The 24 Hours of LeMons has been coming to MSR Houston since 2008, and it has become one of the toughest, most competitive tracks in the series. Out of the 80 or so cars at the third annual Gator-O-Rama inspections today, at least four are former winners and another half-dozen have multiple top-three finishes. (Read More…)

Chrysler just filed its first SEC disclosure in over a decade, providing a peek under the hood of the smallest Detroit automaker. One of the most interesting items: a history of Chrysler’s fleet sales breakouts since 2006. And despite Chrysler’s vows to break its fleet addiction, 2010 saw the firm’s highest fleet percentage since 2006, at 36.1%. Back in the Cerberus days, they held the line at 30%, thank you very much. But then, ChryCo knows how to defend the fleet sales, arguing:

Although our vehicle sales to dealers for sale to retail customers are normally more profitable than our fleet sales, our fleet sales are an important source of revenue and can also be an effective means for marketing our vehicles. Further, fleet orders also help normalize our plant production because they typically involve the delivery of a large, pre-determined quantity of vehicles over several months. Fleet sales are also a source of aftermarket service parts revenue for us and service revenue for our dealers. In recent years, our fleet customers, particularly our commercial and government fleet customers, have tended to order vehicles that are smaller and are more fuel-efficient.

But the best thing about fleet sales? They conceal the steady erosion of consumer demand for your products and brands. After all, at 36.1% fleet mix, Chrysler only sold about 695,000 vehicles to actual retail consumers last year (100k-200k below what the firm’s five-year plan called for).

Dieseldriver.com broke down diesel sales for 2010, and found that December’ diesel sales (7,604 units) were about double the monthly rate for January of last year (3,855), although diesel’s overall market share is not growing at a commensurate rate. For vehicles available in both gas and diesel versions, the diesel take rate over the course of 2010 was 32%. Audi buyers chose diesel powertrains most often where available, with a 48% take rate on diesel versions of the A3 and Q7. Volkswagen had the second-highest take rate at 7%, with its Jetta Sportwagon leading the way with nearly five diesel versions selling for each gas version sold.

Almost exactly three years and one week ago, my dad, Paul Niedermeyer called me up and told me there was an opening for a freelancer at TTAC’s then-new news blog. Little did I know at the time that just a few years later, so much would have changed. In fact, if someone had told me at the time that in three years I would be editing TTAC and that my dad would have moved onto his own site, I might not have taken the job. After all, if it weren’t for him I might not even be interested in cars, and I certainly wouldn’t be writing about them professionally.

Needless to say, there have been some twists and turns along the way… but sharing a profession with your dad is too deeply rewarding a privilege to simply come easily. His decision to leave TTAC was a tough for me to accept at first, until I realized that TTAC’s loss was the internet’s gain. We may have lost a valued contributor, but the autoblogosphere gained a new destination: curbsideclassic.com.

For legal reasons, you can still find an archive of Paul’s TTAC-era Curbside Classics here, but be sure to surf over to his new site for his latest additions to a body of work that is, without a doubt, one of the best sources of automotive history and nostalgia on the web.

The first issue that any reviewer must face is perspective. Whether it’s a $70,000 Jaguar or a $15,000 Chevy you have to maintain an appropriate perspective. You have to be fair to the product you’re reviewing while putting it into proper context for your readers. When Jaguar told me that a 2011 XF Supercharged was […]

Bloomberg [via Automotive News [sub]] reports that all 130 planned Fiat USA showrooms will not be opened until September. Initial rollout plans had called for “around 165” dealers, but that number has been dialed back, possibly due to overlap. It’s not clear if the delay will affect Chrysler’s goal of selling 50k Cinquecentos this year, but it probably will considering

About a dozen Fiat franchises have started up and a total of 20 may be open by the end of February, said Laura Soave, head of the Fiat brand for Chrysler.

About 30 to 40 will be open by the middle of March, she said. Chrysler said in September that it wanted Fiat showrooms running by the end of February, adding that it would allow some dealers to open later.

“It’s a tiny bit behind,” Soave said today.

Keeping a nervous eye on oil prices? Curious how each increase in the price per barrel translates into price at the pump, and what impact that actually has on consumers? Zerohedge comes through with this handy primer on the real-world consequences of each increase in the price of oil. And what, pray tell, does the “Nomura” note scrawled over the $220/barrel price refer to? Why, the prediction by Nomura Investment Bank analyst Michael Lo, that if Libya and Algeria stop oil production due to unrest, the price of crude will hit $220/barrel. Are you ready to start spending an extra ten percent of your household income on gas?

