Tag: commercial time (Page 1 of 8)

This is the worst facelift ever! Pre-facelift (left) is an exciting car and post-facelift (right) is the blandest of the bland!

Be a dingo in this Mitsubishi Mirage Dingo! – Commercial Time

April 30, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

When I watched a compilation of 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage Dingo ads I thought it was quite strange. It wasn’t just the fact that the styling got bland after the facelift, but also the choice for the Dingo name. If you are unfamiliar with the dingo, a dingo is an Australian dog. So what’s so strange about naming a family car a Dingo then? Let me explain!

Why you shouldn’t use Dingo as a name

Goofy

First of all, there is a very famous dingo we all know and love. His name is Goofy and he’s Mickey’s best friend. The issue with Goofy is…well, he’s goofy! He’s not the brightest, he’s clumsy and he often messes up things. So naming your car a dingo might be a bit clumsy.

A dingo is a male cougar

The Mazda Capella Alain Delon version: for all you groomers out there!

Alain Delon debauchery in Japanese Mazda Capella ad? – Commercial Time

April 25, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I had two WTF?! moments in this Japanese Mazda Capella ad with French actor and playboy Alain Delon. One of them is the corny scene set in France. The second is the Alain Delon lunging at the girl on the rollerskates. Let me explain!

Alain Delon with his beloved Mazda Capella SG-X Extra CG

You can watch the whole ad here:

Is this Daihatsu Charade an absurd pretence?

What is it Daihatsu, Charade or Charaaydo or Chalayde? – Commercial time

April 8, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

The first generation Daihatsu Charade was released in 1977 and the three door hatchback featured a weird looking opera window in the C-pilar. Today’s commercial isn’t about that funny three door, but its larger five door hatchback.

The ad seems to to highlight the fact that the Charade is everything a Toyota Crown sized car can offer with its boot (or trunk for you Americans) cut off. Is it really that large? The literal definition of Charade is an absurd pretence intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance. So the Daihatsu Charade was meant to be something absurd which it actually isn’t? That sounds just about right when they pretended this Charade to be a Crown with its boot cut off!

What I found most confusing were the three ways of pronouncing Charade in this video. The first voice over pronounces it as the American charade (charayde), the female voice sings it as charaydo and the girl with the aviator glasses says “Yes, chalayde” with a thick Murican accent. So, what is it then?

Would you like some Meiju Saucer on your Honda City? – Commercial Time

February 27, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

This aero kit and Saucer wheels on the Honda City was developed in the early 1980s by a tuning shop called Motor Sports Meiju in the Kyoto prefecture in Japan. 40 years onwards, it looks strange and heavily dated. It looks crude and this is not how Aero evolved over the past 40 years. So what is it and who is this Keiji dude sitting with a wheel in his lap?

Motor Sports Meiju history

I guess I first have to explain what Motor Sports Meiju is. It all begins with the late racing driver Keiji Matsumoto (松本恵二). Matsumoto started his career in 1968 when he bought a used Toyota Corolla and, unbeknownst to his parents, he stripped off all unnecessary accessories and started practising on Suzuka Circuit and the Higashiyama route near his hometown of Kyoto. He debuted in 1969 in the T-1 class and worked his way up via FJ1300 to F2000, a precursor to the F2 class in 1976. In 1979 he managed to win the, by now renamed, F2 class. Shortly after this, he started his own tuning shop called Motor Sports Meiju. Matsumoto is a very well-known Japanese racing driver and featured in many Cabin Spirit ads.

Is this Nissan Cefiro A31 whaling the Japanese salaryman? – Commercial time

January 21, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

The 1988 Nissan Cefiro A31 was offered as a sporty four-door saloon alternative to the Toyota Cresta and Chaser competitors. It shared many components with the Skyline (R31), Laurel (C31) and Leopard (F31) of a similar generation. The drivetrain and rear multi-link setup were shared with all four of them and the front strut-based suspension with the Laurel. If you squint your eyes, you will also conclude it shares its design with the beautifully styled 1988 Nissan Silvia S13.

Nissan Cefiro A31 (top) looks like a Laurel C31 with a Silvia S13 (bottom) nosejob

So can we conclude the Nissan Cefiro A31 is just a Nissan Laurel C31 with a Silvia S13 nosejob? Perhaps it does. Judging from the various ads I found online it’s rather aimed towards the sportier image of the Silvia than the dull salaryman image of the Laurel. Most ads tend to highlight this. Most of them. Most of them except this one featuring a whale:

Commercial Time: Toyota Multi-valve engines

October 28, 2023 / banpei / 1 Comment

When Toyota introduced their multi-valve engines early 1980s, this was advanced technology from another era. No other manufacturer, except for Triumph, was sane enough to put a multi-valve engine into a consumer car. You could argue that Nissan did the same by placing the S20 engine in the KPGC10 and the Fairlady Z432R. However, there were only a few thousand of these engines built! So when Toyota hit the market with the 1G-GE, 4A-GE and 7M-GTE in the early 1980s, this was totally out of this world! This mid-1980s European Toyota multi-valve ad boasts about them: