Nissan is promoting the 2012 Versa with some help from social media and comedian Adam Carolla. The My Versa Road Trip gives you the chance to create a virtual road trip for a chance to win a real one.

Earlier this week, Nissan launched a MyVersaRoadTrip.com, a Facebook Connect enabled website, where you can create your own road trip. Pick your own routes and a soundtrack to go along with it. While you’re at it, invite three Facebook friends to join you. Along with your road trip plan, tell Nissan why you should win a real road trip and share it with your social networks. The contest is on now until October 19, 2011.

Out of all the entries, six winners will be announced on November 14. They’ll win a 2012 Versa Sedan and take it on a 4 Day\3 night road trip with their friends. And as they take the trip, the winners will update the world on their progress via updates and photos on various social media platforms. There will also be stop-motion cameras inside and out of the Versas, and this footage will be used to create mini road-trip movies that will be submitted to an online film festival in January 2012.

Actor, comedian and TV personality Adam Carolla will also be joining in on the fun by taking his own road trip in a Versa. He’ll promote the contest by starring in a series of videos where he changes his name to ‘Adam Versa,’ heads to his hometown of North Hollywood and plays a “Hypothetical Road Trip Game.” But wait, there’s more! The September 21 episode of his podcast “The Adam Carolla Show,” will be changed to “The Adam Versa Show.” His guest will be Erich Marx, Nissan Director of Website and Social Media Marketing, and he’ll talk more about the My Versa Road Trip program, the 2012 Nissan Versa Sedan, and play the Hypothetical Road Trip game.

To enter the contest, go to MyVersaRoadTrip.com to plan your own road trip.

And while you’re being all social media-y, like AutoGuide on Facebook and follow us on Twitter too.

While not everyone is a fan of the new Chevrolet Camaro, it appears that it actually has more admirers than one would think.

Not only has it been the best selling sportscar for the last two years, it is now also the most popular car on Facebook. With a fan-base of 1.8-million, the Camaro , it has out numbered any other car on this social media site.

The site also proves that the new Camaro is attracting a younger crowd, as 60% of fans are between the ages of 18 and 34. With fans uploading photo’s of their Camaro’s, its community is getting bigger and stronger with time.

It will certainly get stronger still when later this year, Chevrolet will launch the Transformers Edition Camaro, and the powerhouse Camaro ZL1, which features a supercharged V8 capable of producing well over 550-hp. A muscle car with muscle, we like the sound of that.

[Source: egm CarTech]

Audi has a legion of dedicated fans. In fact, a recent Visibli study found that the auto brand has more engaged social media followers than even Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. That must mean these fans have quite a few stories to share about how the German luxury automaker gained their loyalty.

Audi wants to share these stories with the rest of the world and to do so the company launched the “Remarkable Audi Film” series. Each installment in the series focuses on real people who discuss what Audi means to them. There are no rehearsed scripts – Audi just turns on the camera and lets the story unfold.

In the first installment in the series, Audi talks with award-winning and Grammy-nominated recording artist Ryan Farish, who uses Audi to perfect his music. After burning his tracks on a CD, he listens to how they sound in his Audi TT. In the video below, you can see what happens when he takes the new Audi A8, outfitted with a 19-speaker, 1,400-watt Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System, out for a test drive. You can watch the video after the jump.

If you’ve got a story to tell, send it to remarkable@audi.com. You may be featured in the next installment of the Remarkable Audi Film series.

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BMW Financial Services has jumped on the social media bandwagon with both feet and has introduced a new social navigation mobile app called “The Ultimate Drive.” Created to give drivers a unique mobile and social experience, this app lets users submit their favorite routes and have them shared via other social platforms.

The idea of The Ultimate Drive is that drivers in over 50 countries can rank, comment and share roads and routes on Facebook, email and other GPS devices. Already thinking ahead, you’ll be able to use the app in the future, if you’re a BMW Financial Service customer, to access your points and garner high rankings.

“A social app succeeds when it forms a community of users with similar interests. A mobile app succeeds when it shrinks that large community into something local and familiar,” said Pawan Murthy, General Manager of Online Business for BMW Group Financial Services. “Within a few seconds of opening the app, ‘The Ultimate Drive’ connects you to driving enthusiasts who have discovered great roads in your neighborhood – roads you may have overlooked. Sharing that joy of discovery is why we are eager to launch this app to everyone.”