Today was the big day when Geely-bought Volvo wanted to announce its plans for the future. They did not disappoint. (Read More…)

In an extended interview with Reuters, Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn talks about the balancing act of leading two global automakers while maintaining their unique identities, a balance Ghosn says he wants to try to preserve even as the alliance looks to restructure its capital. Renault’s 44.3% stake in Nissan has caused some trouble with financial analysts because, as Ghosn puts it,

we are challenged (by financial markets) over how much capital we have imprisoned into the structure of the alliance. It’s a fair challenge. We are going to be studying and analyzing this with outsiders also, what are the ways to respond to these expectations from the financial markets without challenging the operating model which consists of keeping the two companies vibrant, motivated, engaged and keeping their identities

Does that mean a full merger? A new corporate structure? Where is Ghosn looking for answers as he attempts to give the markets what they want while maintaining the delicate balance between the needs of his two firms?

(Read More…)

Opel green lighted their new convertible. It is based on the current Astra and will be built in their Polish plant in Gliwice , Automobilwoche [sub]. In Gliwice, the car can be built alongside of other Astra models. According to Opel, the car should go on sale in 2013.

Foundation for the new ragtop is Opel’s compact car architecture, which underpins the Astra, the Astra Sports Tourer and the future Astra GTC.  The new convertible take te place of the Astra Twin Top with its foldable hard top.

Also scheduled for 2013: A new sub-subcompact.  And a homegrown version for the Agila, which currently is a rebadged Suzuki. Volkswagen wants Suzuki for itself.

Auto Motor und Sport calls the new Opel Zafira Touring Concept an “Oasis,” but could it be the “Baby Enclave” that’s been rumored for some time? The short answer is “no,” as the next Buick MPV will be a full class smaller than this Opel Astra-based compact 7-seater, based on the next Aveo platform and boasting suicide doors. But with gas prices rising, and CAFE standards possibly headed towards 60+ MPG, there’s certainly a chance that the next-gen Zafira could eventually end up in the US with Buick badges.

A peer-reviewed article published Wednesday in the Florida Public Health Review elaborated on a previous analysis of methods used in certain red light camera studies. University of South Florida (USF) researchers Barbara Langland-Orban, Etienne E. Pracht and John T. Large returned to clarify certain points raised in response to their 2008 report that concluded red light cameras tended to increase injury accidents (view study).

“In our original critique, we faulted the research methods used in the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) analysis titled Safety Evaluation of Red-Light Cameras,” the USF report stated. “One FHWA official subsequently contacted us to point out that we overlooked an important finding: fatal crashes at red light camera sites had increased, yet were ignored in the related economic analysis.”

(Read More…)

I’ve already got a custom-van project and a basket-case Toyota 20R-powered Sprite project, but what I really want is a genuine, red-flag-waving Warsaw Pact machine to cruise around Denver. I don’t mean any Lada, either— it’s got to be a genuine, designed-and-built-in-the-USSR car, not a Fiat clone! Fortunately, I have a car-freak friend in the Czech Republic who can get such a machine into a shipping container in Bremerhaven for a reasonable price, so all that would remain for me would be to negotiate the Kafkaesque maze of registering the thing in Colorado. How hard could it be? (Read More…)

Back in the late 50s, Wilhelm Karmann had the inside track in Wolfsburg. His Osnabrück company built the Beetle convertible and the Karmann Ghia (a.k.a. “Typ 14”) for Volkswagen. Rubbing shoulders with Volkswagen engineers and designers, Karmann knew early what others didn’t know: He knew the plans for the notchback VW 1500 “Typ 3”. Karmann shared the secret with the Ghia designers in Turin. Luigi Segre, head of the studio, could not control his excitement. (Read More…)

“Am I the only one,” one of my Twitter friends-I’ve-never-really-met wrote, “who looks at Gadaffi and sees Renee Zellweger in ten years?” I used to get Renee Zellweger and Joey Lauren Adams confused, at least until “Mallrats” when it was revealed that Ms. Adams was closer to Twiggy than Sophia Loren. Ms. Zellweger, on the other hand, had that fabulous scene in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” where she was “deliberately chunky”, possibly a size 8 instead of a 4.

Where was I? Oh yes. Ford’s announced that the EPA will certify the Focus SFE PowerShift at 40 highway MPG. That means that if you are looking for an automatic-transmission car in this segment capable of hitting the magic mark, you now have two choices: this, and Hyundai’s Elantra.