As US automakers get cozier with their Chinese counterparts, the quality of PRC-produced cars has become a topic of debate/concern. And for good reason. According to Daily Report, a recent customer satisfaction survey in China shows that 77 percent of new car owners reported problems. The report, which would make JD Power's mob weep (or salivate), revealed 338 problems for every 100 vehicles across the industry. China has no equivalent to our Consumer Product Safety Commission, so the only way consumers there have to learn about hazardous products is word-of-mouth. This is not the kind of culture you'd naturally associate with building safe, reliable vehicles for the U.S. market, Just sayin'.

Move aside Bugatti Veyron. (Now there's a strange concept.) Classic Driver says the derivatively-named SSC Ultimate Aero TT (a land speed record holder, an Ultima nod, an English candy bar and a gay icon) could unseat the VW's quad-turbo monster as the world's fastest production automobile. Equipped with a 1,183hp twin-turbo 'Vette motor, the $550k SUATT should be good for 273mph. As befits the pride of Washington state, SSC's March run at the record was postponed by snow. There's no word on a second attempt, but I reckon anyone nuts enough to build a car with 1094 ft.-lbs. of torque– without traction control– isn't afraid to use it. They should be, but they probably aren't. 

Nestle, McDonalds, Bic, VW, and Daimler Benz all suffer from the same problem: marketing people with too much time on their hands. As Forbes' Jack Trout points out, there's nothing more dangerous to a brand than a marketing staff that can't leave well enough alone. It can take a company years to recover from a branding blunder. Mr. Trout sums it up in two sentences  "A brand can only stand for one thing in the mind; the more things you try to make it stand for, the more the mind loses focus on what you are. Endless variations give marketing people something to do while they do long-term damage to a brand or a company."  Are you listening, Rick, Tom, Alan, Dieter, Wendelin and friends?

For those of you who looking for a little four-wheeled Viagra (or Cialis if you're waiting for sunny days), Road and Travel Magazine (RTM) has just released their annual "2007 Sexy Car Buyer's Guide." Despite the title, it's not a guide for sexy car buyers. Or a guide to sexy car buyers. These are the cars RTM feel "catch our breath with [their] lithe lines" and feature "the heart-pounding rumble of a sweet exhaust tone." Past winners include the Hyundai Tiburon (2006), Chrysler Crossfire (2005), Chevy SSR (2004), and Lexus SC420 (2003). Current candidates include the Dodge Charger ("like the smashing power of a Leila Ali glove coming at you at full speed") and Volkswagen EOS ("a road runner with simple, elegant lines [and] just enough trim in the right places"). Disappointingly, there's not Tata, Chery, or Daihatsu Naked in the bunch.

Reuters reports that three Welsh fishing buddies claim they've invented a device that collects 85 percent of CO2 produced by any internal combustion engine. More importantly, their "green box" holds the gas in a safe, inert state that can be easily handled, transported and released into a controlled environment. The inventors theorize that algae could then feast on the collected CO2, after which the algae could become biodiesel. If the technology works as advertised, the system would make a nice little end run around the whole greenhouse gas issue. Skeptics should note that not even the inventors wives have examined the green box's innards. Also, after every demonstration organic chemist Derek Palmer and engineers Ian Houston and John Jones divide their invention into three parts and hide them in various locations across North Wales. Should we buy this fabulous claim? Maybe. After all, Welshman William Robert Grove invented the first fuel cell– in the 1800's.  

On Tuesday, the junk bond market sneezed and General Motors caught a cold. Less poetically, the money men behind the buyout of GM’s Allison transmission unit postponed a junk bond offering designed to pay for same. According to market sources, when the “spread” (the extra yield investors demand to compensate for their risk) widened by about 100 basis points, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers pulled the plug. GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem said the company wasn’t worried about the sale: “The buyout remains on track.” Maybe so, but GM can’t afford this kind of setback. Literally.

Chrysler Group announced today they're offering a lifetime powertrain warranty on all new vehicles delivered on or after July 26. Unlike GM's "best in the industry" five-year/100K warranty, this warranty really is the longest– with a couple of great big "buts" (and I cannot lie). Chrysler's new warranty applies only to the "first registered owner or retail lessee" of certain vehicles (e.g. NOT SRT8's). It requires "a [no-charge] powertrain inspection performed by an authorized Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge dealer once every five years within 60 days of each five-year anniversary of the warranty start date of the vehicle." Since no one leases a vehicle for much longer than four years, the warranty really only applies to new vehicle buyers. Anyone want to drive a 2007 Sebring for the rest of their life?

The Detroit News reports that The Big 2.8's decision to trim fleet sales is jacking-up prices down at the rental car lot. The cost of renting a car has jumped more than 20 percent in the past two years, heading for a five percent upwards jolt in '07. Manufacturers are also modding the product mix, cutting back on the dirt-cheap manual everything models the average Budget, Avis and Hertz renter has "enjoyed" in years gone by. By selling higher-priced, better featured cars, the Detroiters hope today's rental car will be tomorrow's not-so-dirt-cheap retail sale. Meanwhile, if you're not buying this explanation, if you're skeptical about car rental pricing policies, join the folks over iAfrica.com, who believe the industry is rife with "collusive and monopolistic practices."

