Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook and General Motors are bosom advertising buddies once more, with the car company returning to the social network to promote the Chevrolet Sonic, just short of a year after claiming it saw little return from ads on the site. The lure has been “newly available targeting and measurement capabilities on Facebook,” Chevrolet marketing VP Chris Perry told AdAge, and will see the GM model pushed through the latest “Find New Roads” campaign.

General Motors surprised the online industry back in May 2012 by ditching Facebook from its advertising strategy, using only free company profile pages for user-engagement. At the time, sources inside GM claimed that the firm had found paid Facebook promotions “had little impact on consumers” despite rumors of a $10m advertising spend.

In the intervening months, however, Facebook has refined its advertising systems, including introducing its FBX ad-exchange which can push targeted promos directly into the user’s timeline. Another improvement is how mobile adverts are displayed, something which appears to have ticked off some of GM’s requirements too.

“Today, Chevrolet is launching an industry-first, ‘mobile-only’ pilot campaign for the Chevrolet Sonic” Perry confirmed, describing Facebook’s role as being part of “testing a number of mobile-advertising solutions.”

Although GM cut off its advertising drip to Facebook last year, that didn’t stop negotiations between the companies. ”We’ve had an ongoing dialogue with GM over the last 12 months” a Facebook spokesperson confirmed, “and are pleased to have them back as an advertiser on Facebook.”

Still unclear is how much, exactly, General Motors will be spending on its Facebook campaigns. Last year, the car company was believed to have a $40m budget for the social site, only $10m of which actually went on paid advertising.

GM adds Facebook ads back to promo portfolio is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Chrysler may have just achieved a new record, but it isn’t one any manufacturer wants: 6 recalls in one day. The surprising number of recalls are over a wide spectrum of issues covering many thousands of vehicles, with problems including issues with fuel lines, airbag warning lights that aren’t supposed to be on, problems with brakes, and more.

Going down the list, first up is the 2007 and 2008 Dodge Nitro and Jeep Liberty, of which 78,500 were recalled over a faulty heat shield that could loosen and rub against the driveshaft, eventually causing it to fail. Most of these vehicles are located in the United States, with others being in Mexico and Canada. Then there’s the 2011 and 2012 Chrysler 300, Challenger, and Charger, 119,000 of which were recalled due to the airbag light coming on due to the incorrect wiring harness being used in some models.

The 2012 Jeep Compass and Patriot is also affected, with 30,000 vehicles being recalled over an issue with deformed fuel lines that cut off gas from the engine, leading to a stall. This issue has resulted in one reported accident, but no one was injured. Most of the vehicles being recalled are located in the US, with others in Canada and Mexico.

And rounding out the recalls is the 2013 Dodge Dart, with 52 vehicles being recalled over bad calipers, all but six of them being located in the US (the others are in Canada). The 2013 Dodge Ram truck has a recall of 9300 over a parking brake that may not work, and finally, approximately 7000 Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 diesel trucks were recalled due to problems with engine heat.

If you have one of the affected vehicles, you’ll receive a notification from Chrysler.

[via USA Today]

Chrysler rolls out 6 recalls over warning lights, fuel problems, and more is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Production for the new Chevrolet Impala officially kicked off earlier this month. Chevrolet is building its new flagship sedan and is set to ship the vehicles dealer showrooms this month. Traditionally, sales of the Chevrolet Impala haven’t been very strong with retail customers.

Previous versions of the Chevrolet Impala have predominantly been sold to fleet customers. In fact, Chevrolet says that 70% of 2013 Impala sales were sold to fleet customers. That means only 30% of the entire volume of 2013 Chevrolet Impalas sold went to retail customers. Fleet customers include things such as law enforcement agencies and rental fleets.

Chevrolet wants to change things significantly with the new 2014 Impala. Rather than selling 70% of its Impalas to fleet customers, Chevrolet wants to flip that and sell 70% of the new Impala to retail customers. Chevrolet has already announced a 36-month lease for the new 2014 Impala LT featuring a V-6 engine at $279 a month. That lease will require $2799 at signing.

Chevrolet is hoping to make the leasing option appealing because vehicle leases keep customers returning to dealer showrooms every few years. Chevrolet also expects the 2014 Impala to help it grow its full-size segment lead and take market share from other competitor’s including midsize vehicles, crossovers, luxury vehicles, and imports. Chevy also hopes the new Impala attracts a younger group of buyers and more professional buyers. Chevrolet says the retail buyers of the 2013 Impala are typically in the early 60s in nearly 2/3 are men.

[via Detroit News]

Chevrolet wants 70% of its new Impala sedans to be sold to retail customers is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Fisker, maker of the beautiful Karma hybrid luxury vehicle, had a rough time last year, reportedly having fire issues with some of its cars and then losing hundreds of them during Hurricane Sandy. On April 5, we reported that the company had laid off about 75-percent of its workforce in what seemed to be a last-ditch effort to pull out of bankruptcy. It has surfaced that the same day the layoffs took place, a lawsuit was filed against Fisker.

Fisker had a moderate 213 employees, 160 of whom it gave the boot with little warning last week, with the lawsuit stating that they should have received a 60 day written notice in advance by law. Because Fisker failed to do this, it is said to have violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and thus class-action status is being sought in the legal proceedings.

The lawsuit was initiated by Sven Etzelsberger, a former employee, via Outten & Golden of California. The lawsuit wants Fisker to pay up 60 days’ of wages/benefits for all who were let go. Fisker hasn’t replied to comment requests, and hasn’t said anything official about the lawsuit. Such a mandate would place additional financial strain on a company that is already on the verge of going under.

Like several other green initiatives, Fisker received tax-payer money via a federal program (Advanced Vehicle Technology Loan, in this case) to the tune of $529 million, of which it only got $193 million before the kibosh was put on the loan over failure to meet certain terms. Of that $193 million, the company is supposed to make its first loan payment this month.

[via USA Today]

Fisker Automotive hit with lawsuit due to last-minute layoffs is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve ever seen a Formula One pit stop, you’ll know that the pit crew can change all four tires on a Formula One car in just a few seconds. However, during the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Infiniti Red Bull Racing broke the world record for the fastest Formula One pit stop ever, changing all four tires in just 2.05 seconds.

Previously, McLaren held the world record for the fastest pit stop at 2.31 seconds, but Red Bull Racing says that they broke that record five times during the race, setting a new world record of 2.05 seconds during Mark Webber’s second pit stop on lap 19. In fact, the slowest pit stop for the team during the race was an insane 2.26 seconds.

Red Bull says they get these times from the car’s own data logs. Essentially, these data logs provide a more accurate account of pit stop times than TV stations estimates, and while the team sometimes uses those rough calculations, the more-accurate times come straight out of the race car’s data logs.

However, the sub-2-second pit stop is on every Formula One team’s mind right now, and as Red Bull puts it, there’s no “perfect” pit stop, and any racing team can do better. There’s always a quicker pit stop to be made, and Red Bull says that “it’s possible this season we’ll see the magical two-second barrier breached at some point.”

It’s pretty incredible how fast pit crews can change the tires on Formula One cars, but it makes sense. A Formula 1 pit crew consists of a lot of crew members, and usually there’s three crew members to a tire, meaning that one person is in charge of taking off and putting back on the tire nut with an air wrench, while another crew member takes the tire off and the other puts a new tire on. Teams practice pit stops religiously, to the point where changing tires is a science that requires ultimate precision and timing.

Formula One team breaks world record for fastest pit stop ever is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.