A few days ago Ferdinand “JR Ewing” Piech was quoted as wanting to buy another 2 brides for his Volkswagen harem because as he puts it “A dozen is easier to remember than 10”. Well, it seems like he’s bored of his French beauty (Bugatti), his English rose (Bentley), his German frauliein (Audi) and his Spanish senorita (SEAT) and now, according to the Chosun Ilbo, has his sights on the South Korean salad dodger, Ssangyong. Yup, Ssangyong. Seriously.
We don’t have any numbers yet on GM’s 60 day money-back guarantee, but according to GM dealers speaking to Automotive News [sub] it’s not generating a lot of interest. “If [customers] like the car, if they test drive the car, most of the people would rather have a car to keep,” explains one dealer. Which makes a certain amount of sense, and which is why dealers insist that the number of buyers taking GM up on the offer doesn’t matter. “It’s more important to talk about the money-back guarantee. It conveys confidence in the vehicles,” says another dealer. “It’s not about the deal, but rather it’s about the world-class products.” That sounds good in principle, but the reality is that it actually is all about the deal. Again. Still.
I’m not a very good mechanic, but I enjoy working on my cars. Part of it is because I’m cheap and don’t like spending money on things I can do myself. Additionally, every time I have any interaction with any part of a car dealership I walk away feeling like a rape victim. Silkwood showers. Haunting regret. The works. Determined to rid myself of that feeling of being used, I made a commitment to gain mechanical skills and free myself from abuse.
Since May, the red light cameras in the city of Corona, California have issued a total of 6511 citations worth $2,903,906. This money has been split between Corona, Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia, the state and Riverside County. On Wednesday, the Corona City Council discussed the possibility of cutting the state and county out of the program entirely. This would allow Corona to keep more money while giving the city a chance to claim it is lowering the pricey $446 automated ticket. “I voted for the program, but I made a mistake,” Mayor Steve Nolan said. “I didn’t ask the cost… We are killing people with the fines.”
Apparently so. Automotive News [sub] reports that “Fiat Group manufacturing guru Stefan Ketter inspected Chrysler’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit this morning as part of a series of North American plant visits to improve Chrysler quality and efficiency, UAW officials said today.” So why is this news? Other than the fact that maybe Ketter hasn’t been to ChryCo plants before now? I mean, you’d kinda hope that Fiat’s main manufacturing man would have checked-out ALL Chrysler plants prior to U.S. taxpayers handing the Italians over ten billion dollars and the keys to the bankrupt automaker’s, uh, fortune. Anyway, boy what a guru! “[UAW Local 1700 President Bill] Parker said he was optimistic after Ketter’s four-hour visit today that the Sterling Heights plant would stay open beyond the current Sebring production run through December 2010.” Is Ketter a hypnotist? If he is, he’s a damn good one.
“It’s our company’s long-term target, to be China’s No. 1 automaker by 2015 and to be the world’s leading car maker by 2025,” Build Your Dream’s marketing reps tell the AP. Ready for a reality check? BYD sold only 400k units last year, almost all of them in China. In fact, just a few years ago BYD wasn’t an automaker at all, but a battery supplier to laptop and cell phone companies. Several years and a big investment from Warren Buffet later, BYD is getting all kinds of cocky.
A brand is a promise to the consumer. It’s the umbrella under which all products must shelter. All the people responsible for a brand must ensure that it meets that promise. The Toyota Prius is a promise of reliable transportation that achieve high-mileage with low emissions. So it’s no wonder that Toyota has decided to stretch the brand to other vehicles. Oh, wait, the Prius isn’t a brand. It’s a model within a brand, which contains other examples of reliable transportation that achieves high-mileage with low emissions. Is that confusing? Well if it isn’t now, it soon will be. “The Highlander hybrid and Camry hybrid do OK, but calling it ‘Synergy Drive’ never resonated with consumers,” veteran Toyota dealer Earl Stewart told Automotive News [sub]. “But they can make hay on the Prius name. It’s a magic name. If somebody says ‘I drive a Prius,’ everybody knows what he means.” But for how long? The truth about a brand is that its products must fulfill the brand’s promise, or the brand dies. Confusing that brand diminishes it and alienates the people who gave birth to it in the first place. Maybe not straight away, but eventually. And forever.
Greg writes:
Hello, I have a 2002 Toyota Camry SE with about 120K on it that has been overall pretty reliable. For the past few months, the OEM (it is not aftermarket) radio has turned psychotic and turns itself on and off and flips from radio to CD at will – or so it seems. It seems like this is a loose wire as it is really noticeable when I go over certain bumpy areas in the road, the radio pre-sets disappear and I have to reset them again and again. Can you advise me what to do next?
PS – My four year old thinks there is a mouse in the radio since it turns it self off and on all of the time.
Porsche’s current Boxster goes bye-bye in 2012, and to keep things moving Zuffenhausen appears to be bringing at least two special editions to market. First up, Auto Motor und Sport‘s Erlkönig spies have caught a Boxster-based Speedster mule testing in Germany. Speedsters are an integral component of Porsche’s rich heritage, first as a 356 variant, and later as limited edition 911s. This latest version should hit the streets in 2010 with a 303 hp version of the 3.4 liter Boxster flat six, a shortened windscreen and other Speedster visual cues (like the weird camouflaged humpback shown here) . But the real news comes from car Magazine, which claims to have caught sight of a Boxster R.
It’s now been four months since I sent in my $5,000 deposit on a Tesla S all-electric four-door sedan. I still think it’s a cool car, but so far I’m very disappointed in Tesla’s communications with us S owners. After an initial flurry of messages confirming the order, assigning me a production number, and inviting me to the opening of the New York Tesla store, I’ve heard exactly zilch from the factory.
Automotive News [sub] reports that the Mazda2 (Demio in Japan) has been approved for a Fall 2010 launch in the US market. Mazda is clearly targeting the Honda Fit’s recent success, with only the 5-door, 1.5 liter version approved for the US. The stateside rollout will also coincide with a mid-cycle refresh, which means the interior will be improved over the current European version. Unfortunately, this also means the 2 will be saddled with Mazda’s new Pikachu-on-SSRIs grin. Still, the new baby Mazda should take a little oxygen out of Ford’s Fiesta launch next year, as the two vehicles were developed simultaneously on the same platform.
I’m optimistic we can pay off the loans faster than people think. Payment is due in 2015. We want to do it much faster than that.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson breaks our incredulity meter at the Frankfurt Auto Show. And how does Fritz propose pulling this coup off? “Creating value for our shares is the best way the taxpayer will be repaid,” he explains. In other words, Henderson expects GM’s Summer 2010 IPO to reflect the $68B market cap valuation it needs to pay back taxpayer loans. Meanwhile, GM’s Chairman reportedly puts the odds of success on any timeline at 60-40. Paging Optimist Prime . . .
Like most states, Washington uses an implied consent statute to punish anyone who refuses to submit to a breathalyzer test upon being accused of drunk driving. In a ruling last Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the right of police to use force to remove blood from a motorist even after an informed decision to refuse the test has been made. The high court argued that recent changes to the law essentially eliminated the need to seek consent when a warrant is obtained.
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