ALL AUTOCARS

If you were one of the 30 Bimmerphiles to snag a 2011 Frozen Gray M3 Coupe last month, expect to fill out another round of paperwork before you take delivery of your new matte gray baby.

BMW is apparently requiring all owners to sign a “maintenance agreement” that insists the M3 is never polished or waxed, ran through an automatic car wash or even strongly rubbed. Additionally, BMW politely asks that you immediately remove bugs, bird droppings, tree sap and fuel spills with a soft sponge, and naturally, dealers are more than willing to sell you appropriate products for maintaining the matte finish.

According to enthusiast site Bimmerfest, BMW explicitly states the M3′s warranty won’t cover any damage due to owner neglect and it notes that all exterior repairs must be performed by a BMW-authorized shop. What’s more, if you don’t sign the agreement, no Frozen Grey M3 for you. That’s a lot of disclaimers. All of which could be easily solved for less if you simply went down to your local custom vinyl shop and wrapped your (decidedly less expensive) standard M3 in a 3M coating. But how do you put a price on exclusivity?

BMW Frozen Gray M3 paint a pain, owners must sign agreement about its care?

Ford Motor Company itself will auction off some vehicles itself, including eighteen concept cars built from 2000 to 2004. Among the notable vehicles on the list are the 2001 Lightning Rod Concept, the 2001 Forty Nine Concept, the 2003 Supercharged Thunderbird Concept and the 2004 Lincoln Mark X Concept. Our favorite? The Mustang GT-R Concept that made its debut at the 2004 New York Auto Show. Ford will donate the proceeds of the sale to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and The Children’s Center.

UAW picketing at Toyota dealers to start in CA and NY says King

The recently-crowned king of the United Auto Workers, President Bob King, has a monumental task before him: reverse the decades-long decline in UAW membership. To do that the UAW will likely need to make inroads at transplant automaker plants, and to accomplish this goal King promises to be more active in staging demonstrations than in the past, and an early target is Toyota and California. Automotive Newsreports that the UAW is organizing protests in front of several Toyota dealerships in the Golden State to draw attention to the recently closed NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA.

The facility, which was making the Toyota Corolla and Matrix until it was shuttered in April, was the only unionized facility producing Toyotas in North America. The closing of NUMMI, which happened in part because General Motors pulled out of its agreement with Toyota during its bankruptcy in 2009, left thousands of UAW workers without a job. Toyota has since sold the NUMMI facility to Tesla Motors, who will utilize only a portion of the plant and hire around 1,000 workers. Toyota did spring for a considerable severance packageof nearly $300 million for the laid-off workers when the plant closed.

Of course the group most upset about the upcoming protests is the American International Automobile Dealers Association. AIADA president Cody Lusk claims that the protests will only hurt small businesses that supply plenty of American jobs, adding
“An assault on America’s auto retail industry will only serve to highlight the disconnect between the UAW and reality.”

First Drive: 2011 Hyundai Sonata 2.0T brings turbo power to Main Street, America

We’ve watched with a sense of awe as Hyundai has gone from a discount also-ran brand into a genuine industry powerhouse in startlingly short order. But we’ve also long suspected that its vehicles have gained so much ground by being among the best values in their respective segments – not because they’ve necessarily been the best vehicles to drive. The addition of the Genesis Coupe may have served notice that Hyundai isn’t content to just be the industry’s value leader (see Battle of the Sixes), but the keystone draw of most of the brand’s offerings has remained their affordability. Which is not to suggest this is a bad thing – Hyundai’s steroidal growth speaks to the inherent soundness of its strategy. But as enthusiasts, we’ve been waiting for the company to not only out-value, but to categorically outsmart and outplay its rivals. With introduction of the 2011 Sonata, Hyundai appears to have done exactly that.

We admit that we weren’t sure whether the Sonata’s outré styling would play in that most milquetoast of markets: the family sedan segment. When the sheet was pulled on the 2011 model, it was as if Hyundai had strolled into a Sunday morning prayer breakfast with Kathy Griffin on its arm – we didn’t know exactly what was going to come of it, but we knew it was going to be fun to watch. Thankfully, the Sonata has proven to be far more than just a styling stunt. Packing big space, a rock-solid chassis, accomplished handling and unmatched power and fuel economy from its 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, the Sonata has gained widespread acceptance and acclaim in a historically conservative slice of the market.