Articles by Karla Pincott

Most Australian drivers would agree the price of parking in our cities is getting out of hand -- has been for a while, in fact. But do we have anything that comes near this $1 million car park space in New York?And the sticker on the parking space comes with an extra whammy. To even get near it, you have to first shell out $39 million for an apartment in the building. The Greenwich Village, New York, luxury development is expected to go on sale later this year. The deal also demands extra maintenance fees for the space – which measures about 4 metres wide and 7 metres long. The 5-metre height means you could probably stack a couple of luxury vehicles on top of each other, which could be a saving.But you’d also save plenty if you just parked on the street and collected the tickets, according to a report in the New York Post, which calculated that the price for the carpark space would be equal to getting a $115 parking ticket every day for 24 years.If the $1m car space isn’t enough to tempt you, the report also listed a few of the apartment’s other features, including heat reflexology flooring, shower water infused with vitamin C and aloe, and “lighting patterns and air quality designed to provide its residents with a better night’s rest”. No doubt they’ll sleep easier knowing their car is safely tucked up too. 

The ultra-bling is in honour of the 65th anniversary of the Cannes Palme d'Or – Golden Palm – award that is the top of the podium at the annual celebrity-fest. Maybach, the now-dead Mercedes-Benz stablemate brand, went down the luxury accent road last year with diamonds on its cars – sadly doing nothing to camouflage their ungainly styling. Mercedes-Benz is also donating a gold-plated SL65 AMG to be auctioned during the festival’s annual fundraiser Cinema Against AIDS Gala being held tomorrow night.  

We’d love to have this to shame the selfish moron who jams his oversized SUV into our building's disabled zone, then skips away whistling smugly and swinging his briefcase. This video from Russia seems to show an app that allows you to publicly shame idiot and selfish parkers in your area. The process appears to allow you to photograph the offender’s number plate and upload the image to a database. The app then apparently buys geo-targeted advertising that hits all the web pages being served up in that area, and the ads can’t be dismissed until the receiver shares the selfish-parker photo on their social media. It means – if this works – that everybody who lives in your neighbourhood will know you’re a self-centred sociopath who thinks only of themselves. Like our disabled zone creep at 175 Liverpool St, Sydney. You reading this, mate? There are only two problems we can see. The so-called ‘app’ probably doesn’t stack up technically, and is more likely to be a video concocted as a joke. And selfish parking sociopaths feel no shame.  

The new unit is based on the one in the 1.6-litre Mini Cooper S, with twin-scroll turbocharger, direct fuel-injection and variable valve control. The turbocharger is tweaked for extra boost and the engine has been fitted with a new high-performance exhaust system – finished with twin stainless-steel tailpipes. Engine outputs are 155kW of power at 6000rpm, and 260Nm of torque from 1850-5500rpm, with 280Nm available for a few seconds on overboost between 2000-5200rpm. It will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission as standard, but there will still be the option of a six-speed automatic with a manumatic mode and shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Mini says the new engine gets a weight-saving aluminium block and bearing mounts, lighter crankshaft, reinforced pistons and a high-strength cylinder head. The manual transmission gets a fuel saving stop-start system, and the load on the electrical system is reduced by brake energy recapture with the alternator disengaging at high revs – combining to cut your fuel burn by about 500ml per 100km.  

The advertisement created by the Leo Burnett agency in Argentina hinges on diving -- literally -- into a giant cleavage. Developed as part of the campaign for Fiat's small Palio, the tagline is "The car for the best time of your life." Fiat apparently thinks the best time of a man's life will be when his girlfriend announces she's signed up for breast augmentation. The ad doesn't denigrate women, but viewers are bound to wonder how far you can go in objectifying them. And one thing's for sure, it certainly doesn't focus on the car -- which suggests that Fiat isn't confident of selling the Pialo on its own merits. Or of selling the car to women. It follows a string of recent ads from the Fiat brands that used the undeniably sexy Catrinel Menghia to promote the Abarth 500. The first Menghia appearance for the Abarth was full of double entrendes, another played on Charlie Sheen's house arrest, while a third for The Fast Show featured Menghia supposedlty at the wheel giving the Abarth a real caning. But has Fiat gone too far with this one, and is it likely to alienate female customers? The Leo Burnett agency in Sydney could not be reached for comment today. However, it's unlikely the ad would be screened on Australian television.  However, it's unlikely the ad will be screened on Australian television, says the director of corporate affairs for Australia’s Chrysler Group headquarters, who have just taken over responsibility for Fiat following the Italian and US companies merging. “I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll see that ad campaign here in Australia,” Fiat spokesperson Lenore Fletcher says. “Because we’ve just taken over we are having look at all the different marketing and advertising assets available around the world. “And there are some sensational assets that Fiat has out there. The ads with Catrinel Meghia and the ones with Charlie Sheen are fantastic. Fiat has a lot of quirky approaches – full of personality. However we are aware of the cultural mores of the Australian market, so it’s doubtful we would go with (the breast implant ad).” So, what do you think...is the ad sexy, or is it just plain sexist? Take our poll.  

