See below the break for photos from our trip to the 2013 New York International Auto Show:

Photo: Flickr/Helionorio

A pretty embarrassing bug has surfaced in Apple’s latest version of Mac OS X, 10.8.2 Mountain Lion: typing “File:///” (without quotes) into nearly any app’s text fields causes the app to crash.

A report filed on Open Radar, the open-source community bug tracker for Apple products, details the problem, which appears to be related to OS X’s data detectors (which recognize dates, locations, and contact information in text fields).

The bug has been reproduced in TextEdit, Finder (in the search box), Spotlight search (temporarily knocks out menu bar), Safari (in address bar), iTunes (search box), Reminders (search box), Mail.app, Messages.app, and other apps, along with the Console.

Amusingly, the Crash Reporter itself crashes after an app crashes due to the bug.

Most concerning is that in some cases you can even cause other people’s Macs to crash– even reading a message containing “File:///” in Mail.app or Messages.app will crash the apps.  Retweeting a tweet with “File:///” in it will crash most OS X Twitter clients and, for instance, typing it into 37Signals’ popular Campfire service will crash Flint, an OS X Campfire client.

The few apps that don’t use the OS’ built-in data detectors (like BBedit) seem to be fine.

Some users have encountered apps that continuously crash, likely because they restore with the “File:///” text still in them from before.  For now, the temporary fix is to disable the feature by going to System Preferences -> Language & Text and unchecking both “Correct spelling automatically” and “Use symbol and text substitution.” This seems to work for most apps.

The bug does not affect older versions of OS X, like Snow Leopard and Lion.

One user jokingly tied the bug to Apple’s famous “reality distortion field“:

This is actually a feature. It allows you to shut down all applications before shutting down your Mac.

Source: Open Radar

Philips at CES: via nobihaya/Flickr

Philips Electronics announced today that it is exiting the consumer electronics industry, capping over 80 years in the space.  The Dutch firm was among the last large European consumer electronics manufacturers, after Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent made similar exits, and will now focus on its medical imaging and lighting businesses.

Philips found itself unable to compete effectively against Samsung, Sony, Apple, and the like, and will sell the remaining parts of its consumer electronics business to Japan’s Funai Electric Co. for an almost nominal price of $201.8 million.  Philips had been trying to cut its losses in consumer electronics for a few years, shuttering its mobile phone division and handing over its North American television business to Funai in 2008.  Funai will continue to sell audio, video, multimedia, and accessories under the Philips brand name going forward.

The Dutch firm was the world’s largest radio supplier before World War II, and its subsequent inventions included the audio cassette (1963), video cassette recorder (1972), and compact disc (1983).  For many years, however, Philips has had trouble translating its R&D prowess into consumer sales successes.  In the ’70s and 80s, the company lost the famous video cassette wars, as its VCR and Video 2000 standards fell to the Japanese standards of Betamax and VHS, which in turn fought to the death until VHS prevailed.

“Our consumer lifestyle business was margin dilutive to the group,” said Frans van Houten, Philips’ CEO, “so it was time to decide to move away from consumer electronics.  Since we have online entertainment, people do not buy Blu-ray and DVD players anymore,” Mr. Van Houten said.

Philips will now focus on products like hospital MRI scanners and LED light bulbs.  It will continue to make some consumer products, though, like coffeemakers and electric shavers.

Consumer electronics currently contributes a quarter of Philips’ revenues, with healthcare and lighting split at roughly 40:30.  Van Houten said that Philips is becoming more efficient, and is now introducing new products to market 40% more quickly than before.  Evidently not fast enough for consumer electronics, though.

Source: WSJ

New benchmark results suggest Intel may have a bright future in smartphones after all– and the first phone to show that is, appropriately, named YOLO. (though sadly it’s spelled “Yolo,” not “#YOLO”)

Low-end Android handsets in developing markets sell in the $70-200 range (without carrier subsidies).  They’re typically equipped with processors from Chinese manufacturers like MediaTek, Allwinner, or Rockchip — often with anemic ARM11 performance in tow.  Buyers wanting a smooth Android experience have to step up to more expensive phones.

