Deep Sea Blue Metallic Auto Only 26k Miles Premium Pkg Like New Factory Warranty on 2040-cars

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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

Sunday Drive: A new Rambo Lambo takes center stage

Surprise! Autoblog readers love fast cars. Doesn't matter what shape; doesn't matter what size. As long as it's got big power, wicked acceleration, and ludicrous speed, you're interested. Take, for instance, the brand-new Lamborghini Urus. It's got a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 sending 641 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque through an 8-speed automatic transmission to all four wheels. It hits 62 miles per hour in 3.6 seconds, and has a top speed of 189.5 mph. Ludicrous speed? Check. And although you'd be hard pressed to draw a line straight back from the upcoming Urus to the old, off-road-ready LM002, at least you can say that Lamborghini does have a history of producing overpowered SUVs. A 5.2-liter V12 engine producing 444 horsepower and borrowed from the Countach certainly qualifies as big power, especially considering this was in the 1980s and '90s. A prime example just sold for nearly half a million bucks. Moving along to more traditional sportscars, we got a sneak peek at the next Porsche 911's interior, thanks to some intrepid spy photographers. And we spy with our little eyes some major changes to the quintessential German sportscar. Finally, we round out this Sunday Drive with two First Drive reports. Both are German, but past that, they couldn't be more different. Either way, ludicrous speed is all but guaranteed by either one. As always, stay tuned to Autoblog for all the latest automotive news that's fit to print. The 2019 Lamborghini Urus, fastest SUV in the world, has landed Rare U.S.-spec 1990 Lamborghini LM002 fetches $467,000 at auction Next Porsche 911 will get a major interior overhaul 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe/Cabriolet Review | Creamy goodness 2018 BMW M5 First Drive Review | Power meets traction

Driving the Honda Ridgeline and marveling at Tesla | Autoblog Podcast #638

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Associate Editor Byron Hurd. They start off talking about why more people should buy the Honda Ridgeline, because it's a pretty darned good truck. Next, Byron talks about some Hyundais. He shares his experiences with the 2020 Sonata Hybrid and talks briefly about the prototype 2021 Elantra currently occupying his driveway. Up next, Jeremy shares his feelings about the BMW X1 crossover he spent some time with, prompting the gang to mull over the notion of BMW's modern interpretation of "Ultimate Driving Machine." After that, Byron talks about towing his 1990 Mazda Miata with the 2020 Infiniti QX80, and then they wrap up with some discussion of the mystery surrounding the Ford Maverick and some comments on the current state of Tesla. Autoblog Podcast #638 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 Rundown Hauling dirt with the 2020 Honda Ridgeline Driving the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Discussing the 2021 Hyundai Elantra Driving the 2020 BMW X1 Towing a 1990 Mazda Miata with a 2020 Infiniti QX80 News Ford Maverick tailgate stamping leaks; we may see the whole thing in 2021 Tesla reports profit for fourth straight quarter, setting it up to join S&P 500 Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: