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Mercedes harkens back to tortoise and hare for AMG GT Super Bowl spot

With just six automakers scheduled as advertisers during this year's Super Bowl, they sure aren't trying to keep things a surprise ahead of the kick off. After already teasing its spot days ago, Mercedes-Benz is the latest to fully reveal a minute-long commercial for the game. The whimsical ad modernizes Aesop's age-old fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare with a dose of muscle from the 2016 Mercedes-AMG GT S. The spot, titled Fable, starts exactly as you would expect, with a forest full of animals congregating to watch the boastful hare race the steady tortoise. Although, this race apparently takes place in Germany because the turtle eventually stumbles upon the AMG factory and its latest twin-turbocharged sports coupe. The commercial isn't quite as gripping as Mercedes' 2013 Super Bowl ad for the CLA-Class with Kate Upton and Willem Dafoe as the devil, but the new one might be an opportunity for much of the audience to see the GT for the first time. See for yourself, above.

Economy-car buyers increasingly get the best deal on technology

One of the great things about technology is – with the exception of Apple products – consumers get more for their money every year. For example, the first 1GB USB drive I bought in 2005 cost me $30. Today you can get 10 for that price, delivered to your door thanks to Amazon. The same goes for car tech. Features such as navigation and Bluetooth started out on high-end vehicles before trickling down to entry-level cars. Same with driver assist features ranging from rearview cameras to forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking — so now it's not only rich people who are protected in car crashes. I've found that this democratization of tech has reached a point where amenities on low-cost cars can be as good — and sometimes even better — than those on vehicles costing tens of thousands of dollars more. While attending a media event for the launch of the all-new 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback, I was impressed by the car's cool styling and go-kart performance. Equally noteworthy is the amount of standard tech on the low-cost hot hatch. (Pricing will be announced later this month, but expect it to come in a bit higher that the current Corolla iM's roughly $19,000 base.) Even the base SE CVT trim of the 2019 Corolla Hatchback comes with an 8-inch touchscreen and Toyota's Entune 3.0 infotainment system. Among other features, Entune 3.0 provides Wi-Fi capability, Amazon Alexa connectivity, the Entune App Suite for integration of smartphone apps such as Pandora and Yelp and, for the first time in a Toyota, Apple CarPlay (but no Android Auto). The 2019 Corolla Hatchback is also the first North American vehicle to get the second-generation Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) suite of driver assists that's also standard on the base model. TSS 2.0 includes Toyota's Pre-Collision System (forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking) with new daytime and low-light pedestrian detection and daytime cyclist detection features, lane keeping and lane departure alert with steering assist, auto high beams, adaptive cruise control, and road sign detection. While the 2019 Corolla Hatchback sets a new benchmark in standard tech on a budget-mobile, competing cars aren't far behind. The 2018 Honda Fit LX, for example, includes forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and assist and adaptive cruise, while the automaker's Lane Departure Mitigation and Lane Watch camera system is added the two top trims.

2017 Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe looks quick, mean

The latest Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe isn't even on the road yet. Still, the folks at AMG are already working at tweaking the two-door into a future high-performance variant as the natural challenger for the BMW M4. While this model is heavily camouflaged all the way around, an aggressive face akin to the C63 sedan is already pretty easy to spot. Both cars feature air dams with big openings to feed cool air to the 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 under the hood. Compared to the previously spied, standard version of the two-door C-Class, the AMG looks to feature wider front fenders, too. Despite the concealment, other visible high-performance touches include lower side sills and larger brakes peeking out behind the wheels. Of course, the four exhaust pipes sticking out the back are a big giveaway of the coupe's intended high-speed purpose, too. Like the C63 sedan, expect a choice of tunes of the V8 to be available with either 469 horsepower or the more powerful S with 503 hp. The wait to see the two-door without all of this camo shouldn't be too long, either. An earlier report suggests that both the standard coupe and AMG versions could debut at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Related Video: