2014 Ram 1500 Tradesman/express on 2040-cars

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The best Super Bowl car commercials from the last 5 years

If you've been dipping into the Autoblog feed over the past days and weeks, you wouldn't even have to be a sports fan to know the Super Bowl is coming up. Automakers have been teasing their spots for the big game, dropping them days early, fully-formed onto the Internet and otherwise trying to amp up the multi-million-dollar outlays that they've made for air time on the biggest advertising day of the year. And, we're into it. The lead up to the Super Bowl is almost akin to a mini auto show around these parts; with automakers being amongst the most prolific advertisers on these special Sundays. The crop of ads from 2015 looks as strong as ever, but we thought we'd take a quick look back at some of our favorite spots from the last five years. Take a look at our picks – created from a very informal polling of Autoblog editors and presented in no particular order – and then tell us about your recent faves, in Comments. Chrysler, Imported From Detroit Chrysler, Eminem and a lingering pan shot of "The Fist" – it doesn't get much more Motown than 2011's Imported From Detroit. With the weight of our staffers hailing from in and around The D, it's no wonder that our memories still favor this epic Super Bowl commercial (even though the car it was shilling was crap). Imported really set the tone for later Chrysler ads, too, repeated the formula: celebrity endorsement + dramatic copy + dash of jingoism = pulled car-guy heartstrings. Mercedes-Benz, Soul teaser with Kate Upton One of our favorite Super Bowl commercials (and yours, based on the insane number of views you logged) didn't even technically air during the game. Mercedes-Benz teased its eventual spot Soul with 90-seconds worth of Kate Upton threatening to do her best Joy Harmon impression. (Teaser indeed.) It doesn't win points for cleverness, use of music, acting, or any compelling carness, but it proved that Mercedes' advertisers knew how to make a splash in the Internet Age. And, hey, it's still classier than every GoDaddy commercial. Kia, A Dream Car. For Real Life Like the Mercedes video above, the initial draw here is a pretty lady; in this case the always stunning Adriana Lima. But this Kia commercial really delivers the extra effort we expect while scarfing crabby snacks and homemades, too. First of all, Motley Crue. Second, a cowboy on a bucking rhino. Enjoy yet again.

Cars with the most reckless drivers are full of surprises

Insurify is a site for comparing auto insurance quotes. Because insurance shoppers need to submit information like the vehicles they're driving and the infractions they've compiled while driving those vehicles, Insurify has quite the database of correlations tying certain models to a habit of breaking certain laws. When the site's data analysts decided to compile a list of the top ten models for reckless driving citations in the decade from 2010 to 2019, the ranking contained a few wild entries. The Dodge Challenger making the countdown will surprise precisely zero people. But the Saturn L200? First, a definition: USLegal.com defines reckless driving as "driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a willful or reckless disregard of consequences." So this list is a caution about particular drivers more than the cars. For a baseline, according to Insurify data, for any random model, 15 out of 10,000 people who drive that model have picked up one citation for reckless driving. Back to that Challenger, then. No shocker for being here, but it's actually number 10, with 44 out of 10,000 Challenger drivers nabbed for a willful disregard of consequences on the road. That's better than the first surprise entry, the Saturn L200, a sedan only on sale for six years, with the least horsepower on the list, and out of production since 2005. The data set put drivers of GM's extraterrestrial sedan at 45 reckless pilots per 10,000 drivers. There are two pickups on the list, the only modern one being the Ram 1500 at eighth, with a rate of 46 in 10,000. Somehow, drivers of the third-best-selling pickup in the U.S. outrun the overwhelming numerical superiority of the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150. The other pickup is the Chevrolet K1500 at number five, with a rate of 56 in 10,000. This is not only the oldest vehicle on the list, it went out of production in 2002, before any other vehicle on the list. Between the trucks, the Volkswagen CC slotted in at seven with 47 in 10,000 reckless driving chits, the Cadillac ATS slipped into sixth with 48 in 10,000.  The top four is a bag of unexpected. The Nissan 370Z is the first hardcore sports car on the list at number four, with 61 in 10,000 Z drivers flaunting their Fairladys in the face of Johnny Law.

Ram 1500 wins Consumer Reports fullsize truck test

Vehicles that perform well in road tests by some of the most popular automotive publications, such as Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Automobile, don't always score well in in Consumer Reports' more regimented, practical test procedures, so the Ram 1500's climb to the top of CR's scoreboard is a boon for the well-received pickup truck, which CR also put on its "recommended" list.
To start off with, the freshened 2013 Ram 1500 has a lighter, stiffer chassis than before, and the four-wheel-drive Crew Cab that CR bought and tested performed flawlessly and achieved class-leading fuel economy (15 miles per gallon) with the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 - the most popular engine choice for the 1500 - and the new eight-speed automatic transmission. The unique-in-its-class rear coil spring setup endowed the truck with "one of the best rides of any pickup," CR reports. That helped it earn its class-leading road-test score of 78, well ahead of the nearest competition still in production, the Toyota Tundra (69) and the Ford F-150 (68). It's worth noting, however, that the Chevrolet Avalanche outscores the 1500 by two points (80), but production of that vehicle ends after the current 2013 model year.
About the only things the publication could find wrong with the truck were a heavy tailgate and a high step up into the cabin. Get ready for the next round later this summer when CR is finished testing the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado, which is doing well so far in the publication's tests.