Speaking to Automobilwoche, consultants A.T. Kearney predict that Ultra-Low-Cost cars (ULCC) will be the industry's next Next Big Thing. We're talking simple, robust, safe, easy to repair vehicles costing between $2500 and $5k. Kearney reckons the cars will find favor with millions of middle class buyers. In 2005, Indian had about 391m inhabitants who could afford a ULCC. The number will grow to 628 million by 2020. Companies such as Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra or Maruti are chasing the dream of 24 percent yearly growth rates. Meanwhile, the LCC (Low Cost Car) market is already booming. Production of the Renault/Nissan/Dacia's €8k Logan is expanding to South Africa. And just in case you take a dim not-to-say Freidman-esque view of third world auto emissions, a tuned version of the Logan won second place at the yearly Challenge Bibendum. A diesel Logan bettered 72 other entrants by logging a parsimonious 2.72L/100km (86.5 mpg).

In the real world, cars hardly ever deliver their official government fuel economy ratings. This is still the case in the U.S., where testing procedures were revised to better reflect Joe Blow's lead foot, but it's even more true in the European Union. To prove the point, Autobild recently tested a number of cars in [their idea of] real-life driving conditions. Their circuit consisted of 54 km on the autobahn, 61 km on highways and 45 km of city driving. The cars were driven speedily but not hard– never above 75 mph. The cars tested were up to 53% thirstier than rated (and advertised). Some examples:

Audi RS4 Avant 420HP
Rated 13.5 L/100KM
Test 14.0 = +3.7%

BMW M5 507HP
Rated 14.8
Test 15.2 = +2.7%

BMW 118d Diesel
Rated 4.5
Test 6.2 = +38%

Ford C-Max Diesel 109HP
Rated 4.9
Test 6.7 = +37%

Honda Civic Hybrid 95HP
Rated 4.6
Test 6.6 = +43.5%

Lexus RX400h Hybrid 211HP
Rated 8.1
Test 12.0 = +48%

Mercedes ML350 272HP
Rated 11.7
Test 15.6 = +33%

Toyota Aygo 68HP
Rated 4.6
Test 6.1 = +32.6%

Toyota Prius 78HP
Rated 4.3
Test 6.0 = +39.5%

If you use a tree-shaped car freshener, you either suffer from an overdeveloped sense of irony (fuzzy dice not  good enough?), share your motor with malodorous mates, or conduct mass murderer in the grand style of the  feature film "Se7en.". And if you're a smoker who uses a dangly car freshener to mask your habit, man, are you living dangerously. According to the German blog Autogazette, the head of the German association of Ear, Nose and Throat Doctors, warns that drivers who smoke multiply their chance of  developing cancer if they use a car freshener. "The gases of those 'friendly imitation trees' combine with particulates from tobacco  smoke," Michael Jaumann asserts. "Together, they are much more inclined to deposit themselves in the human body." Not without reason are deaths from cancer of the  throat and the mouth on the increase for German males, says Jaumann. He did not specify whether the "crowns" so popular among Euro cabbies were also toxic, but you just know they are.

The Smart ForTwo isn't so much a small car as a short one. At just eight feet from stem to stern, it’s by far the shortest car on the market. What's the difference between small and short? A small car can stay low to the ground to achieve excellent handling and fuel economy. A short car only excels at one thing: unmetered parallel parking. The first-generation Smart proved the point. As reviewed on TTAC, it was a noisy, slow, poor-handling, stiff-legged, bouncy and crashy car with meh mileage. So, Daimler says it’s rectified the first-gen's faults. Is Version 2.0– headed stateside in 2008– ready for prime time?

Autobild reports that the soon-to-be-Porschefied Volkswagen Group is adopting a low-price strategy for the US market. Beginning in 2011, VW US will sell several relatively cheap, not-for-Europe models: a $20k frumpified Passat, a $15k Jetta and a $25k Passat-sized SUV. (India and China will also be blessed with these Vee Dub strippers.) VW prays hopes this "mid-term strategy" will boost their American sales from last year's 235k units to a cool million vehicles per year. Autobild reckons this plan creates a conundrum: how to prevent gray-market exports to Europe? How to protect VW's international brand values? The magazine recommends introducing a new low-price brand (e.g. Toyota's Scion and Renault-Nissan's Dacia). Meanwhile, in Tokyo, VeeDub's upmarket sib has introduced the new, slightly-larger-than-Mini-sized A1. Badge-engineering alert! Although the new Audi A1 shares its atrocious gaping grille-mouth with the Q7, it sits on the VW Polo platform. The model also introduces Audi's new soft-touch, synthetic cow hide, trademarked "velvet leather." As Grace Jones will tell you, it just doesn't have the same ring to it as warm leatherette. 

