The CAR Allowance Rebate System—C.A.R.S—sounds like a ‘70s Saturday morning cartoon about guys in striped jackets using trick vehicles to save the world. In fact, that would actually be preferable to the program currently airing, at cost of three billion and counting. Cash for Clunkers may be popular with a healthy segment of the population, but that group doesn’t include a lot of economists. In terms of economic policy, C4C would benefit from a little C4, if you know what I’m sayin’.
From supportthebigthree.com’s founder Sid E. Taylor’s press release:
I have been consistently frustrated by the misinformation and untruths I have seen on websites and in the media about the Big-3. In addition to the outstanding vehicles they produce, many fail to recognize the contributions the Big-3 have made and continue to make to the infrastructure of this Country. I feel compelled to do my part to correct the misconceptions and get the word out about these fine Companies that have supported our American infrastructure. They are committed to America because it is American. Instead of criticizing them, I believe we should be thanking and supporting them for their innovative, high quality, safety driven cars, trucks, SUV’s and Hybrids, but moreover, for being the steadfast stewards of our American infrastructure for so many years.
So when did the thousand days start? TTAC’s put in a call . . . [thanks to gamper for the link]
When you hear Cash for Clunkers praised as “the most efficient stimulus for the auto industry,” you kind of have to wonder. Why did we spend the other hundred billion bucks?
I’ve crossed swords with AskPatty.com before. When the self-professed “automotive advice for women” site asked me to link to a contrived story on autos and the fairer sex (here be trolls), I replied that TTAC does not approve of sexual discrimination. The editor thought I was kidding. I wasn’t. I’m philosophically averse to AskPatty’s “Women Buy Cars, Men Have a Penis” perspective. But it’s the site’s craven kow-towing to carmakers that really sticks in my craw. And vice versa. Carmakers never met a PC website they didn’t like; they especially don’t not like this one. Normally, I’d [continue to] flank the issue. But advertisertalk.com reports that Midlands Honda in South Carolina has become the Palmetto State’s first AskPatty.com’s “Certified Female Friendly Location,” complete with an AskPatty-branded Midlands website. An unspecified number of dealer employees completed some [presumably cumulative] 90 hours of on-line training. So the question must be asked: what did they learn/pay for?
“Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required. Oh yeah, and it’ll be affordable too!”
NissanEV shoots back at the latest Volt hype on Twitter, using the same DOE estimate as GM. That hit from the PR crackpipe sure didn’t last long.
The Detroit News reveals that GM has stopped paying dues to the End of Life Vehicle Solutions Corp., an industry group dedicated to the safe disposal of mercury switches in scrapped vehicles (some of the dangers of mercury pollution and toxicity here). GM had paid the group $700,000 to $1,000,000 annually to prevent mercury pollution from its switches, “a substantial portion of the program’s funding,” according to the DetN. But since declaring bankruptcy, the New GM seems to think that the approximately 18 million mercury switches in its pre-2000 vehicles are no longer its problem. New GM “has never produced vehicles with mercury switches and has no mercury switch responsibility under the terms of the bankruptcy court order,” say spokesfolks. And though technically the New GM is a not the same company that built cars with mercury switches, GM’s green image-building is radically at odds with this decision. With cash-for-clunkers keeping crushing yards humming, this is going to be one of the busiest years on record for the ELVSC. In short, the perfect time to lose a major funding source. You stay classy, GM!
GM’s orgy of PR hype rolls relentlessly on with this video about America’s own volkswagen, the Bare Necessities Concept. After all, nationalized firms have to at least pretend to take on challenges other than getting folks into $40k EREVs and competing with BMW’s 3-Series . . . like competing with the Tata Nano. And for once the YouTube commentators get it right. “I already own this,” writes jeffseelig. “It’s called a 1978 Honda Accord.”
BMWs are my weakness. My first car was a 1974 2002 burgundy over tan five-speed with a sunroof. At the time, it was twelve years shy of being a new model and cost all of $1000 bucks. Yet ask any high school girl what kind of car I drove and they all knew three letters. They were clueless to the many stranded push starts I experienced. Since the carburetors needed rebuilding, I’d kill the battery before it would run. Girls were also impervious to the rust and completely unable to fathom 140,000 miles on the clock. All this taught me one thing, park on a hill and find a good mechanic.
