Rides : Mercedes Takes Lead in the US Luxury Market With January Sales

Mercedes-Benz January sales increased 11%, getting an edge over BMW in the US luxury car sales this year.

Mercedes said it sold 22,051 vehicles in January, thanks to its C-Class sedan, which saw an increase of 11% to 7,214 units. BMW reported sales up 0.7% last month to 16,513 units, due to an increase of 56% for its X5 SUV. Sales do not include the results of the Mini brand, Daimler’s cargo vans or the Smart cars. Toyota’s Lexus saw its sales rise 32% to 16,211 vehicles, led by the ES sedan, with 5,186 vehicles sold.
Mercedes and BMW are in a continuous race for the top spot as the biggest luxury- auto brand in the States, after they managed to outsell Lexus over the last two years. BMW managed to get the first place for the second time, thanks to a December sales surge, although Mercedes had the lead after November. Lexus remained on the third place, after it had held the crown for 11 years until 2011 when the natural disasters hit Asia.

“We’ve set another record this January and are breaking into 2013 at a strong sales pace,” Steve Cannon, CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, said in a statement.

Apple flips the switch on Black Friday sale, Macbook Air, Pro see modest discounts

Apple has just launched its annual Black Friday online sale, and, as you may expect, there isn't a whole lot to write home about. The company has slashed the prices of its MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac by a modest $100 for this year's 24-hour event, with the iPad 2 seeing a $41 reduction, and the iPod Touch getting slashed by a measly $21. Not exactly the kind of discounts you'd wait an entire year for, but they're there at the source link, nonetheless.

Cell Phones : Droid 3 on sale now at Verizon Wireless

Big news for Big Red-eyed fans -- the Droid 3's finally made its dual-core, 3G surfin' ways official at the carrier's retail outlets. You can pick this QWERTY slider up now for $199 on a two-year contract, or just go whole-hog and pay $459 with no strings attached. It's not the operator's top of the line offering, nor is it the increasingly mythical Bionic, but it should satisfy your Android needs.

Rides : Cheapest Bugatti Veyron for sale, just 89.000 dollars

The cheapest Bugatty Veyron in the world is on sale online with only 89.000 US dollars. And the main fact actually reveals a replica of the German supercar.

Exclusivity is everything for a class of people and the high expectations should be maintained by any cost. This is what this article is all about. Or about the fact the fanatism has no limits.
A 25 year old American is selling his replica of the famous Bugatti Veyron which he build from scratch, being based on a Ford Cougar. The price asked for the car is 89.000 US dollars, five times more than what the original “donor” use to worth.
Equipped with a 2.5 litre V6, the engine “walked” for more than 193.000 km and it is three time slower than the original Veyron at the 0 to 100 km/h sprint.
According to the owner, the transmission and wheelbase is standard Ford Cougar. The 25 year old American fitted his replica with a climate system, electric windows, central locking, while the audio system remains standard. The interior design is also inspired by a Veyron, with aluminum inserts.
A second-hand Bugatti Veyron costs more than 10 times compared to this replica so until you can call it a kitch or a masterpiece we will wish the owner “Good luck!” in selling it.

Cell Phones : Verizon breaks first day sales record with iPhone 4 pre-orders -- in only two hours

It took Verizon only two hours of having the iPhone 4 available for pre-order to break its all-time record for first day sales of a single device. That's in spite of the fact it only opened up pre-orders to its own subscribers and did so at the dead of night. To be clear, between 3AM and 5AM yesterday morning, more people ordered up the iPhone 4 than Verizon has been able to get through its doors on any full product launch day. Predictably, the carrier hasn't bothered to include the actual number of devices ordered up, but judging from the server issues it was having immediately after making the handset available and the subsequent shutdown of advance pre-orders, we'll go ahead and guess it was "a lot."

VERIZON WIRELESS HAS RECORD SALES ON FIRST DAY OF iPHONE 4

Available to General Public on Feb.10

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – At 8:10 p.m. EST yesterday, Verizon Wireless ceased online orders of iPhone 4 to existing customers and ended the most successful first day sales in the history of the company.

"This was an exciting day," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless. "In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer --- designed to reward them for their loyalty.

"I am proud of our employees who worked tirelessly to strengthen and scale our systems, enabling unprecedented customer orders through our website. Overall, it was a very good day," he added.

Mead also said customers will have another opportunity at being among the nation's first to own an iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network.

"Yesterday's launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America."

The general market launch of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network will occur on February 10. The company will open its more than 2000 Verizon Wireless Stores at 7 a.m. It will also be available at all Apple store locations, Best Buy, select Wal-Mart stores, and on-line at verizonwireless.com and apple.com.

