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Forget advertising, incentives and, yes, even our excellently crafted vehicle reviews, sometimes the best way for automakers to sell cars is still good ol' fashioned word of mouth. In an attempt to measure this "word of mouth" power, The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, has created a new study called the Brand Advocacy Index (BAI). The index takes a look at how various industries perform from person to person. Those industries include automotive, smartphones, grocery, mobile telecommunications and banking.

The study polled more than 32,000 individuals across Europe and in the US to come up with the top 55 brands in these various industries. On the automotive side of things, the top brands in the US were Honda, Hyundai and Kia, all tied at 63 percent. On a global scale, Volkswagen and Toyota scored the highest with a 65-percent BAI rating (both in France). The average BAI for auto industry players tallied 50 percent.

As for companies in other industries, Apple's iPhone was the index's top-rated smartphone, Trader Joe's was the highest recommended grocery store, Virgin was sat atop the mobile telecom industry and USAA was the top retail bank. Scroll down for the full press release on the new study.

Some racing series are easier to understand than others, but to put it mildly, Formula One is not NASCAR. With 500 members of each team spending millions upon millions each year to gain an advantage, F1 is about as technically complex as rocket science. But if you thought you had managed to wrap your head around the way things work, think again, because the series is undergoing a major overhaul of its technical regulations for the 2014 season.

Of course, the biggest change is a switch from naturally aspirated 2.4-liter V8 engines to turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 powerplants, but that's not the sum total of the shift. The cars' hybrid component are set to play a bigger role, the aerodynamic regulations are changing, as are the exhaust system limitations and a whole mess of other details.

It's enough to make your head spin at 20,000 rpm. Fortunately the BBC has put together this handy little video interviewing the experts and breaking down the changes into layman's terms that even we can understand. Watch the handy three-and-a-half-minute video primer below to get yourself up to speed on next year's F1 regulations.

Ferrari tends to sell its models out extremely quickly – its wait lists are the stuff of legend. That's especially true when the cars in question are of the fastest or most exclusive variety. If new reports are to be believed, Maranello has already sold the entire 499-unit production run of its new LaFerrari hypercar, and now Australia's Motoring is claiming that Ferrari has also filled its order book for the entire first year's production run of its new 458 Speciale.

For those unfamiliar, the 458 Speciale follows in a proud line of hardcore mid-engined V8 Ferraris in the footsteps of the 360 Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia. It's lighter, more powerful and more aerodynamically advanced than the 458 Italia upon which it's based, and just trails half a second behind the more powerful F12 Berlinetta (and the aforementioned LaFerrari) as the third-quickest road car ever to lap the Italian automaker's Fiorano test track. That means it's quicker even than the 599 GTO and Enzo.

Although we've yet to receive official word, we're expecting a sticker price approaching $300,000 – about a quarter more than the 458 Italia. But that doesn't appear to have stopped Ferrari from raking in the orders. Check it out in our substantially updated image gallery above.

What do you do about a friend whose drinking and driving problem has reached epic – five-DUI-infractions epic – proportions? Well, if you're a self-professed YouTube "prankster" you might do something to scare him straight.

The subject of the video was allegedly completely passed out drunk, in his pickup truck, when his concerned, prank-pulling buddies scooped him up and deposited him in a staged hospital room for a little bit of tough love. We're not entirely convinced that the backstory is completely legit, but the ultimate scene and reaction from the mark is worth getting to.

Find the video below, and be sure to tell us if you think the Don't Drink and Drive Prank is authentic or staged in Comments.

We've got absolutely zero actual information from the automaker on what its "Next Lexus F" will be, other than what was just released today in this brief press release and lone teaser image, but our best guess is that it's the next-generation IS-F sedan. The timing would make sense, considering that the latest IS just hit the market earlier this year as a 2014 model.

Since we know so little, we'll just share some of the exuberant marketing speak contained in the press release for your reading pleasure:

Designed from the asphalt up, to strike at the heart, the newest Lexus F model will debut at the January 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Engineered from scratch, one performance layer at a time, the newest F model promises a bold, gritty, experience synonymous with the famed Lexus F heritage.

Pretty poetic, don't you think? Click on the image above to enlarge, and scroll down below to read the rest of the awfully brief press release in its entirety.

As the year of 1972 was drawing to a close, my father had finally saved up enough money to buy himself his first new car, and his heart was set on a Chevrolet Chevelle SS. And no wonder – the midsize Chevy Super Sport had earned a reputation for performance with rugged good looks to match. Its twin stripes and domed hood hid a 402-cubic-inch V8 engine (though Chevy still called it a 396, owing to that mill's muscle car heritage), and, though down on power from the horsepower heyday of 1970, it sent tons of American grunt to the rear wheels in the very best tire-melting fashion.