Into this void stepped Intel, which announced its new Atom Z2420 processor at CES a few weeks ago.  Formerly codenamed “Lexington,” the mobile platform features a single-core 1.2 GHz CPU with HyperThreading (a lower-clocked version of the 1.6 GHz Z2460 Medfield / Penwell chip in the Xolo X900), PowerVR SGX540 graphics, Intel XMM 6265 HSPA+ 3G radio (a variant of the XMM 6260 adding dual-SIM support– important for developing markets), MicroSD support, FM radio, and even Intel’s Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, which can stream 1080p HD video to Wifi-connected TVs.  The chip supports up to 1.3 MP front and 5 MP rear cameras and can record and play back 1080p video.

As with Intel’s first smartphone processor, the new Lexington platform was accompanied by a “shipping quality” reference smartphone (“FFRD,” or Form Factor Reference Design) to help manufacturers get off the ground with its chip.  Safaricom of Kenya and Lava Mobile of India are bringing variants of this design to market, as is Acer.

Today we have the first benchmark results from the Safaricom phone, dubbed “Yolo,” and they’re quite surprising.  The 3.5″ HVGA (320×480) phone includes 512MB RAM, 4GB storage, 5 MP rear camera (no flash), MicroSD slot, and Android 4.0.4, and sells for 10,999 KES ($126).

Juuchini put the Yolo up against Samsung’s flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S III GT-I9300, packing an Eynos 4412 processor (quad-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex A9 with Mali-400MP graphics) and 1GB of RAM.  As the results show, Intel’s phone comes pretty close to matching the almost 5x more expensive S III:

Note: some versions of the Galaxy S3 (e.g. most of the U.S. versions) have a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor instead of the quad-core Exynos and will thus produce different benchmark results.

See here for a review of the Yolo.  The phone will hit India shortly as the Lava Xolo X500, retailing for Rs. 8,999 ($167).

Intel doesn’t appear to be targeting the U.S. market with this, which is unfortunate, as we think a Yolo with a higher-resolution (e.g. 800×480) screen could do well as an entry-level smartphone (think free-on-contract).  And maybe it’d sell even better if branded “#YOLO.”

Still, the Lexington platform’s performance in such a low-priced handset bodes well for Intel’s future in the smartphone industry.

Sources: Juuchini, TechWeez

The 2013 Dodge Dart is aimed at young buyers, many of whom may not have enough money to buy one.  The fix?  Crowdfund it.

On Sunday, Chrysler will launch the Dodge Dart Registry with a TV ad (video below) during the NFL NFC championship.  Powered by crowdfunding site RocketHub, the program lets buyers register to have friends and family donate towards their Dart purchase.  Contributors can sponsor individual parts, so dad can pitch in for the engine and grandma for the steering wheel.

Dodge’s marketing for the Dart has centered on its “New Rules” slogan.  ”Now, ‘New Rules’ transcends not only how we design, build and market a car, but redefines how consumers can purchase a new vehicle by mobilizing friends and family to help,” said Oliver Francois, Chief Marketing Officer at Chrysler.

Even if the program doesn’t upend the auto industry’s purchasing model or motivate hordes of people to start buying their family members Darts, Dodge’s main goal is get a social media and brand image boost among a generation that’s used to funding things on Kickstarter.

See Dodge’s TV ad for the Registry after the break.

Here’s the broader “New Rules” marketing campaign for the Dart:

Source: Dodge Dart Registry via The Car Connection

Nissan’s been working hard to cut costs on its Leaf EV, and now consumers will see some of the benefits.  With U.S. production of the revised 2013 Leaf ramping up, Nissan has announced a major price cut — the base price is down by $6,400 to $28,800 ($21,300 after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit).  That makes the Leaf the cheapest 5-seat EV sold in America (the Smart Electric Drive is cheaper, at $25,000, but it’s a 2-seater).

Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee factory builds the 2013 Leaf on the same line as the gas-powered Altima and Maxima sedans, and nearby plants produce both the Leaf’s motor and the lithium-ion cells for its battery pack.  Nissan can produce 150,000 Leafs and 200,000 batteries annually in Tennessee.

“With nearly 50,000 Leafs on the road globally, we are the leaders in zero emissions vehicles and our class-leading product just got better,” said Billy Hayes, Global Vice President of Leaf sales for Nissan. “From the very outset, Nissan has continuously advanced and refined the affordable zero emissions vehicle ownership experience. Now customers won’t have to pay a premium for owning a green car that’s really fun to drive, and that’s exciting.”

