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Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

This insane Barris-like custom car is a backyard BMW Z3 build

This is the second car made by Englishman Paul Bacon and it's called the Cosmotron, fashioned over 18 months in his backyard shed. Underneath that Jetsons bubble canopy and swinging-sixties body are the bones of a 1998 BMW Z3 with a 2.8-liter inline-six. Bacon stripped the roadster down, then built it back up using fiberglass laid over polystyrene foam, and leather hand-stitched by his wife. Bacon said he remembers how we were told that 21st-century cars would look like the Cosmotron, and since they don't, he had to fix the error. The list of 20th-century add-ons, however, is impressive, like the six SU carburetors topped off with department-store salt and pepper shakers, and the rear grille decorated with shiny plastic tops from moisturizer bottles. After driving the Cosmotron for two years, Bacon sold it to get ready for his third project. You can hear Bacon and the new buyer tell their stories in the video above.

Watch a trio of Santas ride up Mulholland Drive

Santa Claus might have his eight reindeer - or nine, when it's foggy - to help him deliver presents in most parts of the world, but in southern California, it looks like he's traded up from Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and company to BMW, Yamaha and Ducati. RNickeyMouse is usually the place to check out spectacular motorcycle crashes on video along LA's Mulholland Drive, but a recent video caught a trio of Santas carving up the iconic, twisty road.
The three Santas are together, riding what appears to be a BMW S1000RR, Yamaha R1 and a hard-to-tell custom bike that could be a Ducati 1098. The video, which is posted below, also catches a bonus Santa riding solo on another S1000RR. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a cool bike!