Ron Burgundy Responsible for Huge Increase in Car Sales

Ron Burgundy's influence goes far beyond the confines of San Diego.

After the "Anchorman" character created by Will Ferrell became the spokesman for the 2014 Dodge Durango, sales of the re-engineered vehicle climbed a whopping 59 percent in October and are up 50 percent for the year, Ad Age reports. No, we're not making this up.

In fact, Edmunds.com analyst Michelle Krebs verified that shopping for the Durango "soared" since the ads launched on Oct. 5, which makes all these numbers totally legit.

Burgundy, who appears clad in his signature leisure suit, has increased web traffic by 80 percent, Dodge brand boss Tim Kuniskis confirmed. "Durango sales have been very strong this year," he explained, "and the Ron Burgundy Durango ads are absolutely building on that momentum."

What's even more impressive, however, is the fact that so far Dodge has only unveiled nine videos, which, it turns out, is only a fraction of what Ferrell shot on behalf of the car for Funny or Die.

"We went into production with 30 scripts written, but over the course of two days, we broke all previously held records and shot 25 different spots of the 30 we had written," Funny or Die's vice president of branding explained. "Will was so prolific with the jokes. When we got into post-production, we didn’t just have 25 spots — we had different versions of each. So if you put out everything we could possibly run, it would be up around 70 different spots."

Apparently, the powers-that-be decided to do just that. And now there are 70 ads for the Durango that we will all have to watch.

In the videos, the mustachioed news anchor proves he's as charming as ever as he taunts a horse, insists "Dodge" starts with a "soft D," and encourages buyers to "Put it in Grandma's name."

Our takeaway from all this is that we should buy a Durango immediately and drive it to the theater on Dec. 20 to see "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." Also, we should bring Grandma ... as long as she promises to stay classy.

Watch the trailer for "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues":