Unless you hate cars and live under a rock, you have undoubtedly seen the recent pictures of the Porsche 911 whose driver tried to take a shortcut through freshly poured concrete. It has been emailed, Facebook’d and even posted on my own message board with snarky comments about the arrogance and ignorance of Porsche owners.
With good reason, Porsche owners are jerks. (Read More…)
Sure, beauty is only skin deep, but what car guy doesn’t get his head turned by a pretty set of wheels? Perhaps the most popular cars ever wrapped in a bowtie were produced in three consecutive model years. Which is the best vintage? (Read More…)
Just about the time Datsuns were getting Nissan badging, the suits at Nissan HQ decided that they needed a cheap sporty car to compete with the likes of the Honda CRX and (cringe) Ford EXP in the American marketplace. A little cutting and pasting on the Sentra and voila! Pulsar! (Read More…)
The Chevrolet Volt has been lauded as America’s answer to global warming. But it isn’t green enough to get the coveted California Clean Air decal. Apart from the feel-good effect, that sticker comes with a $1,500 rebate, courtesy of the State of California, and the privilege of driving solo in the state’s carpool lanes. GM is doing something about that. (Read More…)
Art writes:
Sajeev and Steve,
5 months ago I bought myself something of a quarter-life crisis gift – a CPO 2008 Honda S2000. I love this car to death, which is why I was left heartbroken when it was rear-ended quite badly as part of a 5 car accident on the wonderful roads of Los Angeles. Thankfully I’m OK and insurance is picking up the $5300 tab to fix the car, but the whole incident has put the fear of the traffic gods in me. Now, with the car in the shop for the next 2 weeks, I can’t help but think it would be better to keep the future miles off of it and get a daily driver I’m less passionate about instead. (Read More…)
Chrylser’s U.S. plants are working flat-out, and reopening closed plants is not an option, Fiat & Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne tells the Milan daily Corriere della Sera in a wide-ranging interview. Plants and workers in other countries, such as Mexico, Canada or Europe will have to fill a third of the U.S. demand for Chryslers. Marchionne thinks that “demand for cars in Europe will remain low for long. At least until 2014.” He counts on increasing U.S. demand for made-in-Italy Chryslers to keep his Italian plants open. If that demand should slacken, then … (Read More…)
Germany’s Hannoversche Allgemeine, usually well-informed in Volkswagen matters, got its hands on hot data: Volkswagen’s 2011 balance sheet , which will be presented to the Supervisory Board on Monday. According to the paper, Volkswagen more than doubled its annual profit to €16 billion ($21.4 billion.) (Read More…)
Europe gets the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback and a Cruze wagon – and now Hyundai does too. The i30, also known as our 2013 Elantra GT, gets its own wagon version, dubbed the Tourer.
I was originally hesitant to jump on the Tesla Roadster “bricked batteries” bandwagon, and my initial story was written with a sort of cautious neutrality. Further context will be provided by the details that have surfaced in the 24 hours since the story broke. Hope you’re ready to dive in to it all.
The bygone era of Detroit included many very stylish rides. This fact is one of the big reasons that old iron has such incredible curb appeal in 2012. They don’t make ‘em like they used to – and that includes dangerous style choices.
Don’t kill the messenger on these points, but there were several engineering choices that would have Ralph Nader spinning in his grave-if he was dead. (Read More…)
Not a good day at Tesla: As if it’s not enough that the blogosphere is aflutter with bricked roadsters and unauthorized GPS tracking, on top of it we have fresh news from England that Tesla’s suit against Top Gear has been thrown out. (Read More…)
So, after Chrysler got those government-backed loans that saved the company in 1979— take note, members of the Iacocca Jihad, that I am not calling those loans a bailout (even though Uncle Sam would have been forced to cover them if Chrysler had failed), and thus you may rest easy that this writer is not lumping your favorite Italian-owned corporation in with the People’s Democratic Cadres’ Bailed-Out Motors Corporation— everything hinged on the K-platform cars being a success. And they were! (Read More…)
Forecasters with the benefit of real-time sales data predict that February sales will be up slightly to 1,050,000 units, lifting the Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) to 13.8 million, up 6.4 percent from February 2011. This according to new projections by Kelley Blue Book. GM is predicted as a big loser. (Read More…)
TTAC commentator DougD writes:
Hi Sajeev,
I put the snowtires on Dad’s 2007 Kia Rondo yesterday, and right on cue we’ve got snow today. While we worked we talked about cars, of course. My parents are in their mid 70’s, Dad bought the Rondo new and there’s a lot to like about it. Upright seating, good ingress for seniors, easy to park in the condo parking spot. It’s been reliable and still looks good, so the Rondo’s held up well. (Read More…)
Recent Comments