Car Throttle

I think they made it look that way on purpose. Yes, I know, look what they had to start with, but still, they sure took it down a notch, now didn't they? Brabus, one of the first German tuning firms to gain wide notice, OK, notice outside of Germany back in the 1980s for doing rude things with Mercedes, has just taken a whack at MB's GLK sport ute. You could say that stuffing a V12 into it is the be all and end all, and all you need to know, but hey, in for a penny, in for a pound, so lets wallow, shall we? Brabus says that the GLK V12 is the fastest street legal SUV in the world, and has set a

"From Sweden with Löv". That's the new marketing campaign for Volvo's latest and greatest, the XC60 Crossover. A followup and little brother to the successful XC90 SUV, the new XC60 is billed as the "Safest Volvo Ever". Volvo really, really wants to establish a strong foothold in the luxury crossover SUV market. As I've said before, the segment is shaping up to be a big battleground between the luxury automakers. Proof comes that they mean business with this price tag. At $32,395 the XC60 undercuts every competitor. Mercedes-Benz GLK, Cadillac SRX, Audi Q5, BMW X3; all of them. I wonder if they were waiting on Cadillac's pricing of the SRX? To be quite honest each one of the mentioned offerings are very appealing. I would take (and like) any one of them,

Even in the midst of all the financial turmoil and bankruptcy talk at General Motors, product launches are still continuing as usual. Two of those are the Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon and the SRX crossover. The SRX promises to be a very important launch for Cadillac, as the luxury crossover segment is high in volume and highly competitive. At $34, 155, all indications lead to the SRX being a top tier competitor. Given that Cadillac needs something extra to get on buyer's shopping lists, will that price be enough to woo buyers? It's definitely on the lower end of the spectrum for the segment. Comparing with it's competition, the only one lower is Mercedes Benz's GLK two wheel drive crossover, starting  at $33,900. That new sticker price

From the recent spats with BMW and others bold moves, Audi has definitely been picking fights lately. 2008 was a record year for the brand and they want to keep that momentum going into 2009. The latest ones feature the Audi Q5 crossover launched last month. Way to go, Audi! httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9tzrmUN-7k httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8MTpaBUCpc These latest two ads take shots at Lexus. Kicking them when their down huh? Now doubt Lexus has been really hurting in this downturn and Audi has decided this is the time to really go after them. The Lexus RX is the segment's top vehicle in volume by far so it's the one with the target on it's back. In these ads, Audi is going after one of it's biggest weak points. I think Lexus has some more problems other then

With 50,000 orders for the new 2010 E-Class under it's belt, Mercedes-Benz has been taking some steps lately with the GLK Crossover to boost sales and better organize it's product mix to fit the changing market conditions. This change in option packages is the latest change in the attempt to do that. In February, Mercedes-Benz made GLK financing more attractive by offering a low 1.9 interest rate for up to 66 months. Apparently, Mercedes wants the GLK to be a high-volume vehicle in it's portfolio, with an aggressive base price and high amount of advertising. Mercedes has viewed the GLK Crossover as significant, and these changes are reflective of that. Production for the GLK's January launch was planned in June/July of last year (Good times, good times), and that resulted in the top-heavy mix