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Ahead of their official airing during Super Bowl XLIV, Hyundai has released two of its commercials. The first is called “10 Years/Favre” and is set 10 years in the future where a 50-year-old Favre (even more gray-haired than now) accepts the MVP award and contemplates retiring… again. With the words, “We don’t know what things will be like 10 years from now,” Hyundai points out that its powertrain warranty on your new Hyundai will still be around.

The second commercial, called “Paint” isn’t humorous, but highlights the all-new 2011 Sonata (its paint in particular) as a work of art. Hyundai also returns to its old gimmick of comparing its products to some rather high-end models, ending the clip with the words, “Better paint quality than a Mercedes CLS550.”

Both commercials are narrated by actor Jeff Bridges, who’s voice is rivaled only by Morgan Freeman.

See after the jump for both videos, as well as a few of Hyundai’s past Super Bowl ads.

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The sale of Saab to Spyker was delayed due to suspicions that one of the Dutch exotic car maker’s major shareholders had ties to the Russian mafia. According to a recent report by Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri, the Swedish security force Sapo investigated former Spyker shareholder Alexander Antonov and determined that there was “strong suspicion” of ties to organized crime.

That information was then relayed to the FBI, and on to the U.S. government, which essentially told General Motors to put a hold on the sale.

Not long after, Antonov and his investment firm Convers Group, sold back $4.6 million in shares to CEO Victor Muller, paving the way for a new bid, which was successful.

Neither General Motors, nor Spyker have made any official comment on the matter.

[Source: Dagens Industri via Fox News]

BMW is planning to bring two new small cars to market that will slot in under the current 1 Series, by 2014. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the first model is an electric city car (that BMW has already said is coming), which will use the electric motor shown in the ActiveE Concept (shown above) at the Detroit Auto Show. It is expected to be called the Megacity.

The second model is to be powered by a range of three-cylinder engines and a hybrid version is also a possibility. Interestingly, unlike other BMWs, this new small car is likely to be front-wheel drive. BMW is said to be looking at building a new front-drive platform in-house, but is also engaged in talks with other automakers to purchase a front drive platform from them, weighing both alternatives to see which is more cost effective. BMW has been rumored to be speaking with Toyota about using the iQ underpinnings.

With Audi set to unveil the new A1 premium small car at the Geneva Auto Show this year and Mercedes working on a whole line of new small car (including a new A-Class and B-Class) for 2013, BMW hopes to have its new premium city car ready to hit the market before 2014.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport]

With Saab having just been saved by Dutch automaker Spyker, the new Saab Spyker Automobiles company has confirmed that it will deliver a new 9-3 model to market in 2012. The current 9-3 has been in production since 2002, meaning that by the time the third-generation of Saab’s volume seller arrives, the current model will be 10 years old.

Saab has said the new 9-5 model will arrive in dealerships this Spring, replacing a model that has been on the market for over a decade. The 9-5 will be offered as both a sedan and wagon, and a 9-5X model is also coming. The 9-4X is due out in 2011.

Most surprising is the news that the automaker is looking at delivering a 9-1 model, as past reports have suggested Spyker didn’t want to take the Saab brand down-market. But with automakers like BMW and Audi already competing in the premium compact segment, Saab is reconsidering. Saab Spyker has said in an official press release that it intends to be an, ““independent, performance-orientated niche car company with an industry-leading environmental strategy,” that will compete directly with BMW and Audi.

Saab Spyker expects to return to profitability by 2012, an incredibly short time considering it hasn’t turned a profit in almost two decades.

[Source: AutoCar]

Honda is expecting that its new Insight hybrid won’t meet its sales target because it’s to small. That, at least, is the opinion of Honda Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo, who told Bloomberg, “I think we compromised too much on size in pursuing fuel efficiency.”

Honda had expected to sell as many as 200,000 units during the Insights first year on the market, but managed only 130,445 in 2009, with sales beginning in the automaker’s home market of Japan in February. Honda had expected the car to be a particular success in the U.S., where it had planned to sell 90,000 (almost half) of its Insights worldwide. Instead, Honda managed to move just 20,572 units.

Kondo also admitted that considering the how well the Fit has done in the marketplace and the prohibitive cost of making a hybrid version of the car, it might not look at building a hybrid Fit after all. “Our engineers are really struggling,” he said.

Interestingly, Kondo didn’t touch on the fact that it might not be the Insight’s size, but rather its fuel economy numbers (well, below those of Toyota’s Prius), that might be a contributing factor in the car’s unpopularity.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Easily the most talked about vehicle at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon was the G Sports FT-86 Concept. With the FT-86 already garnering its fair share of attention, the G-Sports model is a high-performance version of the concept, from a new performance division.

