Well, imagine that. People like cheap gas. Enough, in fact, that they're willing to line up in droves just for the privilege of filling up their tanks. As if you needed further proof of this unfailing truth, here are the pictures to prove it. As part of its new Hyundai Assurance Gas Lock promotion, the Korean automaker ran an unannounced campaign in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles where consumers could purchase gas for just $1.49 per gallon.

The catch? There was just one location in each cities where the program was in effect and the location was kept secret until an hour before the promotion began. In a nod to modern social media users, Hyundai sent the information to its Twitter followers (@hyundainews) just before local radio stations announced the promotion city-wide about an hour before it started. Predictably, a mad rush to each location ensued. Nice little PR stunt, no?

Click past the break for the press release and check out the images of the madness shot on location at the Horace Harding BP gas station in New York. Similar scenes were reported in Chicago and LA.

Suzuki is getting in on the free gas bandwagon that Hyundai kicked off this year by launching a "Free Gas for Summer" promotion on all SX4s sold between now and August 31st. Of course, it pays to read the fine print – what the purchaser really gets is a pre-paid credit card loaded up with $270 for the SX4 Sedan or $290 for the slightly less fuel efficient SX4 Crossover.

Whether or not this incentive is really "free gas for summer" depends on how much you plan to drive over the next three months or so. Still, it's a relatively pain-free way for Suzuki to advertise "Free Gas!" and it's still a few hundred bucks off the running costs of the car.

Along with the aforementioned sales promotion, Suzuki has also announced that it's offering $2,000 in customer cash off the price of any SX4 sold with a manual transmission, which we found to be a willing partner in eking out the most performance from the little runabout and much more desirable than the four-speed slushbox when we tested it last year.



Photos Copyright ©2008 Jeremy Korzeniewski / Weblogs, Inc.

General Motors needs to move Pontiacs and pickup trucks, and the bankrupt automaker is once again breaking out some serious incentives to alleviate dealer stocks. The General is offering 0% financing for 72 months for the Vibe, G3, G5, G6 and G8, giving prospective car buyers the chance to get into one of the last Pontiacs ever made. The "72 Hour Sale" oddly begins today and runs through Monday, July 6, which is more than 72 hours – even when excluding the 4th of July weekend.

GM is also using the sales event to move some of its slower-selling vehicles. The Chevrolet Impala, Silverado and Tahoe, as well as the GMC Sierra and Yukon will also have 72 month, 0% financing. Other vehicles will have 0% financing for 60 months, but they won't be part of the special 72 hour sale.

While we're not planning to run out to the local Pontiac store for a new G3, if you would have told us a year ago that we could get a 361 hp G8 GT for about $400 a month, we'd be pretty stoked. Hit the jump to scan the GM press release.

[Source: General Motors]

The Sixties really was a happier time – sleeping in the back of your car was such a fine thing to do that automakers even advertised their wares that were capable of accommodating their slumbering owners.

This 1961 commercial for the Saab's Ur-Sportcombi 95 – "Your new dream car" – has that going for it and so much more, including titchy cargo-area seats for the kids like the Tesla Model S. To see what life – and Saab – used to be like when "leech-like" handling was all the rage, follow the jump for to watch the video.

[Source: TurboNines]

Hyundai is piling on additional incentives to boost its Assurance program as the industry heads into the dog days of summer. The newest promotion, Gas Lock, fixes the price of regular unleaded at $1.49 per gallon for the next year. The program runs July 1 through August 31, and eligible vehicles include the Accent, Sonata, Tiburon, Elantra, Elantra Touring, Entourage, Azera, Santa Fe, Tucson and Veracruz. Customers choosing to utilize Gas Lock will forgo $1,000 in available rebates, making the incentive a gamble that gas prices will remain high.

Hyundai Assurance struck at cord with the American public when it offered payment protection in the event of job loss. Now Hyundai is looking to give consumers increased peace of mind over of the volatility of gas prices, which have swung from under $2 a gallon a few months ago to nearly $3 at the beginning of summer.

John Krafcik, CEO and president of Hyundai Motor America, says the company's research shows that "nearly 40% of potential new car buyers are staying out of the market specifically due to uncertainty around future gas prices."

You may remember that last year, Chrysler tried a similar promotion, offering the opportunity to lock in gas at $2.99 per gallon when a gallon of petrol was at an all-time high of about $4.50. The move didn't appear to be very successful for the Pentastar, as most opted to instead take the upfront cash on the hood. Hit the jump to pour over the particulars of Hyundai's Gas Lock promotion, watch the two commercials, and let us know in the comments section if you feel customers would be better off taking the $1,000 or one year of $1.49 gasoline.

[Source: Hyundai | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]

We've seen some pretty cool advertising in our time, but a new European marketing campaign from Fiat is surely one of the more memorable efforts from an automaker in recent memory. In an effort to underscore the safety of its diminutive 500 – both to its occupants and the animals we share our planet with – the Italian automaker has unleashed a new series of images depicting the retro hatchback in various crash test scenarios.

The interesting part comes from the car's occupants, which includes a panda bear, a walrus (goo goo g'joob) and a couple of penguins. Equally as clever is the tagline, "Engineered for a lower impact on the environment," after which the ad reminds the viewer that Fiat – with 133.7 grams of C02 per kilometer on average – is the brand with the lowest carbon emissions in all of Europe.



[Source: Fubiz.net via Jalopnik]

TBS will be airing The World's Funniest Commercials 2009 tonight (Friday, June 26) at 9/8c. We've joined forces with the team behind finding and collecting the most gut busting television advertisements in the world to share with you some of the funniest car commercials that aired this year.

We'll start with this one from a company called Hydro, the message of which is apparently to encourage young people to enter the field of engineering. Turns out, engineering can be a useful way to keep a group of bored little kids entertained in the summer, all at the expense of Dad and his 5 Series Touring. Follow the jump to watch the commercial and check out more funny adverts at veryfunnyads.com.

[Source: veryfunnyads.com]

Most of us take for granted the ability to enjoy driving cars. Whether it's with a clunker or a supercar, there is a wonderful freedom that comes with getting behind the wheel of an automobile. No one knows that more than Roger Keeney, a man from Athens, GA who lost his sight twenty years ago. As we reported earlier, Keeney caught Ford's attention with his application for the '10 Unleashed' program, and decided to fulfill his dream of driving a Mustang. Ford had the cameras rolling during the whole thing, and will be posting a series of videos on the 2010 Mustang web site. Both the trailer and chapter one have already been released, and we've embedded them after the jump.



[Source: Ford]

For the second installment of Ford's "The '10 Unleashed" contest, the Mustang is going to the drag strip. Last time, Ford gave a blind man the opportunity to drive, and this time around, a kid fresh out of high school is going up against one of his teachers in the quarter-mile. Derek Murrell just graduated from Lake Mary High School north of Orlando, Florida, a school where his auto shop teacher Bill Rosenblum apparently loved to share his drag racing exploits with his students.

Being a typical teenager, Murrell wanted to show up his elders and compete with Rosenbleum at the track. Since Ford is heavily promoting the 2010 Mustang in motorsports, the automaker decided to give him the chance to win a new Mustang GT. Of course, to to do that Murrell would have to do more than write a contest entry – he'd have to outrun a more experienced racer.

The teenage would-be racer had his first competitive run during the National Mustang Racing Association meet at Michigan's Milan Dragway. Luckily for us, the NMRA event took place concurrent with last week's Ford Racing Invitational, and we got to spend a few minutes chatting with Murrell. Check out the video of our interview with him after the jump.



Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.