There's nothing more abrupt in Hollywood than the rise and fall of a big celebrity actor like Nicolas Cage. Back in the days of "Gone in 60 Seconds", he would have film studios were chasing around with checkbooks and scrips in hand, but now that he's pushing 50… not so much.
The Cage has been forced to adapt in order to survive, and his latest paycheck comes not from an American supermarket chain, but from from Chinese carmaker Beijing Auto (BAIC). They hired him to do a really strange, really awkward commercial for their new D-series sedan.
Because Nic is not fluent in Chinese, he does the classic smile and wave. But the fact that he bows for no reason to an old lady just makes you want to go "what the fudge Nic, why are you such a sellout?"
The "sporty" D-series is actually based on the first generation Saab 9-3. Beijing Auto bought the rights to the first generation Saab 9-3 and 9-5 in 2009 from General Motors, then the owner of Saab. The deal included the Saab-developed 2.0 turbo and 2.3 turbo engines. That bulky looking stick shifter is connected to a five-speed automatic which thankfully has a manual mode.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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