Automakers that best satisfy consumers

Of the eight nameplates with satisfaction levels above the industry average, only two are domestic (Cadillac and GMC), and the three bottom entries are all domestic (Jeep, Dodge and Chevrolet). Overall in 2013 consumers rated their satisfaction with newly purchased vehicles down 1.2 percent compared with a year ago, with the most sizable downturns at Chevrolet and Buick.

       1. Mercedes-Benz
    Mercedes jumped 4% over last year's satisfaction ratings.
  2. Lexus
    Lexus slipped slightly in its ratings compared to last year but continued to hold the No. 2 spot on the list.
        3. Subaru
    A man rides a horse as a Subaru Impreza WRX with driver Yuriy Protasov and co-driver Kyrylo Nesvit, both from Ukraine, compete in the WRC Acropolis Rally. Subaru was the highest-ranked non-luxury marque on the list.
    4. Toyota
    As recently as 2010 American and Japanese auto brands were tied in satisfaction ratings, but this year Asian brands far surpassed those from Detroit.
 
  5. Honda
    The top automakers for 2013 are a mix of luxury and Japanese brands.
  6. Cadillac
    Cadillac is tied for the highest-ranked American brand on the satisfaction list.
    Overview of the GMC Sierra All-Terrain
   

    8. Volkswagen
     Volkswagen dipped slightly in its score over 2012 but still exceeds the luxury average satisfaction rate.
    9. Acura
    Acura's satisfaction score equals the industry average, along with Ford, Nissan and Chrysler.

    10. Ford
     The Ford nameplate remained unchanged from 2012 and sits at the industry average for satisfaction ratings.

 

Official Grand Theft Auto V trailer shows off main characters, open-world hijinks

We’re just a few weeks away from the arrival of Grand Theft Auto V, and in case you’re not already foaming at the mouth, Rockstar Games has released the game's official trailer. You’re gonna wanna see this.

Set to the strains of The Chain Gang of 1974’s "Sleepwalking," the latest (and last) trailer is an overview of the game’s core gameplay: pulling off heists with three playable characters and roaming around an immense world doing pretty much whatever you want to do. It also touches on exactly how Trevor, Franklin and Michael hook up to terrorize the sprawling city of Los Santos.
The game, the first GTA since 2008, is expected to be one of the year’s top sellers. Analysts hope it will turn around the game industry’s year over year sales woes, and if past GTA performance is any indication, it most certainly will. Grand Theft Auto IV set records upon its release by selling over 6 million copies in its first week of availability.
GTA V is substantially bigger both in size and ambition, packing a huge single-player world and a persistent online experience in the same game. It’s due out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on September 17.

Photos of the day - August 30, 2013



















Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World

Although there are over 6,000 languages in existence today, the vast majority of the world speaks less than 150. Of those 150, the usual suspects are all there, however there are a few that may surprise you; English drops to third place and Portuguese overtakes Bengali. Enough teasing, let’s get started.
01. Chinese (Mandarin) – 935 Million Native Speakers
Chinese (Mandarin) – 935 Million Native Speakers

Photo — Link
Of the more than 6.6 billion people in the world, 14.1% of them speak Mandarin Chinese. China has many dialects, but Mandarin Chinese is the most common and widely accepted of them all. It is the native language of roughly 935 million Chinese. 09 more after the break...


02. Spanish – 387 Million Native Speakers 
Spanish – 387 Million Native Speakers
Photo Link — Enokson
Saying “Hola” at spot number two is Spanish with 387 million speakers. This accounts for about 5.85% of the world getting the big bien venido upon entering this world. Also a common second language, for Americans and others, Spanish is quickly gaining ground as a world language partly due to it being widely thought of as the easiest language to learn.[livingbilingual.com/2013/06/11/learning-a-language-the-easiest-language-to-learn] While it has quite a ways to go before it overtakes Chinese, it’s already overtaken number #3… English.
03. English – 365 Million Native Speakers 
English – 365 Million Native Speakers
Photo Link — DonkeyHotey
If you’re reading this, you speak English to some degree (or you are really confused.) While behind Spanish, English is still the lingua franca of the world. It dominates business, trade, and America’s currency, the dollar, is still used on a global scale. Hollywood helps spread our lovely language throughout the world and helps it maintain it as a status language.
04. Hindi – 295 Million Native Speakers

Hindi – 295 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Hindi is the big-hitter in India. India has over 122 languages with 22 of them recognized by the constitution of India as official languages. Of them, Hindi has emerged as the big dog; the one everyone wants to play with. It is essentially a lingua franca in parts of, if not all of, India. Most Indians can speak or understand it to some degree. India has a lot of people, therefore a lot of people speak Hindi. Logical.
05. Arabic – 280 Million Native Speakers 
Arabic – 280 Million Native Speakers