The Ultimate Drive prides itself in being simple to use – just download it, find your location and poof… you’ll get  the stretches of road that others have rated as the best ones in the area. If you want to contribute your own opinions on a road, just tap three times to share it via email or Facebook or send to your GPS device or app.

You can down The Ultimate Drive on iOS and Android devices for free from Apple’s App Store and the Android Marketplace.

Given the growth in social networking via Facebook; even automakers are now looking to change the way they provide customer service.

Nissan, which currently boasts more than 279,000 followers on its Facebook page and, according to Erich Marx, the company’s Director of Marketing and Communications, experienced faster growth in social media than any other OE automaker during the first half of 2011, is looking at taking a more pro-active approach in dealing with customer complaints, which might very well mean replacing traditional phone based customer service, with social media.

“There will be a day when people will go to Facebook as a preferred method,” he says. “We are already seeing that number doubling every quarter.”  He also went on to add, that ”based on what I’ve seen in 90 days, I realize that this is something we are going to have to deal with in the future. As opposed to operators or help desks just waiting for a customer to complain, we need to have a Facebook presence to solve issues before they get bigger, and take a more pro-active role in identifying consumer issues or question.”

When the change will happen, remains to be seen, for now Nissan will continue to use operators at 1-800 numbers to deal with customer complaints, though, given the public nature of Facebook and a need to deal with issues as soon as possible, a year or five years from now the scenario could be very different.

[Source: Autotrader]

Don’t keep your anger about bad drivers to yourself anymore. Let the world know how you feel about Mr. Never Signals Before He Changes Lanes on Driver-Ratings.com.

Here’s how it works: Head over to Drivers-Ratings.com and type in the offending driver’s licence plate number. Pick your province or state from the dropdown menu and hit enter. You can than see what other people have been saying about this driver. You can let them know if they are good or bad and leave a comment about their driving skills (or lack of). While you’re there, upload pictures of people who take up two parking spots or videos that showcase unsafe driving habits. Of course, you should enter all this information once you’ve parked (or else you may end up with a bad rating).

The point of this site is to reduce road rage and let drivers save their fury for the keyboard, as well as make fun of other people’s bad driving habits. Since it launched in beta two months ago, the site has received over 75,000 license plate ratings, and about 70 percent of those have been positive. For the ones that weren’t, here is a sample of a few of the funnier comments posted:

About a bad driver in California: “If your kid is an honor student, perhaps they can teach you how to drive.”

About a bad driver in Texas: “This person drives their car likes it’s a weapon”

About a naked driver in Washington: “We drove past him and I was like ‘Is that guy naked??’ and my roommate was like ‘No, he probably has shorts on’. Nope.”

Check out the site and start rating drivers at www.driver-ratings.com.

NASCAR is looking to target a younger, hipper crowd—one that’s into this Facebook thing.

And to do so they’re introducing a Facebook game, one that promises to be less annoying than Farmville, hopefully. Piggybacking off the successful Car Town, they’ve launched the slightly more cumbersome-sounding “NASCAR Pro Championship presented by Sprint” that will be featured on a joint partnership with Car Town’s developer, Cie Games.

Two different companies will be promoting the game with all of their marketing might. Turner Sports, which holds the rights to NASCAR.com, will air commercials on Turner Network Television. Sprint will promote it via their digital network and cell phones. Both promotions will coincide with the running of the Sprint Cup until November.

Car Town isn’t actually about racing, not if you can call pressing a few buttons to be a reasonable facsimile. It’s more aimed at completing some challenges, modifying your car, earning and spending points, and most importantly: bombarding your friends endlessly with requests. For that, NASCAR’s Facebook adventure seems like a win-win.

[Source: Scribbal]

Selling cars is kind of big business for Nissan. Taking advantage of social media to reach all those trendy kids these days is merely a part of that. And in the 20 years that marketing communications director Erich Marx has been at Nissan, he’s seen the changes in how people reach out to others, and how companies reach out to customers.

