Honda is clearly in a slump, and we’ve certainly done our fair share to point it out: the lackluster Insight; ugly styling highlighted by uglier front grilles; a hybrid system that simply isn’t as advanced and effective as Toyota’s; a bloated Accord; no new direct injection engines; lots of muddling about future EVs; and a misplaced optimism about fuel cells. Honda (rightly) feels threatened by Hyundai and future competition from China. We’ve wondered openly if Hyundai has stolen Honda’s engine design mojo. Need I go on? This week only added to their (our) woes, with the ugly and underwhelming CR-Z. It’s time for a serious consideration as to what went wrong at Honda, and how to fix it. Honda; are you listening? (I suspect so)
Back in 2007, I made my 37th pilgrimage to mouse country. My wife and kids were hardcore Disneyites. Me? I was just there for the company. I deal with enough Goofys in real life and the thought of waiting in line to meet yet another one chafed at me. So I told my wife that I would spend the next day visiting my own wonderland. An auto auction. There was a low mileage Geo Metro I was interested in along with about a half dozen other older vehicles.
Divorce Sunday: Mazda and Ford will dissolve their joint venture partnership in China by 2012, The Nikkei [sub] writes.
The Chang’an Ford Mazda Automobile Co. has been producing cars since 2006. The JV is 50 percent owned by Chang’an, 35 percent by Ford and 15 percent by Mazda. (Read More…)
More than a year ago, TTAC reported top-level attempts of a cooperation between BMW and Daimler. At the time, we didn’t give the cooperation big odds. Our educated prediction: As much as the heads of the automakers may desire mutual aid, middle management and especially the engineers will torpedo any tête-à-tête. “If you think South Korea and North Korea have communication problems, then you should be in a meeting between Daimler and BMW engineers,” was our analysis (based on input of people who have been in those meetings.) And we wrote: “Currently, Daimler and BMW don’t share much more than common pain.”
Supposedly, they kept talking. They could agree to joint purchasing of parts, but even that didn’t progress beyond less than lofty goals. Projects which promised savings of hundreds of millions, such as the joint production of transmissions and engines, went absolutely nowhere.
Now, Der Spiegel reports that all talks about possible jointness between Daimler and BMW have been called off. “There are no new meetings,” said a top manager to Der Spiegel. “There is nothing to talk about.” (Read More…)
The visit to the yard of the Saab 99 owner was…stimulating, and…out of the ordinary. And a brief tour of his house furthered that impression; and the pirate ship in the front yard cemented it. So when I found my way to the curb, and saw two pretty ordinary looking cars sitting there (his tenants’, I assume), I felt I had returned to a more conventional plane. But then I realized: these are both oddballs too! Must be something about this neighborhood. (Read More…)
The Saab 99 wasn’t the only vehicle in its owner’s back-yard imaginarium, although it took me a bit before I realized what it was, and what it started its life out as. This cut-down vehicle with the park bench for a seat was a summer project who knows how many years ago, and was used to scoot around the neighborhood and the alleys. The blackberries have now claimed it as theirs. In any case, can you tell what it started out as? If you need a big hint, make the jump: (Read More…)
Want confirmation of the stereotype about eccentric drivers of old Saabs? Check this out: almost a thousand cars in the can, and not a single Saab 99 anywhere to be found. I’ve spotted half a dozen 96/95s, and there’s scads of 900s, but for some reason, even in this Saabaholic town, there’s just not a single 99 on the streets anywhere. The 99 is quite historical too, being only one of two unique cars that Saab ever developed from the ground up on their own in sixty years. That fact alone probably helps explain why Saab couldn’t survive on its own. More of that later. I was walking in one of the more obscure dead-end streets, when I came to a very artsy house with a cobbled up sailing ship in the front yard. I walked down the side alley to get a look into the overgrown back yard with lots of free-form structures when I spotted it: a green 99 that looked like it was half-way into the cellar. (Read More…)
Tata Motors already has made a European version of the four-seat car that will cost about $8,000 when it debuts in 2011, and a Tata Technologies official said privately that the U.S. version is expected to have a comparable price. The official did not want to be identified because the price has not been made public.
