Italian Parking Lesson 101: Avoid the wall

Boy, is this old fella crazy or what! Look at him go like 6.000 rpm’s in reverse in his Fiat Seicento. But it gets even better when he tries to park his car in the garage or rather, in the garage wall… Seriously though, how do these people keep their drivers-licenses? I mean, if someone’s capable of destroying his own vehicle during a routine parking imagine what damage he can do on the road. Via: Leblogauto

Technorati: Fiat+Seicento, Parking, accident, Youtube, Video, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/italian-parking-lesson-101-avoid-wall.html

Super Bowl XLI - Chevy’s Ads

I don’t know about you but we kinda find both these commercials, well, put it this way, totally lame… The first one you see above is called “Car Wash” and it was actually created by a student named Katelyn Crabb who won a contest organized by GM which involved video entries submitted by 820 teams from 230 schools. The second video, dubbed “Ain’t we got love” features a pack of stars who sing their love for Chevy products. Go figure… - Continued: Click “Read More…” below to see the second vid and GM's press-release -Via: Autoblog.com

GM PRESS RELEASE– During Super Bowl XLI, Chevrolet debuted the winning ad from the Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge on network television. The ad was the original concept of Katelyn (Katie) Crabb of North Prairie, WI. Chevy was the first to announce their competition last fall for a consumer-generated ad for the Super Bowl. The competition focused on college students and asked that their ad concept focus on one of Chevy’s cars and crossovers targeted to the youth market, the Aveo, Cobalt, HHR, or Equinox. The winning ad concept was selected after students from across the country submitted their ideas to Chevrolet last fall.

“Chevy wanted to learn what resonates with the younger buyer, and this competition gave us an opportunity to do that. We were able to engage in creative dialogue with them about our brand and teach them about the real-world of advertising. The resulting ad is so much fun!” said Kim Kosak, Chevrolet General Director, Chevrolet Advertising and Sales Promotion.

“It was great to have this opportunity. I was so excited that I got to be on the set when the ad for the HHR was filmed – the car and the set were really cool,” said Katie Crabb – winner of the ad challenge. "I really enjoyed it all - meeting the other finalists, learning about the production process from Chevy - from music selection to editing – it was all fascinating. And now to see the final ad on TV – it’s been an amazing experience,” she said.

The 30 second spot was directed by Bryan Buckley, of Hungry Man Productions, and was produced by Chevrolet and Campbell-Ewald, their lead advertising agency.

Katie came up with the idea for the ad as part of a class project through University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Her faculty advisor, Jessica McBride notified Katie that she was a finalist and would be going to Detroit for an all-expense paid trip in late October. During the trip, Katie was able to learn and experience first hand the advertising world. She and the other four finalist teams spent time learning about the cars and crossovers, and refining their concepts, before presenting them to the executives from Chevrolet and Campbell-Ewald.

“Chevrolet is thrilled we were able to help students realize their dreams of participating in real-world advertising. It was great to work with Katie on this ad. Katie’s a smart girl; she understood the importance of the idea and ran with it. She made a great presentation to us in Detroit. And everyone at Chevy has really enjoyed working with Katie on this commercial. We commend all of the students on their creative ideas, and thank them for participating,” said Kosak.

Chevy continued to engage students throughout the process, posting interviews with students about the ad challenge, supplemental materials from students and other information on the www.chevycollegead.com website. In January, www.cbs.com/chevy started running reality webisodes about the five finalist teams, and CBS The Early Show showed video mockups for a number of ad concepts that were submitted. Katie was named as the winner during CBS’ “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2007” on Friday, February 2, 2007.

Technorati: Super+Bowl, Ads, Commercials, TV, Chevrolet, Youtube, Video, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/super-bowl-xli-chevys-ads.html

Chicago Auto Show Parody Site upsets officials

We have to hand it to these guys for having a wonderful sense of humour to say the least. It’s worth playing around with the parody site to see how its authors manipulated the original content of the official Chicago Auto Show site. We really appreciated the “Parking” link in General information, which gives you the answer “There's no such thing as Free Parking”, how true!