Then 1973 rolled around, and General Motors completely remade its midsize offerings, eschewing the chiseled good looks of past models for what many, including my father, thought was a bloated, squared-off design that didn't look very muscular. Good old Dad did the right thing – he bought a '73 Firebird, and thus became a Pontiac man for life. And that's how my family grew up with a long slew of Pontiac machinery that included a Grand Prix or three, several Trans Am models and a barn full of GTO convertibles in various states of repair and disrepair.

While the Pontiac nameplate has since ascended to the great automotive graveyard in the sky, there's a direct link between the old Chevelle of yesteryear through the last Pontiac GTO and its spiritual successor, the G8, and the brand-spankin'-new 2014 Chevy SS that is today's subject du jour. And, somewhat surprisingly, that link has long since left the United States, diverting its way through Australia instead. Allow us to explain.

If there were ever a reason for automakers like Audi and Volkswagen to get their "clean diesel" technology – or something even cleaner, i.e., zero-emission vehicles – on the road, this is it. Researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands say up to six percent of lung-cancer deaths in the US and UK could be caused by diesel exhaust. The researchers published a study in the Environmental Health Perspectives that found that people with occupational exposure to extensive diesel exhaust accounted for 4.8 percent of US and UK lung-cancer deaths, while 1.3 percent of the deaths were of people who lived near highways.

The study involved testing UK and US truckers and miners who were exposed to emissions from diesel engines produced between the 1970s and 1990s. Researchers said it was "unclear" if the results are applicable to more modern diesel engines but added that the findings were consistent with earlier studies, since this isn't the first time there has been an official link between diesel exhaust and cancer. The new Utrecht study also said that lifetime exposure to diesel exhaust causes as many as 689 extra lung cancer deaths for every 10,000 workers exposed, an additional 6.9 percent risk. Federal workplace standards state that any scenario where the death-risk rises 0.1 percent is considered notable.

The good news is that the study (read a synopsis below) says the number of "uncontrolled" older diesel engines in the US, Europe and Japan has dropped "substantially" in recent years. The problem is that as some engines get cleaner, other problems arise. Independent researchers at TUeV Nord in Germany recently found the advanced gasoline engines can emit 10 times more particulates and harmful carcinogens than today's new diesel engines. The new GDI engines are even worse than earlier gas engines, spewing up to 1,000 times the harmful emissions because of the higher-pressure cylinders. Given the strict emissions regulations in Europe and around the world, we expect GDI engines will soon get the same kind of regulatory scrutiny that diesel mills have had up until now.

Any car with a six-figure price tag is bound to be pretty exclusive, especially one as exotic as the McLaren 12C. But even among its elite class of buyers, there will always be those who want to differentiate their supercar from others. And for that, there's McLaren Special Operations.

The customization department at McLaren offers an array of personalization options for the 12C, and every once in a while, it's prone to display some of those options on a uniquely outfitted supercar. And this is the latest.

Called the MSO 12C Concept Car, this unique MP4-12C packs a new hood, front wings, rear vents, airbrake spoiler and a roof-mounted air scoop, all crafted from carbon fiber. The long list of extras also includes wheel bolts and filler caps for oil and water ade of titanium, and an interior packed with even more carbon fiber trim. It looks pretty sweet in Storm Trooper white and black, and you can check it out, inside and out, in the image gallery above.

Raising taxes in any democratic country is tricky business, but there are certain groups on which it's easier to raise taxes than others. Smokers, for example, have a hard time making an argument against raising taxes on cigarettes. As far as the working class is concerned, raising taxes on the rich is a no-brainer. And in Germany, they may find it easiest to levy taxes against non-Germans.

The issue in question revolves around placing a toll on the Autobahn, but one that would only apply to foreign citizens driving in Germany. And make no mistake about it, there are a lot of them. Germany has 2,330 miles of border with nine different countries, the residents of which often use the Autobahn – one of the first and most extensive networks of highways in Europe – to get around.

Germany is subsequently left footing the bill for infrastructure used by foreign residents who don't pay the taxes to keep it up, which is why it's now working to implement a toll on the highways. The plan is part of a coalition agreement between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and the Social Democrats with which she's working to form a government. While the exact logistics of its implementation still have to be worked out, the toll would apply to non-Germans while German citizens would be exempt.

The plan is drawing sharp criticism from within Germany and from without. The transport minister of neighboring Austria, an estimated 1.8 million of which use Germany's Autobahns regularly, is threatening to take Germany to the European Court of Justice over the matter. Meanwhile German auto club ADAC says the measure wouldn't even be enough to cover the cost of maintaining the infrastructure, raising questions as to its point.

You can't debate Audi's record in endurance racing. With 12 victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it comes second only to Porsche in the history books of the famous endurance race – only in Audi's case, all of those victories have come in the last 14 years, losing only twice: once to its partner team Bentley in 2003 and once to rival Peugeot in 2009. It's won the FIA World Endurance Championship in both of the seasons it's run so far, and has won championships in the European and American Le Mans Series, too.

