With their racing heritage and ongoing participation in the sport, Mercedes-Benz and BMW know something about keeping close competitors in their rear-view mirrors. That's why it may take more than a new branding campaign for Lexus—which also races—to take back its US luxury-market leadership from its German rivals this year.

BMW took the American luxury-segment crown away from Lexus in 2011, when the Toyota-owned brand was dealing with short supplies after the earthquake and tsunmi in Japan, and the German brand has held on to it for the last two years. There's been a lot of speculation that Lexus might be able to regain the No. 1 spot in the segment this year because its supply situation is now fully resolved, and it's got some new products.

But that isn't happening—at least not yet. And actually, in April, Mercedes-Benz strengthened its 2013 lead over BMW in the segment, having finished in second place behind BMW for each of the last two full years. In April, the Mercedes brand widened its sales lead to nearly 4,700 vehicles for the year to date over BMW, with nearly 93,000 sold to BMW's more than 88,000.Continue reading...

No part of the automotive business is more important than the pickup-truck segment, where the biggest profits are made by each of Detroit's Big Three automakers. It's also a crucial time for pickup-truck sales because they're the vehicle of choice for the construction contractors who are finally benefiting from a significant bounceback in the U.S. housing market.

But there was another reason that General Motors made a big deal on Monday of the announcement of first mileage specifications for versions of the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups that are due out this spring: It gave GM a chance to tweak arch-rival Ford on the issue of fuel economy, which is increasingly important to American truck buyers.

GM said that the Silverado and Sierra version that is expected to be by far the most popular configuration—a crew-cab truck with an 5.3-liter EcoTec3, eight-cylinder engine—will offer better mileage than directly competitive V8 models and will even barely beat out a version of the 2013 Ford F-150 pickup with a six-cylinder EcoBoost engine.Continue reading...

GM's introduction of the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel is a big surge forward for what has been a little piece of the U.S. auto market. The unveiling of the diesel-powered small car at the Chicago Auto Show today represents the most significant investment yet in the rise of clean diesel in the American market by a Detroit Three automaker.

About 40 percent of Cruze models sold in Europe — like most of the continent's small cars — are diesel-powered. But GM's adaptation of a new diesel powertrain for the U.S. represents a bold return to diesel power for the company. Its diesel cars in the 70s and 80s were dirty, smelly and unreliable, and tarnished the reputation of diesel power in America for decades.

Based like all clean-diesel models on new low-pollution technology, Cruze "represents a new era in diesel performance for American cars," Jens Wartha, GM chief engineer, said in a press release.Continue reading...

Despite a difficult economy for small business, savvy brands recognize the unflagging appeal of the startup. And so more of them are supporting entrepreneurs or associating themselves with the entrepreneurial spirit, ranging from PepsiCo to General Electric.

Lexus wants a piece of that action, too. The Toyota-owned luxury brand has established a contest called Lexus Ignition in which a Facebook app is soliciting votes on eight technology startups, whose four winners will split up to $100,000 in funding from Lexus US. The startups range from a maker of audio speakers out of "eco wood" to the designer of "the world's first pocket-sized video-stabilization case for a smartphone that eliminates shaky video," according to a Lexus press release. Each innovation could have some relevance to automotive technology.

Timing the social campaign, which is now in week two, to the debut of the all-new flagship sedan, the 2013 Lexus ES, the brand wants to "support other creative projects that exemplify this philosophy," Lexus CMO Brian Smith told brandchannel. The digital campaign reflects "our greater focus on multimedia and connectedness in the car," he said, echoing a key theme for automakers these days.Continue reading...

The Doritos Crash the Super Bowl user-created ad contest is back for the seventh consecutive year, this time around with a big Hollywood ending — the chance to work with director Michael Bay on the next installment of the Transformers movie franchise.

The pitch: "The great Super Bowl ad-venture is back. This year, if you make a DORITOS ad you might see it air on the Super Bowl and win not just $1 Million but a prize that's twice as explosive: a gig with high-octane Hollywood hit-maker Michael Bay on Transformers 4," which opens June 27, 2014. Submissions open on Oct. 8; more details in PepsiCo's press release and on Facebook.

The timing would be great for Chevrolet to be pushing a hot new car. GM sales were up in August, renewing hope for a continuation of the company's recent momentum. And the Chevy Volt continues to get shellacked for high development and manufaturing costs, low sales, and desperate incentives to sell the units that do move — a critique the automaker refutes.

But according to the automotive cognescenti, the Chevy Malibu Eco just isn't up to the challenge of delivering another winning product for GM in a sequence to follow the Chevy Cruze and Sonic models, which are smaller. (Chevy is also launching a new, tiny Spark nameplate this fall.) Eco's raison d'etre appears to be a "mild hybrid" drivetrain that includes an electric motor to give mileage a boost — but which, unfortunately, doesn't deliver much by way of fuel efficiency, compared with competitors, and is accompanied by a smaller wheelbase and cramped rear seats.Continue reading...

MINI has continued its remarkable U.S. sales surge through the first half, this week reporting a 15-percent gain in June for June over a year earlier and an 8-percent gain over 2011 for the year to date. Both were record results for the BMW-owned tiny-car brand. "It's a wonderful time to be MINI," Jim McDowell, MINI USA VP, stated.

Indeed, America's leading little-car brand has continued to pile up sales gains even as competition in its segment has intensified with the arrival of the Fiat 500 and, now, variations; Scion's new iQ; and a new effort by Mercedes-Benz to finally turn its Smart brand around in the U.S.

For its next act, as McDowell noted, MINI is about to launch "the greatest rally in our fabled history" — MINI Takes the States. Beginning on the Fourth of July — hence the tagline "Go Forth. Go West. Go Mini" — following a PR kick-off Tuesday on NBC's Today Show, thousands of MINI owners and enthusiasts are expected to take part in MINI's cross-country rally, or part of it, covering a total of 16 states and 13 cities.Continue reading...

Things are going to be extremely busy one weekend in July at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Kroger grocery-chain will be doing everything it can to make sure its name is attached to every element of it. The grocer will even act as the weekend’s florist and box-lunch provider, according to Sports Illustrated.

Kroger and the Speedway announced that the grocer will be the official title sponsor of NASCAR’s first-ever “super weekend” from July 26-29.Continue reading...