- Hennessey has managed to get an SRT Grand Cherokee to 60MPH in 3.9 seconds

- Cars from New York City’s early 20th century tycoons to hit the auction

- Tesla continues its fight versus the car dealer

- Are there cars for ladies and cars for dudes?

- The new rules for the Sprint All-Star Race

The movie is supposed to be based on a true story, but it’s filled with so many absurdities, reporters have questioned Bay’s depiction. In a notable scene deemed false, Dwayne Johnson’s character is grilling the hands, on a charcoal grill, of a murdered porn-tycoon and his girlfriend to disguise their identity. For further coverage, check out this report here, here or even here. Decide for yourself, but one thing remains true – the cars in the film are outlandish and over-the-top in true Michael Bay form.

In the two hour film, the three dim-witted body builders find themselves behind the steering wheels of some of the most exotic and expensive cars of the late 80′s and early 90′s. Here are some of the cars that make appearances in the movie.

Pontiac Fiero Formula

Before Daniel Lugo made it big time as a criminal, he drove a 1988 Pontiac Fiero Formula. The Fiero, much like its owner Lugo, was a car with big aspirations and both were gunning for the champagne taste on a beer budget.

Lamborghini Diablo SE30

Porn mogul Frank Griga played by Micahel Rispoli, owns the incredibly unique and rare Lamborghini Diablo SE30. Only 150 SE30 models were built to celebrate Lamborghini’s 30th anniversary in 1994. Lugo is seen driving the Diablo near the climax of the movie as the world he extorted comes crashing down around him.

Plymouth Prowler

Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne Johnson, buys a purple Plymouth Prowler with his cut of Kershaw’s money. There was some oversight by the filmmakers because the movie is set in 1994 and 1995, but the first Plymouth Prowler didn’t actually hit the streets until 1997. Paying close attention during the film reveals similar oversights like the 2000-era Crown Vic taxis and late model Mustangs.

BMW 7-Series (E32)

Victor Kershaw’s 7-Series BMW faces a sad fate in Pain & Gain. In an attempt to kill Kershaw, the three kidnappers force him behind the wheel of his Bimmer and drive it in a bulldozer. This plan fails so they decide burning him alive in the car is the next best option. The kidnappers don’t lock him in the car and even after the Bimmer explodes, Kershaw is able to walk out. Kershaw lives. The car doesn’t.

Porsche 911 Turbo (Type 930)

Lugo is seen driving a Porsche 930 AKA 911 Turbo slantnose. The car likely belonged to Kershaw because the car was so rare in America that it had to be specially ordered and likely took some time to be delivered. What makes the 930 slantnose so unique is, fittingly, the nose because other Porsche 930′s at the time were built with rounded headlights that protruded out from the hood. Example.

Lincoln Town Car

Ed Harris plays a private eye named Ed Du Bois, III. Du Bois drives a Lincoln Town Car much to his wife’s chagrin. She calls it an “old man’s car.” This particular Town Car is 218.9 inches long (18 feet) which, to add some color, is only about four inches shorter than the eleventh generation (2003-2008) Ford F150 SuperCab.

Other posts you might like:
- Cars in the movie Drive
- Cars in the movie Jack Reacher
- Cars in the movie The Place Beyond the Pines

Written by Max Katsarelas

Photo credits: Cloud9Classics, LamborghiniW, CarWallpapers, Edmunds, Movie Poster

Dealers will sometimes look at their CRM and tell us they want more leads. I’ve tried to explain it’s all about the quality of lead, but it wasn’t until Digital Dealer 14 that I was able to point to specific reasons why. Thanks to Kevine Frye’s presentation, I can now prove why quality over quantity matters so much.

Kevin Frye (@KevinFrye1) is the eCommerce Director at Wyler Automotive Group and he gave a terrific presentation at Digital Dealer debunking many of the myths that are pervasive in the dealer world. He touched on a topic that we spend a lot of time discussing here at Mojo Motors with our dealer partners – the cost and return on investment (ROI) of leads.

Kevin pointed out that when most dealers calculate the ROI of the leads they buy, they almost always leave out a critical variable – the cost of labor. When you factor in the cost of labor, the ROI changes significantly.

Take the following examples with these key assumptions:

Cost per Lead: $25
Gross per Sale: $1,000
Closing Rate: 5%

Let’s say Awesome Automotive buys 100 leads for $2,500. Of those 100 leads they close 5 of them for a gross of $5,000. Here’s the simplest way of calculating ROI.