The G Sports or G’s division will essentially take parts from the looks-based Modelista line of products as well as from the TRD performance based line of products to create a full line of parts (and possibly even models). Toyota will also reportedly work with it’s Super GT race team, Gazoo Racing, to develop the cars. According to a report by Inside Line, customers will be able to choose different package “levels” depending on budget and how significant of a performance enhancement they are looking for.

The G-Sports FT-86 model shown in Tokyo featured plenty of light-weight carbon fiber body panels, new wheels and was rumored to even have a turbocharged and intercooled version of the Subaru-sourced boxer 4-cylinder expected in the production car.

Toyota has not said if the new G’s line of high-performance parts will be available outside Japan.

GALLERY: Toyota FT-86 G Sports

[Source: InsideLine]

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Ford and Monster Energy certainly are doing a great job of promoting the new Fiesta and Ken Block, but so far there hasn’t much else than hype to talk about. Ford’s Fiesta Pikes Peak cars were a disappointment and while Block has a great track record, nothing has come of the pairing yet.

Block has signed on with Ford to race a Fiesta rally car in the Rally America series this year and while he’s shown us what he can do, during some practice time in the video above, unfortunately he registered a DNF over the weekend during the first race of the season at the Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan.

First place in the Open class went to Block’s old team, Subaru Rally Team USA, with a WRX STi piloted by Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom. Second place went to the Rockstar Mitsubishi EVO X of Antoine L’Estage and  Nathalie Richard, while the third place on the podium was captured by William Bacon and Peter Watt in an EVO IX.

The next race of the series is the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood, February 26-27 in Salem, MO.

[Source: RallyAmerica]

Ford is looking to inject some lift into the middling Mercury brand with a new compact car, based on the Ford Focus. While it’s not clear if the model will be a version of the Focus, after all, Ford is planning a total of 10 Focus-based models for the U.S., it is the most likely.

“Certainly, one [variant] will be a Mercury,” said Lincoln-Mercury spokesman Mark Schirmer. “It’ll give us something to put into showrooms, and help energize the Mercury brand.”

Ford recently showed two of the 10 models at the Detroit Auto Show, with the Focus hatchback and sedan. A Focus-based Grand C-Max MPV is also expected later this year.

According to Automobile Magazine, the car is likely to be a Mercury-badged Focus, which makes considerable sense, as this one model could almost double Mercury sales. We can’t imagine a hatchback Mercury, but a version of the Focus sedan is most certainly a possibility.

We expect the model could arrive as early as the LA Auto Show at the end of this year.

[Source: Automobile]

Kia has been promoting its first entry into motorsports in the U.S. in a big way since the Korean automaker first introduced its Forte Koupe race car at the SEMA Show last year. Prior to the green flag at Daytona Speedway, kicking off the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season (formerly Koni Challenge), Kia was working hard to drum up excitement for its two-car effort. And why shouldn’t they, with the vehicles being built by Kinetic and the driver’s including such names as Andy Lally and Nic Jönsson in the #10 car.

Well, things didn’t go quite as Kia had planned with Lally and Jönsson completing just 25 laps for a dismal 31st place in the ST class. The No. 12 car of Trevor Hopwood and Adam Burrows, a duo which clinched the 2007 Grand Am ST class championship, placed significantly better in 19th, but hardly in the running with average speeds well below the front runners.

Kia’s commitment to Grand-Am and to racing isn’t likely to be discouraged by the results, however, as the Korean automaker plans to use motorsports to help build the brand into one that is seen as sporty and desirable – particularly by young males.

We’ll look to see more from the Kia team in the future with the next Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge taking place March 5-6 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

GALLERY: Kia Forte Koup Race Car

Official release after the jump:

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It appears as though the full list of 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee options and pricing has leaked onto the net via the folks at Jeep Garage. Unveiled at last year’s New York Auto Show, the truck is expected to be in dealerships later this year, with orders as early as June.

Pricing will start at $31,480 for a 4×2 Lardeo, while a top-level Overland 4×4 will run a more significant $45,770.

The base engine for the new Grand Cherokee will be Chrysler’s all-new Pentastar V6, making 280-hp and 260 ft-lbs of torque, 90 percent of which is available from 1800 rpm. In the Grand Cherokee, this amounts to an increase of 33 percent more power and 11 percent more torque than the outgoing V6 model.

Some standard and optional highlights include push-button ignition, bi-Xenon headlights, LED lights, power tilt and telescopic steering, Adaptive Speed Control and two different transfer cases.

Notably absent from the list is any mention of an SRT model.

Follow the link or see after the jump for all the detailed standard features, options and pricing.

[Source: Jeep Garage]

Full specifications after the jump:

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