Subarus are supposed to be the Birkenstock sandal of the automotive world; simple, robust cars with a certain sense of style that doesn't care about current fads. Alternatively, you could say a Subie used to be what a VW used to be (before Ferdinand Piech started messing with the brand) plus a boxer engine (once a key VW characteristic) and standard all-wheel-drive. In recent years, Subaru's image has become less and less clear. The automaker's desire to escape the granola ghetto first gave us the Tribeca, and then the new Impreza. And now we have a new Forester; an answer the question that in the past didn't have to be asked: what is a Subaru?

Again, TTAC is not against junketing per se. Although invitations to manufacturer-sponsored events rarely cross our e-transom (for some unfathomable reason), we have tested cars on the carmakers' dime. All we ask is that automotive publications specifically declare any and all financial contributions towards any given editorial content, within eyesight of the relevant text. In other words, tell readers/viewers if you're drinking the corporate Kool-Aid. OK, now, you may recall that I recently wrote an editorial taking Ford to task for their new "Drive One" campaign. So it was with some interest that I read today's Autoblog post on that very subject. Scribe Jeremy Korzeniewski couldn't have been more an enthusiastic cheerleader if he'd waved pom-poms. "After spending a few days with Ford's main-marketing-man Jim Farley and his team, we can truly say that the excitement surrounding the company's new Drive One marketing strategy is palpable." Uh-oh. "They let us tag along so we could see what all the fuss is about, and the dealers we spoke to seemed pretty pumped about Drive One and felt that Farley's new team at Ford was finally listening to them and doing something with their input. Keep reading to find out what else we heard in Sin City." Or don't. But either way, somehow I don't think AOL picked-up the tab for this bit of reportage. We ask Autoblog to either categorically deny this logical assumption or add a suitable disclaimer at the bottom of their post.

UPDATE: Autoblog has added a disclaimer. We thank them for their rapid and appropriate response, and hope that full disclosure will become the website's standard policy.  

Yes folks, despite the drastic downturn in new car sales, the so-called credit crisis is now so bad that new car dealers are being forced to not to drown their customers in debt. The Cleveland Plain Dealer (of all things) reports this new, un-American disconnect between what people can afford and what they can buy. "People with decent credit aren't able to get the terms they think they should get," said Michelle Primm, managing partner of the Cascade Auto Group in Cuyahoga Falls and a special director of the National Automobile Dealers Association. Which raises an important question: was Elvis a NADA special director? Did he get a badge? Anyway, some dealers are welcoming this new sense of realism– now. "'When you have dealers that say they can get anybody a loan, they're selling financing,' said Pat O'Brien, owner of Chevrolet dealerships in Medina, Willoughby and Westlake. 'They're not selling the car.' He added that loan terms offered to people with poor credit were often so bad that they would have been better off not buying.'" Who knew?

Ouch, the metablogging is hurting my face. Toyota posted to their Open Road blog today with a post so genius they may not even know what it is.

A New Small Sports Car on the Horizon
– Scott Deyager, Corporate Communications

You may have heard that as part of strengthened corporate ties between Toyota Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan, Toyota and Subaru, which is owned by Fuji, announced plans last week to collaborate on a new small sports car.
We pay by the period here. Semicolons are also expensive. That's why I will continue to use plastic forks, knives, and commas I stole from the diner downstairs.

While the market introduction for this vehicle apparently is targeted for the end of 2011,
Apparently! Ha, I so nailed you new media! I'm implying that you have set a release date without info! Booya!

speculation on blogs, and in newspapers, already is vibrating along nicely.
Screw you, "blogs." And I guess you newspapers, too.

A report last week
Really leveraging the speed of blog posting to your advantage, I see…

in Japan's Asahi newspaper
Which readers of this American Toyota site probably know nothing about, since we had to explain that a company called "Fuji Heavy Industries" is in Japan.
But seriously folks, that's Toyota's great example of assumptions going overboard? Japanese publications are notorious for predictions, concept sketches and photoshops.

speculates
There's that word again.

that this car will be powered by one of Subaru's flat-four engines.
Yep, let's mock them for being optimistic that a 4-cylinder engine with a low center of gravity, which is easily configured to run power to the back wheels, would be the engine in the car. Rather than the cynical assumption they should have made that we're going to stick a Subaru logo on a Scion tC, and then take the rest of the day off.

Other speculation suggests
Okay, seriously, try a thesaurus.

that it will be rear-wheel drive, that it could go on sale as early as 2011, and that it will sell for less than $20,000.
Which we at corporate know would be too expensive (rwd), our engineers need to sleep (2011), and are you monkey crazy (<$20k)?

Stay tuned for updates surrounding this exciting new collaboration.
I'll bet you thought we were going to tell you some information. Validate or invalidate one of the rumors. Or even give you corporate vague-speak about how mostly one company's parts will be used. Well YOU THOUGHT WRONG, baby! High five! I got you so good! Oh also, please continue to come to our site again. When? Every day. Gotta convince the bosses that this blogging thing has legs.

