If you want to offer hybrid cars, but don’t have the money / time / run rate / wherewithal to do it yourself, who’re gonna call? Toyota. But who would have imagined that haughty Daimler picked up the phone, dialed 0081, and said: “Let’s talk?” Daimler considers joining the growing list of automakers that source their hybrid systems from Toyota City. Toyota is in talks to provide technology and core components for hybrid vehicles to Daimler, after having been approached by the Germans, says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)
The ’54 Cadillac’s AC inlet vent stimulated some cool guesswork. I’m a little challenged to say if there’s one winner, since these were used for some time. SOF in training first nailed it for what it is generically. But the duke really nailed it, with his guess of a ’55 Caddy, and the pic to go with it. So I’m going to give him the win, because the angle and other details match up. Congratulations, once again.
The New York Times checks in on the cheery scene of Flint North, a giant factory complex that was left to Motors Liquidation Corp (aka “Old GM”) after the GM bankruptcy, and finds that the liquidation process is moving along nicely. It turns out that all Motors Liquidation Corp needed to do was look the other way… Flint North was more than happy to liquidate itself.
Ownership of Flint North was ceded to Motors Liquidation in July 2009, though in a special arrangement, G.M. kept making pistons and other engine parts at one of the factories. The empty plants were essentially abandoned in their as-is condition on their last day of production. “They still have personal goods on the table,” said Captain Swanson of the sheriff’s department. “There’s still ceiling fans going.”
Shortly afterward, thieves began to systematically strip copper — used in heating, cooling and other systems — from one of the nearby vacant plants. Authorities said that a ring of thieves hit the building night after night over a three-month period, taking out more than 150,000 pounds of copper.
The gang would load the metal on flatbed rail cars — owned and once used by G.M. — and roll the cars to a hole in a fence, where the copper was put on trucks and then sold to scrap dealers.
Via Hemmings News comes this delightful find from Chevymall.com: an officially licensed poster comparing women to cupholders. So, did Susan Docherty sign off on that when she was GM’s marketing boss, or is this just more evidence that GM really is a “testosterone saturated, white, American male culture”? Either way, it cements the impression that Chevrolet’s values and image stopped making progress around the same time its market share did… which, incidentally, was about the same time the poodle skirt went out of fashion.
It’s just too bad that, between the ’59 Impala, the poodle skirt, GM’s US market dominance and casual sexism, only the casual sexism seems to have survived.
We expect to be in profit in the market by 2013… I’m sure those statements were based on some sound analysis.
Volkswagen’s new US boss Jonathan Browning gives his company’s forecast of its future performance (which previously elicited TTAC’s coveted “flying pigs illustration award”)… before totally blowing his credibility by admitting he knows nothing about the matter [via MSNBC]. In front of the National Press Club, no less. Then, for good measure, the former GM and Ford man added
Not many people of my generation don’t have fond memories of the VW Beetle and the VW Microbus.
Which is not unlike saying that not many Americans don’t fail to remember whether Volkswagen has produced cars that may or may not have come up short of not failing in the marketplace. The irony of all this: English is Browning’s first language. The big lesson: German execs are far more endearing when they come across as out-of-touch and incomprehensible.
Once upon a time I wanted a Pontiac Fiero. Then the original Honda CRX awakened me to the joys of driving a small car sideways. It was what the Fiero, similarly pitched as an economical commuter, should have been. In comparison, even the second-generation CRX seemed too large, too refined, and disappointingly dull. Fast forward […]
The heavy handed attempts to put the Japanese car industry in its place were totally unnecessary. Japan is perfectly capable of doing this all by themselves, with the help of the Godzilla-strength yen. Over the last issues, we have been chronicling the exodus of Japanese carmakers to lower cost countries with softer currencies. A trend even today’s yen intervention by the BOJ won’t stop. The last one we would have suspected of hopping on that bandwagon to cheaper shores was boutique carmaker Mitsuoka. But the purveyor of fine retro romance is also outta here. (Read More…)
Sajeev, I have a 2010 Mustang GT with the Track Pack that I love driving – when it works. The problem(s) is, after 6 months and just short of 5k miles, the car has had several driveline problems. First, the clutch failed and Ford replaced the pressure plate, clutch disc and slave cylinder – a fix that took two weeks to complete. A few days later the rear clutches in the differential failed and Ford replaced those – another two days out of service. Now, only 2 months after the first clutch work was completed, it’s pretty obvious that the clutch is failing again based on the way the gearbox resists clean engagement in almost every gear.
