Video: Lithuanian Mayor Crushes a Mercedes S-Class with an Armored Troop Carrier

The BTR is the standard Soviet (now Russian) armored troop carrier used by the military of the former Eastern Block. Communism has fallen and Lithuania is now independent, yet Arturas Zuokas, the Mayor of the city of Vilnius used the BTR to destroy one of the symbols of the decadent capitalist West [sic].

But seriously, Zuokas climbed on to a BTR and drove over a W140 Mercedes-Benz S-Class as part of a publicity stunt to show his frustration over the fact that rich citizens with expensive cars cannot disregard the law and park wherever they want, even in bicycle lanes.

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Speed, the Real Life Russian Edition: Crazy Bus Driver Simply Won't Stop

In the Academy Award-winning film "Speed" from 1994 starring Keanu Reeves as Police Officer Jack Traven and Sandra Bullock as accident-prone ditz Annie Porter, the bus had to go more than 50mph or else it would explode.

But that was only a Hollywood blockbuster whereas the incident you're about to see in the video after the break happened in real life, reportedly somewhere in Russia.

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Video: Female Driver of a Hummer H3 Goes on a Rampage in Russia

From time to time, we all have face some problems, but most of us (or at least that's what we'd like to believe) don't take it out on our fellow citizens.

We're not sure what kind of issues this middle-age woman from Russia was facing at the time this video was shot, but she sure went berserk and in a very dangerous manner.

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Putin's Army of High-Heeled Gals Will Make You Car Shine

Say hello to "Putin's Army", a group of self-proclaimed "young and beautiful" Russian girls who will do just about anything to get Valdimir Putin back into the Kremlin next year. To the delight of our male audience, that includes cleaning cars dressed in bikinis and eight-inch heels. Read more »

Ford Begins Production of New Focus in Russia

Ford's Vsevolozhsk Plant near St. Petersburg in Russia has begun assembly of the firm’s new generation Focus. The five-door hatchback is the first member of the Focus family to roll off the assembly line in Russia with the four-door and station wagon variants to enter production in September and January, respectively. Read more »

Caught on Video: Nissan GT-R Crashing into Parked Cars in Moscow

A crazy car crash that took place in Moscow, Russia, on July 6, 2011, was caught on film by a pair of security cameras. The person responsible for the catastrophic scene you see in these aftermath photos that were shot on location is the driver of a black Nissan GT-R.

From what we can tell, the GT-R driver was either street racing with another car or simply trying out the full potential of his high-performance sports coupe on the streets of Moscow. Whatever the case, he failed to steer left after passing a black vehicle from the right and ended up crashing into three parked vehicles.

The force of the impact was so severe that the parked cars were literally thrown into the air as if they toys. Watch the security cam tapes of the accident in the videos after the break.

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Сбоить: Russian President Medvedev’s Mega Driving Gaffe Caught on Video

The man behind the “Forward Russia!” movement, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, took his campaign motto a smidgen too seriously when he almost...forwarded a Mercedes M-Class he was driving into a crowd of people cheerfully waiting for him on the side of the road.

While we can’t be 100 percent sure, from the video it looks like Medvedev either forgot to put the SUV’s handbrake on or even worse, didn’t shift out of drive and into park before jumping out of the vehicle to meet his voters.

Fortunately, Medvedev’s security was alert and managed to stop the Mercedes before it hit the crowd. The incident allegedly occurred in the city of Kazan on Monday. The video, which you can watch after the break, went viral and has already more than 200,000 views on Youtube in less than 24 hours.

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Cold-War Leftovers still Very Popular in Russia

It’s been over two decades since the collapse of communism in the former USSR and the introduction of capitalism to what is now Russia. However, a relic from the past, a car that was introduced back in 1982 (actually even older if you count the vehicle upon which it was based on), is still quite popular with the locals.

The car we ‘re talking about is the Lada 2107 which along with the 2104 and the 2105 versions are Russia’s second best-selling cars, only behind Lada’s much newer Kalina hatchback.

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Sacha Baron Cohen gets Glitzy Gold Dartz for the Needs of his New Movie The Dictator

After becoming worldwide known for his portrayal of the fictional character Borat from the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and the lesser successful flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion show presenter, Brüno, English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is returning to the big screen with a new movie called The Dictator.

And what may that have to do with a car site, we hear you ask? Well, for one, we’re going to see him facing off three Lamborghinis with his camel on the streets of New York, but most importantly, we learned that the dictator he portrays will ride in an “all-gold Dartz” armored truck.

For those of you with a weak memory, the Russian maker of the Dartz Prombron had made headlines about a year ago when it introduced a special version of the armored truck with its interior slathered in…whale-penis leather.

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Nissan Announces New Midterm Business Plan, will Introduce a New Vehicle Every Six Weeks for Six Years

Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. revealed on Monday its new midterm business plan dubbed “Power 88”, with which it aims to boost both its global market share and profit margin to 8 percent within six years – hence the “88” reference in the name. Last year, Nissan, which is 44.3 percent owned by French partner Renault, had a 5.8 percent global market share.

The new plan calls for the introduction of 52 new cars for fiscal years 2011 to 2016, or about one new vehicle every six weeks.

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Save of the Day: Russian Driver goes to Hell and Back

If there was ever a lucky driver, it’s the Russian owner of this compact-sized silver sedan, which may or may not be a Lada. The protagonist of the video clip shot from an in-car camera went to hell and back again, when he foolishly attempted to overtake a vehicle without taking into consideration the situation ahead of him. Read more »

Was ist Das? Russians Create the Weirdest Audi Coupe You’ll Ever See

Sure, the new MINI Coupe is all the talk now and everyone is buzzing in his or her opinion on the two-seater model. However, if you really want a sporty coupe model that stands out from the crowd look no further than this creation from mother Russia.