So here’s how not to hawk Altimas on Twitter: “It’s not about selling vehicles tomorrow, it’s not about a $179 lease on a Nissan car. It’s about building value so if we can offer our customers something that’s of interest or of value to them.” In an interview with Ad Age, Marx details some secrets (well, some of them seem pretty straightforward) of working in the social media biz.

On using social media, Marx says it’s not like getting information on cars from a website or magazine. You have to offer “a sneak peek or a behind the scenes glance,” says Marx, like a Q&A session with new Nissan NA boss Carlos Tavares that garnered over 385,000 hits. Performance cars are big too, says Marx, citing it as a “big opportunity” to pass along information at triple the amount of hits as other cars.

And when Marx started, executives were unsurprisingly resistant to the idea of computers: “the irony was that they had no interest in them and didn’t use them, some never turned them on. It was the kids like me who would sit at our bosses’ desks and teach them how to email. Computers were not pervasive in business—we used to hand-write memos. Now, here we are.”

[Source: Ad Age]

Awhile back, we told you about women in Saudi Arabia fighting against a law that states they aren’t allowed drive. We told you about Wajeha-Al-Huwaider, a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia, who decided to mark International Women’s Day in 2008 by shooting a video of herself driving and then posting it on YouTube.

Next was Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of King Abdullah, who wanted to lift the ban in order to send about 750,000 foreign drivers home. The government hasn’t changed their position on the issue, and this time, they are trying to silence Manal al-Sharif, who is campaigning for the rights of woman in her country.

According to the New York Times, Manal al-Sharif had posted videos of herself driving on YouTube, as well as started Facebook and Twitter accounts that encouraged other Saudi women to do the same. But the Saudi government has stepped in – they arrested Sharif, removed her videos from Youtube and deleted a Facebook account that instructed other women on how they could get involved in the movement. And someone even duplicated her Twitter account and posted messages that stated she had given up the cause.

But social media isn’t going to let a little thing like an oppressive government keep it down. Sharif’s message is still circulating on YouTube and an Al Jazeera report on her campaign is still available. You can check out the full report at The New York Times and watch the videos after the jump.

[Source: Autoblog]
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You’re not the only one who loves to let their friends know where they are via Foursquare. Now, Audi is in on the action and have they got some tips for all of their followers.

So what do you have to do? Just follow Audi on Foursquare and find out where some of the best driving roads in the country are located. That way, when you check in from wherever you are, they will let you know which roads you should check out that are near your location.

If you’re a Foursquare user, you know that it has a Tips section. This is where users let you know what they think of the coffee at that restaurant or if the subways are always late leave that particular station. In Audi’s case, they are tipping you off about where to drive and park. It’s a cool idea from the automaker, and their list of tips will start to grow very soon.

Here are a few examples:

AUDI AG

The beating heart of all things Audi. The factory tour is an absolute must — you’ll swear our robots have their own personality!

Golden Gate Bridge

It’s famous, and with good reason. Crossing the Golden Gate is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, no matter what you’re driving.

Highway 1 – Carmel / Big Sur

Go south from Monterey all the way down to Hearst Castle. Two lane. Cliffside. Sea and surf. White knuckles. Scenery so good for once it might be better to be the passenger.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

Proving the worth of social media (forums in particular), Saab has just hired on SaabsUnited.com forum founder Steven Wade. Swade, as he’s known on the forum and blog, will be in charge of the social media presence for the Swedish automaker as it searches to reinvent itself.

In a post on the SaabsUnited home page, Wade writes, “Saab has hired me to be involved, as part of a global team, in a sustained social media presence that will see Saab presented from an inside view, allowing you access to company events, key people and of course, the cars themselves – in a way that no bigger car company can do.”

And who better to do so than an unabashed Saab fanatic.

Wade’s efforts over the past tumultuous years for Saab have not gone unnoticed by Saab management, and as though the position itself didn’t speak to the value the automaker puts on what he’s done over the past several years, a letter from CEO Victor Muller certainly does.

“You have single handedly proven the importance social media has nowadays in situations like the one Saab went through,” writes Muller. “You became one of my most powerful allies in those trying times which now are fortunately behind us.”

With his new position, Wade has elected to sell-off SaabsUnited, although a buyer has not yet been named.

We spend a lot of time in our cars, so it makes sense that there should be a social media site that gives us the chance to socialize while sitting in traffic. Now you can meet and chat with other drivers using Bump.com.