A one liter, three cylinder engine making a reported 60 hp. Five speed manual transmission. Two airbags, ABS, traction control, and electric power steering. 14 inch wheels. [via Autocar] Would you bite for $8k? Everything sells at the right price. Where is the Nano’s magic number?
Tourists Flock to Detroit For GM’s Annual “We’re Importing the Holden Commodore” Festival
Detroit in January. Car fans may think of the North American International Auto Show, but there are thousands of tourists in town to attend festivities for GM’s annual announcement that it will be importing the Holden Commodore sport sedan from Australia.
I currently lease a 2008 Ford Fusion SEL 5 speed, loaded with heated leather, sunroof, SYNC. It has under 20,000 miles with 2 payments left. The lease end buyout is $14,100. I am debating whether to buy out my lease for cash, or just by a beater – I was thinking of a 1998 Ford Contour SVT in the $2500 range. I am about to start a 5 year sprint to pay off my mortgage, so I don’t want endless repair bills during this time. Buy the lease, or buy the beater?
A large part of TTAC’s mission is pulling aside the curtain on the industry, exposing the humans behind the cars that make up our everyday lives. Automobiles have always reflected something of the individuals and cultures that created them, so it’s fascinating to see the different personalities that go into running the world’s automakers. Still, as paid executives, their performances are usually polished to a high sheen; the folks behind you favorite car blogs on the other hand, not so much. The interplay between the two is often as revealing as it is entertaining. Can’t get enough? The complete session is available at joelfeder.com.
Yesterday, Volkswagen became the Suzuki’s top shareholder. VW transferred $2.4b in return for a 19.9 percent stake in Suzuki. Suzuki turned around immediately and used $1b of the money received to buy stock in Volkswagen. Consider the couple as intertwined.
With the marriage sealed, both companies went right to work. (Read More…)
A lot of what you hear about Steve Girsky sounds decidedly positive: an outspoken critic of GM, Girsky lasted less than a year as Rick Wagoner’s “roving aide-de-camp,” reportedly due to frustration with management heel-dragging. He even earned TTAC’s “lesser-of-two-evils” endorsement to be Presidential Car Czar over Steve “Chooch” Rattner. When he was appointed to be the UAW rep on GM’s board, representing the union’s VEBA trust which owns 17.5 percent of GM’s stock, he was lauded as someone who could keep his union allegiances at bay. But as special advisor to GM CEO/Chairman Ed Whitacre, Girsky had better be prioritizing GM’s best interests. Reuters reports that he’s being paid a cool $900k in stock grants for his advice. That’s in addition to $200k director’s salary and reimbursement for “living expenses and travel to and from Detroit.” Not bad considering the fuss people are making over compensation at TARP-recipient financial institutions.
Sort of. At least she might have if my esteemed fellow bloggers had let her get a word in edgewise. No wonder GM seems to have such a low opinion of the “well informed.”
Anyway, the clip’s money quote comes at 1:47, when Docherty lets out the classic Freudian slip: “the last competitive product I spent a couple of weeks in was the Acura TSX.” Whoops!
This was supposed to turn out differently; not this CR-X, my week and this post that is. I was going to bookend the week that started out with my rant about the ugly new CR-Z with a CC featuring a pristine gen1 CR-X I had in the can. Poof! That whole folder is gone, along with ten other cars. Ouch. But I had this silver spray-painted CR-X art-car in the making as an Outtake. But you know what? It’s impossible to uglify a CRX that easily. These kids are going to have to work a lot harder before they can obliterate the clean, slick lines of one of the most iconic and loved Hondas ever. So I’m going to spend my afternoon getting a new computer set up and transferring files, and try to remember where I last saw that unblemished CR-X. (Read More…)
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