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Camaro SS facelift and dune-riding the new Mercedes-Benz GLS | Autoblog Podcast #579

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Reese Counts and Associate Editor Joel Stocksdale. First, they talk about the newly refreshed Chevy Camaro SS. Then they dish on the cars they've been driving, including the Lexus UX, Lexus GS F and Volvo V90, as well as riding in the new Mercedes-Benz GLS. After that, they ask the question, how many AMG cars is too many? Finally they turn to car buying, and suggest potential vehicles for a shopper on Reddit for the "Spend My Money" segment. Autoblog Podcast #579 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 2020 Camaro SS facelift Cars we're driving: 2019 Lexus UX 2019 Lexus GS F 2019 Volvo V90 Cross Country 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS ride How many AMGs is too many? Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video:

Star Wars Car Drives To The Dark Side Of Comic Con

When it comes to designing coveted collectible toys for sale at Comic-Con, the annual celebration of pop culture lifting off Thursday in San Diego, the sky's the limit for the designers at Mattel. Fittingly, the building where Mattel's dreamers conceive of their limited-edition playthings is just down the street from the Los Angeles International Airport. Inside the colorful design center - a Hot Wheels-themed shuttle bus transports employees from Mattel's parking garage - the designers have spent the past year working on 10 toys created especially for the Comic-Con crowd, including a replica of the Batmobile from the upcoming game "Batman: Arkham Knight" and a 9-inch-tall action figure of Superman killer Doomsday. "We don't have to worry about retail. We don't have to worry about margins," said Doug Wadleigh, Mattel's senior vice president of global brand marketing for boys and entertainment. "We don't have to worry about operational efficiencies. We only have to worry about creating the coolest toys for our fans. Period." It also offers some escape from Mattel's reality these days. Like other toy makers struggling in this digital, video-centric age, the company is trying to remain relevant in the retail world. Core brands like Barbie have seen less of a demand, with a 14 percent drop in sales in the first quarter of this year. Mattel had a net loss for the first three months ending March 31 that totaled $11.2 million. But things will at least seem rosier at Comic-Con, where eager buyers for the toys await (the only other place they will be sold is on the Mattel collector's site). Mattel's exclusives this year run between $20 and $85, but elite toys can fetch much more when they're put up for auction. The crown jewel for Wadleigh and his team this year is a Darth Vader die-cast car, the first official collaboration from Hot Wheels and the "Star Wars" franchise. The car - imagine if a Chevrolet Corvette C5 and the villainous Sith lord's helmet had a baby - comes in a sleek black box and encased in a replica of Vader's lightsaber, complete with a swooshing sound effect. "We've been trying to partner with Lucasfilm and Disney on this property for a long time," said Wadleigh. A full-size working replica of the Vadermobile will be on display at Mattel's booth at the massive San Diego Convention Center.

GM won't pay owners of recalled cars for lost value

Kenneth Feinberg, the man in charge of the General Motors compensation fund dealing with the its widespread ignition switch woes, has issued an informal, two-letter response to the plaintiffs in more than 70 lawsuits seeking redress for lost resale value of their Cobalts: "No." The cases were recently combined into one, but Feinberg told The Detroit News that the fund will deal "only with death and physical injury claims," and that "perceived diminished value" will get no consideration.
ALG, the firm specializing in establishing residual values, determined that Cobalt owners had lost $300 compared to the segment competition and doesn't envision any long-term effects from the recall situation. Feinberg's statement comes in advance of public details on how the compensation fund will work and adheres to GM's long-held position on the matter. The company has already asked a judge to throw out such suits using the pre-bankruptcy defense, even as it stopped using that defense in cases of injury and death.
With plenty of potential gain from the GM suit, however, don't expect the plaintiffs to give up yet. When Toyota was sued for the same reason during the unintended acceleration debacle, it eventually settled the case for between $1 billion and $1.4 billion just to get it over with. Since the 85 law firms involved in the Toyota litigation took home more than $250 million of that total, we shouldn't expect the attorneys to give up on a GM payout, either.