Let’s just say you see a cutie in the next car over and you want to connect. Or the guy driving the SUV just cut you off and you want him to know just how you feel. If you’re registered with Bump.com and have downloaded the Bump iPhone app, all you have to do is take a picture of that person’s license plate. Then, you add a message to go along with the picture, like “You’re my soul mate, marry me” or “Dude, way to check your blind spot.”

However, the person you want to send the message to will only get it if they have claimed their license plate on the site and verified they are the car’s owner. A test message or email is sent to them and they can look up your identity page (anonymous messages aren’t allowed) and respond to your message.

Now, we know you’re thinking to yourself” “But isn’t texting and driving illegal and dangerous?” The folks at Bump have that all figured out. Using your iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, if Bump sees that you are moving more than five miles per hour, it won’t let you send a text message. But don’t worry, you can use a voice interface to speak the license plate and message instead.

[Source: Bump.com]

If you “like” electric vehicles, you’ll want to check out Ford‘s new electrified Facebook Fanpage. Dedicated to educate enthusiasts and curious consumers, fans will be able to find and share information about Ford’s electric vehicles.

If you’re already a fan of this page, you’ll know that it’s where Ford first revealed the information about the all-new Focus Electric. Now, you can use the page to discover what electric choices are available and how to make the switch to the electric lifestyle.

If you’re thinking about making the switch to a hybrid, plug-in hybrid or all-electric vehicle, the Ford Electrified Vehicle Facebook page is a great tool to use to help you understand the differences between electrified vehicle technologies. The page is also an outlet where fans can interact with Ford, post questions and leave comments about the company’s electric vehicles.

The page offers links to videos and photos of Ford’s electrified vehicles, and provides information about the powertrains in each vehicle. There are areas for discussion between fans, user polls, a place where fans can direct questions to Ford’s electric vehicles team, and a calendar for upcoming events.

“We’re committed to engaging in an ongoing dialogue with our fans in a way that provides value for the time they choose to spend with Ford online,” said Scott Monty, Ford digital and multimedia communications manager. “As we’ve proven with Fiesta Movement and the Explorer reveal on Facebook, it’s important to pay attention to what people are saying, and for us to be able to respond and provide a unique experience for them as well.”

To become a fan of Ford’s Electrified Vehicle, click here.

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A Canadian BMW dealership is offering what might very well be the world’s best job – especially if you’re a fan of BMWs. Endras BMW, located just outside Toronto, Canada is now accepting applications for a year-long social media position. The title: Ultimate Blogger.

To become the Ultimate Blogger, Endras is looking for a serious BMW nut. What the lucky individual will land is a $65,000 year-long contract, a one-year lease of a BMW and a condo in downtown Toronto, plus travel to international destinations. (In the past Endras has taken clients to the Nurburgring!)

As the Ultimate Blogger, this winning candidate will cover BMW news for the dealership, run the Facebook page, Twitter account and more.

There is, however, a catch. Considering the tremendous number of BMW fans that are certain to apply, getting the job won’t be easy and applicants will have to prove their worth using their social media skills. Entrants will be required to submit a 200 word statement proving just how ‘connected’ they are. The top 20 chosen will then have just 48 hours to shoot and produce a video highlighting their ‘obsession with performance.’ The top 10 videos with the most votes will then move on to the final interview stage.

Click here to enter by April 1st.

And yes, Endras BMW is accepting applications internationally.

See after the jump for a video on the Ultimate Blogger job:

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Audi wants Super Bowl fans to re-define luxury. To kick off Super Bowl week, they’ve taken their quest online using various social media outlets for fans to join the movement.

As of today, you can visit Facebook at audi.us/EstateSale and Twitter at http://audi.us/ProgressIs and RSVP to these social media contests that attempt to give old luxury the heave-ho and usher in a new generation of Progressive Luxury.

