At the "Frankfurt Motor Show India Day," Indian government and business representatives scolded Germany for their lackadaisical attitude towards the world's largest democracy. "When I speak to German companies", said the Indian Minister for Heavy Industries, "they say the Indian market for small cars is too competitive. But I tell them, you cannot afford to ignore this country, because it is as big as all of Europe, and is growing faster than any other place." Volkswagen AG's Joerg Müller said hold up: VW's offering the Passat and (wait for it) Phaeton to India. Another Indian official said get on with it, mate. "You need to combine German engineering excellence with Indian software ability and low costs to produce a competitive, mass-market product." Meanwhile, according to Spiegel, France's Renault has established a new R&D center in India, where it is developing a Three-Thousand-Dollar car". 2,000 engineers will work on a model which will severely undercut Renault-Nissan-Dacia's present €8,000.00 "Logan" model, but will probably won't make its way to Europe.

After introducing a relative handful of Americans to the dubious joys of the Trailblazer-based, TTAC TWAT-winning (Ten Worst Automobiles Today) 9-7x, Saab has decided to try to reach its magical 200k sales per year goal by building another SUV. This erstwhile Swede will wear the stinking badge "Hecho en Mexico" and sit on a hybrid Epsilon 2 / Theta platform. Which makes you wonder: if a GM division modifies a "shared" platform so much that it's no longer interchangable with its "world car" colleagues, what the Hell's the point? Why not just build a new platform? Anyway, word has it that Saab's Mexican minions will fit the 9-4 with their new AWD system. The Euro-Saab's sweet turbo diesel engine will probably never make it to the USA (naturally). The looks are typically Swedish– via the outer rings of Saturn. A Cadillac version is also planned, as the fate of GM's "premium" brand makes the Rape of Lucretia seem like gentle seduction.

[Look for Justin Berkowitz' editorial on Cadillac tomorrow morning.] 

About 20 years ago, my wife and I visited Japan on behalf of a travel magazine. We explored the area around rural Kyushu, Japan’s Polish joke. Back then, Japanese travel was still a little adventuresome. And it was hard to scope out Japanese customs in these hinterlands. After a couple of mornings at Japanese inns, we realized that we were the only guests who didn’t breakfast in our bathrobes (kimonos). The next day we came down naked as Britney under our bathrobes. For reasons I never discerned, everybody else was dressed in suits. Lamborghini must have felt the same way at the Frankfurt Auto Show. 

I'm sure many of you share "the one that got away" syndrome. You know: the car you should have bought for peanuts and stashed away. My two four-wheeled pangs are a neighbor’s Dino and my old man's Mercedes Benz 300SEL 6.3. I know both of these cars were/are hideously expensive to maintain, and that time has this way of making cars you haven't driven in twenty years seem like great cars when, in fact, a Volkswagen GTI could run rings around them. Well not so fast Mr, Bond. I had the pleasure of driving a 6.3 in England before the country's anti-speeding jihad lead to the existence of more speeding cameras than ear, nose and throat specialists. It was just as fun steering that bad boy with my right foot. It was still a blast watching puff of blue smoke as the points cleared themselves at rock steady triple digit speeds. And it still smelled wonderful. As for the Dino, a properly restored (rebuilt?) model proves the old saw about having more fun driving a slow car fast than a fast car slow. It's wonderfully balanced and incredibly charismatic. If I looked around today for cars I would stash if I could stash cars, I'd go with my Boxster S (3.4-liter, 19's), the E55 Mercedes station wagon and, get this, a Corvette-engined Chevrolet SSR. Which you can still buy new.  

If you ran one of Volvo's two ad agencies, would you team-up with the other guys and sell the brand's internationally-famous reputation for safety? Of course you would, but you don't, and the people who do consider Volvo's safety shtick "a ladder to something else" and "felt being a family car was limiting the brand's appeal." Prepare to enter the world of the Armani-clad ad folk of Nitro (London) and Arnold (Boston). The companies interviewed car valets around the world– validated their insights with quantitative studies– to reveal that "89% of Volvo drivers put a premium on togetherness and sharing, while competitive model owners see their cars as an extension of themselves and more likely to pursue individual interests." Advertising Age reports the result: six global TV spots based on the theme "Life is better lived together." Just in case the touchy feely message didn't fly with Volvo's lame duck owners, Volvo's director-global advertising linked the new spin with the old spin. "Volvo is not a cold, rational brand," Tim Ellis opined. "Safety is about enhancing the quality of life for people inside and outside the car." Not to sound like spam, but how many of you non-Volvo drivers feel suitably enhanced? 