The annual Super Bowl ad breaks very February are among the most-watched, most viral and most expensive in the world, with 2013’s 30-second spots selling for up to $3.8 million — a rise of 9 per cent over 2012’s $3.5m spots, and 59 per cent since 2001’s price of $2.2m. GM is the third-largest Super Bowl advertiser, behind Anheuser-Busch beer and Pepsi, and leads auto spend for the spots with a total of about $82 million over the past 10 years, despite sitting out the 2008-2010 games through the GFC and bankruptcy proceedings. It made a return in 2011 and a big impact this year with five ads, including one that took swipes at Ford and sparked an online flaming session between the two brands and their fans. The ad for Chevrolet’s Silverado pickup truck implied it would outlast a Ford – and that the Chevy trucks and their owners would be the only things to survive an apocalypse. The furore about the ad went well beyond the Super Bowl’s 111.3m record audience, reaching another 7.5m on Youtube and possibly double that in email and forum traffic. "We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply can't justify the expense," GM chief marketing officer Joel Ewanick said in a brief  media statement. If follows his marketing announcement early last week that GM would pull its $10m spend on paid Facebook advertising it deemed ineffective, but retain the remaining $30m it spends on marketing content on the social media site. The announcement, made just days before Facebook’s highly-publicised public stock offering on Friday, was seen as an early sign that GM is shaking up its advertising and marketing approaches, with more announcements possible as it streamlines and repositions its spend. The Detroit icon spent about $3.9 billion in global advertising in 2010, with $2.8b of that in the US and the remaining $1.1b scattered around more than 150 countries in which it does business.  

Among 21 patents for Apple published yesterday by the US Patent and Trademark Office is a remote control that clips to your steering wheel.It looks remarkably like the thumb-operated click wheel now made familiar by the former long reign of the Apple iPod – before the crown was taken by the iPhone (now looking nervously over its little shoulder at the iPad). The resemblance is probably the mark of a particular engineer who previously headed up design at legendary Frog Design in California, who have worked with Apple since the early days, according to a report on PatentlyApple.However the patent details the remote’s faceplate as being completely touch-sensitive rather than rotationally, as the click-wheel was. PatentlyApple believes the remote control patent will mainly be used to develop interfaces for portable media devices, which means applications could also be developed to control future iPads – and whatever else Apple has coming down their clever line. Say bye-bye to factory-fitted audio, satnavs and possibly even telematics.The only problem we can see with this part of Apple's grand plan is that the remote is bound to get in most people's way as they steer. From that, we believe the position on the outer part of the wheel will change before it gets to market. Stay tuned. But don't touch that dial. 

Australian experience seems to be a winner in the GM HQ ranks, with Alan Batey now moving up into a new-created role as GM's vice president of sales and service. Batey, who until yesterday was Chevrolet’s vice president of sales and service, followed Mark Reuss as chairman and managing director of Holden when Reuss transferred back to the US to take over product development in 2009, in part of a widespread restructure as GM worked through the impact of bankruptcy proceedings. Batey will now report directly to Reuss who oversees all GM North America operations. The move makes Batey, a 49-year-old Brit who has been Chevy's vice president of sales and service since spring of 2010, GM's top U.S. sales executive. He'll report to Mark Reuss, GM's president of North America. The new position means that the heads of GM four brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC – will now report to Batey instead of Reuss. The changes have possibly been sparked by a sales slump in GM and the overall US market, which dropped close to 18 per cent last month and is down nearly 20 per cent for the year. "GM is playing offense with an aggressive rollout of new cars, trucks and crossovers," Reuss said in statement about the changes. "Strengthening our US sales team will help take full advantage of these growth opportunities and continue delivering solid improvements in customer satisfaction, dealer profitability and resale value." And we’d like to think that if those four heads keep report their brands’ products are still flagging, Batey and Reuss both know there’s potential for some fresh metal here in Australia.  