So my question is, WTF is wrong with the driveline in this car?
Scion brand manager Jack Hollis tells the WSJ [sub] that
The sales are nowhere where they should be and they will never be this low again
And with only 29,672 units sold through 2010, he ain’t kidding either (well, except for maybe the last part). Meanwhile, with the Yen headed up, profits on Scion’s small, Japanese-built offerings aren’t in great shape either. In short, it is with good reason that Scion is the subject of the most-recent TTAC Deathwatch. Meanwhile, Scion’s bid for renewed relevance hangs on the success of two cars: the neo-Corolla Coupe tC, and the A-Segment Scion iQ three-seater. TTAC will have an early review of the tC before the end of the week, but before we get into the specifics of that vehicle, let’s ponder the wider question of Scion’s viability. Will these two cars bring back Scion’s sales to their previous levels? Let’s take a look at Scion’s historical sales for answers…
Who is the most sustainable car maker? And by “sustainable” I mean everything, like fuel-saving ideas, green practices, etc. It’s bound to be a Japanese car maker, right? Toyota, with their hybrid technologies, Nissan and their electric cars or Honda and their Hydrogen FCX Clarity? Nope. Maybe it’s General Motors and their Volt? The answer lies in Munich. (Read More…)
I don’t know how the US press is reporting it, but according to the UK press, California is on the verge of economic collapse. IOU’s were issued to public workers, lawmakers can’t agree on a budget and neighbouring Nevada has instigated an advertising campaign to lure businesses away from California. Governor “Ah-nuld” Schwarzenegger (who for the rest of the article will be referred to as “AS” as I can’t be bothered to write his name out every single time) is trying his best to bring business to “Cali”. He’s gone on a jaunt to Asia to try and drum up trade. And his press folk will announce even the smallest win. (Read More…)
At $103,100, the just-announced Porsche 911 Carrera GTS costs $12,600 more than a Carrera S. With only 23 horsepower more than the S, the GTS’s premium works out to about $548 per horsepower. Or $6,300 per letter on the badge. Sure, you get a rear-drive version of the Carrera 4 body, an option that’s only been made recently available on the über-priced 911 Sport Classic, but other than that (and a claim to the title of fastest Carrera-badged 911 ever built), the GTS doesn’t appear to bring all that much to the table. And though the lightened, more powerful GT3 costs $25k more than the Carrera S, its extra power brings the per-horsepower premium to a more value-oriented $503. On the other hand, a Corvette ZR1 offers 200 hp more than even the GT3 for less money. As has always been the case, if dollars per horsepower is your game, you’ve still got to go to Detroit.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the conviction of a motorist whose pants fell down after he was ordered to put his hands up. Judge Kevin Ross noted on behalf of the three-judge panel considering the case that previous courts had never considered a search quite like the one conducted on Frank Irving Wiggins as he was ordered out of his car in the parking lot of a St. Paul White Castle in November 2008.
Officer Kara Breci had seen Wiggins in his idling vehicle and assumed he was involved in a drug deal since he was not eating. Breci investigated. After she saw a rear-seat passenger with a bag that looked like it contained marijuana, she ordered Wiggins and two passengers out of the car with hands on their head. The loose-fitting jeans Wiggins had been wearing immediately fell to the ground. As Breci pulled up Wiggins’s pants, she felt an object that turned out to be a .380 pistol in his pocket. Because of his prior convictions, Wiggins was arrested and convicted by a district court for unlawful possession of a firearm.
Lawyers would have to do pro bono work, or subsist on doing divorces and writing wills, would it not be for Toyota. Toyota’s contribution to the world of jurisprudence is immeasurable. They are in a drawn-out lawsuit against their own (former) lawyer. And they are named in more than 300 federal and state lawsuits including proposed class actions over allegations that the vehicles suddenly accelerated and couldn’t be stopped. Toyota is trying to put the brakes on that. (Read More…)
After testing the Brazilian waters with imported models, and after having received a passing (-by) grade from our man in Brazil, China’s Chery decided to go whole hog and build Cherys in the land of Samba. Chery has signed an agreement with the municipality of Jacareí, a city in the interior of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, to set up a car assembly factory in Brazil, reports Macauhub. (Read More…)
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