Photo — Link
Obviously, as astute as you all are, you know this statistic is a bit skewed. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the common language used for news broadcasts and official stuff, however most Arabic-speaking folk speak a dialect of Arabic; Egyptian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, etc. If these were fragmented off, none of them would easily make the top 10, however, luckily for Arabic, they are all lumped together for official purposes. You got lucky this time, Arabic. Arabic is also one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
06. Portuguese – 204 Million Native Speakers 
Portuguese – 204 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
From Brazil to Portugal, the Portuguese know how to party. They also know how to multiply. From a relatively smaller number of countries, this rabbit-like mammals get it done when it comes to producing little Portuguese speakers.
07. Bengali – 202 Million Native Speakers 
Bengali – 202 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
I bet you didn’t see Bengali coming… in fact, I bet you don’t know what Bengali is. Let me educate you. Bengali is the language native to the southeastern region of Asia known as Bengal. Think Bangladesh. While numbers vary for the ‘native speakers’ of this language, it’s still in a solid place among the top 10 most spoken languages in the world.
08. Russian – 160 Million Native Speakers 
Russian – 160 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Russian, or Russki as I like to call it (I don’t know why) is a Slavic language that gives me fits when I try to learn it. Written in the Cyrillic alphabet, it looks and sounds foreign to most English speakers. The Russians know how to be cold and decline words. And be tough. And intimidating.
09. Japanese – 127 Million Native Speakers 
Japanese – 127 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Perhaps the most polite language on the top 10, Japanese is famous for it’s difficulty in addressing various levels of people with regards to their status and respect level. Seemingly two different languages are used for addressing elders and people of authority vs. that annoying kid down the street. With it’s unique writing system, it appears to be really foreign to a large portion of the world. However, to 127 million people, it’s pure comfort.
10. Punjabi – 96-130 Million Native Speakers 
Punjabi – 96-130 Million Native Speakers
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Ahh Punjabi, what would a top 10 list be without you? Punjabi “…is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by 130 million (2013 estimate) native speakers worldwide making it the 10th most widely spoken language in the world.”
It’s clear to see that the vast majority of languages are comprised of only the top fraction of a percent. Of the 6,000+ languages spoken today, this list of 10 makes up for roughly 45% or so of the total population of the earth. As the world becomes smaller, we lose a lot of the underrepresented languages out there. Whether you consider this a natural part of civilization, or a tragedy, it is happening. There are large efforts out there to support and help preserve near-extinct languages, but it will remain an uphill battle as more and more people jump on the bandwagon to speak one of the more ‘common’ languages.

Amazing Photos Of Mexico City

Amazing Photos Of Mexico City Show That Natural Boundaries Are No Match For Urban Sprawl — Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile. “In a megalopolis like Mexico City,” photographer Pablo Lopez Muz tells the Daily Mail, “the relationship between man and space is ever so apparent.”
Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov
Mexico City’s “sprawling suburbs” are home to over 20 million people, making it the most populous city in the western hemisphere. 

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov
Rings of homes form ocean-like waves over hills and flatlands. Photographer Pablo Lopez Muz says the city is “constantly threatened by its incessant population growth and its lack of infrastructure.

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov
While half of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, the capital city is among the country’s richest.

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov
“Flying over Mexico City has always been an overwhelming experience,” says the photographer, who snapped the photos from the cockpit of a two-person plane. “For ages it seems like the urban landscape with no ending.”

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov
Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov

Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape spreads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile.
PABLO LOPEZ LUZ / BARCROFT MEDIA/ Landov

Hollywood Celebs — Daily Candids

Ariana Grande Greets Fans Outside of her Hotel in Toronto
Ariana Grande Greets Fans Outside of her Hotel in Toronto
Hollywood Celebs — Daily Candids

Amanda Seyfried Out and About in Hollywood
Amanda Seyfried Out and About in Hollywood

Ashley Greene and Kate Hudson on Set of ‘Wish I Was Here’ in LA
Ashley Greene and Kate Hudson on Set of ‘Wish I Was Here’ in LA

Ashley Tisdale, at Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood
Ashley Tisdale, at Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood

Audrina Patridge Leaving a Nightclub in West Hollywood
Audrina Patridge Leaving a Nightclub in West Hollywood

Emmy Rossum in Jeans, Stopping for some Starbucks in Los Angeles
Emmy Rossum in Jeans, Stopping for some Starbucks in Los Angeles

Eva Longoria Booty in Shorts at a Gym in Hollywood
Eva Longoria Booty in Shorts at a Gym in Hollywood

Eva Longoria Riding a Bike in Los Angeles
Eva Longoria Riding a Bike in Los Angeles

Jennifer Lawrence Riding a Bike around Montreal
Jennifer Lawrence Riding a Bike around Montreal

Kirsten Dunst Leaving the Gym in Studio City
Kirsten Dunst Leaving the Gym in Studio City

Lily Collins at The Mortal Instruments City Of Bones Premiere in Madrid
Lily Collins at The Mortal Instruments City Of Bones Premiere in Madrid

Michelle Rodriguez Leaves Chateau Marmont in LA
Michelle Rodriguez Leaves Chateau Marmont in LA

Nicole Scherzinger at Heathrow Airport in London
Nicole Scherzinger at Heathrow Airport in London

Sandra Bullock at Gravity Premiere Photocall at the 70th Venice Film Festival
Sandra Bullock at Gravity Premiere Photocall at the 70th Venice Film Festival

Sarah Hyland in Jeans, Out in SoHo, New York City
Sarah Hyland in Jeans, Out in SoHo, New York City

Ashley Greene Leaving a Gym in LA
Ashley Greene Leaving a Gym in LA

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