MSNBC says Chrysler will build the PT Cruiser through 2009, After that, not. Originally planned as a Plymouth (remember them?), the PT was a big hit in its model year '01 debut. Flash forward seven years and sales are faltering in the face of competition from trendy CUVs and cute utes. As Volkswagen discovered when it brought back the Bug, it's hard to update a model defined by its styling. Chrysler's executive vice president of product development says his people are planning a new small crossover that will provide PT-like functionality. "It's a new market now," Frank Klegon opines. "We think the new vehicle that we're coming with behind it [the PT] will play the role with a different style." Oblivious to '50's film noir, Cerberus' minions will attempt to sustain PT sales to the bottom of the sales pool with the eleventh "special edition:" the Sunset Boulevard Edition. Perhaps they should have called it the "Sunset Edition" and let it go at that.

According to Tecnoride, Safeco Insurance is prototyping a black box which will rat out young drivers who run afoul of their parents driving rules. Safeco's "Safety Beacon" contains a GPS unit to clock speed and location, and a phone system to alert concerned parents. If the driver operates the car outside of several preset boundaries, the gadget can trigger an email notification to parents, along with a text message to the offending party. An Instant Locate feature allows parents to find a Beacon-equipped car (via phone or the ‘net), but it’s “not a breadcrumb-tracking device”. Safeco spokesperson Jim Havens says Beta tests indicate that teens become "better drivers" and transgressions "quickly fall off.” So, can parents expect lower insurance rates as an incentive to sign-up for a $15 a month subscription? “Lower rates, like raising rates, is typically the province of state insurance departments” says Havens. As 007 would say, you must be joking.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that *gasp* drivers still talk on their cell phone whilst 're driving– even after laws were enacted making the practice a ticket-able offence. No surprise there. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that a 2001 cell phone ban in New York State led to a dramatic decline in in-car cellular communications. Three years later and the percentage of drivers using cell phones from behind the wheel went right back up to pre-ban levels. Why? Lax law enforcement; in Chicago cops wrote 13,400 cell phone related tickets as compared to 2.8 million traffic tickets. The study also cites an "above the law" attitude amongst offenders. In other words, there's a large number of cell phone-wielding drivers who believe they're perfectly safe drivers, much like chronic speeders. In this, they are sadly mistaken, as anyone who talks on a cell phone while driving may be as dangerous as a drunk driver.

Robin Chase has the answer to America's car pooling conundrum: Facebook. BusinessWeek reports that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based founder of Zipcar is introducing GoLoco.org, a social networking-based service within Facebook designed to match potential riders and drivers. For those who are worried about the prospect of sharing a car with a total stranger they only know from an on-line conversation, GoLoco.org promises that "checks and balances are in place to make the system as safe as possible." Beyond registering on Facebook, GoLoco users must record a voice clip that tells the planet what they ate for breakfast that day. How knowing a complete stranger's culinary preferences makes them more trustworthy isn't exactly clear, but hopefully GoLoco's name won't ring true for the creepy guy sharing your ride on his way to Spahn's movie ranch.

CNNMoney reports that Volkswagen is considering moving their North American headquarters from Auburn Hills (MI) to an as-yet-undetermined location on the east coast. A "high-level manager in U.S. operations" says the company's considering the move because VeeDub's suits have trouble getting direct flights in and out of Detroit, and potential recruits are not exactly clamoring to move to Motown. Also in the mix: VW's thinking about building a second North American plant. Taking a lead out of Nissan's Nashville songbook, the German automaker might be looking to get management, marketing and manufacturing within eyesight of each other. Fearing another exodus like Comerica or Pfizer, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's office said Tuesday the state is "in touch" with Volkswagen, but declined to "comment on rumors." If that changes, we'd welcome Jenny's shout out below. 

USA Today is running a story headlined "Cities get at illegal immigrants through cars." The article begins with a bold proclamation: "Local officials getting tough on illegal immigrants have a new target: their cars." Only "getting tough" has nothing to do with immigration or deportation. "Communities in Alabama, California, Illinois and elsewhere are using laws that punish drivers without licenses. Cities often tow cars immediately." So drivers without a license get big fines, a tow job and that's it. But wait! Even this approach is under attack. "'There's been a long history of ordinances that don't say anything about immigrants and nothing about national origin, but clearly are aimed at particular groups,' says John Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 'They have uniformly been struck down.'" For example, they're challenging a law in Waukegan, Illinois that fines a driver without a license or insurance $500 and impounds their car (more fees). "Ramon Becerra, regional head of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, says it [the city ordinance] promotes racial profiling. Most drivers whose cars are towed are Hispanic, he says." Am I the only one that wonders why this article never questions the fact that police don't/can't check these dangerous drivers' citizenship and pass their cases to immigration authorities where appropriate? 

Forget the political tussle over Corporate Average Fuel Economy legislation. Business Week's Ed Wallace has the solution to all our energy problems: lower the speed limit. Wallace says if we dropped the highway speed limits to 60 mph and "rigidly enforced them," America would save 96,135,846 gallons of gasoline each and every week." The scribe also states "this single action could resolve our energy problems in seven working days." Mr. Wallace only mentions Ye Olde National Maximum Speed Law of 1974 in passing, even though the legislation introduced the term "double nickel" into the lexicon and put Richard Nixon and Sammy Hagar at opposite ends of the socio-political spectrum. Maybe that's because the national limit didn't save gas. The [admittedly conservative] Heritage Foundation reckons the law reduced gas consumption by one percent, although God knows the ticket revenue was (is?)  phenomenal. 