I sometimes get sentimental for the Good Old Days, a bygone era when gas was cheap (and the good stuff was called Ethyl), back seats were the ticket to romance, and tailfins were a mark of distinction, rather than bad taste. Back in the day, the coolest metal was Detroit born-and-bred, bearing real nameplates that paid homage to fast animals and faraway places and auto races, not to alphanumeric jumbles inspired by IRS tax forms. It was during one of these recent waves of nostalgia that I found myself looking forward to spending some quality time flogging one of America’s last remaining full-size touring sedans, the Grand Prix. That is, until I drove one.

When TTAC revealed its Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) awards for 2006, the Jeep Compass "won" the second slot. "A pox on their house for building the Compass," William C. Montgomery wrote in his summary. It's "an ugly, gangly, underpowered, mud-aversive half-breed… turning all who see it– or God forbid buy it– into grotesque, bobble-headed morons." China Knowledge is reporting that Chrysler is now sharing this transformational tragedy with consumers in The People's Republic of China. In fact, they plan to sell 50k of them to unsuspecting Chinese. BTW, the move was initiated long before America received tens of millions of lead-painted toys. 

The New York Times (NYT) is reporting that contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and GM "appeared on the verge of collapse Sunday night." On the other hand, "the tenor of negotiations can change rapidly" and "despite the deadlock, a walkout at G.M. did not seem likely." In other words, the NYT doesn't know jack. That said, Michelle Maynard’s speculation "inside sources" seem spot-on about one of the major sticking points: "Mr. Gettelfinger also was pushing for G.M. to put more cash in the health care trust, called a voluntary employee benefit association, or VEBA." We concur with the concept: the UAW wants the health care superfund funded with as much cash as possible, GM doesn't have cash (and getting more would be ruinously expensive) and the union isn't exactly wild about taking most of their payoff in GM stock (despite the expected surge in GM's stock price once the deal goes down) because they're not convinced GM can stave off Chapter 11; leaving their members without health care. They'll eventually settle on a mix, and GM will [re] guarantee a certain number of union jobs. Hey, if you're gonna speculate…

Obviously, we're translating fairly loosely here. But it's clear that USA Today car reviewer James R. Healey is no fan of Buick's new luxury CUV. Although Healey's article pronounces the badge-engineered Enclave "a truly different vehicle" than the near-identical GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook, he concurs with this writer's opinion that it's one ugly ass vehicle. "The styling is overdone and the details undercut what appeal it has. Enclave tortures the slim, straight elegance of Outlook and Acadia. Enclave's detailing — the faux portholes, the overlarge grille (so thin and flexible on the test vehicle that it twisted in your hands when the hood was raised), the sloping side windows and inexplicably ovaled rear window — harass the eye and reduce what already was limited rear visibility." And THEN the Enclave's power seat moved in fits and starts, the autobox hunted for gears like a truffle-crazed pig with a cold (as reported on TTAC) and the fuel economy sank to 14mpg. (All the The General horses and all the General's men couldn't raise the Enclave's fuel economy again.) Despite his obvious distaste for the model, Healey couldn't quite bring himself to deliver the coupe de grace: "Overall:  Poor rear visibility and overwrought styling make the mechanically identical Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia seem like better machines." And in comparison to its REAL competition? Or is that it?

Top Gear (TG) presenter James May’s nickname is Captain Slow. As you’d expect from a country where sarcasm is a team sport, the moniker disses Mr. May’s driving skills. But the nickname could just as easily refer to May’s intellectual agility. Like automotive alpha Jeremy Clarkson, May is always happy to take an analytical shortcut, especially if it leads to some good old fashioned America bashing. Writing about his recent stateside sojourn in the Telegraph– "Eat Junk, Drive Junk"– May once again reveals that the U.S. and the UK are two nations separated by British snobbery.