Opinion was divided about the authenticity of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing’s alleged 380-degree tunnel-flip video that went viral in 2010. But we’re pretty sure about this one, performed by the ... err, Fahrradi Farfalla FFX. The creators of the Fahrradi Farfalla FFX, MT Racing, are clearly but affectionately taking a swipe at both the Mercedes-Benz tunnel flip and everything Ferrari has ever done. It’s not just how accurately they’ve channelled Ferrari design for their ‘car’ – which is really a four-wheel bicycle under that beautiful body. It’s the precision with which they spoof the overblown spin and manufactured gravitas of most supercar marketing porn. Some people will remember their Ferdinand GT3 RS – the tape-bodied pedal-powered construction MT Racing billed as the world’s slowest Porsche. And the Fahrradi (from the German word for bicycle) takes that several steps further, adding in a Burt Reynolds daredevil driver for the tunnel stunt, to a soundtrack of somebody making V12 vroom-vroom noises. The Fahrradi Farfalla FFX – created by Austrian artist Johannes Langeder -- is being exhibited at the Lentos Gallery in Linz, Austria. A somewhat convoluted artists’ statement on the car describes it as “a kind of clairvoyant anticipation of a vehicle that is not yet even on the market”. Not so far removed from most motor show concepts, then.  

The 38 ‘hacked’ petrol bowsers populating the Customs House forecourt at Circular Quay are an art exhibit mounted by Nissan to help the public get to know its coming Leaf plug-in sedan. Former Rogue Traders lead singer – and more recently dance show host -- Nathalie Bassingthwaighte opened the installation to the applause of fans. Standing in orderly ranks around a fountain constructed of old petrol hoses and nozzles, the bowsers have each been turned to other uses. One now fills helium balloons, others dispense bubbles, coffee, gumballs or red cordial, house a living fishtank or emit bird song – although the RSPCA will be happy to know the birds inside are not real. The public can vote for their favourite bowser, and one voter will win each of the 38. Artist James Dive – part of creative collective The Glue Society -- was commissioned by Nissan to develop the artworks. Dive is better known for works in Miami Pulse and New York Pulse contemporary art fairs, and Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney and Denmark. However there’s always been a strong conceptual approach in his unusual work. Pieces have included a full-sized house that rained on the inside, called I Wish You Hadn’t Asked; and a melting ice cream truck for Sculpture by the Sea. However this is the first time he’s worked with bowsers, he said. “We sourced them in a depot that seems to be where the old bowsers go – a bowser graveyard,” Dive says. “It was quite a process taking out the insides, and a challenge building some of the new functions into them. The hardest was the popcorn maker which kept churning out fresh popcorn all day. “Nissan gave me a clear brief, but freedom to create anything I wanted and they then related each of those works to a particular aspect of the Leaf electric plug-in car.” Bassingthwaighte will be among the first to own a Leaf in Australia, and says she sees the car as “the first realistic and positive step forward in finding an alternative to petrol”. “However not enough people realise that (the Nissan Leaf) is here and that they’re as good if not better than petrol cars,” she says. Bassingthwaighte believes the Leaf would suit the majority of Australian drivers, citing Nissan’s data that 80 per cent of us drive less than 80km per day. “Electric cars can now do 170km on a single charge.  For anyone interested in the latest innovation and finding an alternative for our kids’ future, this is the ultimate set of wheels,” she says. The installation will be displayed in Sydney until the weekend, and then heads to Melbourne for a stint in Federation Square on May 22-23. The Nissan Leaf arrives in June, with its launch coinciding with that of the documentary about the electric car’s global fight for acceptance, ‘The Revenge Of The Electric Car’.