Monday, 7 September 2015

BMW, Jeep America’s Most Instagrammed Car Brands

BMW, Jeep America’s Most Instagrammed Car Brands

BMW, Jeep America’s Most Instagrammed Car Brands

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BMW is the most popular automaker on Instagram, based on geotagged posts in the U.S.

Auto Insurance Center looked through more than 4.6 million Instagram posts created by users from January 2011 to July 2015, concentrating on posts geotagged in the U.S. and containing the name of an automaker in hashtagged form. The result? BMW had 710,335 Instagram posts, a substantial amount over second place finisher Jeep with 451,177 posts. Ferrari was third with 387,967 posts while Porsche (357,915) and Nissan (346,399) rounded out the top five.

Sitting at the bottom of the list as the only three automakers with less than 100,000 Instagram posts were GMC (48,108), Mercedes-Benz (30,544) and Chrysler (18,555).

SEE ALSO: Jeep Has Most Facebook Fans Among Automakers in the US

The trend continues when you break down most popular automaker by state, with BMW and Jeep taking up the majority of the U.S. map. Removing those two brands, however, is when things get a bit interesting. Toyota, Audi, Dodge, Ford, Volkswagen and Ferrari are all second most popular in some states with Toyota and Dodge being tied for first, as second most popular in 11 states a piece. Ford is the second most popular car brand in eight states.

Overall, BMW was the most popular automaker in 21 states while Jeep took the crown in 19 states. Ferrari was third with four states to its nameplate. The remaining states favored Dodge, Ford, Honda and Toyota.

[Source: Auto Insurance Center]

Discuss this story at our BMW Forum

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Toyota Investing $50M to Reduce Highway Injuries and Fatalities

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Toyota has announced a collaboration with Stanford and MIT in hopes of making the roads safer.

The Japanese automaker will be investing $50 million over the next five years to establish joint research centers at each university that will focus on the research and development of intelligent vehicle and mobility technologies. Toyota believes that there are opportunities to improve everyday living through artificial intelligence and believes there is significant breakthrough potential for the development of life-saving intelligent vehicles and life-improving robots.

SEE ALSO: Is Toyota Working on a Ridiculous Flying Car?

Research at MIT will be led by Professor Daniela Rus, Andrew and Erna Viterbi, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Institute's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). The Stanford-based research center will be led by Professor Fei-Fei Li, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL).

"We're here today to mark the beginning of an unprecedented commitment," said Kiyotaka Ise, TMC senior managing officer and chief officer, R&D Group. "We will initially focus on the acceleration of intelligent vehicle technology, with the immediate goal of helping eliminate traffic casualties and the ultimate goal of helping improve quality of life through enhanced mobility and robotics. This partnership, led by Dr. Pratt, is a great opportunity to work with two leading research teams from two top universities.  I am very excited about what this new venture means for Toyota, and I look forward to more announcements in the future."

Discuss this story at our Toyota Forum

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Top Gear ‘Not Worth the Money’ Amazon Paid: Netflix

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Top Gear recently signed a deal with Amazon for a reported $250-million after being canned from the BBC, but a Netflix executive thinks the trio "wasn't worth the money."

Online streaming service Netflix was in discussions to distribute and produce the new show, but its chief product officer Neil Hunt has been quoted by Digital Spy as saying, "Clearly it wasn't worth the money to make the deal… I think they sold themselves for way more money [than they're worth]."

Hunt said that Netflix has a good gauge on what its audience likes, and having distributed past seasons of the popular show, he said there wasn't enough data to back up paying such a huge amount of money.

ALSO SEE: New Amazon 'Top Gear' Reportedly has a $250M Budget

Amazon signed a deal earlier this summer to make 36 episodes of a new motoring show featuring the Top Gear trio that are each an hour long. The new show has not been titled yet, but the trio will get full editorial control. The new series will air in 2016.

With the Amazon deal, Jeremy Clarkson is reportedly making $15-million a year, making him one of the U.K.'s highest paid TV hosts. It has been reported that James May and Richard Hammond aren't that far behind.

Clarkson was fired from the BBC after punching a show producer. May and Hammond stood behind Clarkson, saying that the only way they would do that show is if the trio was kept together.

[Source: Digital Spy]

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Starting Next Year Every Porsche 911 Will be a 911 Turbo

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Few cars are as iconic as the Porsche 911 Turbo, and there are about to be a lot more of them on the road.

Traditionally the turbo moniker was reserved for higher-performance versions of the 911, but starting next year all 911s (including the base Carrera model) will feature forced induction technology.

Both the Carrera and Carrera S will come with a new 3.0-liter turbocharged flat-six engine, the former marking 370 hp and the latter making 420 hp. Those are 20 hp increases from the previous non-turbo motors.

Torque will also rise, with 331 lb-ft and 368 lb-ft respectively, with full thrust coming on at just 1700 rpm.

The results in performance are impressive with Porsche claiming the Carrera S (which will also now be available with rear-axle steering) will lap the Nurburgring in 7 minutes and 30 seconds, 10 seconds faster than the previous model.

All 911 models will gain a new PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) system which can adjust the suspension and even lower it by 10 mm. The Carrera S will also feature 305 wide rear tires – up from 295.

As for straight line acceleration, the Carrera when equipped with the PDK dual-clutch transmission and Sport Chrono package will achieve a 0-60 time of just 4.0 seconds – two-tenths of a second faster than the old model. The S model, when similarly equipped, will take just 3.7 seconds to achieve the same speed.

And perhaps more importantly for P-car purists, Porsche claims the cars will maintain their distinctive exhaust note.

Additional upgrades include new headlights and a redesigned rear decklid and lights. Inside the car gets an updated Porsche Communication Management system with added functionality and improved usability. But the biggest change for the driver will be a new steering wheel (on Sport Chrono models) inspired by the 918 Spyder. It will come with a 4-mode rotary dial with settings for Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and Individual. These will let the driver select settings for the chassis, Start/Stop system, transmission and exhaust system.

Porsche also claims the new car will get up to a 12 percent improvement in fuel economy over the outgoing model.

The new model will officially make its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week.

The 2017 911 will go on sale in the US in March of next year, priced as follows: 911 Carrera                                                                                              $89,400 911 Carrera S                                                                                        $103,400 911 Carrera Cabriolet                                                                          $101,700 911 Carrera S Cabriolet                                                                      $115,700

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