Meet the ultimate Audi Coupe that blends an alarmingly shortened chassis and body from an Audi 80 with the front end of an A4 and the wider buttocks of a previous generation A6 sedan.

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Ford’s European Sales up 10.5 % in May

Ford’s auto sales across its 51 European markets (including Russia, Turkey and certain countries from North Africa) in May rose 13 percent to 143,800 units, up by 16,600 units from a year earlier. May sales in the firm’s traditional 19 European markets rose by 10.5 percentage points to 116,500, up by 11,100. Read more »

Vladimir Antonov Withdraws Proposal to Buy and Leaseback Saab Property

The ink has barely dried on Saab’s latest attempt to form a preliminary deal with China’s Pang Da Automobile and Youngman, and the Swedish company is faced with yet another problem as Russian investor Vladimir Antonov has withdrawn his proposal to buy and leaseback Saab property.

"The property sale is now being discussed with external investors," said Lars Carlstrom, Antonov's representative in Sweden. However, Carlstrom noted that the Russian banker was still interested in becoming a shareholder in Saab’s parent company Spyker Cars NV.

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VW Group Enters Production Deal with Russia’s GAZ

In its never-ending quest for global domination, the VW Group signed an agreement with the GAZ Group to assemble Volkswagen and Skoda models under contract at the Russian automaker’s in Nizhny Novgorod. The two companies had already concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding joint automobile production in Russia in February 2011 with a planned production volume of 110,000 vehicles per year.

Under the deal, GAZ will build the Volkswagen Jetta compact sedan, Skoda Octavia and Skoda Yeti crossover models for the Russian market, with the first vehicles to start rolling off the production line by the end of 2012.

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VIDEO: That’s the Spirit…Drunk Russians Sink Infiniti FX35

Once you watch this video, we are pretty sure that you will think twice before saying the little kid running around like a twister throwing sand all over the place and the odd couple trying to learn how to play rackets are the most annoying things you have ever seen at the beach.

The apparently intoxicated owner of this black Infiniti FX along with his equally messed up friends went berserk on a Russian beach (or at least the person who uploaded the video on Youtube claims that the incident took place in Russia) and put everyone in danger including themselves when they drove the Japanese crossover into and out of the sea.

In their third attempt to show their pedigree to beach goers they managed to sink the Infiniti, which of course was flooded with sea water once the driver opened the door... Follow the break to watch the video for yourself.

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Latvian Tuner Wraps BMW 3-Series in Crocodile Leather

There’s something about cars and animal leathers / prints that attracts certain tuners from Russia and the former Soviet states. You all remember the Russian design-house Dartz and it real whale penis leather-equipped Prombron and snake skin-covered Bentley Continental GT SS. Now another tuning firm called Vipon, this time from neighboring Lithuania Latvia, has come with a new animal leather themed proposal based on a pre-facelift E90 BMW 318i sedan. Read more »

Some Like it Very Hot: Fiat’s New Campaign for 500 by Gucci

Russian model Natalya Sergeyevna Polevshchikova, more commonly known as Natasha Poly, is the new face (and legs…) of Fiat’s advertising campaign for the limited edition 500 by Gucci. The blonde temptress from the land of hot spies, beautiful ballets and Vodka, is dressed in a one-of-a-kind black leather ensemble and is all over the 500’s ultra compact body [sic...].

The campaign was imagined by Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, who was also responsible for the design of the special edition 500. Fiat said the single and double-page advertisements will appear in publications throughout the year.

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Vladimir Putin’s Lada Stunt Turns into a Joke as Car Fails to Start

“What do you call a Lada that starts the first time? A novelty!” This is only one of numerous joke about Lada’s cars and their reliability but to the misfortune of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the joke turned out to be true during an official presentation of the troubled automaker’s new Granta small sedan.

The 58-year-old prime minister attended the unveiling of Lada’s budget model at the headquarters of its car manufacturer Avtovaz in the Volga River city of Tolyatti. In his usual confident style, Putin approached the car for a first look. The troubles started right from the beginning as one of the men accompanying the prime minister had a hard time opening the vehicle’s boot.

Then, in a marketing fail comparable only to Volvo’s unbelievable crash incident last year, Putin entered the car to take it for a test drive. He tried to start it once. He failed. He tried a second time, nothing. The same thing happened three more times until finally, the Lada came into life. Luckily for us, the entire incident was captured on film. Watch the video right after the jump.

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Polk Gives us a Peak at Vehicle Density in Emerging Markets

According to Polk, an automotive statistics website, one of the key performance indicators of a maturing auto market is the number of cars per 1,000 people or the nation’s “vehicle density”. Ten years ago in the U.S., for instance, it was 453 vehicles per 1,000 people. What with the global financial crisis and high fuel prices resulting in many people selling their cars, this has now dropped to 419 per 1,000 and is expected to continue its decline to 414 per 1,000 by 2015.

In the increasingly economically developed BRIC countries, that is Brazil, Russia, India and China, it’s not as dense but it is emerging. In Russia, for example, it’s 235 vehicles per 1,000. In India and China, it’s more like 27 vehicles per 1,000. Though consider this: with populations topping 1.6 and 1.3 billion respectively, 27 vehicles per 1,000 would be more like 100 vehicles or plus per 1,000 if those nations had population numbers equaling the United States.

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