Nissan says the 2013 Leaf will have slightly more driving range than the 2012 model, due to better aerodynamics (drag coefficient cut from 0.29 to 0.28), regenerative braking, and energy management.  New options include 6.6 kW charger, leather seats, black upholstery, two new exterior colors, new alloy wheels, longer sun visors, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel.  The trip computer, which used to only show a bar graph for battery charge, now also gives a state-of-charge percentage.  The charging port door up front is now lighted and lockable, and Nissan has added a driver-selectable “B” driving mode to that increases regenerative braking.

The 2013 model retains the same powertrain: an 80 kW (107 HP), 187 lb-ft motor driving the front wheels.  The battery pack remains at 24 kWh, but the onboard charger has been moved from the trunk area to the hood, getting rid of a hump in the rear cargo floor.

The new base-model LEAF S ($28,800 MSRP) has an 3.6 kW onboard charger, push button Start, Bluetooth phone system, power door locks, CD/MP3 player, and a 12V power outlet.  No cruise control, though.

The LEAF SV ($31,820) adds cruise control, a 6.6 kW onboard charger, more efficient heating system, better sound system, 7″ LCD screen, GPS navigation system with CARWINGS telematics, and 16″ aluminum alloy wheels.  The 2013 SV is $3,380 cheaper than the 2012 model.

The top-end LEAF SL ($34,840) gets standard LED headlights, a 480V DC fast charge port, photovoltaic solar panel rear spoiler, leather seats, and redesigned 17″ alloy wheels — for $2,410 less than the 2012 SL.

The SV and SL get an optional AroundView monitor system, which uses cameras around the car to create a top-down view of the car’s surroundings, and a 7-speaker energy-efficient audio system from Bose.

Nissan will also continue its incentivized lease offers on the 2013 Leaf, starting with a three-year lease at $199 per month.

The new prices mean that the most expensive 2013 Leaf (SL, $34,840) is now cheaper than the cheapest 2012 model was (SV, $35,200)– and in California, which adds its own $2,500 EV tax credit on top of the $7,500 federal credit, the base Leaf S will cost just $18,800.

The 2013 Leaf should hit dealers by early February.

Source: Nissan

Mercedes-Benz just unveiled its new “four-door coupe,” the 2014 CLA-Class.  If the car’s baby-CLS looks are anything to go by, BMW’s 1-Series may have to watch its back.

The new compact sports sedan is based on the latest A-Class hatchback and shares the smaller car’s sleek styling and complex surfaces.  Most impressive of all is the CLA’s drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.23 (0.22 for the CLA 180 BlueEFFICIENCY edition for other markets), which makes the CLA the most aerodynamic car in production (the only car with a lower Cd was GM’s 1990s electric car, the EV1, at 0.195).  To achieve this, Mercedes engineers focused on underbody paneling, side-view mirrors, and aerodynamic wheels.

Mercedes will equip the CLA with a variety of engines: the CLA 180 gets a 1.6L I4 engine good for 122 HP / 147 lb-ft and 0-62 mph in 9.3 sec.  The CLA 250 packs a 2.0L engine, 211 HP / 258 lb-ft, and 0-62 mph in 6.7 sec.  For diesel fans, the CLA 220 CDI gets a 2.2L block that puts out 170 HP, pushing the car to 62 mph in 8.2 seconds.  Transission options will be a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and a 6-speed manual.  Mercedes will probably bring only the CLA 250 to America, with the automatic in tow.

Of course, the company’s in-house tuner, AMG, is working on a hopped-up version.  The CLA45 AMG packs a turbocharged version of the 2.0L I4, producing over 350 HP / 295 lb-ft.  That’s a lot of muscle for such a small car.

Inside the cockpit, you’ll find Mercedes’ latest COMAND infotainment system, which includes Garmin-powered navigation with real-time traffic and Google Street View imagery, internet radio, Facebook / Twitter support, real-time location sharing, and for iPhone users, Siri integration.  Among the options are ambient fiber-optic lighting and a large panoramic sunroof.  The car gets an array of hand-me-down safety features from the E-Class, such as drowsiness detection and radar-based collision prevention with adaptive brake assist.

Slotting in under the C-Class, the CLA is on track to hit U.S. dealers later this year, starting at around $30,000.

Star Wars fans may be dismayed to hear that the U.S. will not be building a Death Star after all.  The White House finally responded to a petition with nearly 35,000 signatures calling for a Death Star to be built for a “strong national defense” and job creation.

