2014 Ram 1500 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ram may build more trucks with sports team tie-ins

After a rather successful foray with a Red Wings edition of the Ram 1500 last year - some 3,000 units sold - the truck brand is both re-upping its relationship with Detroit's hockey powerhouse and considering expansion into other sport franchises.
Ram announced last month that it would carry on its partnership with the Red Wings throughout the 2012-13 NHL season. The company will not offer a special edition version of the 2013 Ram, due in part to the strike-shortened NHL season. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Ram boss Fred Diaz called the Red Wings partnership an experiment that "worked out so incredibly well, we're looking at the possibility of doing other things with other sports."
Diaz doesn't see Ram doing deals with entire leagues, but does think that other teams and cities, with a similar "rabid fan base" could make sense for co-branding. "We'll pick our spots and our moments, " said Diaz, "and if we feel like we have a good opportunity, we'll do it."

YouTube tallies votes for this year's top five Super Bowl spots [w/video]

When we asked you to tell us which of this year's 16 car-themed Super Bowl commercials you liked best, you chose the Farmer commercial from Chrysler Group, advertising the Ram trucks, over Audi's Prom commercial in second place. Turns out the voters in YouTube's Ad Blitz poll agreed, voting the same commercial to the number one spot from among the field commercials in every category.
From there, however, they went in a totally different direction. Budweiser's The Clydesdales spot came second, Samsung's The Next Big Thing took third. The Jeep Whole Again ad scored fourth in the YouTube poll, fifth in our poll of auto commercials, and the Hyundai Team spot got fifth from the YouTubers, but ninth in our poll.
The voting results don't match up with the viewing numbers, though - while Farmer has more than 13 million views, The Next Big Thing is well beyond 21 million. You can read the press release below and see all five spots, lined up for you, one more time.

Sunday Drive: And now for something completely different

This past week played host to a wide assortment of automotive news, highlighted by our first drive of the 2018 Volvo XC40. The Swedish crossover is targeted at young, successful Millennials, but it offers cool styling, fun dynamics, and all of today's must-have technology, so we think it ought to appeal to a much wider swath of the automotive marketplace. From there we answer the question, "What are hard on the outside and soft on the inside?" as we take a look at the next Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV. We expect the German automaker's flagship luxury SUV to remain boxy on the outside, but the interior is going to be soft, supple, and luxurious. And then there's the Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, which starts at starts at $34,290 and boasts 212 total system horsepower, 232 pound-feet of torque, 47 miles of electric driving range, and a total range of 340 miles. EPA rates it at 110 MPGe in EV mode, and 44 city/40 highway/42 combined overall. We compare it to other plug-ins like the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius Prime. And finally we have some more spy photos of the 2019 Ram 1500. It doesn't have a traditional crosshair grille, but it's got plenty of chrome and an attractive upright stance that's sure to tempt future truck buyers looking for some sophistication to go with their work gloves. As always, stay tuned to Autoblog this week to see all the automotive news that's fit to print. 2018 Volvo XC40 First Drive Review | The Masspirational crossover Mercedes-Benz G-Class gets the luxe, high-tech treatment 2018 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Review | It's what's on the inside that counts 2019 Ram 1500 shows chrome grille and more production parts Green Honda Mercedes-Benz RAM Volvo Technology Truck Crossover SUV Luxury Performance Sedan volvo xc40 sunday drive