It finally happened. Over the last few months there have been days (weeks?) where premium fuel here in Los Angeles has cost me $3.99 a gallon. Keeping in mind that gas stations are dirty cheats, I actually paid $3.99 9/10 per gallon. But those days are long gone. This very morning, I filled up my beloved WRX to the frankly shocking tune of $4.06. Or $4.06 9/10 in dirty cheatin' gas station speak. Now, I don't live in what you would call a "nice" part of town, so I'm assuming other parts of LA are getting dinged a bit more (or, much more). There are those who will of course argue that I shouldn't be griping. Our gas is still cheap compared to the rest of the planet, adjusted for real income, today's prices aren't much worse than they were in the 1970s, I'm lucky I can afford to buy gas, etc. But, $48.84 for 12 gallons of fuel, well, that's $400 a month the way I drive. Which is a lot. Other news: oil hit $112 a barrel. Happy days. Anyhow, you?

A report by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor MI concludes that Detroit will begin hiring again as soon as September, and should add some 46k jobs by 2016. According to Detroit News, the report is based on "interviews with Big Three officials and others in the auto industry," so, y'know… have that salt ready. The average age of UAW workers in Michigan is 50, and the majority of new hires between now and 2016 will be replacements for retiring and bought out workers. In fact, Michigan's 129k industry employees will dwindle to about 108k by 2016, says the report. Replacements for longtime UAW workers will fall under the new two-tier wage structure, meaning Detroit's hirings will not only be under replacement levels, but they will also contribute greatly to declining wages in the industry. Factor in projected labor shortages for skilled workers in Michigan, and the Detroit News' headline seems more than a little overoptimistic. But hey, this is what passes for good news in Detroit these days.

CAFE standards could rise as far as 75mpg by 2030. So sayeth the director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, speaking to (at?) the Society of Automotive Engineers. The Detroit News reports that Marge Oge told the assembled throngs that making a 50 percent (from 2000 levels) cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050– a widely-held goal amongst the green movement's chattering classes– would require steady improvements in vehicle efficiency. Ya think? She think. "The political, economic and regulatory landscape in the United States and globally has changed dramatically over the past year," said Oge. "The reality is the pace of change will not be letting up anytime soon." With one billion cars projected to be on the road globally by 2030, and oil demand by China and India set to double in the same period, Oge says the industry "needs to be thinking of those investments for the long term basis." Oge also revealed an internal EPA study which concludes that automakers will be able to meet the 2020 35mpg CAFE standard by 2018 with cost-effective measures, despite industry grousing. How's that then?

TTAC's monthly By The Numbers editorial tracks everything from fuel-sucking SUVs to the gas-sipping Prius. In this month's report, the sales stat were bleak almost across the board. Almost, but not quite. Economy car sales are, as you'd expect, relatively robust. To bring a little joy to readers fed-up with a steady stream of bad news, I decided to chart new car sales for subcompacts and compacts from the "Big 6:" Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan and Toyota). The stats run for all of '07, and year-to-date. Here's how the so-called bottom of the automotive food chain is looking, with review links and inventory levels thrown-in for good measure…

A Brown University business professor once told me that one of America's greatest strengths is its ability to assimilate anything. While Bill O'Reilly rants on and on about our capitalistic society's moral degradation– like one of those nose hair-infested codgers who starts every sentence with "Back in MY day"– our profit-driven culture is actually extremely healthy. It takes the worst possible elements, sanitizes them and sells them into the mainstream. White suburban teens listen to gangsta rap while studying for their SATs. The gangstas end-up on Cribs, showing the world what's in their closet-sized Sub-Zero. SUVs are following a similar pattern. These planet-killas are gradually being domesticated into CUVs. The new Honda Pilot's obvious visual reference to its "no gallon of gas left unguzzled" SUV ancestors is just window dressing. I'm sure it's suitably frugal and considerably cleaner than Bill O'Reilly's phone calls. Of course, that opens a hole in the market for something "real;" a car that appeals to the street cred set. SUVs are done. Muscle cars are Avenged. What's next? Combat-styled EVs? Whatever it is, TTAC will be here to share the love. Whatever love is.

Ford is boosting production of its Focus compact by nearly 30 percent. Dow Jones (via CNN Money) reports that FoMoCo will use overtime and Saturday shifts to raise Focus output at their Wayne, MI plant from 191k to 245k units per year. Ford sold 49,070 Focii in the first quarter of this year, up 23 percent from the year previous. Even better, retail (non-fleet) sales bounced by 35 percent. Ford claims the Focus' SYNC voice-activated media system ("play Fatman in the Bathtub") has given it an edge over its competition. Unfortunately, Ford's exclusive rights to the Microsoft technology powering SYNC expires in November– leaving the Focus with little more than low price and way-better-than-an-SUV mileage. This might explain Ford's decision not to add a third shift at the Wayne plant. Whatever the future holds for Fords slice of fugly, the Focus is the Blue Oval's Mr Right Now, gaining ground on the imports in the brutal compact market. Just imagine how well it would be doing doing if it looked even a little more like its handsome European cousin. 