ROI = (gross-cost)/cost

So in this example:

ROI = ($5,000 – $2,500) / $2,500

ROI = 100%

This looks great but what Kevin pointed out is that this equation doesn’t factor in the cost of labor. What about the 95 leads that didn’t close? This was a huge waste of time and time costs money when you’re paying a staff.

Instead of simply calculating the cost of the leads that Awesome Automotive bought, we need to factor in the cost of the staff’s time. Kevin says that we need to attach a labor cost for each lead and he uses a cost of $30 per lead. Here’s the adjusted cost formula.

Adjusted Cost = Lead Cost + (Number of Leads * (Labor Cost per Lead * (1 – Closing Rate)))

So now, here is the adjusted cost.

Adjusted Cost = $2,500 + ($30 * (100 * 1 – 5%))

Adjusted Cost = $2,500 + $2,850 which equals $5,350

Now if we recalculate an accurate ROI taking into the adjusted cost we get following:

Adjusted ROI = (Gross – Adj. Cost) / Adj. Cost

Adjusted ROI = ($5,000 – $5,350) / $5,350 or

Adjusted ROI = -6.5%!

In this example, a lead provider that at first glance looked like it was providing great return actually has a negative ROI! Of course you can tweak the variables to fit your dealership but what this example so clearly demonstrates is that a large quantity of leads actually costs your dealership far more than the cost to purchase those leads!

Perhaps the most interesting point Kevin made was that once he made an adjusted ROI calculation and stripped out all of the low quality leads, the morale in his dealership skyrocketed. His team focused their efforts on quality instead of quantity meaning they sold more cars and everyone was happier.

Leads aren’t the best way to judge marketing partners but if you’re going to calculate the cost or the ROI of leads, make sure that you’re factoring in labor cost. Hopefully you won’t have any surprises.

Written by Turner Parlin

Photo credits: Viral Heat

- Fiat dealers need more than just the 500 to sell at their stores

- Young people want to be in cities with public transit

- Volkswagen and Audi open up flagship store in Manhattan, NY

- General Motors will invest more into US than China

- The NASCAR paint schemes you’ll see at Darlington this weekend

- Ford shows us the evolution of the lift gate

As a startup, we can’t user test all day, everyday even though we’d love to. User testing has helped us determine our product principles, create personas of the people using Mojo, redesign our site, our emails and ultimately, re-imagine the way people shop for cars online. Read how we do user testing here.

This is where Feedbackify comes in. They’re helping us find bugs and other potential issues we can’t always user test or just haven’t got around to testing yet. We’ve been able to diagnose issues users experience while filtering their search and a problem with the way our images load on IE10. We should have known IE10 was going to be a problem.

Luckily for us, we’re a lean startup and can make improvements lickity-split. The old drop down search was loathed by the sales team here because it derailed some pitches. If you’re not familiar with the old search, it was a drop down in a drop down. Users would need to click “Enter your zipcode” which would prompt a drop down. Then inside that drop down, the user would have to select a search radius which was inside another drop down. Yes, this is completely Xzibit-style. However, it wasn’t until a complaint we received through Feedbackify, we determined it was time to make a change.

Before

 After

We also removed something called the “nag bar.” You might recognize the nag bar as something Pinterest uses. Unlike Pinterest, however, our nag bar follows a person as they scroll up and down which can block photos of cars on smaller screen sizes.

Before

After

Thus far using Feedbackify, I’m very impressed. It’s easy to customize the questions and since our team is pretty darn nimble, we can make changes almost instantly based on feedback to improve the customer experience. I give Feedbackify a 10. Translation, I’m definitely likely to recommend them to a friend or colleague.

Written by Max Katsarelas

I’ve heard some horror stories of people driving hours to a dealership for the car of their dreams only to find out it isn’t available. I don’t want you to make the same mistake because it leaves shoppers angry and bitter while buying a used car or truck. All of this can be avoided by knowing these three things before calling a dealer.

1. The year make and model of the vehicle you like. A stock number or VIN (vehicle identification number) will work, but stick to a stock number since it can be difficult to communicate a VIN over the phone. All of this information can be found on a Mojo Motors vehicle detail page.

2. Your credit score. Most dealerships will work with you even if you have bad credit, but don’t waste your time going to the dealership only to find out that you can’t finance the car you want. If you don’t have a credit score, ask about first-time car buyer programs. If they don’t offer anything for first-time buyers, pay a visit to your local bank to find out how they can help.

3. Down payment and how much you want to pay a month. If you need to finance, you’ll want to put down 10% of the vehicle’s asking price. Putting down more is not a bad idea, but it may not be as helpful as you’d think because every thousand dollars down only reduces monthly payments by $20.00. Based on a vehicle’s price and how much you’ll put down, come up with a price you hope to pay each month.

