Pickup Sales Fall in April

About a month ago pickup sales were at their highest point in recent memory even with gas passing four dollars a gallon in some places. As expected the trend did not last long and every brand save Toyota saw sales of their full size pickups fall compared to last month. Spurred by high demand for its V6 engines Ford's F-150 led all with 45,435 sales in April, while this was an improvement over a year ago it could not match the previous month's sales. In second place the Chevy Silverado posted its second worst month of the year and was fractionally worse compared to a year ago. Much like the Sierra the Dodge Ram struggled when compared to March but was able to improve upon 2010 sales by around four thousand units. The biggest surprise of the month was certainly the Toyota Tundra that continued to improve its sales for the fourth month this year as it closed its gap to the GMC Sierra. Click the chart below to see pickup sales over the course of this year.

Best Commercials of Superbowl XLV

Amongst the usual Bud Light and Doritos commercials, Superbowl XLV brought us a heavy dose of automotive commercials not seen in the past few years. The automotive commercials much like the rest of the ads were all over the place ranging from good to not so good to very much not good. So without a further ado here are the five best automotive commercials of Superbowl XLV.

Number 5: Chevrolet Silverado HD
In this ad the Chevrolet Silverado HD is the hero as it saves the day numerous times while demonstrating its heavy-duty capabilities.


Number 4: Chevrolet Camaro
This was the best of the many Chevrolet advertisements during the game. In this ad a couple of guys are in charge of making an ad for the Camaro, they end up with the Camaro being driven by several beautiful women with the last one being a teacher.


Number 3: Kia Optima
It's not every day that something actually lives up to its hype when the word Epic is envolved, but in this case the Kia Epic Ride commercial does quite well.


Number 2: Chrysler 200
In the second Eminem commercial of the night Chrysler does an excellent job of using Detroit imagery (and 8 Mile soundtrack) to portray Motown as a place that can build luxury auotmobiles. Perhaps they should have used the 300C though.


Numer 1: Volkswagen Passat
Volkswagen scores a win in the automotive category, and perhaps overall, with its pint-sized Darth Vader and plenty of "aww" factor.

The Dirtiest Cars for Sale Today

The current cars and trucks for sale in America are significantly cleaner than the vehicles sold in the past, emitting only fraction of the pollution of the old days. The vast majority of the models listed in the EPA Green Vehicle Guide have an EPA pollution score of at least 6. However, there are quite a few bad apples that don't fair nearly as well when it comes to pollution.

• The vast majority of "heavy duty" pickups and vans have EPA pollution score of 1, 2, or 3 out of 10 depending on configuration. (Ford F-250/350 and E-250/350 , Dodge Ram 2500/3500, Silverado 2500/3500 and Express 2500/3500, GMC Sierra 2500/3500 and Savana 2500/3500)
  
• The Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring with the 2.7 V6 have a score of 3 in all states except California and Northeast.
  
• The Lexus SC 430 has a score of 3 in the same states.
  
• Toyota Scion xD has a score of 3 in the same states.