I'm shopping for a car for Mrs. Berkowitz (my mother; my wife, Scarlett Johansson-Berkowitz drives my GTI). I dared to "request a quote" on manufacturers' websites from specific dealers. I was fully expecting them to, as you might say in French, "give me a f'ing quote." To that end, in the online form, I listed the precise cars from their inventory that I wanted, plus the lease terms. Alas, this kind of optimism will get me nothing but an inbox full of nonsense. The approach they take, of course, is to give as little information as possible and tell me to come to the dealership. Regarding a Cadillac CTS: "This vehicle can be leased from $349.00 to $700.00 approximately; depending on packaging and structure of lease. Purchase prices range roughly from $33,330 to $50,000." Uh yeah, I know that, in part because I requested lease estimates for specific cars (which I identified with VIN numbers). Another dealership suggested "We ask that you visit our showroom where you always receive the "BEST PRICE." I encourage you to call me directly so I can set up an appointment with one of our Sales Managers." Your sales managers don't shower and give me the creeps; that's why I'm requesting a quote online. We talk about how product drives the automotive sales industry, and to a large extent it does. But so does the ability to purchase that product. If I was a dealer and someone wanted to buy a car via telegraph, I'd be brushing up on my Morse code.  

Now that GM's staring down the barrel of bankruptcy, the artist formerly known as the world’s largest automaker has launched a fresh offensive. Not a product offensive, of course. That would have required forward planning. We’re talking about a PR offensive. Hope for the hopeless. Alternatively, weasel words for the unwary. Here’s the headline, courtesy of unnamed sources, via the Wall Street Journal: a return to profitability by 2010. And here’s the kicker: the target date is “unofficial.” Does it get any more fantastic than that? Yes, it does.

I'm beginning to lose track of manufacturers' excuses for slumping car sales: Japanese currency manipulation, the "perception gap," diminished fleet sales, poor housing market, the credit crisis, gas prices, etc. Here's the latest, courtesy of USA Today. "June sales were constrained because few automakers had enough cars that shoppers really want: well-appointed but with gas-sipping engines. 'I'm sure we're missing some business because we don't have exactly the configuration the consumer is looking for and adequate stock to satisfy' the demand, says Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales." While the explanation makes some sense for ToMoCo, who couldn't build the Prius fast enough for demand, are we seriously meant to believe that Ford would have sold lots more Fusions if the base model had more features? Yup. "'A lot of it had to do with price points,' says Eric Peterson, communications manager for Ford Motor's crossovers. Buyers who spent more wanted more power. 'Now, there's more of a shift in consumer mind-set that we're reacting to… Consumers are saying, 'I want fuel efficiency, and I want all these options as well.'" So where's the statistical evidence for this theory? You know; some data showing that highly-optioned four-cylinder models are gaining popularity? *crickets chirping* Facts. Who needs 'em?

There I was cutting, clipping and carving corners in the ultimate Porsche 911, balancing the need for speed with self-control. I felt like an Olympic skier or Iron Chef. But there was an element missing from the GT2 experience, a deficiency that niggled like a loose ski boot or a nicked Shun Santoku. Torque. As in instant-on shove. Porsche's brilliant 3.6-liter boxer engine has too much boost and not enough low-end grunt. But isn't perfection standard in a Porsche, especially for one that costs $197,000?

Word has leaked out that the next-generation Toyota Prius will offer optional solar cells on the roof manufactured by Kyocera. Yahoo! News reckons the new system, rated at least 2kW, should be capable of powering the air conditioner unit. The current Prius and other Toyota hybrids already have an electric AC unit. "Adding solar panels to a model targeting mass consumers would mark a first for a major automaker", The Nikkei said. Ahem. Let's flashback to fall 1991, courtesy of the New York Times archive. The last generation Mazda 929 had 500W solar panels on the sunroof. The cells ran exhaust fans in conjunction with the AC unit (the Mazda's chiller wasn't electrically powered). The rooftop solar system could trickle-charge the battery from dead to full steam ahead in one week– assuming the 929 was parked in Arizona during the dry season. The old system was perfect for the airport long-term parking lot. It'll be a lot harder for the Prius to make this work on a daily basis, but the PR benefit for both the ToMoCo hybrid– and solar technology in general– is literally priceless. Even before it turns a wheel, the next gen Prius has trumped Chevy's plug-in electric – gas hybrid Volt. 

