Author Archives: jeff

Nissan Altima: 2007-’12

Overview

Don’t wait for stories to appear in the store when you can become a member of Wheelbase Media’s weekly news service and save more than 50 percent while gaining instant access to the new features as they’re produced. Click here to get started.

If you are not a member of the media, but still wish to read this and other feature stories from Wheelbase Media, visit www.shiftweekly.com to subscribe to Auto Shift Weekly newsmag, available for your Apple iPad or for your home PC or laptop in pdf format.

Description

The Altima brand succeeded the Stanza as Nissan’s mid-size four-door for 1993, with a crisper-looking second-generation model arriving five model years later. Brand new Altimas arrived for 2002 and again for 2007, followed by a first-time coupe body style a year later. Both used the 175-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and the optional 270-horsepower 3.5-liter V6…

Please contact us to order this feature.

WordSearch March 11, 2013

Overview

Description

Use: Interactive content for media professionals looking to bolster recurring readership and increase the amount of exposure time for their products, whether print or Web.

What it is: Why are auto publications so dry and so serious? We’re living proof that car nuts have a sense of humor and want to have a little sugar on their Corn Flakes. Your readers will have fun with the “Driver ’s Seat” Word Search as they unearth people, places and events. Driver ’s Seat is just one step in making your auto product more interactive, which provides more exposure for advertisers and more revenue for all.

Product specifications

Due to the highly complicated graphic nature of this product, we do not yet offer a version that can be played online. Instead, visitors to your Web site can print out the crossword and play it at their leisure. Vote yes to having a playable online verion by clicking here.
High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for print and Web.

Please contact us to order this feature.

For us to be loyal, the brands need to feel like “home” – Full Throttle, March. 11, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals looking to diversify their automotive readership with women authors who provide their views on a wide variety of topics.

What it is: Courtney Hansen, America’s favorite Garage Girl and the former host of The Learning Channel’s Overhaulin’ auto makeover show, a new-book author and the host of Spike TV’s weekend “Power Block,” has teamed up with Wheelbase Communications for this exclusive column. If you’re looking to build more regular readership and to bring more women into the pages of your print publication and Web pages with the help of a friendly and outgoing automotive celebrity, this bi-weekly column that alternates with our own Rhonda Wheeler is a must.

Product specifications

About 800-900 words; Word text file plus high-resolution art files for print and Web use.
Mac and PC layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Coming soon! Multi-platform page layout that opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.

Description

If anyone asks, I like old Chryslers. Barracuda, Road Runner, Charger and Challenger all get the respect from me that they deserve. Even the new Challenger and the 300 sedan. Other than the Mustang and the Corvette, is there anything more American? Probably not.
But Italy’s Fiat brand is now heading Chrysler and the dealer network here will help bring the Alfa Romeo brand back to North America along with more Fiat models than the little 500 currently mingling with Escalades and Ford F-150 pickups on our freeways.

Please contact us to order this feature.

The Octane Lounge – Muscle man – March. 11, 2013

Overview

The Octane Lounge – Cheap street – March. 25, 2013

Description

Rob Kauffman is a renaissance guy, at least when it comes to vintage American muscle cars.
Kauffman, 48, the principal and director of Fortress Credit Corp., has a lengthy and impressive resume in the high-powered world of investment banking, operating out of a base in London for many years. He’s also the guy who ponied up the cash to save Michael Waltrip Racing from insolvency and is now half owner of the successful NASCAR team.
More than anything, though, Kauffman is a Car Guy.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac – March. 4

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding non-traditional and interesting automotive content for print/Web.

What it is: A treasure trove of essential automotive quick hits. After designing a highly successful Almanac for one of our daily-newspaper customers, we wondered if we could put together an automotive version. As a result, your new Auto Almanac contains trivia, concept-car spy info, auction notes and even games. All along the way, we invite readers to interact and submit their own ideas.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is the standard one-column newspaper format, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces and shapes.
PDF of layout included.
About 600 words: NO?separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Talking tickets? No thanks, I’ll pass.

Overview

What is Auto Edit?

