Since the new BMW 1 Series escaped to the internet, the company has bombarded us with the official treatment, including the original 1 Series gallery with its 126 images, and now these additional pics and videos. BMW so far is being careful in its offering, with a sensible engine line-up that should provide enough variety and power for everyone purchasing the new model.

The video above is the fruit of the new marketing campaign that BMW launched. The “one origin, two originals” process was to find pairs of siblings and it’s designed to show what BMW describes as the two different styles of the new 1 Series, and its driving modes of Sport and Urban. The message is that the two modes satisfy different driving styles, and therefore personalities. More on that with another video after the jump.

Among these new 1 Series pics we also get the first glimpse of what will be a future BMW 1 Series M Sport Package (pics after the jump). As per tradition, it should involve some modifications to the suspension and chassis, but otherwise will mostly provide a little extra sporty grunt with some styling features.

Continue reading: BMW 1 Series more pics and videos

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Yesterday we looked at the Audi vs Mercedes and BMW in Germany battle, but today it’s time to take that focus overseas. Audi has two key markets in mind as it pursues its new quest to become the number one in luxury German car brands: China and the US car market. We’ve already seen how well it’s doing in China and with the kind of sales a company can make there, surely they’d be tempted to end the campaign on Chinese shores.

But the North American market is appealing in a traditional sense. Still a world power and part of the English speaking world, if you can’t make it America, you can’t make it anywhere. And the land of the free has been the weak link in Audi’s determined push to up its luxury credentials so far.

The company is now facing supply issues in the US, which it is trying to use to its advantage in a campaign that pokes fun at its competitors, too. The Audi vs Mercedes and BMW battle (and Lexus, too, this time), takes to America with the company stating that because more customers are switching to buying Audis, they just can’t keep up.

As Autoblog says, though, the “commercial may soon wind up being more accurate than it is funny”, with supplies down to just 27 days. After all, Audi is not exactly Ferrari where such limited supply and such high demand takes you into the total luxury stratosphere. Still if Audi is selling and customers are happy buying and waiting, they won’t be too concerned if Mercedes and BMW are shipping less thanks to them.

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This Lamborghini Aventador video has an apocalyptic theme - think Neverending Story but with more modern special effects. While the slogan is “a relentless force”, when I actually sit down down to think about it, I’m more astounded by the marketing force that a brand like Lamborghini has.

I watched this Aventador video as if I could actually afford to buy the car. And while these vehicles are the stuff of dreams - like the Ferrari 458 Italia, Bugatti Veyron and even more so the Pagani Huayra - you can’t have a car blog without posting this kind of stuff, regardless of the fact it won’t ever be part of our reality.

The new V12 from Lamborghini has the price tag to match the dream, with the Aventador price in Italy starting at €255,000 (excluding 20% IVA and other taxes). But the new car looks like it will improve the 2010 fortunes of the company, having already sold out for this year. We love the Aventador video because it’s just so appropriate for this car - extreme and exciting, with impressive special effects. It’s even suspenseful although we know nothing will really happen, being a car commercial and all.

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We love what Volkswagen is doing with its new 2012 Beetle car commercials. Here we see the first Volkswagen Beetle commercial take up the original Superbowl teaser video and get all masculine and mean. With the Black Betty soundtrack and some great animation of the beetle doing some sliding around the bends, we’re hoping the new “driver oriented” feel lives up to expectations.

There is likely to be a future Volkswagen Beetle R to help in that enterprise if the standard model doesn’t quite make it. If it makes it to production, it will probably use the 2.0-litre turbo engine of the Golf R and Scirocco R, and we can see that in this video, VW wants us to have fun. The unfortunate reputation of an oversized toy that the previous new Beetle model gained, is being firmly shoved into the background.

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Rosberg and Schumacher have that love-hate relationship which seems to go with so many Formula 1 teams and in other motorsports, too. The rivalry is being played up by Mercedes in a series of videos, with the first depicting a jovial competition over the size of champagne bottles.

This latest is a bit more bizarre, with Rosberg and Schumacher coming to the rescue of a pregnant woman about to give birth who must choose between the two to get to hospital. The videos are in contrast to the initial flop of the Mercedes Formula 1 season so we’ll see whether the company can’t save the day with these amusing videos at least.