Those of you wishing for a sensible, small, utilitarian diesel engined pickup truck are about to get your wish. The Wall Street Journal reports Mahindra & Mhaindra's plan to release its Appalachian model mid-size pickup is on schedule for 2009. Previous reports  tell us that the truck will feature a 2.2-liter, four-cylinder diesel rated at 150hp and 300 ft. lbs. Preliminary specifications tell of a six-speed automatic transmission, electronic stability control and a 7.5 ft. long bed. Mahindra's importer Global Vehicles (GV) has a… er… colorful history. Some years ago, GV tried to import a mini-Hummer style vehicle from Aro S.A. of Romania. The effort went down in flames; the Romanians could never jump the safety and emissions regulatory hurdles. Mahindra, on the other hand, is a far more capable company than Aro and is already a force in the U.S. farm tractor market.  More fantastic is Mahindra's claim that it will release a diesel-electric hybrid version in (you know it, you love it) 2010. Competition in the shrinking U.S. light truck market shows no signs of letting up. Now if it could just begin…

Last week, we remarked that the Motown media had finally put down the pom-poms. The Detroit Free Press' Mark Phelan seems determined to prove us wrong. First, the scribe offered us a rah-rah-siss-boom-bah on the plug-in electric gas hybrid Chevrolet Volt. To which Phelan adds a who-do-we-appreciate? look at The Big 2.8's "race to build fun, fuel-frugal cars." Yes, "They are honing new technologies, refining designs and scouring the Earth for fun, fuel-efficient cars they can build or sell in North America. From Chevrolet Corvettes and Ford F-150s to small cars engineered in Europe and Asia, every vehicle is being rethought as fuel prices skyrocket and new fuel-economy rules loom." That's all well and good if this was 2003ish. But it isn't. GM's market share is below 20 percent, Ford's racing against "last orders" and no matter how you measure it, Chrysler is in the toilet. Meanwhile, the transplants are eating Detroit's lunch. Never mind. Phelan reckons it's a "level playing field," now. "Unlike the 1980s, when small Japanese cars started the race a full lap ahead of the Detroit Three, the new technical challenges are equally daunting for everyone. 'They've all been dealt the same hand this time,' said Michelle Krebs, editor of AutoObserver.com. 'Now it's a matter of how they play it.'" Huh? "Vast and slow improvements in the cars the domestics build haven't been enough to change that perception. The massive, fast changes every automaker must make in the next few years could be their last chance to hit the reset button on how the American public sees them." Or not.

Calling John McElroy a Detroit cheerleader is like calling Bruce Dern's character in Black Sunday a party pooper. That said, the journalist is not without his fans, nor a platform. Big Mac writes a weekly column for Autoblog, and regularly lobs underhand pitches at Motown royalty on his Autoline Detroit TV program. So why did Detroit Freep Press scribe Mark Phelan devote precious ink to McElroy's fantasy of reviving GM's battery-powered EV-1? I thought GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz put that the idea to bed on June 30, when he called the concept "fucking nuts" [paraphrasing]. "Things have changed," McElroy tells an entirely credulous Phelan. "At $4 a gallon, it's a completely different market. People would beat a path to GM's door." Yes, "The automaker should dust off the blueprints, stick an assembly line in some underutilized assembly plant — no shortage of those — and hire somebody to take orders." Corroboration comes from no less than the director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Phelan knocks down the idea– gently. "The Volt will have a small electric generator to recharge its battery if needed, but the underlying technology GM developed for the car also lends itself to all-electric vehicles. Some of those 'EV2s' are already under discussion. As GM contends, the EV1 may not come back, but its children will flourish." Go team go!

The New York Times Sunday magazine offers a profile of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. In the main, Zev Chofet's article is about as predictable (and informative) as dittoheads' view on "Club Gitmo's" detainees' habeas corpus rights. Call me an unreconstructed Robin Leach fan, but I found Limbaugh's lifestyle more interesting than his politics. On page two of the online version (you're welcome) we learn that El Rushbo drives a "fully-loaded" $450k Maybach 57S (he paid retail?). In fact, the $400m man garages a "half a dozen similar rides on his estate." Quick name six Maybach equivalents. And while you're at it, how many of them have 25-gallon plus gas tanks? 'Cause that would put the cost of a fill-up Rush's rides over the "magic" $100 mark. And that, according to the same august publication, is a significant "financial milestone" (millstone?). Scribe Christopher Maag uses the C-note-plus fill-up to explore its impact on single-make clubs dedicated to gas hogs. Needless to say, they're having to throttle back. Yes, "for people who love their big vehicles, the pain is acute." More for some than for others. You?

According to the The Guardian, a [formerly] secret study completed by the World Bank has concluded biofuels are responsible for \75 percent of the recent run-up in world food prices. [A yet-to-be-released British Study reportedly came to the same conclusion, contradicting a U.S. government study concluding that food-for-fuel accounted for just two to three percent of that increase,] According to the British newspaper, the World Bank withheld the study to avoid embarrassing President Bush and the U.S. Government at next week's [non-Pontiac] G8 summit, at which Uncle Sam has full veto powers (sort of like Ford Motor Company and the few fortunate recipients of Crazy Henry's genes.) Leaders at the summit will be under pressure to cut back their biofuels mandates to avoid worsening the ongoing food shortage, which has been called "the first real economic crisis of globalization." The truth will out?

