boring, soulless cars, but a new study by Consumer Reports suggests that regardless of whether that's true, the company has some of the best used cars on the market. In its report on used cars from 2004-2013, the Japanese automaker had 11 vehicles among its brands on the list - more than any other automaker.
CR breaks the list down by cost and vehicle size, and Toyota has at least one entry at every price point and in nearly every segment. To score a recommendation, a vehicle had to perform well in the magazine's initial tests and score above-average reliability results. It also tried to only suggest cars with electronic stability control. Of the 28 recommended vehicles, Honda/Acura had the second most mentions at six, and Ford, Hyundai and Subaru managed two each.
The Detroit brands also made it to the list, but not in a positive way. Consumer Reports compiled a list of 22 vehicles it wouldn't recommend because "they have multiple years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability." General Motors had the most unrecommended models on the list at six, but Chrysler and Ford weren't far behind, with five cars each from their brands not making the grade. The full list of recommendations is available on CR's website.

Hyundai Genesis V8 HTRAC may come with performance orientation

When the second-generation Hyundai Genesis arrives in dealers, customers looking for the new all-wheel-drive variant will need to settle for the 3.8-liter V6. This is no bad thing, as the V6 is a sound engine, but what if you want that brawny, 429-horsepower, 5.0-liter V8? For now, you're stuck spinning the rear wheels.
A report from AutoGuide, though, claims that the new HTRAC all-wheel-drive system could be mated up to the Genny Sedan's optional V8 engine at a later date, as part of a new performance version. According to spokesman Miles Johnson, a performance-minded Genesis, perhaps in the same vein as the first-generation R-Spec, is being looked at by the powers that be at Hyundai and that there "may be a market demand for such a model."
Whether it'd add on to the V8's 429 ponies, or simply shore up other parts of the car while adding the AWD system remains to be seen. Of course, if we hear any more on an AWD, V8-powered, performance version of the new Genesis Sedan, we'll be sure to let you know.

YouTube tallies votes for this year's top five Super Bowl spots [w/video]

When we asked you to tell us which of this year's 16 car-themed Super Bowl commercials you liked best, you chose the Farmer commercial from Chrysler Group, advertising the Ram trucks, over Audi's Prom commercial in second place. Turns out the voters in YouTube's Ad Blitz poll agreed, voting the same commercial to the number one spot from among the field commercials in every category.
From there, however, they went in a totally different direction. Budweiser's The Clydesdales spot came second, Samsung's The Next Big Thing took third. The Jeep Whole Again ad scored fourth in the YouTube poll, fifth in our poll of auto commercials, and the Hyundai Team spot got fifth from the YouTubers, but ninth in our poll.
The voting results don't match up with the viewing numbers, though - while Farmer has more than 13 million views, The Next Big Thing is well beyond 21 million. You can read the press release below and see all five spots, lined up for you, one more time.