If you're looking for a cheap but cool new car...

[Maengelito]

do they win because they have ads, or do they put in ads because they won? who knows

That would be a good project, do some statistics on the number of ads vs the finishing position of that brand in comparos.

i remember when the STi and the evo came to the states at the same time and every car magazine under the sun did a comparo of the two. the evo won most of the "tests" that they did but all the editors in their comments preferred the STi despite the evo winning. this was also the time when mitsu was littering all those magazines with ads, 2fast2furious had just come out with a heavy emphasis on the new mitsu eclipse and they ran car ads on tv on every station during every show