Although TTAC hasn't posted on the new Knight Rider TV series– why would we?– I still felt obliged to watch the premier on your behalf; just in case the show did something so stupid it deserved mention here. Other than the fact that a Ford Mustang GT500KR couldn't outrun a Ford Edge, and KITT lived in a world populated entirely by Ford products, and the "shape shifting" KITT always transformed into a lower-priced, different colored Mustang (now there's a disguise), and a Ford commercial featuring both the lead actor and the lead car confused me as to which was the commercial and which was, uh, the longer commercial and… where was I? Oh yes, I missed gay KITT. KITT's new voice sounded like a "nice" HAL 9000 (i.e. monotone without the menace). Can I have a plausible plot line KITT? I'm sorry —- , I'm afraid I can't do that. (What WAS that character's name?) If the producers of this snoozefest had taken their cue from the original show (or, better yet, Woody Allen's Sleeper) and camped-up KITT, they would have had a major HITT on their hands. There were hints; the chief baddie's makeup-accented cheekbones and over-plucked eyebrows identified him as a closeted cross-dresser (which isn't necessarily a gay predilection, but you know what I mean). I will say this: the babe had nice eyes.  

Thanks to the rapidly expanding Chinese and Indian automotive markets, iron ore prices are soaring. CNNMoney reports Asia's three largest steelmakers have been hit with a 65 percent increase in iron ore prices from Brazil's Vale (the world's largest ore producer). Unsurprisingly, other large ore producers are expected to follow suit. Even though the trend will increase steel prices and thus production costs, Toyota says prevailing economic conditions (a.k.a. a stagnant Japanese new car market) means they can't hike up prices at home. ToMoCo Prez Katsuaki Watanabe says "It's hard for us to pass on the impact of higher steel material costs to our product prices under current circumstances. We have to cope with increased material costs by reducing our product costs." Translation: either Toyota will have to to cut other operating expenses or use profits from overseas operations to keep the home operations afloat. Sound familiar? [Props to starlightmica for the link]

According to American Honda VP Dan Bonawitz, Honda is the BMOC when it comes to automotive innovation, and that includes hybrids, clean diesels and fuel cells. As EV World reports, just don't put an E in front of Honda (either automotive or pharmaceutical). The Japanese automaker's investigating various electric drive technologies and may still introduce a hybrid-electric CR-Z sports car, BUT Honda isn't impressed enough with current battery technology enough to pursue a true electric vehicle. Bonawitz would rather talk about the new, improved FCX Clarity, in which the fuel cell system and battery pack take-up no more space than a gasoline-electric hybrid power plant. Bonawitz estimates that Honda's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is three times more efficient than an equivalent conventional gas burner and 2.5 times more efficient than a compact hybrid. He rates the Clarity's EPA combined cycle at 68 mpg with a 60 percent reduction in CO2 emissions. Bonawitz also claims that the Clarity's tank-to-wheel efficiency has been improved to 60 percent. For some reason, he glosses over the hydrogen production inefficiencies. Until that process stops being a net energy loser, the fool cell label sticks.

According to The Los Angeles Times, “Americans are getting serious about using less gasoline.” To wit: one James Eric Freedner. The Sun Valley legal secretary got so fed up with high gasoline prices that he tucked his Toyota Tacoma in the garage, switched to motorcycle commuting, stopped driving to the beach on weekends and began grouping errands. "The price [of gas] was just eating up what I earned,” Freedner kvetched. “This is the best thing I can do to make ends meet." Point taken. "Raise the price high enough, and you will see that there is a lot more that people can do,” says Edward Leamer, an economist at UCLA. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released study, The Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets, asserts rising gas prices has motorists taking fewer trips, driving slower and paying premiums for the most fuel-efficient vehicles. Your tax money hard at work.

Two weeks ago to the day, Frank Williams provided a heads-up on the impact of the coming credit crunch on new car sales. Automotive News [AN, sub] now reports that some small regional banks have stopped making loans through auto dealerships. Even the big boy's auto loan departments– Chase Auto Finance, AmeriCredit Corp., Wells Fargo Auto Finance, Mechanics Bank and Sovereign Bank– are reining-in their metaphorical horns. And that's led "many would-be consumers to buy cheaper models, or purchase a used vehicle instead. If customers with shaky credit can get loans at all, often they must make a bigger down payment, pay higher interest rates and accept loans of shorter duration." And here's the kicker: "Consumers with subprime credit ratings buy nearly 30 percent of all new vehicles." Oh wait, that's not the kicker. This is: "Dealers are more dependent than ever on automakers' captive lenders. The captives appear more willing than independent lenders to make subprime loans in what is shaping up as the worst year in a decade for new-vehicle sales." Which will be true (the loan part) right until it isn't. And if GMAC goes down, look for all Hell to break loose.  

