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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

Here are all the new 2022 season F1 cars (UPDATED)

Update: Since this post's original publishing, the rest of this season's teams have revealed their 2022 cars. We've updated the post with all of them, so it now includes every 2022 F1 car on the grid. The updated story continues below. Reveals of the 2022 F1 cars are coming fast and heavy, and at this point, every team has shown off their redesigned cars. This being the case, we figured it was time to provide you all with a place to see all the cars at once. The gallery above holds photos of all the cars, and below you’ll see all them broken down by teams and drivers, along with quotes from the drivers and team leaders that come via F1Â’s official website where the cars were revealed. Mercedes W13 - Lewis Hamilton and George Russel "It just takes you back to being a kid," Hamilton said. "I think itÂ’s always exciting watching, I mean with this new era of car, weÂ’ve never seen such a drastic change, right? "So itÂ’s such a huge change in so many ways, that itÂ’s just been really interesting seeing the designers and everyone coming together to find the best ways of creating a masterpiece." “It feels incredible, obviously Lewis and I have driven so many laps in the simulator of this,” Russel said. “WeÂ’ve seen all the drawings, weÂ’ve had so many meetings and presentations about it, but suddenly seeing it all come together, seeing all of the men and women who have put so much hard work and grit into making this, and coming together here, I think it looks incredible. “And I think the silver [coming] back, weÂ’ve had an incredible livery with the black in the past couple of years – but the silver back on track I think is going to look incredible." Ferrari F1-75 - Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz “I think it looks aggressive, it looks radical, and I think it looks beautiful also Â… I just hope itÂ’s fast,” said Sainz. “ItÂ’s innovative, different, thinking a bit out of the box. I like it because itÂ’s just radical, which is what you want to see when you see a new car.” “Yes, I do [like the livery],” Leclerc said. “I think it fits perfectly. ItÂ’s a bit of a dark red, looks a bit more aggressive, but for a car like this, I think it fits perfectly.

On Location at Mercedes-Benz Van Camp in the Rocky Mountains

Camping high in the Rocky Mountains as spring gave way to summer may not seem like the obvious way to test out a work van, but that's how we sampled the 2016 Mercedes-Benz Metris. Our drive was based in Dunton Hot Springs and Cresto Ranch, CO, nestled high in the Rocky Mountains. Both were gorgeous and dripping with history. Since their rough-hewn origins they've been converted into an upscale camping experience. We spent a couple nights in Cresto Ranch, an old cattle outpost near the Dolores River. Our 'tent' was lavishly furnished, complete with a shower, desk, and comfortable bed. Glamor camping is in vogue, and this was 'glamping' at its finest. Most of the Mercedes activities started at Dunton Hot Springs, a former mining town with tents and log cabins remade into an even larger-scale glamping site than Cresto Ranch. The hot springs beckoned, but glampers could also enjoy massages or just soak in the soaring forests surrounding the site. The only downside: With an elevation around 8,700 feet above sea level, we found ourselves occasionally light-headed. It was a fun couple of days in the Rockies, on the road and at the campsite. Watch the video above for the complete experience, and read the review here.