However, humour is not the essence of the “2007 Chicago Auto Show Shutdown” as the main object of this site is to inform people about the "Auto Show SHUTDOWN Festival" which is an annual event where hundreds of cyclists parade through Chicago to raise awareness about global warming and to promote sustainable transportation. The ride culminates in a rally at the entrance of the 2007 Chicago Show that opens on the 9th of February. -Continued: Click “Read More…” below to see the rest of the article and the pics

The thing is that “2007 Chicago Auto Show” officials got annoyed with the parody site so they did the obvious: a lawyer sent a threatening letter claiming that the website amounted to trademark infringement and that it would seek damages if it weren’t taken down. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is a non-profit group that includes lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries who protect digital rights, backed the parody site. EEF responded with a letter to the “2007 Chicago Auto Show” officials claiming among others that “the auto show does not actually own the trademark it is claiming was infringed. Records show that the Chicago Auto Show abandoned the mark by neglecting to respond to correspondence from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as required by law” Via: Wired & EEF

Technorati Tags: 2007+Chicago+Auto+Show, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images,

EEF RELEASE: EFF Backs Parody Protest Site of Chicago Auto Show

Chicago - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned the Chicago Auto Show today to back off attempts to muzzle protestors who posted a parody of the show's website.

The parody site, autoshowshutdown.org, is a clearinghouse for information about the "Auto Show SHUTDOWN Festival" -- an annual event where hundreds of cyclists parade through Chicago to raise awareness about global warming and to promote sustainable transportation. The ride culminates in a rally at the entrance to the show. But this week, a lawyer for the auto show sent a threatening letter to the protestors, claiming that the website amounted to trademark infringement and that it would seek damages if the parody was not taken down.

In a letter sent in response today, EFF reminded the auto show that trademark infringement must involve some commercial use, which is clearly not the case in this non-profit, community-organized protest.

"Auto show organizers can't stop thousands of citizens from attending the SHUTDOWN Festival. Instead, they have resorted to baseless trademark claims to silence critics and interfere with planning for an event that embarrasses them," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "Both trademark law and the First Amendment won't allow for that."

In addition, an EFF investigation found that the auto show does not actually own the trademark it is claiming was infringed. Records show that the Chicago Auto Show abandoned the mark by neglecting to respond to correspondence from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as required by law.

"The auto show seems so scared of fair competition in the marketplace of ideas that they aren't playing clean," said protest organizer Dan Korn. "Fortunately, we know our free speech rights, and we will be exercising them during the SHUTDOWN Festival, despite their threats."

EFF's letter to the Chicago Auto Show is part of its ongoing campaign to protect online free speech from the chilling effects of bogus intellectual property claims. EFF is currently representing a blogger threatened with copyright infringement by ABC after criticizing talk radio hosts. In November, EFF reached an agreement with the corporate owners of the popular children's television character Barney the Purple Dinosaur to withdraw meritless legal threats against a website publisher who parodied the character.

Full response sent to the Chicago Auto Show

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/chicago-auto-show-parody-site-upsets.html

2008 BMW M3 Rendering – Fans do it better

According to ‘M3post”, this wonderful rendering of the upcoming BMW M3 that puts professional “chops’ to shame is the work of Gerald Alvarez (aka Alpine325ci) from NJ U.S.A. Alvarez also posted a series of photoshopped images of the car you see above “dressed” in several colors of which we definitely prefer the “Alpine-white”. I don’t know what this fella’s day job is but we think that someone, somewhere, ought to give him a ring. Via: Autoblog.nl & M3post -Continued: Click "Read More…" below to see the rest of the pictures

Technorati: BMW+M3, E92, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/2008-bmw-m3-rendering-fans-do-it-better.html