After being trapped six weeks in a 1971 time warp, I had the controls of the Curbside Classics time machine all set for the mid-eighties. But once again, fate interceded. Running some errands, I had my first encounter with no less than two 2010 Camaros. Then, on the way home, something called out to me as I tooled down Franklin Boulevard. I found it parked behind the old boarded-up Chevy dealer, and it had an important message for you and me: “beauty is not in the eye of the beholder; it’s in the object itself.”
The E85 industry has a problem. Well, a bunch of problems: corn prices, water supplies, environmental impact, flagging political support for subsidies, limited access to the marketplace and profitability. Yes, there is that. Or, more precisely, there isn’t that. If only the feds could find a way to force the country to use the corn juice . . . I’ll see your mandatory E10 and raise however hell as much as I can get away with. The thing of it is: when there’s a choice, people aren’t buying E85. What’s left of the ethanol industry post-gas price drop has convinced itself that it suffers from a near-lethal perception gap. (Remember: no one ever died defending a corn field.) As we recently reported, the Department of Energy is spending $2 million of federal funds to help you discover that E85 isn’t really cheaper when you factor-in the mpg drop. Anyway, Evolution Fuels has announced that it wants some of that taxpayer loot.
As part of today’s wander through hyperspace, GM attempts to answer a riddle that would have vexed a Theban: “What makes a Chevy a Chevy?” To which the only possible answer is “everything to everyone.” GMC receives the same treatment, in which we learn that the Professional Grade Brand “has a great opportunity to get away from where Chevy is.” (Whatever is is.) But when a Fastlane commenter asked GM Senior Creative Designer Dave Smidebush “why should we order a Terrain over the Equinox?” his answer was an enigma wrapped in a puzzle lost in a Vortec.
Dave Smidebush: Thank you. THey’re [sic] both great vehicles. Buy the one that appeals best to you but I’m a little partial to the Terrain!
If that doesn’t scream “differentiation,” what does?
Eagle-eyed, infinitely patient TTAC editor Jeff Puthuff spotted this story in the LA Times: “Less than two years ago, [porn star Savannah] Stern earned close to $150,000 annually, sometimes turned down work and drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK 350. Now she’s aggressively reaching out for jobs and making closer to $50,000 a year. As for that Mercedes? She’s replacing it with a used Chevy Trailblazer — from her parents. ‘The opportunities in this industry really are disappearing,’ Stern said. ‘It’s extremely stressful.'” Hey! I know a really good way to relieve stress! Anyway, it seems the Internet is doing to Silicone—I mean San Fernando Valley’s porn industry what Silicon Valley did to Armonk, New York’s computer industry. And you’ve got to give Ms. Stern credit for tightening her belt. So to speak. If only the feds could appreciate the benefits of austerity. * cough Gulstream jets cough *
GM announced today that it expects the Volt to receive the first-ever triple-digit EPA rating (including 230 city MPG). GM’s John Lauckner goes into a little more detail at a Fastlane livechat:
Guest: Can you please explain the 230 mpg rating. I must say I balked at your gamble on EREV instead of full hybrid like toyota, but this validates your gamble.
Jon Lauckner: Yes, having a vehicle that achieves triple digit fuel economy is a game changer. The 230 mpg refers to the city fuel economy, but we also expect to have a triple digit combined fuel economy value. These preliminary numbers are based on Volt development testing with our pre-production vehicles and the draft federal fuel economy methodology developed by EPA for EREV vehicles like the Volt.
But, as usual, everything is not what it seems . . .
TTAC Commentator Nick R writes:
Two questions pertaining to the Thunderbird we previously discussed:
My dad waxed this thing almost every month. However, those layers and layers of wax have now turn greyish. I have tried to remove it with rubbing compound and this filthy grey coloured crap eventually comes off. However, it does come off to an adequate extent and it is VERY time consuming. I’d love to hear some tips on sloughing this crap off more quickly.
Some the plastic in the cabin is a bit faded. Can it be redyed or should I look for NOS parts (yes, I know, good luck with that)?
And now, two generic questions:
A California judge last week began throwing out red light camera citations issued in Santa Ana. Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Kenneth Schwartz declared the city’s program void because it had ignored several provisions of state law. Local attorneys Mark D. Sutherland and R. Allen Baylis had challenged the city for its failure to provide the required thirty-day warning period before beginning the program and its use of a prohibited per-ticket “cost neutral” compensation scheme.
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