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Starting this coming Saturday (Feb 9), Renault will kick off a new international ad campaign in which The Simpsons shill for the new Kangoo minivan. Three new print ads have been revealed, showing Homer & Co. making the most out of the vehicle's features. The fully-reclining seats are perfect for stealing the Christmas tree off the City Hall lawn; the seating arrangement is comfortable enough to replace the couch as the primary tv-watching location; and the overhead storage bins are ideal for hiding Homer's secret fast-food stash. The Roger Rabbit-esque campaign puts the Simpsons in our world, instead of creating an animated Kangoo for them to drive. Since we're not a Renault market, we won't be seeing these ads in our next round of buff books. No matter. You can check them out in the gallery below.
[Source: Renault]
Pontiac El Cami-"NO"
Spy Shots: Baby Cayenne caught on 'Ring!
First Peek: 2009 Dodge Ram R/T
Spy Shots: Corvette ZR1 attacking the Nurburgring
2008 International Engine of the Year awards announced...
Future Classic: 1984 Chrysler Minivans
Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy
First Drive: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen
Project Track Slut, Part One: Pick a weapon on the cheap
By the Numbers: April 2008
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chaz @ Feb 4th 2008 4:06PM
Don't like the new Twingo-nose here. Otherwise dig it, but would still take a Berlingo.
DKB_SATX @ Feb 4th 2008 4:36PM
I like the behemoth Dodge wagon in the background of the TV-watching ad.
compy386 @ Feb 4th 2008 4:37PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Homer_by_Carlos_Bisquertt.jpg
Mike @ Feb 4th 2008 5:21PM
The rest of the world gets Homer Simpson, but we don't get the rest of the world's cars. How fair is that?
John @ Feb 4th 2008 5:25PM
Kangoo - sounds like some type of waste fluid produced by a Kangaroo.
Jay @ Feb 4th 2008 7:52PM
And that Kangoo is a stick. God, we're such a nation of hopeless fatasses. See that, USA? In Europe, family haulers have manual transmissions! That means almost everybody can drive them! How bad do we suck?
Big Rocket @ Feb 4th 2008 10:03PM
A nation of hopeless fat asses? How bad do we suck? Keep your stick snobbery to yourself. The Enzo Ferrari, the Lamborghini Reventon, the Bugatti Veyron, Formula One racing, IndyCar racing, all use paddle shifters exclusively. Because that outdated piece of technology you call a manual transmission isn't good enough.
BLS @ Feb 4th 2008 9:43PM
Nissan and Renault are partners right? F them for not having this in the US now. I would totally buy one of those for my family.
Superprime @ Feb 5th 2008 8:09AM
The cars you mentioned do not have automatic transmission. DSG (or dual clutch) is really robotic manual transmission.
Jay @ Feb 4th 2008 11:58PM
"Stick snobbery?"
Are we jealous of something, "Big Rocket?"
Big Rocket @ Feb 5th 2008 12:27PM
No, I wouldn't be jealous of your outdated manual transmission that requires a foot-operated clutch pedal with excessively slow shift times. With your holier-than-thou attitude, I wanted to point out your ignorance in a car enthusiast's website, and remind you the best sports cars and the best race car drivers all do without your obsolete technology.
john riley @ Feb 5th 2008 7:06AM
I find the idea of Homer speaking French.... strange. Of course Bart speaks French as a result of being an exchange student.
calebe @ Feb 5th 2008 8:17AM
+1 Jay
mikey @ Feb 5th 2008 2:31PM
And Lisa speaks Italian...
mikey @ Feb 5th 2008 2:38PM
Big Rocket -
An 'Enthusiast' will take a stick shift any day, look at some stats and you'll see the manuals have faster 0-60 than the heavier, power-sapping auto equivalent. And then theres the matter of control, I like to change down before a corner, use engine braking to slow and then power through, the day they invent an auto box that can read the road ahead and act premtively, I'm interested.
Big Rocket @ Feb 5th 2008 5:46PM
A traditional manual (with a foot-operated clutch) is better than a traditional automatic (with fluid coupler) for performance-oriented driving, of course. But that's not really saying much. It says a lot more when the world's most prestigious sports cars and racing series have adopted the paddle shifter (with automated dual clutches) to the *exclusion* of the traditional manual. And that is why stick snobbery is not compatible with a well-informed car enthusiast.
