One hundred miles per hour. The once-fabled “ton” which my 1990 Volkswagen Fox struggled to indicate on its outrageously optimistic speedometer is now a commonplace, ho-hum event. Many modern cars will get there in ten or eleven seconds. Even heavy-duty pickups have no trouble pushing their Maximum Overdrive front fascias into the triple digits nowadays […]

“Why would you even ask that question? Do you think the Chinese want to kill people on the road?”

Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby after a reporter had asked him in Geneva whether Chinese ownership could hurt Volvo’s safety image.

From Automotive News [sub]

For years. American and Chinese companies have talked about bringing Chinese cars to America. So far, a lot of talk, little action. Even perennial announcer BYD has not progressed beyond the test phase. Santa Monica’s CODA wants to be the first one. Honestly now. (Read More…)

More and more journos wish China would become like America. As in America of 2008: Pop, crash, fizzle. The current meme is that the 18 plus million car sales can’t possibly go on and that the Chinese car market will ape America and will pop, crash and fizzle.

The problem is: The Chinese car market doesn’t seem to be able to read. It just doesn’t want to roll over. It had its big chance last month. China had been closed most of February in observance of the Chinese New Year. Most observers (including myself) had expected minus signs in front of the growth number for February.

First sales numbers are coming if for February, and there are good news and bad news. (Read More…)

Remember when we reported, two weeks ago, that Tesla-partner Panasonic is betting big on the laptop battery idea, with the first batch of batteries going to Japanese start-up Zerosports? Well, they won’t.  Zerosports is dead. (Read More…)

„Let’s see what Volvo has with Jacoby as chief and the Chinese as owners.”

If I would have a Euro for each time that sentence is uttered in Geneva, I’d be rich by now. Volvo shows a V60 plug-in hybrid wagon. It uses a 215 horsepower 2.4L diesel 5-cylinder engine to drive the front wheels, while a 70 horsepower electric motor powers the rear. (Read More…)

Ferdi Piech is trying his hand at instigating a velvet revolution. He is dangling huge sales increases at Alfa in front of workers and customers, hoping that they string up Marchionne and ask Volkswagen to take over Alfa. Or something along these lines. Anyway, Piech said in Geneva that Volkswagen could nearly quadruple the annual sales of Alfa Romeo, if Fiat would only do the right thing and sell Volkswagen the ailing Alfa brand. (Read More…)

The Daily Mail reports

Motorway speed limits could rise to 80 mph to shorten journey times and boost the economy under a radical review of road safety, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond signalled today.

He is concerned that anti-car campaigners have for too long used ‘road safety’ as a convenient excuse to both stymie raising speed the limit on motorways from the current 70mph, and to push for more 20mph zones in urban areas – even when they are inappropriate.

Britain has some of the safest roads in Europe, and within that motorways are by far the safest.

In future, Mr Hammond will demand that safety alone cannot be the sole determining factor when changing limits and that a thorough cost-benefit analysis which takes into account the economic impact must also be carried out when deciding such matters.

Now, imagine that lede in the US media. Tough, innit?

“The consumer is back to the showrooms,” said Brian Johnson, an analyst with Barclays Capital to the Los Angeles Times. No kidding. The consumer is back with a vengeance. February new cars sales were up  27 percent on the year. The world’s two biggest automakers report sales increases we thought only possible in China. (Read More…)

Ed writes:

Sajeev and Steve – I have 3 kids ages 8, 5 and 2 and have two cars – a 2009 RAV4 4WD 4cyl with 20k on it as the daily driver and a 1995 525 as the fun-to-drive car (well, more fun than the RAV4, at least) which is just about to turn 200k and I just sense that something very expensive is about to happen so I want to trade up and get something used, but recent, in the $15k – $20k range.

What do you recommend in a sedan that is a good drive, is reasonably economical and won’t cost a fortune to maintain?  The catch is that it needs to hold 3 kids in the back!

(Read More…)

Consumer Reports released its top picks car list for 2011. According to Consumer Reports, these are the most reliable cars you can (and should) buy. With some notable exceptions, it’s a foreign affair. Out of 10 cars recommended, eight are foreign, or make that Asian: 6 Japanese cars are top picks, followed by two Korean and two American cars. European cars are conspicuously absent. (Read More…)

OK, so so we weren’t immediately thrilled at the prospect of Alfa coming to the US as the sick man of Europe. But with news that Alfa’s 4C, a Dallara-developed, 1,800 lb mid-engined coupe could become the flagship for the brand’s return to the US, we’re starting to warm up to the Alfisti bandwagon. But, there’s a catch (of course): at the suggested €45k price point and 15k-25k unit production plan, this aluminum-and-carbon vision of Elise-meets-8C loveliness won’t be doing much to solve Alfa’s financial difficulties. Still, that’s the Alfa we want to come to the US: the extravagant, over-the-top, money-losing Alfa, not the cynical Fiat-rebadge Alfa. This 4C is a good start down the financially-draining but emotionally-rewarding road Alfa should never have been forced to abandon.

From the front lines of the safety wars comes Bloomberg‘s report that NHTSA has dropped a proposed rule requiring automatic reverse systems on obstructed windows. Auto safety advocate group Kids and Cars had pushed for the systems to be put on all power windows, at a cost of $6-$8 per window. But Mr Safety himself, Ray LaHood isn’t convinced, telling Senator Jay Rockefeller in a letter

There is considerable uncertainty about benefits estimates, particularly with respect to preventing or mitigating the less serious, mostly minor, injuries involving a power window closing on a person’s finger or hand

Automakers had opposed the rule, which would have covered only “one touch” power windows, on the grounds of costs and “unintended consequences with regard to security.” Kids and Cars cites [PDF] a 2007 NHTSA estimate that 2,000 emergency visits each year are caused by power window injuries. NHTSA said in 2009 that the proposed rule would save two lives and help prevent 850 injuries a year. The safety dilemma marches on…

[Hat Tip: John Horner]

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott does not want anything even resembling a speed camera to operate in the Lone Star State. In an opinion handed down yesterday, Abbott denied the request of the city of Plano’s request to use handheld laser speed guns equipped with cameras and GPS devices on the grounds that doing so would violate a Texas law that bans automated photo radar devices.

(Read More…)

Jack Baruth thinks that any vehicle can be entertaining to drive. Well he’s never owned one of these. This 5-speed base model is a masterpiece of simplicity… and boredom. I used every trick I know to find happiness with it. Rev it in fifth. Rev it in third. Hypermile it. Even throw in a sound system to replace the chintziest radio this side of a Tercel EZ. Nothing worked. But then again this Prizm has almost nothing that can break in it either. This generation Prizm is arguably the most reliable GM model of the 1990’s (thanks Toyota!). And with only 126k miles and $1500 in the hole I can…

(Read More…)