Cars

Christmas day is literally three days away, and if you haven’t set up your Christmas trees yet, then you’re in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, there are ways to get a tree up and standing in your living rooms in no time. You can buy a plastic one in Walmart and set that one up, or you can go to a Lowe’s and get a natural one. If you decide on doing the latter, John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance has a suggestion on how to buy one quickly and transport it at 174 mph.

Some years ago Cadillac tied a Christmas tree to the roof of a CTS-V Wagon to perform a holiday burnout. Six years later, Hennessey Performance tied a tree to a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk to give us the world’s fastest Christmas tree. Sort of.

If you haven’t seen a Christmas tree run at 181 mph, this is the video you need to watch.

Toyota Motor Corporation has been slow to adopt electric vehicles (EVs). As a matter of fact, it was only a few weeks ago when the Japanese automaker decided to unveil a plethora of EVs. To make matters even more interesting, Toyota, along with Volkswagen, did not sign the Glasgow Declaration on Zero Emission Cars and Vans, which aims to put an end to fossil-fuel cars by 2040.

The automotive industry has evolved dramatically over the past 50 years. Modern cars are more practical, efficient, and comfortable, and come with better technology. As the cars evolved, so did the advertising industry. Gone are the day when automakers created prints and posters to promote their latest products, now being replaced by high-resolution video ads for massive television and internet campaigns. With Christmas being one of the most important celebrations of the year, it’s around this time that most companies launch expensive publicity stunts.

This has been the case since the early days of the automobile, but instead of computer-generated footage made with big budgets, car makers used print ads to bring customers into dealerships. It might seem old-fashioned nowadays, but some of these old ads were quite inspiring and attractive. Naturally, some weren’t very good, but that’s the beauty of marketing. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail with a bang. For this Christmas, I selected a few of the most interesting vintage car ads for a trip down the memory lane that goes as far as the 1930s.

Check them out below and let me know which ones you like the most in the comments box. Also, feel free to post the ads that you feel I should have included in this list. Have a merry automotive Christmas!

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The second-generation Tesla Roadster, which is supposed to hit the market by 2020, is still nowhere to be seen. It’s nearly the end of 2021, and Tesla apparently has removed pricing information on its website, along with stopping reservations for the Founders Series.

Christmas is all about being together with your family and friends, right? Well, here comes Lamborghini, showing us that the same applies to… cars. Come to think of it, Sant’Agata Bolognese’s family of models isn’t a big one, but Lamborghini has always been about more quality and less quantity. So to properly celebrate Christmas, Lamborghini set up a lifestyle-y convoy that’s been traveling around Italy to various points of interest, including the CO2-neutral Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters, the sinuous roads of Alto Adige, and Plan de Corones in the Dolomites, at altitudes of 2,275 meters (7,463 feet), and the AlpiNN restaurant run by Michelin three-starred chef Norbert Niederkofler.

The tour’s main stars were none other than Lamborghini’s V8, V-10, and V-12 powered go-fast machines: the Urus, the Huracan EVO, and the Aventador SVJ. What’s the reason to celebrate, you’re asking? Well, other than the holiday season, an unseen-before boost in sales and profitability for the carmaker. Driven by the Urus super-SUV’s popularity, Lamborghini delivered more than 8,000 cars worldwide, a hefty increase compared to the 5,750 units it shipped in 2018.

But, hey, we didn’t bring you here for boring sales reports and whatnot. You’re here to enjoy a fleet of mean performance cars flaunting their shapes and lines in some of Italy’s most stunning landscapes. Oh, yeah, the drivers weren’t afraid to take the cars out for a fun session in the snow; and if that’s not a proper way to look back on 2019 and reflect on what the new year might bring, we don’t know what is. Who knows, maybe the following pictures will inspire you and your mates to finally kick off that winter road trip you’ve been planning. After all, driving a Lambo is hot juicy fun, yet nothing beats a driving get-together between old friends, regardless of what car each of you use on a daily basis.

Everyone has that one car that means the world to them. Be that it is the first car you drove, the first car you bought with your own money, or the car you always dreamed of owning despite not having the money - there is always one that has a special place in your heart. But what if that car is even more special: what if that car was the car you bought for your wife a long time ago on that special Christmas? And what if life was hard on you and took your wife away from you?

Decorating the Christmas tree and then waiting for Santa to deliver his gifts can be hard for any kid out there. Hennessey however has another problem: it wants to know how fast can you deliver a Christmas tree in a 750 horsepower beast?

Remember the famous Christmas lights scene from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”? Well, the Griswolds reunited last year after two decades to reprise that scene, with the only change being the addition of a Ford Mustang Mach-E this time. Ford roped in Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo to play Clark Griswold and Ellen from the Christmas-themed movie. Do you the Griswolds managed to have a drama-free Christmas this time at least?

Just as Christmas is finally ready to descend on our weary but grateful souls, automakers left and right have been on a commercial rampage, touting their models in TVCs with the hope of getting some Youtube love. Mercedes-Benz isn’t immune to such strategies and the company proved as much by releasing the “Silent Night” commercial promoting the C350 e Plug-In Hybrid’s ability to balance its gas engine and electric motor.

The commercial starts off in a snowy landscape, capturing a downtrodden man pulling a recently cut-down Christmas tree. Before any of us can feel bad for the poor dude, the scene immediately shifts to the C 350 e Plug-In Hybrid speeding along and lugging its own tree, while rock music starts blaring. Care to guess where this is going? A few quality angles go by and the hybrid sedan passes a sign that says “Elektra”. Just as quickly, the music stops and the car goes eerily quiet as the lights go up in a surprisingly desolate Christmas village. This is Mercedes’ way of showcasing the aforementioned hybrid technology on the sedan, because as soon as the C 350 e Plug-In Hybrid exits the village, it roars back to life as it speeds past a rock band playing a rock version of “Silent Night”.

It’s not the best car commercial I’ve seen this holiday season, but for the purposes of getting its message across, I’d say that Mercedes accomplished that.

Note: This article was originally posted for Christmas 2015, but we stumbled across it in our archives and wanted to share it again. Enjoy!

Performance luxury sedans are the perfect middle ground for those seeking comfort, practicality and performance in a single package. And while we have gotten plenty of great examples like the BMW M5, Mercedes AMG GT63, Porsche Panamera, and others, there are those that came to us as concepts, but never delivered in the real world. Here are the most prominent culprits.