I made a bad Hyundai Pony parody video

The Hyundai Pony. A car so good that Hyundai decided it would be their first model to export it to North America. But not to the U.S., no! Only Canada. (and maybe Mexico?). Why didn't they send it to the U.S? America couldn't handle this car. The crazy powerful 1.4L 4 cylinder (70 hp!), the drift ready RWD, the manual choke! This car was just too manly for everyone except Canadian lumberjacks, and people who worked at Woolco. (The fact that it couldn't pass American emission standards may also have had something to do with it not coming to the U.S., but let's concentrate on the manliness.)

So what did Hyundai use to sell this amazing manly machine? Commercials of course! Commercials full of dogs, clowns, and closeups of Michelin radial tires! Yes, they were awesome. You just can't sell cars with clowns anymore. Some would argue that there was never a time you could sell a car with clowns. But they could then, because it was the 80's. 

Mercedes pokes fun at fashion, and themselves, in this hilarious video for Fashion Week Berlin

Over the last few years, Mercedes-Benz has proven that they are one of the best car companies at winning the internet. Sure, they have some usual corporate stuff up on mercedesbenz.tv, but every once in a while they make a video that is absolutely crazy. (Like an anime A-class launch promo for Japan.) 

This time, Mercedes has gone for crazy again. And as usual when they do something crazy, it's crazy awesome. Mercedes obviously takes both fashion, and their sponsorship of Berline Fashion Week very seriously. So seriously, that they've authorized use of the C-111 concept in it. So seriously, that they hired a guy with lots of tattoos to play the main part. So seriously, that they had twin brothers dress in the same outfits. So seriously, that a girl comes over with cake. CAKE!

Fake Audi RS3 Commercial from a few years back

A couple years ago while perusing Youtube for anything car related, I stumbled upon some Audi RS3 raw footage from Europe. I have no idea why Audi posts random footage of cars like that, I guess they just had some raw footage from some promotional shoot or commercial burning a hole in their pocket and they decided to just throw it online. Or someone found it and posted it. (For reference, the raw footage is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMpPyX6izg0)

When I saw it, I figured it was just screaming to be edited together into a fake commercial/promo for the car. So I cut one together. This was done a couple years ago. In retrospect now, it's kind of cheesy, but what the hell, I like cheese. (Also why did I put a space between RS and 3 at the end? I am a hoser.) 

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but mine for this year might be to live life more like this guy

Larry Wood seems to have certainly lived an interesting life.

As the designer for Hot Wheels cars for 30 years, he probably designed a big part of your childhood. If you bought a Hot Wheels (or had a Hot Wheels bought for you) between 1969 - and the 90's, you probably had a car designed by this man. Motor Trend caught up with Mr. Wood and asked him for his story. This is the story of the man...

Old Toyota Celicas…they looked awesome.

70's Toyota Celicas are some of the best looking cars ever made. They are probably the best looking car to come out of the '70's. There I said it. You can love your 'Cudas, Camaros and Z's, and I understand the appeal, but the Celica, (while muuuuuuchhh slower), just looked so damn cool. 

Sure the Celica's fastback style might have been copied from the Mustang, and the head light style borrowed from the Italians, (Google Fiat Dino) but damn, they did a good job of it. And somehow they blended that mix of Italian and American into a Japanese small car's stature, which somehow made it look even more awesome. 

The 70's Celica is not as well remembered as its other Japanese cousins like the Datsun 510 or the Z, but it should be in that category. The chin spoiler that many people add to the front (such as the one in the video below) is a controversial design element, but personally I like it. Electric Federal's featured video about the Celica has the most plays out of any video they've ever put on Youtube, so I take that as a sign that I'm not the only one who thinks this car is awesome. 

Shouldn't the 2000 Mustang Cobra R be worth more money?

Back in 1999, Ford introduced a ridiculous car called the Mustang Cobra R. If the normal Cobra wasn't enough for you, Ford would sell you the race track ready Cobra R, which had 385hp, 385 lb feet of torque, and only came in red. Most did not come with a radio or air conditioning, similar to today's Pony car track weapon, the Camaro Z28. The Cobra R also had one of the craziest spoilers this side of a Fast and Furious movie. Overall it looked like a Mustang that had gone through a 10 year old's imagination and came out as exaggerated as possible. (Did I mention it had side pipes? And a sticker on the doorjamb that said "do not drive this car in ice and snow or you will die?") 

in the end, Ford only made 300 of these crazy machines, with each of them selling for an unheard of price (at the time for a Mustang) of $55,000 U.S.  

So with all the rarity, why aren't they worth top dollar today? A search of the internet seems to put the current value of a low mileage Cobra R at about $45,000. Sure, still a fair amount of money, but why so low? Why hasn't this car gone price crazy with the rest of the ultra rare models and be worth thousands more than sticker? (See previous article about the Solstice  Coupe which now sells above sticker) Sure, the dashboard of the Cobra R is basically unchanged from the stock mustang  (which means it sucks) and the deli slicer inspired rear spoiler is a bit over the top, but shouldn't there be collectors willing to pay top dollar for the chance to have one of the rarest of the Mustangs? 

My guess is that no one is paying attention to these yet. The Cobra R is not old enough, and therefore not cool enough, to be starting any bidding wars at a Barett-Jackson auction. The 2000 Cobra R still looks too modern to be cool as you are being outrun by a newer Coyote engined Mustang GT at the dragstrip, which could easily overpower it. 385 horsepower used to be a lot, but these days the Mustang V6 is probably almost as fast.

My guess is that the Cobra R will eventually be worth a lot of money. Just not yet. If I was looking for a car that was going to appreciate in value in the next 10 years, this would probably be a good choice. Plus, remember the sidepipes. You can never go wrong with sidepipes. (Unless you don't want to burn your legs)