The Audi Progressive Luxury Trade-up contest on Twitter, which starts on Thursday, Feburary 3, lets you determine what is the most creative and compelling definition of Progressive Luxury. All you have to do is include the hashtag #ProgressIs and the http://audi.us/ProgressIs URL in your tweets, and you’ll be entered into the contest. If you make it to the top 10, you’ll win a virtual old luxury prize that can be traded in for a real Progressive Luxury prize. One lucky Tweeter will get an exhilarating R8 drive at the Audi sportscar experience in Sonoma, California, which includes a track driving program and exclusive weekend, as well at $25,000 to go to a charity on behalf of the grand prize winner. Starting today, users can visit http://audi.us/ProgressIs to RSVP in advance for the contest.  (Also interesting to note is that the #ProgressIs hashtag will make Super Bowl history by being the first time a brand has included a Twitter hashtag in its Super Bowl television advertisement.)

The Facebook fans can get in on the action too. Starting on Supper Bowl Sunday, the Audi Estate Sale Facebook experience wants you to tag old luxury items found within Audi’s Super Bowl spot “Release the Hounds.”  It’s another chance to win that Audi Sportscar Experience. To qualify, you need to complete the experience.

Typically, a product is reviewed and rated by a publication, whose staff, after testing and evaluating, will give their opinion on it. However, some might consider this opinion biased, either due to the writer’s personal taste or due to advertising dollars.

Nissan‘s luxury division Infiniti is now taking a different approach to the norm, becoming the first company to let consumers rate and review its products. Visitors to www.InfinitiUSA.com can currently read over 900 reviews posted by Infiniti customers on its seven different vehicles, and the number of reviews will only grow with time.

“The Infiniti ownership experience extends well beyond the driving experience of our owners and into their lifestyle, which includes peer-to-peer and social media channels,” said Ben Poore, vice president, Infiniti Business Unit. He adds that this “sharing of experience” will benefit those who are considering buying an Infiniti.

Bazaarvoice, a social commerce solutions service, will be working with Infiniti in developing content for their new site. So if you want to listen to what Infiniti customers actually have to say about their car, check out the new site.

Oh social media, what can’t you do? Not only do you entertain us and keep us up to date, you also fight crime in your spare time. The Seattle police department has announced that it will start tweeting information on stolen vehicles in hopes of cutting rising auto theft rates.

The stolen car tweets will publish the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate numbers on a Twitter account dubbed “Get your car back.”

The average number of cars stolen per day in the city has risen from 8.46 last year to 9.9 in 2010, and more than 3,000 were stolen through October.

The car’s information will be tweeted by employees at the police call center after it is reported stolen, and they are encouraging Twitter followers who spot stolen cars to call police but not to contact any occupants.

You can follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/getyourcarback and http://twitter.com/seattlepd.

[Source: MSN]

If you’ve just got to know everything about Jeep as it happens, you’re in luck! The first official blog of the Jeep brand launched Monday, November 29. Not only that, if you’re one of the first 25 to comment on the Jeep blog post entitled “Celebrating the Launch of the Jeep blog,”  you’ll receive two movie ticket vouchers to attend a film of your choice.

Venturing deeper  into the digital world, the new Jeep blog gives the company a great opportunity to connect the brand with its adventure seeking audience. With a purpose of sharing the culture and history of Jeep, the blog aims to give a new voice to fans and industry experts seeking more information about the brand. You can expect to be treated to exclusive content from designers, engineers and other key influencers that can’t be found anywhere else. The blog will showcase the latest news, consumer experiences, and will give consumer a place to voices ideas and opinions to Jeep.

Also on the blog, you’ll find instant links to Jeep’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Visistors can watch latest videos from Jeep’s YouTube page, check out the newest photos posted to Jeep’s Flickr gallery, read the latest tweets and even see Facebook updates – all without ever leaving the Jeep blog.

You can visit the Jeep blog at http://blog.jeep.com.

With over 300 horsepower, the Ford Mustang V6 is no longer confined to the role of rental car, like its less fortunate ancestors were. Even though it carries the stigma of “V6 pony car”, the Mustang with two fewer cylinders can move well, and Ford knows this.

For the upcoming “V6 Performance Package”, Ford is soliciting suggestions for a name that does justice to the capabilities of the 6-banger Stang. Ford will be leveraging its Facebook page for the Mustang, which has nearly 1 million face, for ideas, and will allow fans to vote for their favorite.

The creator of the winning name gets a 2 year lease on a Mustang V6 equipped with the Performance Package. Not a bad payout for flexing your mental muscle.