The Maserati GranTurismo is one of the most beautiful cars gracing today's roads. It's literally breath-taking. Sketching a smaller coupe to seat near this automotive masterpiece was an intimidating process, but someone's got to make a living. Anyway, we know that Maserati GranTurismo is heavily inspired by the Birdcage concept. I imagined that the smaller and sportier coupe can take the resemblance to that stunning concept car one step closer. The whole car is lower and looks wider than its sib. I've also made the Maserati grille lower and bigger, framed by more aggressive aerodynamic elements. The smaller lights are also intended to make the car appear as if it's squinting at you. I can't say that my result will be a match for the final creation of Pinifarina, but I look forward to deferring to the master.

[For more Avarvarii photochopistry, click here]

To paraphrase the Bard, "there's many a slip between the cup and the transfer of over a billion dollars into a bank account." TTAC has been studiously avoiding all those "Tata Motors about to complete Jag and Landie sale" stories filling our competitors' columns. Just as a week is a long time in politics, "soon" is a meaningless term in corporate buy-outs. And now comes word from the Times of India that Ford's U.K. unions are part of FoMoCo's problem, not its solution. Apparently, the unions are unhappy about "issues of job security and retaining production capacity in England." Although Ford has steadfastly refused to retain a stake in Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR), union leaders are pressing Ford to extract long-term commitments for their services re: production of engines, axles and other major components. The Times reports that Ford is "independently negotiating" continued support to Tata Motors post purchase. "When contacted, a senior Ford official insisted that the sale process of JLR was independent of the talks with the Unions." In other words, this one's still set to run and run… 

WFAA reports that the Dallas City Council will “consider” creating a commission to "to help ensure that camera-enforced intersections are selected without regard to the ethnic or socioeconomic characteristics of the area in which the intersections are located." A little history… In September of 2007, the Dallas city council approved 40 more red light cameras (for a total of 100), more than doubling the size of their contract with Affiliated Computer Services ("We believe the impossible is possible, and that giving up is not an option). In 2007, Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt asked her colleagues to delay the vote; she believed council members did not have adequate information on whether the cameras caused more rear-end collisions at intersections. In the end, the need to fill Dallas’ city coffers ruled the day: had the council delayed the vote, they would have been forced to plug a $140k hole in the ‘07 – ‘08 budget. Why? Revenue from the additional, yet-to-be-approved cameras was already included in the City Manager’s budget proposal. Meanwhile, Lubbock Texas turned off its red-light cameras on Feb. 15th, after a study showed an increase in rear-end collisions at all intersections in the Panhandle city. And now you know the news.

Of all Ford's fiascos to flail-on about, FoMoCo's "F" fanaticism seems the most fantastic. And yet Detroit News columnist Dannny Howes figures "Ford's 'F' fixation fouls its future." Howes focuses on the fact that Ford's new "Fiesta" joins a farrago of F-named product, and fustigates Ford for its Fabian fustiness. The fastuous scribe's also freaked about the Flex. "Are they really gonna call it the Flex, a person familiar with the situation tells me the new guy asked. Yes, Chairman Bill Ford replied, echoing [VP of Marketing Jim] Farley's skepticism. Then the über-boss added that Mulally wasn't too keen on the name, either. Which ought to tell you something, and it's this: 17 months of the Mulally era — a $23 billion recap plan, a landmark contract with the United Auto Workers, a global effort to coalesce Ford's fiefdoms into a single unit — have failed to relegate the past to the past and instead focus intensely on the future." It tells me that Mulally's minions have made their mentor meable to Manichean mansuetude. Or something like that.

