“I see no need for union representation,” says Adrian Leslie, line worker at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant. “We are being treated fairly here.”
If it would be him alone to decide, then any plans of the UAW to unionize Volkswagen Chattanooga are doomed. Leslie is not alone in his opinion, and the plans are doomed. (Read More…)
David writes:
Hi Sajeev,
My family of 5 (1 spouse, 2 four year olds, 1 2 year old) shares 3 cars. A 2003 Passat Wagon, purchased used with 30,000 miles is our primary family car. It gets good mileage (33 mpg on the highway!), fits three kids seats across the back row, and carries a ton of luggage (more than many SUV’s). It handles reasonably well and has good driving dynamics and comfort (and a tight turning radius). Our second car is a 1996 Honda Civic two door hatch, which gets great mileage, was purchased with 8000 miles on it, and was recently declared a rolling hazard with the head gasket ready to fail at any moment. It gets driven 10-15 miles a week at speeds below 35 mph. Our third vehicle serves the dual purpose of track/date car, a 1995 BMW M3 Lightweight, purchased with 60,000 miles on the clock. These three cars have been more than adequate for our family’s needs for 5 years. Until now. We need something that carries 7.
My trip to California to judge the Skankaway Anti-Toe-Fungal 500 24 Hours of LeMons started with a jaunt to Los Angeles, where I saw this extremely rare Hyundai Scoupe in a junkyard. Not so rare as the Scoupe, yet more interesting from an automotive-history standpoint, was this Buick a few rows away. (Read More…)
Peter writes:
When my wife and I drove across the country, we found that our cars really weren’t right for Orange County. My Rav4’s payment spiked considerably due to a ridiculous monthly car tax out here on leases. I forbid my wife to drive the 2004 Corolla 40 miles a day in traffic on the 5. We had some cash left over from the move and decided to exchange our cars. We did very well in negotiating with the dealer. My wife got a brand new Legacy 2011 Limited with all the bells and whistles. I decided on using the 500 rebate towards a new Outback. The trade in deals we got were superb. We just got very lucky I guess. Well..
Her Legacy turned out to be a great car. She gets great gas mileage and we’re both happy with the car. It has fantastic soft leather seats. Fantastic piece of engineering. Love it.
Then there’s my Outback. I am in such pain from this car. It’s been dead reliable, great in terms of the way it drives and handles, zippy, and fits my lifestyle. Unfortunately the car’s seats are the absolute worst ever put into a car. I’ve tried two trips to an upholstery shop to get the seats altered. The dealer has performed numerous “fixes” to the seat. The problem only has gotten worse. I can barely sit in the car for 10 minutes without getting a headache and back pain. I finally sat down with my wife and told her the car must go. We’ve spent too much money on the problem and it’s not worth it.
My car is supposed to be a trip car : A car that can hold our dog, future child, and perhaps future second dog on trips to the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. It’s also supposed to be good for pulling up to a beach and providing a nice hatch for me to sit down and put on my wetsuit. It’s supposed to be the “Dog” car. I cannot buy a car without a Hatch after finding how essential they are!
Here’s our situation: We’re paying off debt, and getting ready to buy a house. My wife and I have high incomes. The payoff on the Subaru Outback is $28K. It has 6000 miles on it. I’m guessing I can get about 24 for it. Our lease payment is around 420. The cars we’re entertaining are the Hyundai Tuscon GLS, Elantra Touring SE, Mazda CX7 “i model” and perhaps the Mazda5. I can put 2K-4K down and would not want a higher payment than 420. I need a comfortable car. It also must be safe. Gas mileage is essential. I don’t care if it’s a base model, but it seems the next level up from base is quite economical on these two cars.
I really have been starting to see that almost every car out there is superior to what I have for the simple reason that I can’t really sit in my car. This is the one vehicle that has made me miss every single previous car I’ve ever owned, except the Rav4.
BTW: I refuse at this point to purchase a GM vehicle, or a Chrysler for my own personal reasons that I will never get over. I have not taken Lincoln off the table, or any Ford. However their prices seem to be in another galaxy for what the cars offer.
I need to do this very soon, as my work is suffering due to the condition I’m in when I arrive. I am open to other options entirely. My wife and I discussed the possibility of an older car for a few years and then something else. That adds some risk, though. We’ve already spent too much on a car that was supposed to be under warranty.
Steve answers: (Read More…)
Since editor Ed and big Bertel are in transit to Nashville right now, where they will be meeing me and my girls (Vodka McBigbra and Drama McHourglass) for dinner, there’s theoretically no way they could stop me from headlining this article Jalopnik-style, “THIS is the wagon that could kill you to DEATH.” Let’s just pretend I did. Because this really IS the wagon that could kill you to death.
Luckily, you can’t buy it in the United States.