And BOY did they sneeze. Sales of the light trucks made at Nissan's Canton, Mississippi plant (Titan pickup, Armada/Infiniti QX56 SUV, Quest minivan) have cratered. The Clarion Ledger reports that a switch to Altima production has saved jobs at the five-year-old facility. But local suppliers geared-up for trucks have been hit hard; more than 200 workers have lost their jobs. MINACT/Yates Logistics laid off at least 64 workers, including supervisor Glenn Roberts. A struggling Roberts has "resurrected his resume and applied to dozens of jobs. He parked his gas-thirsty Tahoe and shares his wife's car. He's known by his first name at the WIN Jobs Center, where he goes twice a week for four or five hours at a pop." PK U.S.A. "downsized" Dave Taylor, who can't afford to keep his house– or sell it. Tower Automotive dismissed assembly line worker Carlos Johnson. "I pay $100 a week for day care. I've got my house note at $500 a month, car note at $350 a month, and insurance is $150. Bills can't care less whether you have a job or not; they're going to be rolling in. Unemployment is what, $215 or $230 a month, that's not enough to live on. It's enough to pay for your gas so you can go around and find another job."

Early last month I showed you my impression of the future BMW 3 Series PAS. I promised a look at the other 3-wagon derivative, the shooting brake. Et voila! I've allways had a soft spot for the shooting brake. Their mixture of style and practicality makes me wonder why this genre isn't more popular. I imagined the Bavarian model with a glass roof (very popular with wagons and sports model these days), big wheels and a sloping back (enough to get a clear difference between this and the "normal" wagon). I've also included the side ornament present on the CS Concept and on the recently shown 7-Series. Bespoke LED lights and other details should differentiate the car from the rest of the 3s. The idea of an old Aston Martin's perfume mixed with the dynamics of the latest Bimmer makes me excited to see this car in the flesh.

In an interview with German mag Welt am Sonntag, Ferrari's President has vowed to reduce the automaker's greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half. [In case you're wondering "who asked?" Ferrari faces the same stringent new European C02 regs as all the other camakers.] What's more, Ferrari's going to build a hybrid-powered supercar. "We are currently working on the development of a Ferrari that will use alternative energy sources," Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said with characteristic aristocratic reserve [guessing]. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Luca also "insisted that any future hybrid Ferrari would still be 'fundamentally a Ferrari.'" And somewhat of a FIAT? No! The hybrid "will be based on what we are doing at the moment in Formula 1." The Herald reckons LCDM was referring to Ferrari's Kinetic Energy Recycling System (KERS), designed to draw extra power from the brakes (as opposed to the habit of flying around the world in private jets burning hundreds of thousands of liters of avgas). When asked if Ferraristi would look kindly on a hybrid supercar (i.e. pay through the nose to own one), di Montezemolo had no doubts (as if). "Yes, of course," he said. "It's the best sports car in the world." Anyone know the Italian word for chutzpah?

Not that I like to toot my own horn (it's so much more pleasurable when Sam leans over and toots it for me), but I believe I've made some solid contributions to the pistonhead gestalt. There is this website, of course. And I'm the guy who gave GM Car Czar his "Maximum Bob" moniker. I also invented Jalopnik's car review format and their fantasy garage feature– which died when Jalopnik's affable Managing Editor Ray Wert and our rhino-skinned Jonnny Lieberman (inventor of the QOTD) parted company. While I don't fancy re-animating the Garage just yet, Jay's post on the Audi R8 got me thinking. If I had a spare ten million of so, what keys would hang in my lockbox? One thing's for sure: there wouldn't be many of them. I've learned the wisdom of the old Zen expression "That which you own owns you." So I'd stick with my Honda Minivan, get RUF to breathe on the Boxster S and stash a Ford GT somewhere safe. Done. You?

Who knew we'd break Tesla Death Watch double digits in the space of a few minutes? Still, ours is not to question why. Oh wait; it is. So why did California give Tesla Motors a tax break for production of their "Model S" lithium-ion-powered (or part lithium-ion powered) Model S sedan? The churlish amongst you might suggest it has something to do with Tesla customer and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's place on the Roadster's waiting list. Small business owners in The Golden State have another perspective. KCBS reports that "Dr. T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress and chairman of Sunpower, moved his wafer manufacturing from California to Texas and Minnesota to reduce costs. He said he is outraged that the state would not offer the same type of deal [seven to nine percent off tax on equipment purchases] for small businesses like his. 'I can’t afford to run a plant here [in California] because every time I put in a new piece of equipment and try to upgrade the plant I have to pay an extra six percent on top of what the equipment costs.'" Democratic CA State Treasurer Bill Lockyer gets it. "When does [a tax subsidy] become just a gift for behavior that would have happened anyhow, or does it really bring a business to California or have it really expand?” Of course, this is an entirely theoretical discussion…