Author Archives: jeff

MToyota RAV4: 2006-’12 – June. 2, 2013

Overview

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Description

Lincoln’s luxury derivative of the mid-size Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan sedan was originally called the Zephyr, but just for the first year of its existence. The brand was changed to MKZ for the 2007 model year. Along with the new name came a new 263-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 that replaced the initial 221-horsepower 3.0-liter V6. All-wheel-drive was also introduced as an option. The MKZ received a styling update for 2010, while a Ford Fusion-based 191-horsepower gasoline-electric Hybrid model joined the fleet the following year. An all-new second-generation MKZ was introduced for the 2013 model year.

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ABARTH – AutoGraph May 27, 2013

AutoGraph

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

What it is: Weekly automotive infographics that inform, enlighten and delight readers. Our high-impact infographics add visual appeal and variety to your auto-section pages. Wheelbase’s designers are some of the best in the business with numerous awards for dynamic newsgraphics and page design. AutoGraph will show your readers, with engaging visual style, what they want and need to know about their automobiles as well as today’s trends. These professional, useful and intelligent graphics will help raise the profile of your auto section.

Product specifications

Designed by Wheelbase Media’s editorial staff using Macromedia Freehand (for backward compatibility for most systems) as well as Adobe Photoshop.
Mac or PC use.
Files included in your download: native Freehand file; Freehand EPS file (which is how to edit the AutoGraph with Adobe Illustrator) and a 300 dpi CMYK low-compression jpg file.
Print size: 8 inches wide, 6 inches tall, scalable about 10 percent up or down.
AutoGraph uses typical system fonts for compatibility.

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Shift! May 27, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding automotive content on technology and vehicles designed to reduce pollution and save readers money.

What it is: The first “green” feature. One of our most popular new weekly features takes a look at the auto world from the unique perspective of fuel efficiency and technology as it relates to the environment, from hydrogen, hybrids, electric power and other alternative methods of propulsion. “Shift” is exactly that: a shift in thinking. What will the vehicle of tomorrow look like? Your readers can find out today in Shift. This predesigned module can be used as-is or reconfigured to fit just about any space.

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 “Shift” art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8″x13″, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 900 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.

Topics Covered

Solar panels bring cool factor: South Korean automaker Hyundai is soon to flip the switch on that country’s largest solar-panel system, attached to the rooftops of its Asan, Korea, plant. It will deploy about 40,000 solar-voltaic panels later this year. When completed and on-line, the plant will be capable of supplying enough found energy to provide a stable source of electricity for up to 3,200 households. To produce the same amount of electricity, a thermoelectric (carbon-burning) power plant releases 5,600 ton…

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Breaking up is so hard to do . . . when you love your truck – Full Throttle, May 27, 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

I actually shed a tear when it rumbled off into the sunset.
The young couple flew in from another city to take our beloved shop truck off our hands and they seemed pleased with their purchase. They should have been. The 34,000-mile 2000 Ford Lightning SVT was the picture of perfect physical health. Regular servicing and pampering and a day at the detail shop, and another three hours with editor Jeff buffing out the sides of the box, and the eye-popping short-box pickup looked brand new.

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The Auto Sleuth – May. 27, 2013

Overview

Use: Voted the best automotive news column available: you need it.

What it is: If you could have only one automotive feature, this should be it. At Wheelbase Communications, we’ve chosen to stay away from providing an automotive-news column until we could do it in a non-traditional way. And here it is: the Auto Sleuth. Our worldly gumshoe has his ear to the ground, digging up the latest news on everything from product launches and updates to names in the news. The column is solely driven by reader interest. No boring statistics or auto-company pap here, just the straight goods peppered with the Auto Sleuth’s commentary and speculative, gossipy-style.

Product specifications

Mac and PC print layout with separate text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Multi-platform layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×16 inches (newspaper), 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.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Firestone – Legends, May. 27, 2013

Overview

Description

It was 1895 and Henry Ford had just one thing to say to the clerk at the front counter of Columbus Buggy Works in Detroit: “I’m here to see Harvey Firestone.” Ford was using bicycle tires for a car. Not viable, Ford knew at the time. So, Ford (lower right) approached Firestone to ask about solid-rubber tires as a substitute. Firestone had a different idea. “They were pneumatic tires,” Ford later remembered. Harve…

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Top Gear – May 27, 2013

Overview

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

What it is: What’s new, what’s hot! Wheelbase Communications is committed to broadening readership (getting non-traditional auto-section readers into your publication/Web pages) and creating as much revenue potential as possible. Top Gear focuses on the aftermarket by telling your readers what’s new and what’s cool. This column includes four items per week as well as prices (where possible) and Web site addresses.

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.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), 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.

Please contact us to order this feature.

MToyota RAV4: 2006-’12 – May. 27, 2013

Overview

Description

The original RAV4 ushered in the car-like tall wagons that are currently all the rage. Toyota produced the original version as a short-wheelbase two-door model as well as in a longer-wheelbase four-door size. A single-size second-generation RAV4 arrived for 2001 followed by a significantly larger third-gen unit for the 2006 model year. Its key features included a 166-horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder and an optional 269-horse 3.5-liter V6.

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New car movies: just one to watch – May. 27, 2013

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

Most every sport has been the backdrop for a movie. “Field of Dreams”, “The Natural”, “Knute Rockne”, “The Longest Yard” and hockey’s most memorable “Slap Shot” (who can ever forget the hilarious Hanson Brothers).

But films made with a racing theme, whether depicted on the track or the street, generally don’t work out that well. Of the good ones, Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans” (1971) ranks highly as the most realistic from an action perspective, with “Grand Prix” (1966), featuring the great James Garner, is a close second. “Bullitt” (1968), also starring McQueen, features one of the most exciting street-chase scenes ever, and ranks just ahead of the final 15-minute fling in “Gone in 60 Seconds” (2000).

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Auto Almanac – May. 27, 2013

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.