2008 Saab 9-3 gets a mini-facelift

Following last summer’s interior-upgrade, the Swedes are getting ready to give the 9-3 a mid-life facelift as these scanned pics from Aftonbladet prove. The 2008 9-3 was caught out testing in Sweden and by the looks of it, it’ll get a brand new front end that’s obviously influenced from the sexy Aero-X concept plus a new set of door handles…straight from its Americanized cousin, the Cadillac BLS. -Continued: Click “Read More…” below to see the rest of the article plus extra pictures

Aftonbladet also suggests that the redesigned 9-3 will receive a suspension upgrade. And some useless but nevertheless interesting info; the guys over at Trollhattansaab who posted the scanned pics also checked out the license plate of the covered-up 2008 9-3 at the Swedish car registry. Turns out that the car shown here is a 9-3 Combi 1.9Tdi owned by “SAAB AUTOMOBILE AKTIEBOLAG” (who else could it be…) and it was first registered on the 9th of January 2007. Via: Trollhattansaab

Technorati: Saab+9-3, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/2008-saab-9-3-gets-mini-facelift.html

Unbelievable Car Accident –"Hand of God"

Talk about “Hand of God”… Just looking at these pictures we found over at “MustangWorld” is enough to give you the creeps! By the looks of it, the guy in the smashed up pick-up truck lost control of the vehicle, crashed into the guardrail, flew over the sewage pipe, hit head-on the mountain on the other side coming to a halt on the edge of the cliff -and here's the best part: with his vehicle facing the opposite way that he came from!!! Insane. Via: MustangWorld

Technorati: Accidents, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/unbelievable-car-accident-of-god.html

BMW Air-Camper: Inflatable Tent for the 1-Series!

When I first saw this pic I thought it was some kind of a “rear-end airbag” hoax but according to the guys over at Autoblog it’s an inflatable sphere-like tent attached to the back end of the car that sleeps two and is pumped-up by a low-voltage fan that gets power from the bimmer’s cigarette lighter. Dubbed “Air-Camper” this sassy accessory was custom made a couple of years ago by BMW for a UK based mag called “Intersection Magazine”. Via: Autoblog.com

Technorati: BMW+1-Series, gadgets, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images,

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/bmw-air-camper-inflatable-tent-for-1.html

Video: New Volvo V70

Following the leaked pics, the official press release and gallery here’s a narrated video of the all-new Volvo V70, which will make its official debut at the Geneva Show in March. And oh yeah, lets not forget to note that we still don’t dig it.

Technorati: Volvo+V70, Youtube, video, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, Genevea+motor+Show

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/video-new-volvo-v70.html

Scooped: 2008 Dodge “JC49” mid-sized crossover

Swedish Automotorsport has published a couple of pics featuring ChryslerGroups’s answer to the new Ford Edge that goes by the codename “JC49”. From what we learned, the “JC49” will most probably be presented in September with sales starting in the US towards the end of the year (as a 2008 model). While it’s still unclear whether the mid-size crossover or CUV if you prefer, will get a third row seat, we do know for certain that it’s based on the Chrysler Sebring / Dodge Avenger platform and that it'll be built at Chrysler's Toluca, Mexico, factory starting in December 2007.

So I guess the next question you’ll make is whether we’ll see a Chrysler version of the CUV. Although unconfirmed, rumors have it that Chrysler’s version codenamed “JZ49” is expected sometime in 2009 as a 2010 model. Via: Automotorsport

Technorati: Dodge+JC49, Chrysler+JZ49, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, pictures, images

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/scooped-2008-dodge-jc49-mid-sized.html

Speedy dum-dum: Indian Train

Man, I don’t know who’s crazier; the fearlessly stupid folks that are trying to cross the tracks or the “Birdie dum-dum” train driver who’s passing the station in warp speed! Unbelievable!

Technorati: Youtube, video, India, Trains, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

http://carscoopcar.blogspot.com/2007/02/speedy-dum-dum-indian-train.html