Rides : Hyundai Sales End Year Up A Staggering 24% - December Sales Soar 33%

For the full year, Hyundai reported 538,228 sales, up 103,164 units from last year for a 24 percent gain and an all-time Hyundai sales and market share record for the year.

December retail sales were up 54 percent from last year due to improving product availability and a popular Hyundai Holiday marketing effort that helped increase traffic to Hyundai.com 120 percent over last year. Full year retail sales were up 35 percent. Fleet sales mix for the month of December was 7 percent, with fleet mix for the year at 16 percent.

"December was the capstone to a good year for Hyundai, with our total sales results actually understating the more important gains we made at retail, where we added a full point of market share," said John Krafcik, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor America. "While we grew total volume 24 percent, retail volume through our 800-strong dealer network climbed 35 percent, or 115,786 units, with 90,349 of that retail gain coming from the game-changing 2011 Sonata."

"That marks the biggest retail sales increase of any car in the entire industry, and it shows how well consumers have responded to our high-tech 4-cylinder lineup, dynamic new design, and the mid-size segment's first 5-star 2011 NHTSA crash test result," Krafcik added. "Improving Sonata Turbo availability, and the lithium-polymer battery-powered Sonata Hybrid that arrives later this month, should help Sonata find a few more buyers in 2011."

Elantra, Sonata

, and Tucson sales for December increased 127 percent, 52 percent, and 348 percent, respectively. The all-new 2011 Elantra, which achieves 40 miles per gallon in every variant, not just low-volume, extra-charge "Eco" or "Special Fuel Economy" models, found 4,724 homes in its first full month of availability. Hyundai has targeted leadership in sales of 40 mile-per-gallon vehicles in 2011, and closes the books in 2010 with 4,916 sales in this category.

Genesis continued its impressive growth with the 18th consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases. For the year, Genesis sales increased 33 percent, to 29,122. "The continued growth in Genesis sales shows how much the Hyundai brand has grown over the last two years," said John Krafcik. "Genesis market share has now exceeded our most optimistic early projections, and has set the stage well for continued growth in premium segments." Hyundai's all-new flagship Equus, with higher residual value than Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and Audi A8, began hitting showrooms in December to high demand and limited availability, resulting in 196 sales. Hyundai targets Equus sales volume of 2,000 to 3,000 in 2011.

'Michael' Jackson Album Ships 3 Million Globally in First Week

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Epic

A year and a half after his tragic death, Michael Jackson proves he's immortal. The King of Pop lived up to his name this week when his posthumous album 'Michael' became the No.1 selling album globally. In the U.S. the album sold 228,000 albums, and came in third on the Billboard 200, behind Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' and Susan Boyle's 'The Gift.'

Sony says they shipped three million copies of the album, which has gone on to reach platinum status, based on shipment numbers, in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Korea and the Middle East in its first week. Platinum certification varies in countries by sales and shipments.

Featuring guest spots from 50 Cent, Akon and Lenny Kravitz, the 10-track album has done well even though it was shunned by many of Michael's former collaborators. Quincy Jones, who produced many of Jackson's albums like 'Bad,' 'Thriller,' and 'Off the Wall,' said he believed Jackson would not have approved the album's released if he were still live. Will.i.am and Ne-Yo also renounced the decision of Sony and Jackson's estate to release the album.

The 2010 holiday shopping season has been raining Michael Jackson with new releases from the dead pop star being hurled at consumers across various platforms. Ubisoft released the dance video game 'Michael Jackson: The Experience,' while Sony amassed an encyclopedia of Jackson's music videos for the 3-disc DVD 'Michael Jackson's Vision.'

Rides - Camaro beats Mustang In Sales

Camaro beats Mustang

According to AutoBlog.com, it’s been a quarter-century since the last time Chevrolet’s reborn Camaro took down the Ford Mustang in sales but it’s on the verge of doing it now.

According to AutoWeek, the Bowtie Brigade has cleared 75,685 Camaro sales through the end of November, while the Blue Oval has shifted 68,264 units. Extrapolating the monthly sales totals to the end of December, AW estimates that Chevrolet will finish 2010 with around 82,500 sales, besting the Ford’s estimate of 74,500. Trailing the muscle car pack in sales is Dodge’s Challenger lineup, trending at around 36,000 units.

There has certainly been pent-up demand for the Camaro among consumers after its prolonged absence, but what’s even more impressive about its yearly sales total is that if the lead holds, the Chevy will have outsold the Ford and the Dodge with far fewer special editions and no convertible bodystyle like the Mustang. (A droptop Camaro is slated to go on sale next year, and a high-performance Z28 variant is also expected).