Thanks in part to the help of people from TTAC, TrueDelta received a record number of responses to July’s Car Reliability Survey—over 22,300. Updated car reliability stats have been posted to the site for 570 model / model year / powertrain (where warranted) combinations. With partial results for another 464 cars, the total is now over 1,000. These stats include car owner experiences through the end of June 2011, making them over a year ahead of some other sources.
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Think “French Crossover” and you might picture something like the Peugeot Bipper Tepee: willfully weird, wildly named and highly functional in a boring, European delivery van kind of way. But Peugeot seems determined to craft a new image for its people-carrying future, starting with this HX1, which it says represents what a crossover offering could be in 2020. With “4 + 2” modular seating and a version of Peugeot’s real-world diesel-hybrid AWD system, the HX1 belies its concept-y dimensions and half-scissor doors. And though its style is based on the design language that debuted with the SR-1 Concept, it’s long-and-low looks remind me of its sister-brand Citroen’s recent Metropolis Concept. In any case, it’s got as much in common with the Bipper Tepee as I do with Laetitia Casta… which gives me some hope for the crossover future.
(www.arthursclipart.org)
Robin writes:
Sajeev,
Longtime reader, first time writer. I love reading your stuff, well worthwhile.
My query is about fuel additives, after-market specifically. I have used the Lucas Oil products and found them to produce a mile or two better MPG in my 94 D21 four banger. (Note: that’s a Nissan Hardbody – SM)
What is your take on additives? Have you found any others to be of significant value to the user/user’s vehicle?
Back in April, I saw this car at Hyundai’s America Technical Center, but it was still heavily camouflaged and cameras were verboten. And unlike Hyundai’s other big 2012 Model-Year news, the wildly-improved “Grandeur” Azera replacement, we hadn’t seen photos of the updated GenCoupe leak out of Korea. Until now. Our man in Seoul, Walter Foreman, sent us these pics showing an updated Genesis Coupe sporting its own take the familiar familial fascia. Look for an official reveal at the LA Auto Show.
A fourth city in Orange County, California is poised to outlaw the use of red light cameras. Earlier this month the Laguna Niguel city council voted 4-1 on first reading of a measure that would prohibit the use of automated ticketing machines in the future — the city has never allowed camera vendors to operate on its streets.
Linda Lindholm and Robert Ming introduced the measure citing the “mixed reviews” the cameras have received with studies showing red light cameras increase accidents (view studies).
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Anybody here ever go to Catholic school? I sure as hell did. About six of them over the course of seven years. I learned really quickly how to distinguish the nuns who scolded from the nuns who slapped, paddled, or punched. (Sister Andrea! What’s up?) I also learned that kids rarely attend Catholic school alone. […]
GM China always had a comfortable lead over Volkswagen in China – at least on paper. More than half of GM China’s volume comes from small delivery vans, made by a three-way joint venture with SAIC and Wuling, in which GM held 34 percent. This share had been recently raised to 44 percent. The joint venture agreement allows GM to claim 100 percent of the small cars as theirs. “Whatever turns them on” (or Chinese word to that effect) say the other JV partners who happily count the cars again in their annual reports. There is one big problem with that. The “breadvan segment” (so called because the cars looks like loafs on wheels) has been shrinking and is ruining GM’s otherwise good Chinese numbers. Now, GM can’t take it anymore, and is using a familiar tactic: “GM is sacrificing profit margins to maintain market share in China, cutting prices of low-cost minivans by as much as 15 percent to offset slowing sales in the world’s largest vehicle market,” Bloomberg reports.
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Porsche chief Matthias Müller found a big gap in his program. A price gap. “It bugs me that the 911 stops at around €250,000, and then things start moving again with the 918 for €750,000,” Müller complains to the Süddeutsche Zeitung today. “Ferrari builds a comfortable and pretty much competition-free nest. We need to get in there.” (Read More…)
Now that the effects of the March 11 tsunami are behind the Japanese auto industry, carmakers are pulling out all stops to make up for lost volume. Only to run into new problems: “Shortages of tires and other autoparts are a growing concern,” reports The Nikkei [sub]. The new shortage is tsunami-unrelated. Its reason: Bad old supply and demand. (Read More…)
“Frankfurt in September, a city full of car crazy people from all over Europe, but no Saab at the IAA. However, few will notice it. “ So far, so true. Saabsunited reports that Saab will NOT have a booth at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Which is a good thing, because the cost saved for a decent display at the IAA can easily cover a good part of the monthly payroll at Saab. Currently, there is no money for the payroll – which has turned into a bit of a tradition at the storied Swedish carmaker. If I’d have the money just for the hyperinflated hotel rooms for a whole crew, I could retire comfortably. It’s THAT expensive. However, Saab has not given up on Frankfurt. Which is a bad thing. (Read More…)
Did we say that golden cars are all the rage in China? Rage? It’s an epidemic! Carnewschina is following the rapidly developing story. Latest gold find: A Lamborghini Gallardo LP-560 2, unearthed in Shijiazhiang, capital of Hebei Province. (Read More…)
Placing females on the hood of cars has always been a tried if tired tactic in car selling. Putting money on the hood usually sexes up sales faster than scantily-clad vixens. The Chinese car industry is in fast growth, and in puberty. So it goes for – women.
Carnewschina found a Volkswagen dealer in Daqing in China’s Heilongjiang Province who thought that his sales charts could use some excitement. He hired some girls to stand around the cars in bikinis. Apparently, this stratagem did not quite work out as planned. Further drastic savings were called for:
The bikinis had to go.
Hit the jump only if you are home alone, or if you can prove that you are studying trends in car retailing, and that it’s all in the name of science. You have been warned … (Read More…)
The chief reason for the recent decline of the fortunes of Japanese automakers was not, as posited by pop pundits, the recalls or the tsunami. It was something more insidious, something regularly overlooked by most outsiders and many insiders. It was a reduction in development spending – an eventually deadly bottom line therapy also popular by cash-starved American peers. Japanese automakers have realized the error of their ways and have returned to funding the finding of that insanely great next generation car. (Read More…)
When I lived in California, I never saw a car covered with Insane Clown Posse paraphernalia in a junkyard. Colorado is a different story. When a Juggalo slaps some ICP stickers on his or her car here, it’s next stop, junkyard! Usually such cars are pay-it-no-mind Contours or Accords, and so I don’t really notice, but I’ve been not-so-secretly lusting after a Subaru XT as a winter driver and it pains me to see one end up like this. (Read More…)
When an American wants to attract attention to his car & dealer woes, the tech-savvy slighted customer sets up a [name_of_dealer]sucksrealbad.com, and protests from the privacy of his webserver. The traditional types take up position in front of said sales outlet with some placards.
In China, the preferred mode of protest is by farm animal. A Chinese man called bull on his car and dealer. (Read More…)
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