[Source: Ford via Motor Authority]

Honda is giving away a CR-Z via a Facebook promotion that asks contestants to upload a picture of themselves showing their “two  sides”, which we’re assuming has something to do with Photoshop and not any sort of personality disorder. The “two sides” moniker plays on the CR-Z’s sporty and hybrid elements.

Contestants will then be eligible to win a CR-Z once they’ve uploaded a picture, but there’s a catch of course – the contest is open only to Canadian residents.

[Source: Honda]

Think of the Klutch22 iPhone app as social media for your car.

This cool new app hooks you up to a web community via the iPhone that lets you search and find your favorite rides close to you. You can also log in your ride so others can find you. It’s a real-time car positioning system that shows you who’s driving what in your area. Users can create a ‘krew’ with others who share the same auto passion or simply search your dream cars around town.

It seems a little auto-stalkerish, but it you just have to know who is driving what at all times, this may be the app for you. You have to register before you can let others know what kind of car you’re riding around in, and you can even “like” other members’ rides. It is a great way to meet other car enthusiasts who share you passion for a particular car, but if you owned a really expensive ride, would you want everyone to know where it was at all times?

You can buy the app at iTunes or check out the Klutch22 site here.

What can’t social media hook its wagon onto? Now, you can hitchhike using social media, thanks to the folks at Mercedes/Smart parent company Daimler.

Ok, so it’s not hitchhiking in the literal sense – it’s carpooling (we just thought that hitchhiking sounded edgier) – and Daimler has put together a pilot carpooling project that mashes ride sharing with social media. Called Car2gether, this new service is an offshoot of Daimler’s car2go Smart-sharing program. The Car2gether service will, according to the company, show “how flexible and independent mobility can be achieved without car ownership.”

To get onboard with the program, users enter details about their upcoming journey using a smartphone or PC. Once all the info is inputted, the car2gether software makes a match. If a user wants to make a match themselves, the software automatically posts details of ride offers and requests on a microblogging site similar to Twitter.

In the start-up phase of the program, the software is free. Passengers using the service will have to pay for their ride, about 9.5 cents per minute to reimburse the driver for vehicle maintenance, gas, etc. Passengers will pay drivers in cash at first, but as the system progresses, Daimler will debut an automated, cashless payment program.

Car2gether starts on September 18 in the German city of Ulm, and if it gains popularity, it may expand to other cities.

[Source: Wired]

OnStar is set to evolve from a safety feature that assists drivers in distress, into an in car infotainment platform, as its latest iteration launches voice text messaging and Facebook integration.

OnStar is looking to re-brand itself under the “responsible connectivity” tagline, an ironic label in light of the fact that social networking while driving will likely lead to more distraction, as users will inevitably concentrate on making flippant Facebook statuses rather than keeping focused on the road and other drivers. The status updates, like the integrated text messaging feature, allows for voice-activated updates, and can allow for users to have their News Feed read back to them, something that could easily result in awkward moments if passengers are in the car.

One good feature are the pre-set text replies such as “I received your text message, but am currently driving”. However, we’re still skeptical about the integration of social media and driving, especially in light of how stigmatized performance driving is in the context of public safety.

[Source: GM]

Hit the jump to read the official press release

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Have you got talent or do you think you’ve got talent? Kia Motors America is looking for you to be the next big Internet star with their $10,000 Who’s Next? contest on YouTube.

An online video contest based around the Kia Soul, “Who’s Next” invites contestants to post their videos themed around the Soul on YouTube for a chance to win $10,000. Fan judging begins August 20, and runs through the end of September. Videos will be judged by YouTube celebrities SMOSH, ShayCarl and Lisa Nova, whose combined channels have more than 640 million video views and 2.62 million subscribers. You can watch the videos on the Kia Soul video channel on YouTube.

Out of all the entries submitted, only the top eight selected by the judges will be entered into a three-round voting process (two of these finalists will be picked by viewers). Once selected, the finalists will head to Los Angeles for the big $10,000 announcement.

Michael Sprague, Kia’s vice president of marketing and communications, said of the YouTube-based contest: “Social media is an important part of the marketing strategy for Soul, and engaging passionate enthusiasts in this space creates additional opportunities to build buzz through a new, interactive experience.”

[Source: Inside Line]