As reported by Forbes and many others, Chyrsler CEO Bob Nardelli attended yesterday's 50th anniversary running of the Daytona 500. In a magna-nimous moment, Boot 'em Bob told the teams with Dodge decals on their cars (ostensibly, Dodge Chargers) that if any of them won the race, he'd give the team an extra $1m. After last year's pitiful performance by the Mopar racers, it looked like Cerberus' money was safe. And so it was, until the last lap, when Penske' Racing's Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch came from behind and blasted past leader Tony Stewart in his Toyota, grabbing first and second places for Dodge. In fact, Dodges were in six of the top eight places. While the finishes were impressive, you have to wonder how Chrysler can afford to keep pouring money into racing. With all the factories they're closing, all the jobs they're cutting and all the suppliers they owe, you'd think they'd need every spare buck they could find. Still, an execs gotta get out of the office every now and then…

While we've taken Detroit to task for its lousy supplier relations (nose, face, spite, rhinoplasty, etc.), we finally get a look at the Plastech showdown from Chrysler's perspective. It's buried at the bottom of a Crain's Business Detroit article on their "Crain's Newsmaker of the Year" award to United Auto Workers' boss Ron Gettelfinger. After Big Ron wishes [unionized] Plastech well, we learn that "During court testimony last week, Douglas Doran, director of interior procurement, said Chrysler had been monitoring Plastech's financial condition for more than a year through Southfield-based BBK Ltd. BBK told Chrysler that Plastech was having trouble paying suppliers and had violated agreements with its lenders." And so "Chrysler twice participated in bailout agreements with other customers [GM? Ford?] over the past year, including in January when it contributed $10.7 million to help bail out Plastech. Chrysler attached conditions to each bailout agreement granting Chrysler the right to relocate its tools at any time." Yes, well, Chrysler acknowledged that Plastech has an additional $13.4 million of equipment for which the automaker didn't pay. Meanwhile, we hear that "Plastech's production quality was falling. In 2007, Chrysler issued 449 'quality tickets' to Plastech for 'non-conforming material.'" That's a lot of deeply worrying info, especially the bit about "other" supplier bailouts. Could this thing snowball? We shall see. [NB: Federal Judge Phillip Shefferly is set to rule on ownership of the disputed tools tomorrow, at 4pm.] 

"Managing expectations." It's a term near and dear to the hearts of the people who pull our politicians' strings. Increasingly, it's the rhetorical weapon of choice for executives seeking to maintain their grip on America's large corporations. While there's nothing wrong with casting your company's efforts in a positive light, the danger is both simple and lethal. When a company's culture becomes based on hype, it loses its ability to react to reality– both good and bad. It becomes lost in the fog of war. One such company is GM.

I'm piloting a vehicle with a mid-mounted engine coupled to a close ratio transmission. The steering feel transmitted through the chunky helm is sublime, matching Bimmers of yore. Wearing a maniacal grin, I [hypothetically] pitch my whip into a corner at an [allegedly] injudicious speed, listening to the engine, passengers and tires scream. As I clip the apex, I punch the throttle. The powerplant howls as the chassis adopts hooligan-induced oversteer. I saw at the wheel, maintaining a sideways slide. Audi RS4? Chevrolet Corvette? Nope. I'm driving a tall, skinny, eight-passenger Nissan Urvan.

While BMW and Porsche look like they're intent on reducing their brand equity, other car makers are busy attacking the field of sporty & sexy. First, FIAT announced it's rejuvenating the Abarth brand. Abarths were small cars that buzzed and bit, and stung like the scorpion in the company's logo. Abarth was fierce in the 1960s, sad in the 1970s and dead by 1980, but enthusiasts still lust for the cachet. And now Alpine. I'll never forget a nail-biting drive a friend gave me in 1982 in his A110, when he out-accelerated and out-maneuvered a Porsche 911E. From 1954 to 1994, Alpines were ass-engined fun cars for pistonheads who wanted an alternative to Porsche, and could live with a degree of rawness, as well as with so-so reliability. And now, according to AM Online, Renault-Nissan (incidentally, upon acquisition of Russia's Avtovaz now the world's third largest carmaker) is working on two Alpine-branded models: an affordable, fun to drive sports car and a top-of-the-line luxury model. "Think Mazda MX-5 or even Smart Roadster and you are on the right lines", said a Renault exec. "Ideally we would like to have an affordable sports car on a rear wheel drive platform that is great fun to drive.” Renault is rumoured to be unveiling a 'desirable' concept car (possibly re-introducing the Alpine name) at the Geneva Motor Show on March 4. We will report from Switzerland, and rejoice should the day cometh.