What's Wrong With This Picture: Why These Ads, Indeed
It’s easy to tell when you’re spending too much time emailing people about cars: your GMail ads start looking like this. The Miata ad probably comes from our comparison test winner, and the Mustang GT ad might be from the Zeroth Place Mustang. Notice anything odd about the GT500 ad?
There are a few odd things, really: the incorrect power numbers for the car and the fact that, unlike the Mustang GT ad above it, this isn’t placed by Ford. It’s placed by Edumunds. Car and Driver‘s Facebook ad team has been doing similar stuff for a while: photos and text that look like advertising copy for an individual manufacturer but which redirect to the magazine’s website. The interesting thing from your humble author’s perspective is that, since it’s been well-demonstrated that “impressions”, not clicks, are the real purpose of the Google ads, companies like Edmunds and Car and Driver seem more than happy to help promote the products they are ostensibly reviewing.
In any event, we — meaning I — will be reviewing the new 2013 Shelby GT500, which actually has six hundred and fifty horsepower, not five hundred, very soon. East Coast TTAC readers who are interested in seeing what it feels like to reach speeds as high as 165mph around a racetrack are encouraged to contact us. Insofar as this could constitute promotion of Ford’s products, I will also bring a Boxster so you can see what it’s like to watch the CEL pop on at random intervals on-track.
As for the Honda CR-V ad? No idea. Turns out Google doesn’t know everything.
More by Jack Baruth
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Six hundred and fifty horsepower... that's just insane. And the $/hp ratio is 3x better than an FR-S. I predict Jack will fall in love with this car... until the 2nd braking zone by which time the front brakes will have reached temperatures high enough to advance the field of particle physics. That is, assuming the rear tires have lasted beyond the exit of the first corner. Looking further out, 2015 will see the introduction of an all new 1000hp camaro, and a 1014hp mustang. Following some unfortunate incidents involving instructors, over confident students and concrete, Trackdaze and most other HPDE organizers will place a mandatory limit of 600hp on any beginners wishing to take part in their events. This will be the beginning of the end as drag strips across the country then quadruple their entry fees to pay for worn pavement and barrier repairs. Wannabe races who can't quite meet the higher entry fees on top of their monthly car payments will be forced onto the street where the destruction results in the government banning any car over 200hp. During these events Honda buys Nissan after they complete the move of all their factories to China. In the confusion, all the Mazda factories get switched over to Kia Rio production. With no Mustang, Miata, or Hyundai Coupe to compete, Jack is forced to rate the FR-S as the 2016 track car of the year.
The whatever Mustang does indeed have 500hp. It just has even more at peak. Yawn. Edmunds Empowers You!
Where on the East Coast?
Edmunds is notorious for buying SEM right out from under their customers. If you search your hometown auto store, there's a good chance that Edmunds has bought the SEM rights for that dealer's name. Furthermore, SEM only charges per clickthrough-and the higher the competition for the keywords, the higher the price per clickthrough. Essentially, Edmunds is driving up the price of keywords for their own customers-the OEMs and the dealers. It's a hideously stupid business practice.