The person ultimately responsible for choosing colors for BMW cars, Sandy McGill, the other day attributed today’s popularity of white cars to the influence of Apple on consumers and designers.

Prior to Apple, white was associated with things like refrigerators or the tiles in your bathroom. Apple made white valuable.

McGill’s claims at first glance seem to be backed up by DuPont’s annual Color Popularity Report for 2011 that shows that 22% of new cars sold in the world were white, tied with silver. However, if you look at the historical data, white and lighter colors have been increasing in popularity for decades, long before Apple embraced white as their primary (no pun intended) design color.

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“A model poses beside a car by Beijing-Hyundai during the 15th Chengdu Motor Show (CDMS) in Chengdu City, southwest China’s Sichuan Province,” writes China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency under a spread that is long on long legged girls and short on cars.  Well, we aren’t Xinhua. Read More >

Predictions for August new car sales scale higher and higher as we approach release day this coming week.   Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expect sales to rise as high as 20 percent from a year ago.  Read More >

Nissan unveils its new Sentra tonight in Dallas as part of its new product onslaught. Objective: Regain market share in the U.S. The Sentra is “the third of five all-new vehicles being introduced in a 15-month period,” as the company is proud to say. Read More >

Reader Claude Dickson asks

I was watching Road Testament on YouTube and they were purported talking about the best fast cars to drive slow.  Most of their suggestions were ridiculous, but the question they asked is becoming increasingly relevant if the question is refined to what are the best high performance cars to drive at sane speeds on public roads. The point increasingly made by many of your reviews is that fast track times or better performance stats do not dictate a better road car.  A good example is your review of the new 911-superior in just about any performance metric you might select,- just not that much fun.   So B & B, which performance cars put a smile on your face while driving around town and which just don’t??? 

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TTAC has some great Mustang coverage coming your way in about a week, including multiple tests of two different Shelby GT500 models ranging from a 168-mph blast down the back straight of Virginia International Raceway to a pedestrian-frightening growl through the streets of downtown Toronto. We’re busy writing apology notes to Ford for the state of the tires on the VIR car — are those cords? — so in the meantime we’ll distract you with this question: What’s faster around a racetrack: a “drift car” or a “race car”? In this video, NASA regional director Chris Cobetto and awesome drift dude Vaughn Gittin, Jr. try to create some suspense out of a foregone conclusion. There’s a more exciting video — for road racers, anyway — after the jump.

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Turns out that Fiat wasn’t affected too bad by Serbia’s sudden cash crunch. As reported yesterday, the country is having a hard time coming up €90 million it owes Fiat towards a jointly owned car plant in Kragujevac. Fiat has a richer sugar daddy, and he lives in Brussels.  The European Investment Bank sees no reason not to continue disbursing its 500 million euro ($625 million) loan to Fiat, Reuters says. The loan is earmarked for the same plant. Read More >

The winners of Nissan’s GT Academy have been chosen. To nobody’s surprise in particular, their group photograph is completely unsuitable for this site. Turns out that the Internet is a little short on hot girls or street-wise African-American dudes who are totes into racing imaginary cars online. Oh well. Now, the shortlist of digital Sennas is off to try their hand at driving some real cars.

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The McLaren MP4-12C Spider, essentially an MP4-12C with a power-retractable roof, was revealed a couple of months ago and officially debuted at the Pebble Beach Concours two weeks ago. But, perhaps to amortize the cover’s cost, McLaren threw it back on the car for another unveiling this morning at AutoWeek Publisher KC Crain’s Vinsetta Garage restaurant. Overly generic? Or timelessly clean? You decide.

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Your humble author was charmed by the facelifted Kia Soul when I drove it last year. It’s a solid product, but its runaway popularity in the segment is at least partially due to a group of hamsters who rapped along to an old Black Sheep song.

After confronting robots with an LMFAO tune, the hamsters took a sabbatical — but they are back.

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Ford Ranger. Volkswagen Amarok. Toyota Hilux. Chevrolet…err…Holden Colorado. These are the mid-size pickups that are unavailable to us Americans, a once thriving segment now hollowed out by market economics and unfavorable CAFE regulations. But the crew at PickupTrucks.com managed to wrangle the four up in Australia, and pick a winner in the segment. Read all about it here. We won’t spoil the surprise.

Prius ownership in the Ukraine will jump by more than 400 percent. Not because Ukrainians are suddenly connecting with their greener self. The Ukraine police forces have ordered 1,220 of the Prius, says The Nikkei [sub]. Read More >

If a Pennsylvania company will get its say, Ford needs to equip its F150 truck with carburetors. Or, at the very least, with something else than its current fuel injection system. TMC Fuel Injection System LLC of Wayne, Pennsylvania, sued Ford for allegedly infringing a TMC patent, Reuters says. Read More >

Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn heaped salt into the open wounds of Europe’s embattled automakers. In light of the drooping demand, Europe could  perfectly manage with 10 fewer plants, Winterkorn said in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt.  However, don’t you’re your breath on Volkswagen shutting down any of its EU assembly lines. Volkswagen stand behind its European sites “without ifs and buts.” What about Sergio Marchionne’s accusations that Volkswagen is waging a brutal price war in Europe? Winterkorn: “Nonsense.” Read More >

Lost in all the hysteria which surrounds the VW Type 1 and its descendants is the fact that Dr. Porsche chose a rear-engined car at least partly for reasons of traction and mobility. The roads of post-Great War Europe weren’t all butter-smooth Autobahnen, you see.

Porsche’s marketing machine would have you believe that you need to buy a Cayenne to drive over a speedbump, but as you can see in this video, a 1983 911SC with some chunky tires can do the business. Check it out… but turn down the volume on your computer, the soundtrack is by “DISTURBD” or “STAIND” or some other group of no-talent djent-whackers.