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Forget your Porsche Cayenne and the Panamera - this funny car commercial shows just what an original Porsche coupé can do, from snow mobile to school bus (sort of). We’ll take it with a grain of salt because nothing bigger than a kid would probably fit in the back anyway, but we still love it as quirky celebration of the possible everyday driving characteristics of a Porsche 911 or Cayman. Leaving aside the not-so-everyday price, that is…. A website has also been dedicated to the idea at porscheeveryday.com.

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This car commercial focuses on the new Audi A6 chassis and its additional aluminium components. The new A6 has 20 percent aluminium than the previous model, and in using more of the lightweight material, weight has been decreased by about ten kilos. We sometimes wonder how important these things are to the final customer who actually buys the vehicle, but we like the special effects used in this video.

The Audi A6 is now available with two petrol engines: the V6 2.8 FSI and the V6 3.0 TFSI. The diesel range is extensive with the 2.0 TDI and the V6 3.0 TDI in two powersteps of 204 or 245 hp. The models comes with either front or all-wheel drive and with automatic or manual transmission. In the future we’ll see the new Audi A6 Hybrid and the A6 Avant expected by the end of this year.

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This funny car commercial uses a person substituting the sound effects his old car doesn’t have, to reveal what you can get with the Citroen C3. “Fancy a car loaded with specs?” is the closing slogan to highlight the parking assistant, power windows and car alarm you can get with the C3. Not a bad effort, and one we’ll remember so we guess it works.

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The 2011 Super Bowl is over, and so is America’s biggest advertising event. But for those European cars putting together a commercial this year, they just experienced the largest television viewing numbers in the US, ever. It is estimated that 111 million viewers tuned in from their homes to watch the American football game, and with possible numbers of people in bars and other locations watching as well, the reach of this event is expected to have been about 162.9 million people.

According to The Guardian that means that more than half the US population may have seen the car commercials produced by Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen; the latter getting our award for the best ad for its 2012 New Beetle commercial. It’s an expensive exercise for companies wanting their commercial aired. A 30-second Super Bowl spot is about $3million USD. That’s a record for this year, but if you’re battling for supremacy from Europe on the US car market, you might think it’s worth it.

Above is the Super Bowl commercial for Mercedes featuring the SLS AMG roadster and the song “oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz“. Below you can see Audi’s Scared Straight new luxury program and BMW’s diesel message to America. Some of them are ambitious, and some don’t quite hit the mark, but on the whole we’re happy to see some new campaigns and quirky advertising attempts. See the other European car ads at the 2011 Super Bowl after the jump.

Continue reading: European cars in Super Bowl advertising: Audi, Mercedes and BMW

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The new Volkswagen Beetle will be the star of the European advertising effort at the US Super Bowl event. We were hoping for an early release for the 2012 Beetle either over the weekend or at least some time in March, but it looks like Volkswagen will drag this one out to maximise interest (autumn is promised as the arrival date of the new Beetle). We got another teaser video instead, but we still like it.

We’ve previously spoken of the advertising phenomenon that is the Super Bowl, and for Europeans it’s a curious thing to look on at the new ads produced every year in this particular battle ground. We’ve nominated the 2012 Beetle advertising as the star because they’ve managed to produce a cute but cool car commercial that is likely to give the new Beetle that extra sports flavour it needs.

After the jump, you can also see the Super Bowl ad for the Volkswagen Passat. It takes on a cultural icon like Star Wars and makes what isn’t a bad video. We like it just for the father’s expression at the end. It’s clearly not in the same league as the Beetle commercial, but we can see that Volkswagen could be gaining ground on the US car market, and a Super Bowl advertising presence is more than essential.

Continue reading: 2012 Volkswagen Beetle star of Super Bowl: Europe in America

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This cute video of the Audi A4 TDIe uses the Tin Man song from the Wizard of Oz and a couple of robots to advertise the modern technology of this particular A4. We often find that Mercedes and sometimes BMW fall into the trap of the staid car commercial style, but Audi has managed to experiment with this one and has produced a family friendly, quirky effort. And after yesterday’s teaser video of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, we can’t wait to see what else the advertising merchants at the VAG group get up to.

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This first episode in a series of Aston Martin Rapide videos seems to have the purpose of introducing us to a kind of car movie/commercial in which the Rapide takes part in what looks like a secret agent mission. We don’t get what it’s all about and while we’ll always love the Rapide, it’s just as well it’s as good as it is because this video could be a little damaging, otherwise. Surely they could have come up with something different for the slogan “Time is precious. Share it wisely in the new four door Rapide.”

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