The flying car is… not a lot closer than it was when a puppet named Mike Mercury took Gerry Anderson's Supercar into the wild blue. According to CNET News, NASA is attempting to rectify the non-situation by stumping up some $2m in prize money for developers of “small seat” experimental airplanes. The space agency's Personal Aircraft Vehicle (PAV) Challenge replaces the agency's in-house development process in favor of "chaotic innovation or ideas hatched in people's garages." PAV fans envision a future where small auto-piloted planes ferry people on “midrange” trips between 100 and 500 miles at speeds up to 150mph. Technologies such as virtual pilot assistants and synthetic vision systems (SVS) could remove pilot error (substituting computer error?) and create virtual highways in the skies. "We're looking at making planes cheaper than cars and as easy to drive.” says pilot Michael Coates of Australia. [BTW: Anderson said he invented Supercar as an excuse to reduce his puppets' walking time, which never looked realistic.]

The Herald Sun reports that coppers down under have developed a "smart" cop car. The Australian National Safety Agency, Victoria Police, Motorola, GM's Holden division and Monash University have created a prototype cruiser by combining a Batcave of crime-fighting equipment: facial and number plate recognition, infra-red scanners, front/rear cameras, an integrated on-board computer and a device "that attaches a sticky GPS transponder to a car being pursued." If a fleeing felon doesn't get out of the way during pursuit, RoboCopCar broadcasts a "direct local radio message warning of an approaching emergency vehicle." LAPD is working with Aussie coppers on the prototype; they're not saying if American modifications will include a coffee maker and donut dispenser.

What was that about no good deed going unpunished? As TTAC has opined previously, the current vogue for bio-fuels is set to ratify the Law of Unintended Consequences. Reporting from the World Water Week conference Sweden, researchers from the Stockholm International Water Institute forecast that biofuel production will double current agricultural demand for water. Cuba's Granma News Agency quotes Spokesman David Trouba’s warning that the shift will take its toll on indigenous people. "Where will the water to grow the food needed to feed a growing population come from if more and more water is diverted to crops for bio-fuels production?" The problem of water for ethanol production is hardly confined to the third world; an average American plant uses about 2m gallons of water per day. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (amongst others) is studying the issue.

The New York Sun reports that Queens City Council member and the head of their environmental protection committee (who knew?) is about to introduce legislation to ban smoking in cars carrying minors. If James "James" Genaro gets his way, Queen's finest will soon be fining child-schlepping smokestacks between $200 to $400 for their first such offense, $500 to $1k for the second violation and between $1k and $2k for a third violation (provided all tickets are issued within a year of each other, and I have no idea why there's a range of fines). The move comes on the heels of a citywide ban on smoking in restaurants and clubs and similar vehicular anti-puffing legislation enacted in Rockland County. As for the right to privacy objection, Genaro was taciturn: "You can't subject kids to 43 carcinogens and 250 poisonous chemicals and claim privacy. Get over it. Their right to privacy doesn't extend so far as to poisoning kids."

Lazy automotive writers love assignments on Korean vehicles. The review practically writes itself: just recap a few Letterman-esque Hyundai jokes, feign shock at how much the brand has come along, issue some heavily-qualified praise ("it's endearingly almost Toyota-like!") and Bob's your uncle. We here at TTAC reckon it's time to stop treating the Korean brands like they’re special-needs children. It's time to judge these vehicles against their own self-proclaimed brand values. The Kia Spectra: "Simply put, it's a blast to drive." Simply put, we'll see about that.

This website has been skeptical of Tesla Motors’ claims for their lithium-ion-powered Roadster since day one. While some readers think we’ve “had it in” for the California-based car company, rest assured TTAC is an equal opportunity muckraker. Anyway, yesterday, when Martin Eberhard revealed that he’d relinquished Tesla's top job, we held fire to avoid accusations of smug satisfaction. But Eberhard’s email to Tesla customers piqued our interest. As Tesla has yet to deliver a single customer car, by thy words thy shall be known.

Creativity thrives in times of chaos and transition. Dada was born in World War I. Punk Rock arrived in the strife-torn streets of 1970s New York City. Automotive engineering– the art of bringing order to chaos– also fits this template. German automakers did some of their most innovative work in the turbulent years immediately after WWII. And now that environmental regulations and changing business conditions have upset the international automotive applecart, we’re looking at another explosion of engineering creativity. Ground zero for some of this work: the alternative propulsion experiments of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) collegiate branches. 

For the sixth consecutive year, Lexus will hang out its shingle at the National Police Fleet Managers Association Conference in Swindon, UK. According to Easier Motoring, the brand will be "demonstrating the qualities that make Lexus models ideal for police work." ToMoCo's hybrid models are already popular with UK law enforcement fleet managers, known for their low operating costs and reliability. Meanwhile, the McCook (IL) police department's approaching its patrol car needs from a more "traditional" perspective. Suburban Life reports they've just taken delivery of two Hemified Dodge Chargers. The Chief's making no bones about his carbon-oblivious reasoning: "The new cars are painted metallic black with white graphics that are slightly slanted. McCook Police Chief Frank Wolfe hopes that these graphics give the effect that the cars are moving very quickly, and that they cannot be outrun… 'With the new cars, people will notice us, and hopefully, in most cases that will stop them from committing a crime.'" Old School.