All that being said, car shopping isn’t a complicated science so don’t stress too much! The hardest part will probably be finding a car you love before someone else decides they love it too. That’s why you should be ‘Following’ cars you like on Mojo Motors so you’ll get alerts when similar cars are added to local dealerships. We’ll also let you know when prices drop so make sure to be ready to buy if you find a car you love with a recent price drop.

Don’t forget to take advantage of leaving a deposit on a vehicle too. This will show a dealership that you’re a serious buyer and means the dealer won’t let anyone take your catch (in most cases) while you think about it or keep looking around. You might also want to bring this handy used car buying guide while checking out cars at the dealership. Hopefully this helps and if you have any questions, drop us a line or Tweet us @MojoMotors.

Written by Reymon Fortea

- Legendary car dealer Gerry Lane has died

- Pictures from Talladega Raceway

- GM bought back their first factory

- The ten best values in used cars

- Detroit three growing faster than Toyota and Honda

- Lincoln dealers finally have MKZs to sell

- The anniversary gift from Land Rover to itself

While riding his dirt bike in the woods, Glanton is lucky enough to meet Ben Mendelsohn’s character named Robin who offers Glanton a job at his isolated repair shop. Glanton accepts, knowing he needs to support his family. After his wages as a mechanic aren’t enough, Robin half-jokingly suggests they should rob banks. Robin then admits to a couple heists in the past. That’s all Glanton needs to hear.

After a few successful robberies, Robin wants to hide out but Glanton insists on hitting more banks. When Robin refuses and even ruins Glanton’s motorcycle to prevent him from continuing his robbing spree, Glanton threatens Robin with a gun. Without a partner, Glanton’s ability to rob banks is limited and during his last robbery, a young police officer named Avery Cross played by Bradley Cooper guns down the perp.

This is when the film intertwines the lives of Glanton and Cross. The movie seems to suggest doing the “right-thing” doesn’t always make things better. In fact, doing the “right-thing” can actually lead to the downfall of everyone affected, even decades later.

The film spans in time from the mid 90′s to the present, showing the audience a variety of vehicles including the loathed and loved Chevrolet Caprice, the Ford Bronco II compact SUV, an old yellow Toyota pickup before it was even called a Tacoma and a Honda Prelude. Modern cars include a BMW 7-Series and Chevrolet Cruz. Keep reading to see them all.

Honda XR650L

The XR650L is the motorcycle used by Glanton in what’s called the “circle of death” or “globe of death” or basically anything that involves a round shape and death. Example here. He uses this bike as not only his mode of transportation, but an accomplice in his bank robberies.

Chevrolet Caprice

While young Bradley Cooper is on the force, he is seen driving around with Deluca played by Ray Liotta and other detectives in a Chevrolet Caprice. There are also Caprices seen with the 9C1 Police Package which makes sense since it was once the most popular police cruiser of the mid 90′s.

Toyota Pickup

Before there was the Toyota Tacoma or Toyota Tundra, there was the Toyota Pickup. Robin drives a yellow Toyota pickup similar to the one above when towing his ATV or Glanton’s dirt bike. Unlike the truck above, Robin’s pickup is equipped with a brush guard which adds a level of ruggedness fitting for Robin.

Ford Bronco II

Kofi, Romina’s husband played by Mahershala Ali, drives a red Ford Bronco II. Much like the questionable safety rating of the rollover-prone Bronco II, Kofi’s ability to head a household is also questionable in Glanton’s opinion. This questioning leads to the demise of both the Bronco II and Glanton.

1982 Honda Prelude

Romina is never seen driving the Honda Prelude, but it does make an appearance at the diner she works and outside Kofi’s home. The sporty coupe was positioned by Honda to compete against other economy sport coupes like the Toyota Celica and Mitsubishi Eclipse. Side note, it’s been listed for sale online.

BMW 7-Series

After making the move from police work into politics, the audience meets an older Avery Cross that lives a life of opulence. A BMW 7-Series and a big house are part this life, but it comes at the expense of his marriage and relationship with his son.

Chevrolet Cruz

Before the movie fades to black, Romina is seen walking from her Chevrolet Cruz to the mailbox. While the shift from Caprice to 7-Series marks a change in Avery Cross, there is no discernible change in Romina when she goes from Prelude to Cruz.

Written by Max Katsarelas

Photo credits: Tampa Theatre, Chevrolet, Hell for Leather