On Friday evening, the Obama administration announced that it had decided against building the spacecraft.  Paul Shawcross, head of the Science and Space Branch of the Office of Management and Budget, outlined why:

• The Death Star could cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000 to build, which might increase the deficit a bit
• The Obama administration does not support blowing up planets
• The Death Star has a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship

While a Dark Side spacecraft may be a few years away, Shawcross reminded readers of the U.S. participation in the International Space Station.

Read on after the break for the full White House response.

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO:  Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs – one wielding a laser – roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White Housescience fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

Source: White House

Navigating to maps.google.com on any Windows Phone 7 or 8 handset now redirects to Google’s homepage:

Google issued a response claiming that WP devices wouldn’t work because the Google Maps mobile site was only “optimized” for the WebKit browser engine used by Chrome and Safari, and not Internet Explorer [note: Gizmodo's assertion that the Google Maps mobile site has never worked on WP7/8 is incorrect]:

The mobile web version of Google Maps is optimized for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and Safari. However, since Internet Explorer is not a WebKit browser, Windows Phone devices are not able to access Google Maps for the mobile web.

This response is, however, problematic at best.  Read on after the break to see why.

1. Google is actively blocking Windows Phone handsets based on their user agent string

Web browsers identify themselves to websites via their user agent string, which includes information like the OS and browser name / version.  Google is specifically filtering for browsers that identify themselves as being Internet Explorer for Windows Phone, and redirecting them to the Google homepage instead of Google Maps.

To explore this further, we will use Google’s own Chrome browser (v23.0), running on Windows 8 Pro x64, and change its user agent string.

Navigating to maps.google.com gives the full desktop Google Maps site:

Next, we will change the user agent string.  To do this, pull up Chrome’s developer tools (either press Ctrl-Shift-I, or click the menu button -> Tools -> Developer tools), click the Settings button (a gear at the bottom-right), go to the Overrides tab, then check the User Agent box and select Android 4.0.2 — Galaxy Nexus.

This will automatically set the user agent string to:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/ICL53F) AppleWebKit/534.40 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.40

…as seen below:

Once you refresh the page, you’ll see the Google Maps mobile site:

Google Maps in Chrome set to Android User Agent String

Now let’s switch the user agent string to match a Windows Phone 8 device, in this case a Nokia Lumia 920.  Select Other… from the User Agent drop-down in Chrome developer tools, and paste the following into the textbox:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 920)

Refresh the page, and you’ll see that even Google’s own desktop Chrome browser gets redirected to Google’s homepage if it identifies itself as a Windows Phone:

Google Maps in Chrome set to WP8 User Agent String

IE10 in Windows Phone 8 offers a desktop rendering mode (via the settings menu), in which it loads sites in almost exactly same way that the desktop version of IE10 would in Windows 8/RT.  To make this happen, the browser identifies itself not as a Windows Phone, but as a full Windows RT PC.  The sole difference is the “WPDesktop” tacked on at the end:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch; WPDesktop)

First we will insert the normal Windows RT PC user agent string into Chrome:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch)

Navigating to maps.google.com, we get the desktop Google Maps site:

Google Maps in Chrome set to Windows RT User Agent String

When we add in WPDesktop at the end:

Google Maps in Chrome set to Windows Phone 8 IE10 Desktop Mode User Agent String

We still get the desktop site, which is not the case when actually using desktop mode on the phone.  This likely just means that Google is using more than just the user agent string to identify the browser.

Next we must address the possibility that Google blocks WP8 users from its maps because non-WebKit browsers are not capable of rendering its mobile maps site.

2. The Google Maps mobile site does work in non-WebKit browsers

Firefox, Opera, and even desktop IE10 (which has the same engine as IE10 on WP8!) can load the Google Maps mobile site (mostly) fine.

Here we’ll use IE10 (on Windows 8 Pro x64) to demonstrate.  By default we get the full desktop Maps site:

Google Maps in IE10 on Windows 8

Now let’s change the user agent string to the Android 4.0.2 string we used in Chrome above.  To do this, either hit the F12 key or click the settings (gear) button, then select F12 developer tools.  Click Tools -> Change user address string -> Custom.  Paste in the string from above, add a “friendly name” for it, then tap Add and Set, then reload the Google Maps site.

You’ll get the mobile maps site (albeit with differently-finished buttons up top):

Google Maps in IE10 on Windows 8 set to Android User Agent String

So Internet Explorer 10 is capable of handling both the desktop and mobile versions of the Maps site.