A debadged Ford Falcon blasts down a country road in what seems like a new car ad– and then fishtails and somersaults into a ditch. For some reason, Ford isn't exactly enamored by the New Zealand government's latest anti-speeding TV campaign. Ford claims the $2m (NZ)  TV spot is a riff on their ad for a Falcon XR6 aired three years ago. What's more, the new Falcon's stability control render the crash depicted in the ad "highly unlikely." Well, that's part of the argument Ford's lawyers will use in a high court petition if LTZN doesn't yank the ad inäianei. The New Zealand Herald reports that Ford Spokesperson Clare Ponton gilded the rhetorical lily by suggesting that a number of concerned customers contacted Ford about the ad, "indicating the car is easily identifiable as a Ford." And that some Falcon owners completely missed the point of the government's anti-speeding message. 

I'd love to produce a TTAC TV program. Can you imagine? Now, try to imagine a network that accepts automotive advertising putting us on the air. It behooves fans of Top Gear to remember that the program is a BBC production. In other words, it's aired on a non-commercial channel funded by a mandatory TV tax that's enforced by roving cat loony TV detector vans. There's no way the egomaniacal Mr. Clarkson could bully his co-hosts and pontificate on the crapitude of crap cars (or the sexual pleasures of fast ones) with such ill-mannered, bombastic, no-holds-barred abandon if his cart and pony show aired on American commercial TV. Realistically, the only U.S. media outlet that could/would air a TTAC TV show would be PBS or one of the paid cable channels. While we're ready to go on our end, I'm not actively pursuing such a venture. No time. Which reminds me: we're looking for an intern. No pay, lots of responsibilities, work from home. Applicants must suffer from at least mild auto-related OCD and have a basic command of the English language as she is spoke. Drop an email to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com. Oh and no major ego issues please. That's my purview. 

We've said it here time and time again: there is no perception gap between what The Big 2.8 build and how the public perceives it. Or, a little more generously, it's a level playing field. If GM, Ford and Chrysler are reaping what they sowed, so are Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and every other automaker on planet earth, And yet today's Wall Street Journal confers renewed legitimacy upon this pathetic excuse for losers. "'Building a better car and assuming people will buy it doesn't work,' GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told reporters at this week's Frankfurt Auto Show. GM, he said, 'can do a better job' marketing its vehicles." So GM has better vehicles and their $2.9b ad spend ain't getting it done. Same old, same old. But the article's intro is by far the worst piece of diss-information. It reveals that CNW research takes a Toyota Camry, removes any identifying logos and tells consumers it's a new model from one of the U.S.-based auto makers. "If they think it's an American car, the perception of the vehicle falls dramatically," said Art Spinella, vice president of the Bandon, Ore.-based firm. "Detroit really gets a bum rap in the U.S." Or not.

As the Smart ForTwo prepares for its U.S. debut, its manufacturer is busy spinning their mini (not MINI) marvel to the U.S. press as the ultimate green machine. “America has never been more ready for a car like this,” Smart’s U.S. Prez David Schembri told CNN, after ticking off a list of issues including urban congestion, the cost of gas and general “economic concerns”. America maybe; the American media most definitely. After posing the obvious left-leaning question– “Can a culture that prides itself on big houses and jumbo sport-utility vehicles really fall for a car roughly the size of a golf cart?”– Lake accompanied Schembri for a spin in Smart’s SUV toe-jam through the mean streets of Manhattan. She pronounced the Smart “zippy” and, setting aside any pretense of journalistic objectivity, ejaculated “oh this fabulous.” All in all, Schembri would have to agree. 

Pity the poor analysts over at Resource Investor. How do you measure current and projected oil importation and consumption in a country as enormous, secretive and chaotic as China? Still, this is one of the best reports on the subject I've seen. It includes a look at the country's rush to build new oil refineries and an explanation of the effect of "teapot" operations on supply. The bottom line's at the bottom: "Vehicle ownership in China is expected to double to about 55 million vehicles over the next five years, as falling prices encourage consumers to purchase cars… The ever increasing number of vehicles in China will help sustain the growth in both oil demand and transportation, driven by the country's rapid economic growth. Moreover, this will offset any efforts by the Chinese government to curb oil demand and imports." So rising international oil prices then? Depends on the supply, obviously. If the peak oil prognosticators are right… uh-oh.