Until today, we were dependent on "spy shots" to clock the new Honda Pilot. Taken by apparently very bored spy photographers lying in wait in parking lots for a glorified Accord-on-stilts (I guess the Camaro was not out testing that day), it seemed to be 10 percent less ugly than Honda's concept Pilot. As of today, the review embargo has expired. Pilot reviews are springing up like… are Eliot Spitzer jokes out of style yet? Honda appears to have forgotten to invite TTAC to the Pilot's launch, but other more "traditional" folks joined the junket. Edmunds says driving the Pilot is not "particularly memorable," but that the car/truck/minivan does its job. Los Jalopniks report that the refreshed Honda SUV is "not very exciting" but still the sensible car they ought to buy (life is too short for sensible, my friends). Car and Driver calls the Pilot "brilliantly packaged." I call it sorta weird looking, though given the current Pilot's core competencies, I'm confident that most folks will find this two-boxer more than merely adequate. TTAC will bring you a review of the new Pilot as soon as it's available to everyday folks.

It's hard to keep track of what's going on between Tesla and Fisker. But if you've got the time… First, Tesla mouthpiece Daryl Siry trash talks Fisker's range-extended vehicle, the Karma. After Fisker unveils their EV prototype at the Detroit Auto Show, Siry wonders if his rival's got what it takes to make it so. Next, Tesla's hires Henrik Fisker to design Tesla's Whitestar sedan. And now CNet News reports that Tesla is taking Fisker to court for stealing trade secrets and copying design ideas. Tesla's suit alleges that Fisker accepted the design contract "to gain access to confidential design information and trade secrets, then announced a competing vehicle." Fisker's brief had no comment on the case, other than "the firm's policy [is] not to comment on litigation." Meanwhile, Tesla says they've scrapped Fisker's design for the Whitestar in a fit of pique favor of… something else. On the positive side, this intra-vaporware legal contretemps will provide Tesla for a convenient excuse when the Whitestar doesn't appear as promised. And for us, the case could expose the reality behind Tesla's endless hype. [Props to JT for the link]

Well, it only makes sense. You build cars in former communist countries a stone's throw away from the world's most militant (and deeply entrenched) labor unions and it's only a matter of time before the union boys show up and the term "low cost" no longer applies to your Eastern European factories. After reporting the end of the 19-day strike crippling Renault's Romanian Dacia plant, the Financial Times says Eastern Europe's wage inflation mirrors the majors' Spanish/Portuguese experience. "In the mid-1970s… Ford, General Motors, Renault, Peugeot-Citroën, Volkswagen and Fiat all established operations or joint ventures in the Iberian peninsula. But by the late 1990s, Spain had priced itself out of the market as a result of demands for higher wages and improved benefits from car workers and labour unions. A similar pattern seems to be spreading in eastern Europe – with one worrying difference. If it took roughly 20 years for the low-cost cycle to run its course in Spain; the current one looks like it will last only 10 years in eastern Europe." [thanks to starlightmica for the link]

Part of the fun of this job: remembering what people said. For example, exactly one month ago, the Detroit Free Press was all about "in-sourcing." "'Due to recent UAW concessions,' [Merrill Lynch automotive analyst] John Murphy wrote in a recent note to investors, 'these tasks [parts design and manufacture] can now be sourced to internal workers at comparable costs and without significant investment in infrastructure… We are convinced that an insourcing trend is emerging.'" Anyone who's been watching the domestics rush to send work abroad– from Chinese-made engines in Chevy's Equinox to Indian programmers taking over Chrysler's IT work— would be forgiven for calling bullshit. And now the Freep's sister paper (The Detroit News) reports that "Auto suppliers will shoulder a bigger burden of research and development costs as automakers look to shift some of the billions of dollars in costs of developing high-tech features in future vehicles, executives said Monday at SAE International's 2008 World Congress." In fact, our man Don Walker of Magna, friend of the little guys, reckons auto suppliers' share of the carmakers' total R&D spend will jump from 40 to 60 percent by 2012. 

We just received this photo via email from one of TTAC's Best and Brightest: "This may be out of date, but I figured you may find it noteworthy for the Volt birthwatch series. Just under a year ago, GM had a Volt on display at the Indy 500. The car was likely a non-running example, but nonetheless it was there to showcase GM's engineering prowess so I judged it in that light. What I saw was… not good. Some of the trim on the Volt was rusting! Rust! On such a high profile vehicle at such a high profile event!" As the photo shows, it wasn't just a spot or two, either. Whatever GM's reason for showing the vehicle in this condition, let's just hope the production version – whatever it ends up looking like – will have better quality trim. And that their attention to the detail on this display model isn't indicative of their attention to detail on the engineering side.