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Car cocktails and Risky Business Porsches with Brett Berk | Autoblog Podcast #502

On this week's podcast, Mike Austin and David Gluckman are joined by a special guest, Autoblog contributor Brett Berk. The three discuss cars in film and TV as well as Brett's series on car-themed cocktails. There is of course a recap of what they've all been driving lately, and the episode wraps up with Spend My Money buying advice to help you, our dear listeners. The rundown is below. Remember, if you have a car-related question you'd like us to answer or you want buying advice of your very own, send a message or a voice memo to podcast at autoblog dot com. (If you record audio of a question with your phone and get it to us, you could hear your very own voice on the podcast. Neat, right?) And if you have other questions or comments, please send those too. Autoblog Podcast #502 The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics and stories we mention 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV - Autoblog's 2017 Technology of the Year Car award winner 2017 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R 2016 Kia Soul EV 2017 Audi A4 sedan The story of the Risky Business Porsche 928 The Taxi Cocktail took us for a ride The myth and mystery of The Bentley Cocktail Used cars! Rundown Intro - 00:00 What we're driving - 01:50 Brett Berk interview - 21:12 Spend My Money - 39:44 Total Duration: 54:02 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show on iTunes Podcasts Audi Bentley BMW Chevrolet Maserati Mercedes-Benz Porsche kia soul ev Chevrolet Bolt porsche 928 ford shelby mustang gt350r cocktails

Automakers need to stop stalking celebrities

Since the invention of the automobile, cars and stars have gone together like paparazzi and the Kardashians. During this season of starlet-adorned award ceremonies, from the Golden Globes through to the Oscars, you will find a lot of car companies all vying to loan out their vehicles to any celebrity with a recognizable face who happens to be heading to a red-carpet award ceremony. There is, however, none so coordinated, consistent and aggressively playing the Fame Game as our friends at Audi. Since the invention of the automobile, cars and stars have gone together like paparazzi and the Kardashians, so by association getting a celeb behind the wheel of your car brand gives it an instant image boost that must make the car more attractive to buyers. Celebrity tales equals dealership sales. That's the logic, anyway. But surely the millions of dollars spent giving free cars to rich stars is a waste of precious and increasingly smaller marketing budgets. It's time to make the car the star, not the other way around. Lets be clear, we are not talking about the very obvious dropping of famous faces into big budget ads. That has its place in the marketing toolbox, but in a very media savvy world it's clear most of us get that play-for-pay concept. Today, the use of just a famous name in an ad yields very little influence on whether you or I will buy that car. No, this awards-ceremony loaner deal is a subtler, but higher risk, idea that if you see a "star" with "their" car in "real life" then surely that adds to the car's appeal. We, the audience, are expected to start salivating like Pavlovian puppies in our desire to have same car in our own, less red-carpeted driveway. Geoff Day has been called the "Pied Piper" of the auto industry, leading auto journalists on wild rides around the globe in his position as former director of communications for Mercedes-Benz USA. Before that, he worked at DaimlerChrysler UK on its PR efforts, and rubbed elbows with the Queen of England in his role at the Buckingham Palace Press Office. His phone is filled with the numbers of the great, the good and the bad. His head is filled with dirty little secrets hiding in many corners of the auto industry. There is no doubt that the publicity that comes with a well placed story, picture or feature can help raise awareness of a product – Oprah proved that with her "Favorite things" – especially if you are launching a line of wrinkle cream or juice bars.

How Audi keeps it fresh in the design department

Audi was, even very recently, seen as a near-luxury brand, on par with niche if specific European automakers like Saab and Volvo. But early in the 21 st century, the four-ringed circus from Ingolstadt found a way to elevate itself to the level of its aspirational German rivals at Mercedes and BMW. While these brands were immersed in what we like to refer to as their Baroquecoco Period – a moment in which the exteriors of their cars gained bulges and, ahem, bangles, and their interiors failed to keep pace with the march of technology – Audi kept it simple. Its designs avoided the imperious Faberge gilding of Benz, or the Ghery-esque swoop and swoon of Bimmer. Instead, they were clean inside and out, with simple and elegant lines, comprehensible ergonomics, and subtle new signatures that were recognizable without being in any way overwrought. Customers, alienated by their rivals, flocked. Sales rocketed. And Audi became known as a formal/functional design leader – the Mid-Century Modern Architecture of the luxury vehicle world. But now BMW and Mercedes have taken note and corrected course. Both brands have discarded their dalliance with carbuncularity and are now, debatably, near the top of their game design-wise. Benz is delivering handsome stolidity not seen since the Bruno Sacco era of the Seventies and Eighties, and BMW has regained a grip on the kind of elegant sportiness characterized by Paul Bracq during the same time period. And the interiors of both brands are consistently on a level of craftsmanship, attention to detail, delight, and material selection and innovation once reserved for Bentley and Rolls. View 17 Photos This puts Audi in something of a design double-bind. First, its transaction price has escalated to the point where it lives in the same set as BMW and Mercedes. But now that those brands have caught up with (or perhaps even surpassed) the crisp Auto Union sensibility, how does it differentiate itself? "You have to have a clear design theme," says Frank Lamberty, Audi's exterior design director. "We define this as Quattro, because this is unique for Audi, this is our tradition. And Quattro means we have all the wheels powered, so we want to show that in our design. And this is different from a rear-wheel-drive car. We are coming from a front-wheel-drive platform, so everything is more balanced. Everything is in the middle, rather than leaned back. That is a clear proportion thing.