Firefox Mobile and Opera Mobile on Android are able to load the mobile Google Maps site.  If Google really were motivated by a desire to optimize its map site for each platform (and withdraw site access for a platform until an alternative’s ready), why is only the Windows Phone platform barred fro the service?

3. IE10 in Windows Phone 8 is fully capable of rendering Google Maps

Now let’s look specifically at the Internet Explorer 10 browser in Windows Phone 8.

While Windows Phones can’t access any US-based Google Maps site, there is one interesting side-note.  Google seems to have forgotten to block one scenario: accessing the Google Maps UK site through the phone’s desktop rendering option.

As a result, with desktop mode enabled (in browser settings), navigating to google.co.uk/maps yields the full Google Maps site:

Google Maps UK on WP8 IE10 Desktop Mode

The site is obviously not very touch-friendly on a phone-sized screen, but it appears to work fine.  The point is not that, absent the artificial blockage, the mobile Google Maps site would definitely work as-is on Windows Phone, but that the evidence seems to indicate that is likely the case.  Google’s explanation looks weak here.

4. It’d be quite hypocritical for Google to design its mobile maps site only for WebKit

Google paints itself as a champion of interoperable web standards, yet here it claims to have designed one of its core products specifically for one browser engine, incompatible with HTML5 standard-compliant browsers like IE10.  That’s the same behavior that Google (well, more so Mozilla with its Firefox browser) battled when much of the web had been designed specifically for Internet Explorer 6.

The advent of faster-moving standards was supposed to prevent this from happening again, not to enable the underdogs of yesterday to become the tyrants of today.

UPDATE (11/6/2013):

Facing scrutiny from around the web, Google has backed down.  In a statement to The Next Web, the company stated that Windows Phones had been blocked from Google Maps in a product decision that will be reversed:

We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users.

In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users.

Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users.

The statement makes no more sense than Google’s earlier response — there have been no “recent improvements to IE” that would suddenly make it more compatible with Google’s map site.  Windows Phone 8′s browser, Internet Explorer 10, was announced in April 2012, and has been shipping since the OS launched this fall.

We don’t expect Google will optimize its Maps site in any way for Windows Phone, but it has at least now committed to removing the redirect.

UPDATE 2 (11/15/2013):

Google appears to have finally removed the redirect, so Windows Phone 8 handsets can now access the Google Maps site.  In our brief testing, the site seems to work fine– it’s certainly not pretty and has some UI glitches, but at least it’s usable in a pinch.

In 2014, every Infiniti car will be renamed to start with “Q” — G37 will become Q50 — and every crossover/SUV will become “QX” – QX70 instead of FX50.

Auto journalists have mostly condemned the move, saying Infiniti is sacrificing years of work building brand recognition for each model.  But it’s actually a pretty good idea, because not only does Nissan’s luxury division lack model recall (how many people are M45-fanatics?), but it’s had trouble building a unique image for itself as a whole.  Some products are soft sedans targeting Lexus, others are sporty coupes with BMW in their gunsights, and of course their big SUVs target the likes of Mercedes, Cadillac, and Range Rover.

Now Infiniti will focus only on Audi, and the new names will shift the focus from “M45″ or “EX37″ to “Infiniti.”  It’s no different from Audi, which calls every car “A” and every crossover “Q.”  Stronger brands like Mercedes-Benz can afford to call their different models by different brand names (C, E, S, etc.), with the subsequent number indicating engine size / variant, but for Infiniti, it’s probably more important to build the mother brand.

Acura faced the same issue some years ago.  They used to have names for their cars — who doesn’t remember the Integra or Legend — but those names completely overshadowed the brand, hence the Legend’s successor being named RL, for instance.  Acura, though, has other problems to deal with– it still beats Audi and Infiniti in sales but has a muddled brand image and is losing its luxury edge on the product side (the ILX, for instance, is a barely disguised Civic).  They also have an unclear naming system– the MDX and RDX are SUVs, but RLX and ILX are sedans, with the TL sitting between them.

Sales-wise, Infiniti is already in the same range as Audi (about 100,000 per year in the U.S.), but Audi aspires to join the big leagues soon — Mercedes and BMW each sell roughly 200,000 per year in America — and has a more defined brand image than Infiniti.

Life can never be certain for Japanese luxury brands in America these days– even Lexus is looking to revamp its brand image to appeal to younger crowds.

Source: Jalopnik