Welcome to AutoEdit, a new and slightly more irreverent weekly feature from Wheelbase Media.
Rather than your pages being a collection of random auto stories, the AutoEdit feature is intended to be the glue that holds it all together. Just as your editorial page is intended to be the pulse of your newspaper, Auto Edit can also be the pulse of your auto pages.
Auto edit runs 500-550 words and is all about your readers becoming more familiar with our key staff members via their personal views on the automotive world. Of all 18 of our weekly features, AutoEdit is the only one intended to provide weekly commentary. Journalistically speaking, this is just common sense since such commentary does not belong in our other news-type features.
Whether your readers agree or disagree with what’s written, they’ll know exactly how the writers of AutoEdit stand on their chosen topics. And, quite frankly, a little spirited debate is a healthy thing and that seems to be missing from more and more newspapers these days. AutoEdit is all about soul, getting back to the basics of solid content and showing readers that there are real people behind the nine-point typeface.

Story Intro

Should you ever find yourself grasping for subject matter to fill in those awkward silences in social situations, here’s a great one. The topic of speeding tickets – specifically yours – will keep folks enraptured for hours. In fact, they won’t actually listen to your own tales of radar-gun entrapments, police officer-offender repartee or courtroom histrionics. They’ll be too busy attempting to interrupt with their own probably embellished recollections.

However, I hold my tongue on the subject. It’s not that talking tickets doesn’t interest or amuse me, but I simply don’t wish to openly reveal my own status…

Please contact us to order this feature.

Roger Penske

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for print/Web.Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Cars are nothing without the people who create them and those who own, collect and preserve them. Profiles is designed to bring prominent, interesting car people to your readers’ attention. Fun, informative and masterfully designed, like most Wheelbase features, Profiles comes to you as a Quark Xpress/Adobe InDesign module that is completely editable for any space within your print pages or automotive Web site.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art, where applicable.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (for newspaper use), with some depth variation from week to week, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Description

Before the silver hair, the checkered flags, or the Memorial Day races that turned a passionate driver into a legendary owner, there was a 14-year-old boy with a pair of dark, wide eyes and a smile the size of Turn One.

Roger Penske wasn’t even old enough to drive the day his father rolled their ’49 Ford off Georgetown Road, past the gray-colored gates and into the infield at Indianapolis Motor Speedway….

Please contact us to order this feature.

2014 Kia Forte

Overview

Description

Well, they can’t all be homeruns, all the time, now can they?

Despite being an all-new model for 2010, the Kia Forte never really caught on in a big way. When you look at the numbers now, it really has nowhere to go but up; and with this redesign, that’s where this compact is headed.

The new Forte that launches this spring bears the unmistakable influence of design chief Peter Schreyer. For the past six years, the former Audi stylist has been largely responsible for the style of Kia’s fleet, as well as those built by its Hyundai parent. With Schreyer’s assistance, Hyundai Elantra sales have more than doubled since the 2008 model year, while the Forte, which trails by a considerable margin, has experienced a more modest advance since arriving for 2010. The Forte’s platform is shared with the Elantra.

Please contact us to order this feature.

1968-’74 AMC Javelin

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Many of you asked if we could put our expertise to work to create a feature that covers not just classic cars, but those vehicles that have left an indelible mark on car culture. The Fine Lines series examines significant vehicle marques, their backgrounds and their contributions to the history of the automobile. All this, with real artwork.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and
art files for maximum work flexibility.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be
reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark
Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with
standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to
match your style.

Description

The AMC Javelin proved that a car with the right shape and the right engine could be built by a small company, but not before releasing a floundering fish first.

One look at what poor old American Motors Corporation passed off as its sporty “image” car in 1966 was both laughable and sad all at the same time. The monstrosity that was hurriedly pressed into production was called the Marlin, a name that refers to one of the toughest, sleekest and most difficult-to-catch trophy fish found in any ocean. Unfortunately, AMC’s version began floating belly-up from Day One…

Please contact us to order this feature.

AutoCross March 4, 2013

Overview

Description

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: For the auto thrill-seeker, this is one of the most unique additions to your publication. The International AutoCross will test the knowledge of your readers with trivia that scours automobile parts bins, dealer showrooms and the history of people and places that have made the automobile what it is today. Retain readers and have them coming back on a regular basis for more. Like Wheelbase’s other features, International AutoCross comes to you formatted and ready to use.

Product specifications

Due to the highly complicated graphic nature of this product, we do not yet offer a version that can be played online. Instead, visitors to your Web site can print out the crossword and play it at their leisure. Vote yes to having a playable online version by clicking here.
High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for printand Web. Postscript file also included for even higher resolution and no bitmapping of fonts.