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Luxury carmakers make way more than just cars

Whether it's as simple as Ferrari offering model cars or as opulent as Bugatti with an $84,000-belt buckle, practically every automaker does more than just sell cars to keep their brands visible. The profits from these ventures might not be enough to keep the lights on, but in such a competitive industry, any extra cash is welcome. For the automakers that get licensing just right, there is a ton of profit to be made. According to a recent story examining the practice by The New York Times, Ferrari makes around $2.6 billion from merchandising each year, and General Motors tops that at $3.5 billion. Beyond just a profit center, merchandising can also protect an automaker's name. Take Hummer for example. The GM division shut down years ago, but it has continued to produce licensed cologne on sale around the world. "Because we still have the active fragrance, we're protecting the brand if we ever decide to bring it back," Gene Reamer, a GM licensing senior manager, told the Times. The whole piece is a fascinating look into this often ignored, but quite lucrative facet of the auto business. Read it for yourself, here. Related Video: News Source: The New York TimesImage Credit: Luca Bruno / AP Photo Design/Style Earnings/Financials Marketing/Advertising Read This Ferrari GM Hummer branding

2022 Rivian R1T vs. 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning vs. GMC Hummer EV Pickup | How they compare on paper

The 2022 Rivian R1T has arrived, ushering in the era of the production electric pickup truck. The Rivian reviews are in, and spoiler alert: They're pretty good. Curious how the new battery-powered truck stacks up to its forthcoming competitors? Well, you've come to the right place. Rivian beat all of Detroit's big automakers to market in the half-ton segment, but probably not by the margin the startup would have liked. Ford's answer is the F-150 Lightning, which is due to enter production early next year, coming hot on the heels of GM's first entry into the space – the GMC Hummer EV pickup – which is scheduled to come off the line late this fall. While all three are pickups, they're aimed at distinctly different buyers, as a perusal of their specifications will reveal. Let's have a look, shall we?   Disclaimer: Before we dive in on this one, we'd like to note that while we've made our best effort to verify the specs provided, the Rivian is brand-new and the others are still in the prototype phase. Some of these figures may be inaccurate or may simply change before production. This is all hypothetical until you can actually cross-shop them anyway, right? Cool. End disclaimer. Let's start with the powertrains. They're all battery-electric trucks engineered on a modular rear-wheel-drive configuration engineered to accommodate (theoretically, anyway) up to four electric drive units. Rivian actually makes the most use of this with a quad-motor setup producing 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet of torque with its high-output initial model. GMC's three-motor Hummer has the R1T beat with its estimated 1,000-horsepower output, while Ford's (also three-motor) comes in with a far more modest 563 horses. This is an excellent illustration of our above point that these are not all engineered for the same crowd. Ford's F-150, which comes in at a lower price point, is meant to be far more mainstream, as its power output suggests.  This theme continues when we look at the dimensions. Despite the image "Hummer" may conjure, GMC's entry actually needs the shallowest parking space. The Rivian is right behind it, with the work-truck-spec Ford extending more than a foot longer than either. What the Hummer lacks in length, it makes up for in girth. It's the widest by a good 5 inches. The Rivian is only slightly pudgier than the F-150, but it's much closer at that end of the scale.

These were our favorite cars of 2022

Favorite cars is different than best cars. The idea of "best" can speak to value and overall competitiveness in a given vehicle segment. There's lots of objectivity involved and to do a "best" list right, one really must be very thorough and as scientific as possible. This is not that list. This is about our favorites, so objectivity be damned. If we liked a Challenger Hellcat because it made loud noises or a Honda Odyssey because it made for a particularly special family vacation, fair game. These were the cars that most spoke to our collection of editors and the ones that stayed in our minds and hung in our hearts long after they left our driveway. — Senior Editor James Riswick 2022 GMC Hummer EV Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: I didn't particularly expect to like the new Hummer. I wasn't a fan of the Hummer H2 or H3, so I wasn't automatically enthusiastic about this electric reboot. Fast EVs aren't hard to come by — and, in fact, may be too easy to come by — so its performance specs weren't enough to win me over. Despite videos to the contrary, pickups aren't my favorite vehicular format. And its excessive size and weight turned me off ... until I finally got behind the wheel.  This thing is wildly entertaining to drive. Watts to Freedom launch control is a neat party trick, sure, but the novelty wears off quickly. The novelty of Crab Walk, however, has staying power. The rear-wheel steering makes this behemoth feel much smaller than it is — the maneuverability is incredible, and useful. The air suspension provides tons of clearance, including a ridiculously high-riding Extract mode. I can't wait for lesser versions of the Hummer to make their way to market. Give me less power (for less money), but keep the off-road tricks onboard, and I'll be a happy camper. Senior Editor, Consumer, Jeremy Korzeniewski: If I could afford to put one of these in my driveway, I would. Sadly, I can't, so I won't (What's that, Janet? I got the lyric wrong?). Still, I love the dumb thing. Thankfully, I have another choice down below. 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Associate Editor Byron Hurd: Yeah, duh, Porsches are good. But there's good, and then there's GT3. This is the feeling every performance-oriented RWD tuner is trying to replicate. This is hard, precise, surgical and immensely satisfying. To begin to explore this car on a public road is by itself an admission that you believe yourself to be above the rules as they apply to normal drivers.