That's quite a record to defend, and defend it Audi will with an evolved LMP1 racer next year. Only a week after tying up its second consecutive world championship, the German outfit is already back at Sebring this weekend testing the successor to the all-conquering R18 e-tron Quattro. Unfortunately as the new United SportsCar Championship doesn't include LMP1s, the only chance we may have to see it competing here in the United States will be at the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas in September.

Audi is keeping mum on the details for the time being, releasing only this one photo and promising to reveal further details before the end of the month, but we can already discern a more streamlined shape, revised aero and reprofiled headlamps among the changes from the outgoing R18. One way or another, with Toyota upping its game and Porsche returning to top-level competition next season, Audi may be in for its toughest challenge yet – but you can bet it won't take it lying down. Scope out the press release below and watch this space for more.

If you look at the stratospheric sticker prices on the latest generation of hypercars and wonder how an automaker could possibly justify it, bear in mind a few factoids. For one thing, even when the sticker prices start lower, they quickly balloon past the million-dollar mark. For another, automakers charge that much because they can, and don't seem to have much trouble selling them all.

Case in point: the new LaFerrari. While presenting the state-of-the-art supercar on CNBC, Ferrari North America CEO Marco Mattiacci revealed that all 499 examples that will be made of the hybrid hypercar – including those 120 earmarked for North America – have already been spoken for. This despite the $1.4 million asking price that makes it the most expensive Ferrari ever made.

Or the most expensive new Ferrari, we should say, because prices for the most collectable machines ever to roll out the gates at Maranello continue to rise. Figure you'll save a little and get LaFerrari's predecessor? Trading hands these days at prices approaching $2 million (around three times its original $660k MSRP), the Enzo is even more expensive. And that's just the scarlet tip of the iceberg.

A classic 250 LM recently sold at auction for $14 million, a 275 GTB/4 NART Spyder for $27.5 million and the most recent 250 GTO to have changed hands sold for a reputed $52 million. Heck, even a wrecked Dino 308 GT4 sold for a quarter million, which suddenly makes LaFerrari seem like a bargain. Shame they're all spoken for...

Volvo may be better known for turbo fives and inline fours, but in 2005 it launched the XC90 with a new eight-cylinder engine built for it by Yamaha. Fast forward to this past June when Volvo announced its intention to enter Australia's V8 Supercars series, where it would compete with the likes of Ford, Holden, Nissan and Mercedes-AMG. This is the engine with which it intends to do so.

Revealed this weekend at the Sydney 500, this competition-spec powerplant is based on the same B8444S that powered the XC90 and S80 (not to mention the Noble M600), but tuned for racing duty to be shoehorned into the new S60 touring car. The 60-degree aluminum block has been bored out from 4.4 liters to 5.0, its compression ratio boosted to 10:1, modified to run on E85 bio-ethanol and its redline increased to 7500 rpm. Volvo also promises a unique engine note from its new racers.

While Volvo and its racing partner Polestar haven't released official output numbers, regulations call for outputs between 620 and 650 horsepower – in any event, a whole lot more than the 311 hp it produces in stock form. (Noble managed to squeeze that much out of the same block, but that required twin turbochargers while this unit remains naturally aspirated.) Scope out the details in the press release below and the photos from the reveal in the gallery above.

Dodge is only building 500 examples of the black-and-blue Mopar '13 Dart, but the majority of them are now being recalled. Part of the Mopar upgrade included replacing the stock seat skins in the Dart with black and blue Katzkin leather, but the seat-mounted side airbags were reinstalled improperly during the upfitting process, which could affect the performance of the front seat side airbags.

According to the official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration bulletin, a total of 374 Mopar '13 cars are being recalled due to side airbags that might not deploy in a side-impact collision. There have been no reports of the airbags not going off, but Chrysler will still need to reinstall the bags to ensure proper deployment. The recall notice is posted below, which gives information for Mopar '13 owners to contact Chrysler and NHTSA.

Bringing two racing series together is good news for racing fans, whether it's the re-merger of the IndyCar and Champ Car series, the reconciliation between the FIA and the ACO to form the World Endurance Championship or the joining of forces between Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series.

The upcoming season brings the latter two together into the newly-created United SportsCar Championship, and has left the organizers with the challenge – and us the benefit – of bringing two similar yet different pillars of American sportscar racing into one series. And now they've announced some of what we can expect.

For the first season, 28 entries are lined up for the GT Daytona class (where you can expect to see privateer entries from the likes of Dempsey Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports) and another dozen in the GT Le Mans class (composed mostly of factory-backed teams from Aston Martin, Porsche and the new Corvette C7.R).

The twelve-car Prototype Challenge class is built exclusively around the Oreca FLM09, but the real action will be found in the top-tier Prototype class. That's where you can expect to find seventeen Daytona prototypes tangling with LMP2s and even the DeltaWing in what promises to be an automotive version of Mixed Martial Arts. Scope out the details in the pair of press releases below and start counting down the days until the season kicks off at Daytona in January.