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Autoblog fan favorite car ads from Super Bowl XLIX

Super Bowl XLIX is in the books, and the New England Patriots emerged victorious. Of course, if you're like us, the big game wasn't so much about the battle between the east coast and west, so much as a fight between the world's automotive advertisers. We collected and collated all of last night's new ads and put them together for you to vote on. And yes, we're limiting this year's contest to last night's new features. That's why you aren't seeing Dodge's epic Wisdom among our collection of commercials, and it's a similar story with Chevrolet's Truck Guy Focus Group series, which highlights the new Colorado. You can still vote for your favorites. We won't be closing the voting on our Super Bowl page, so while the winners and losers are correct as of this writing, it's entirely possible that there could be some changes in the rankings as time goes on. So, without any further ado, here are the winning ads based on your voting. Nissan: With Dad Fiat: Ready For Action Jeep: Beautiful Lands BMW: Newfangled Idea Mercedes-Benz: Fable NASCAR: America Start Your Engines As for those ads that failed to impact you, loyal readers, Toyota was the absolute, undisputed loser. The Japanese brand ran four ads in total – two for Toyota and two for Lexus – and all of them have negative tallies as of this writing. Lexus' Make Some Noise and Lets Play and Toyota's One Bold Choice and My Bold Dad both had very weak showings among the commercials that aired, although they weren't alone. Neither Mazda nor Kia scored particularly well, despite featuring celebrity magic act Penn and Teller and former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, respectively. Chevrolet was the winner of the losers, as of our writing, recording the fewest downvotes for its audience-punking The Big Game ad. If you want to take a second look at the losing ads, you can head back to our Super Bowl page for the complete collection. But for now, head into Comments and let us know what you think of the results.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Jeep 'trailer hitch' recall repair rates lag amidst reports of new death

The problem with exploding fuel tanks in the 1993-1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty in some rear collisions continues to be a problem for FCA US, formerly Chrysler. The campaign to fix the utility vehicles was first announced in June 2013 after 51 claimed fatalities, and the fixes reportedly began in January 2014. However, there continue to be new deaths blaming the problem in unrepaired models, according to The Detroit News, citing data from the Center for Auto Safety. The automaker initially refused NHTSA's pressuring to conduct a recall because the models met applicable crash standards when they were manufactured, but eventually, there was a compromise to inspect and fix about 1.56 million Jeeps. With the fuel tank located between the rear axle and bumper, the unusual fix was to install a trailer hitch for extra protection. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later agreed that the change would provide added safety in lower to medium speed crashes, but not high-speed crashes. The most recent fatality, according to The Detroit News, occurred on a Michigan freeway in November 2014 when a pregnant woman in a 2003 Liberty was rear-ended when traffic slowed. Her Jeep impacted the vehicle in front, rolled over and a fire resulted. The family reportedly plans to file a lawsuit against FCA. At issue has been the rate at which the vehicles are being fixed. In July 2014, the automaker estimated it could have all of the vehicles repaired by March 2015 thanks to additional hitch supplies. But by November, NHTSA claimed that only three percent of the recalled models had been fixed. FCA says it continues to work to notify owners, though. According to Chrysler spokesperson Eric Mayne to Autoblog, "We are processing approximately 1,200 vehicles per day. Every owner who schedules service is receiving service. As of Jan. 8, that total was 193,490." The company has also mailed out over two million notifications to owners, more than the number officially called in. Given the age of these Jeeps, many of them have had multiple owners, and historically, the older a vehicle is, the less likely the recall fixes are to be carried out. FCA is currently creating a video urging people to have the hitch installed to be released soon. News Source: The Detroit News [1], [2]Image Credit: Jeep Recalls Jeep Safety SUV FCA jeep liberty jeep safety