Big Rocket @ Feb 6th 2008 12:34PM
DKB_SATX: Of course, in your world, the first person who uses language such as "nation of hopeless fatasses" is not spewing hate, but the second person who challenges the faulty assumptions of the first is the one spewing hate. Why don't you get a reality check? And when you do so, you might also want to rethink what you consider "the world's best sports cars", and remove "normal-production [Porsche] vehicles": the ones that get beat around the Nurburgring by a Nissan, which just happens to use a paddle shifter exclusively. Not to mention Enzo Ferraris, Lamborghini Reventons, and Bugatti Veyrons, which also use paddle shifters exclusively.
Not to spew any more "hate" at your direction, but whether a paddle shifter uses a single clutch or a double clutch, it is still much faster than the obsolete piece of technology which you so lovingly operate with your left foot. The fact that more paddle shifters are moving to a double clutch configuration will only serve to widen the already wide performance gap, and make stick snobbery all the more laughable to a real car enthusiast.
DKB_SATX @ Feb 5th 2008 9:14PM
Careful overselling the point you love to belabor, BigRocket. Few of them have dual clutches just yet. Ferrari's F1 is still a single-clutch system (though it's quite quick in its shifts and reportedly now isn't as harsh as the first few iterations were.) BMW has developed a dual-clutch transmission but I don't think they're selling it yet, it's still for an upcoming car or has been VERY recently introduced.
If you're going to be a stickler for correctness and spew hate at anyone promoting the fully-manual transmission, at least don't oversell the perfection and pervasiveness of dual-clutch automanuals, they're coming but they're not everywhere just yet.
Oh, and Porsche still uses manuals or torque-converter automatics in their normal-production vehicles. I don't know if you think Porsches are unworthy, but I'd rate them in the group of "the world's best sports cars."
DKB_SATX @ Feb 6th 2008 2:48PM
I did not condone the boorish comment about a "nation of fatasses" but, as dumb as it was, it wasn't directed in response to an individual's comment on here.
YOU are the one who lumped Ferrari into the dual-clutch crowd, and it simply is not. Fiat is working on dual-clutch technology for their more normal cars, so I'm sure Ferrari will eventually go there. You were wrong, they use a single clutch. I specifically said that it's quite quick and much improved over its earlier iterations, and didn't in fact say anything negative about your beloved automanuals, just the inaccuracy of your vitriolic, baiting comment.
I expected that you'd discount Porsche since they don't use your preferred technology. It's quite convenient that you choose as the "world's best sports cars" only those that fit your preconception. I realize that you can't be seen as compromising on this issue (hence you ignore or negate anything even slightly contradictory to your staunch party line, whatever the merits of another position might be.)
Big Rocket @ Feb 6th 2008 6:18PM
In response to DKB_SATX @ Feb 6th 2008 2:48PM:
Yes, the 4-year old Enzo Ferrari (2002-2004) only used a single-clutch paddle shifter. But the current Bugatti Veyron (2005-present) uses a dual-clutch paddle shifter. And many Formula One teams use dual-clutch paddle shifters (seamless shift gearboxes). And more importantly, none of this changes the fact that none of the above offers a foot-operated clutch, because single- or dual-clutch, a paddle shifter still outperforms a traditional manual in every performance measure. Which makes it highly irrelevant to nitpick on whether Ferrari uses a single-clutch or dual-clutch paddle shift system, especially when I never claimed Ferrari used a dual-clutch setup. But of course, all that nitpicking on your part was really just a red herring to distract attention from the deficiencies of your beloved, but obsolete, foot-operated clutch. In the end, whether you like them or not, facts are facts:
• The world's best sports cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti use the paddle-shifter to the exclusion of the obsolete foot-operated clutch.
• The world's best racers in Formula One and IndyCar use the paddle-shifter to the exclusion of the obsolete foot-operated clutch.
• The Nissan GT-R runs the Nurburgring faster than any Porsche in its price range, and it uses the paddle-shifter to the exclusion of the obsolete foot-operated clutch.