Want to keep your new car safe and protect everyone who rides within it? IndiaAutomobile.com offers a guide for conducting a puja. Hindus use the ritual, which shows respect for chosen gods or goddesses, to ask for a blessing on a newly-purchased object. The pujari performs the puja at a Hindu temple. You'll need four lemons, one coconut and money (for the pujari). Alternatively, Christians may use this blessing provided by Drdriving. If you have any safe driving rituals or ceremonies (you OCD readers, you), let us know.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that California State Assembly members are given up to $500 per month to lease the car of their choice, plus all the gas they can guzzle, unlimited maintenance and free insurance coverage. The really sweet part of the deal: the state covers any damage to the vehicle (and other liabilities) no matter who is behind the wheel. The state paid over $2K to fix a state-funded car being driven to school by an assemblywoman's teen-aged daughter who rear-ended a truck. Even accidents caused while violating traffic codes are covered. When an assemblyman failed to yield and drove his Tahoe into an intersection while talking on his cell phone, the state shelled out almost $12K to cover the damages. The California Senate has different rules– its members are personally liable for damages to their state-owned vehicles if they're being used for personal business or driven by family members.

Last week, Chrysler announced they’d cancelled plans to build their super-sized 300, the Imperial sedan. Company Spinmeister David Elshoff cited new, more stringent EPA mileage and emissions regulations and added a moral spin: given the “current climate,” bringing the Imperial to production would have been "irresponsible." Regardless of the need to conform to political correctness and regulations yet to be enacted, the “poor man’s Phantom” had few friends in the punditry biz. (The word ugly featured prominently in their analysis.) And yet, deep-sixing the Imperial was a big mistake. 

Congestion charging (CC) proponents often justify the regressive tax by citing the need to reduce vehicular pollution in city centers. In their campaign to stymie a local CC scheme, Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART) points out that the Manchester City Council's plan singularly fails to tackle the real cause of the city's air pollution: buses. "Buses and indeed any vehicle with a large diesel power unit that repeatedly puts the engine under load – like pulling away from bus stops – emit the two most carcinogenic chemicals known to science, labelled 3-NBA and 1,8-DNP," MART's press release opined. "Buses are also heavy emitters of nitrogen dioxide and general particulates, both of which are respiratory irritants." It does seem odd that Manchester hasn't retired its smoke-belching buses. The city has one of Europe's busiest bus routes (Oxford Road/Wilmslow Road). It was also the first municipalities to introduce the diesel – electric Econo Optare Solo hybrid bus.

Porsche’s last derivative in the current 911 model lineup, the GT2, clocks-in at a 10.0 on the enough-already- o-meter. Marketologistically speaking, the new GT2 is the "track-oriented" Carrera variant. In layman's terms, it's a 911 Turbo that guzzled Slim Fast and binged on methamphetamines. So what's not to like? 1. the GT2 costs $220k, which is a stupid price to pay for a machine that looks like a $100k orthodontist's car. There are plenty of true exotics at that price point (e.g. the Ferrari F430). As a track car, well, that brings us to number 2. Even practiced Porker pilots deemed the previous GT2 TSTD (Too Scary to Drive). As the next gen GT2's advertising strapline is "Requires Respect," you can bet Stuttgart's newest Xtreme machine will be even more likely to make drivers and passengers scream for their electronic Nanny. So where does that leave the Porsche GT2? Sold out. But besides a handful of early adopters and followers of the German marque de Sade, the rest of the car buying world has a lot better things to think about.

A gaggle of gadget-related blogs are reporting that Japanese electronics stores are selling a clip-on camera for automotive sun visors. The camera's G-force detector starts the camera recording at the onset of sudden deceleration (e.g. braking to avoid smashing into someone's car or actually smashing into someone's car). The system provides up to 15 seconds of pre-accident abd five 5 seconds of post-accident footage. The camera is housed within a heavy-duty magnesium alloy casing, in the hopes that it will survive all but the worst of accidents. The clip-on cam can also record on demand, should you want to show your friends your [pre-crash?] shenanigans. At $412, a visorcam is a high price to pay to prove your innocence (depending)– but cheap compared to a lawsuit.

Former GM subdivision Delphi filed for bankruptcy on October 8, 2005. Despite potential deals with a number of financially well-endowed suitors (including Chrysler's eventual buyer), there they remain. Still bankrupt. Still making parts. The CEO of one of Delphi's partners in the global exhaust biz is none-too-happy with this state of affairs. In an interview with Just-auto.com [full interview by sub], Borsal boss Bos slammed U.S. Chapter 11 rules, claiming that firms emerge from bankruptcy protection with an "artificially low asset base." The exec of the family-run firm says the post-bankruptcy company can then offer products at lower price than companies that have been run responsibly. "I feel that it is grossly unreasonable and unfair." Bos proclaimed. Yes, well, Delphi ain't out of Chapter 11 yet.