From our source “JH” comes a curious tale, and one perhaps completely un-reported in the US auto media: Fisker’s controversial, possibly US-funded Karma assembly center had ground to a halt, with “about 400” uncompleted Karmas sitting outside. It turns out that the UAW isn’t the only group of union workers out there who are willing to strike. Were they killing the golden goose, or just asking for a fair share of the egg?
If you’ve followed TTAC for the last several, you’ve been able to watch the meteoric rise of Build Your Dreams from humble upstart to Buffett-backed behemoth. Two years ago, BYD seemed poised to launch an unstoppable onslaught of cheap Chinese electric cars that seemed like an attractive proposition at a time when gas price angst was everywhere. Today, however, things have changed considerably. Bloomberg reports that BYD has opened its US headquarters in Los Angeles, a year behind schedule, and with fewer jobs than initially promised. And no wonder: for all intents and purposes, BYD has practically abandoned its charge to leverage its cell phone battery know-how into electric car dominance. According to Bloomberg, BYD
“has delayed plans to sell electric cars to retail buyers, citing limited availability of public chargers. Instead, it’s focusing on solar panels, batteries, LED lighting and rechargeable buses.” (Read More…)
There are days when I wish industry analysts and auto industry journalists should be required to carry maltreatment insurance. This is one of those days. Bloomberg reports that “Volkswagen AG will probably become the world’s biggest carmaker this year, vaulting past Toyota Motor and General Motors on gains in emerging markets.” Pure and unadulterated nonsense. (Read More…)
Video of cold-weather prototype testing runs fairly hot-and-cold, to use a rather indulgent metaphor. Often times the footage is deathly dull as test drivers nurse their million-dollar charges through the arctic ice. Other times, however, cold-weather test video gives us some of the best prototype footage, as when BMW’s i3 was caught showing off its rear-drive proclivities, or when its brand-mate the i8 revealed its interesting ergonomics when a test driver had to stop to pee. This video is less revealing, as we not only know about the Boxster’s basic attributes, we’ve actually seen it completely revealed. Still, seeing a not-ready-for-market sportscar flipping its tail out thanks to some injudicious use of the throttle is worth a look… even if you just fast forward to the 1:40 mark to skip the less-intriguing stuff. Did the rumored turbo-four base engine feed someone more torque than they were expecting? Did the driver throw some brakes into the recovery effort, or was that the work of a nanny? There’s also a second, less dramatic incident of ass-end antics at around the 2:07 mark, which the driver catches without the use of brakes…
(Before you start reading you need to play the video above – just for the music)
Over the last few weeks we have visited Cambodia, Panama, Colombia and China. Not quite sure why there is so many countries starting in C in that list… which is partly why we are now off to Indonesia.
You’ve been to Bali recently and can’t bear to hear any more about it? That’s fine, I’ve prepared 159 other countries for you to visit in my blog, and I can tell you it is sangat baik (very good), so click away!
Toyota is experimenting a little bit in Indonesia, including releasing twin models quasi-exclusively to this country under its Daihatsu brand…
Jonathon writes:
I’ve been remiss about getting results back to readers. I took the car to the Honda dealer who pushed hard for the power flush . . . only to have the technician do the 3X manual flush. Turns out that only some 2003 V6 Accords have the available connections to handle power flushing.
Results? The transmission has been Smoooooooooth ever since — how could it NOT be when the old fluid looked and smelled like old, overcooked coffee? Because the final draining still smelled a little off, I’ll probably do yet another tranny drain with the next oil change.
Thanks for the advice.
We’ve reviewed a lot of Korean designs here lately. The Soul. The Rio. The Veloster. The Sorrento. The Genesis. The Optima Hybrid. The Cayenne S. Actually, rumors that Porsche made a straight-up trade of engineering (the original Hyundai Santa Fe’s 2.7L V-6) for styling (the original Cayenne is clearly pretty much the same as said original Santa Fe) are completely unfounded. Some of these cars may not be quite up to the standard of their competition, but others are either the critic’s choice of the segment or the actual freaking segment sales volume leader.
Price has been a big part — for a long time, maybe the only part — of Korean-brand appeal in the United States since the very first Excel arrived with “$4995!” plastered on the windshield. In 2011, however, the Hyundai, Kia, and Daewoo vehicles aren’t always the cheapest choice. Which leads us to the question:
“You know,” editor Ed told me, “that would be, about, like, a Take Four on the Soul, we’re not gonna do that.” I’d rented a 2011-vintage Kia Soul for a LeMons race in Houston and had been quite impressed. Although the powertrain (the traditional two-liter Hyundai/Kia four-banger and a lackluster four-speed auto) hadn’t been stellar, […]
And here, a glimpse of the exhilarating Kennesaw (without h) nightlife. It’s hopping.
It is not possible for a Chrysler minivan to finish in the top third of a weekend-long race on the car-killing turns and hils of Infineon Raceway, which is proof that this weekend’s race never happened. That means that the performance of the Team Soccer Moms’ Caravan must have been the product of mass hallucination. (Read More…)
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