In another case of under-informed greenery, Slate.com attempts to answer the question vexing America's automotive environmentalists: should American drivers switch to manual transmissions to save the planet? Answer: yes. Author Brendan I. Koerner says self-shifters can shave 15 percent off their annual gas consumption. "The Department of Energy estimates that the average American driver uses 500 gallons of gas per year, so we're talking about a reduction of 75 gallons. Since a gallon of gas emits 19.564 pounds of carbon dioxide… you'd be reducing your annual CO₂ output by approximately two-thirds of a metric ton." But then again no; American drivers lack the right technique/attitude to harvest the savings. "If you're lazy about shifting and allow your RPMs to soar unnoticed, then you might actually guzzle more gas than if your car were equipped with a well-engineered slushbox." Koerner seems blissfully unaware of the wide variety of cog-swappers on the market: slushbox, CVT, DSG, automatic clutch. But he's convinced that manual transmissions are a better bet, if only because "The brake pads on stick-shift cars… tend to wear out less rapidly than those on automatics. And manual transmissions are relatively cheap to fix and replace, so you can wait longer to buy a new vehicle." Who knew?

At a special shareholder's meeting on October 4, DaimerChrysler officially became Daimler AG. According to Autobild, many shareholders believe a rose by any other name stinks. Minority shareholder rep Bernd Köhler pointed out that Daimler paid Jaguar/Ford $20m for the rights to use the name. But “what happens if Jaguar gets purchased by a Chinese or Indian company? Will there be five-thousand Dollar Daimlers?" Carl Benz’ great-great granddaughter Heidemarie Hirsch was equally indignant. "Why is Daimler disregarding Benz, who was the inventor of the motor car?" Shareholder activist and economics professor Prof Ekkehard Wenger said the name change was "simply stupid.” Shareholders also criticized Daimler’s new $100m typography and graphics package. "It looks more like the logo of a pharmaceutical company, or of an airline, or an insurance company” complained Uli Mayer-Johannsen of MetalDesign. Graphics designer Kurt Weidemann performed design work for the Daimler-Benz and Mercedes-Benz brands for 15 years. "In graphic art terms, Daimler's new appearance looks miserable.”

Car buffs around the world have wasted countless hours debating whether the automotive stunt work in Bullitt or The French Connection qualifies as The Mother of All Car Chases. Obviously, Bullitt is the correct answer. Bud Ekins was the man behind the man behind the wheel. But first, Ekins performed the over-the-fence motorbike jump in "The Great Escape;" the most famous motorcycle stunt ever performed in a movie. After that immortal movie moment, motor mad actor Steve McQueen tapped Ekins to create the superhuman driving in "Bullitt." The movie earned Ekins his place in Hollywood legend– even though the studio insisted on crediting McQueen with the driving. (Ekins didn't mind; he valued his friendship with McQueen more than industry accolades.) Ekins went on to work on other super-stunt films such as "Blues Brothers" ("They got everything in this mall") and "Diamonds are Forever" (two wheel driving through an alley). When his pal and fellow race car driver McQueen died in 1980, Ekins retired from stunt driving, heartbroken. He spent his remaining days restoring and collecting Triumph motorbikes. His only regret in life? "Opening a Triumph dealership, instead of working for Honda."

Over the weekend, sixty thousand Bug-eyed enthusiasts [sic] partied in Hanover, Germany to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Volkswagen Bus. On view: over 5000 examples of the underpowered, side wind-prone, crashhappy vehicle that would change the way people used– and experienced — the road. Der Spiegel dutifully reports that the Bus has been the preferred vehicle for postal workers, policemen, camping enthusiasts, suicidals and, of course, members of the "Flower Power" generation. It's latest claim to fame: a featured cast member of "Little Miss Sunshine." To [dog] mark the occasion, the two surviving members of The Who performed "The Magic Bus," "My Generation" and "Going Mobile". They ignored suggestions that they should also play "The Seeker" (inspired by the Bus' steering), "Squeeze Box" (seating comfort) "Substitute (car)" and "5:15" (referring to the Bus' 0-60 acceleration).

Autobild magazine reports that positive public response to VW's rear-engined up! concept car has emboldened VW to develop a whole line of machines based on the NSF (new small family) platform. The version shown in Frankfurt was a 345cm-long three-door runabout, to which VW will add a 355cm five-door and a 375cm minivan (evoking the classic Volkswagen microbus). The basic models will be introduced in 2010 and hybrids will follow in 2011. Prices will start at 6,000 Euros for the third-world variants, while Europe will get up! from 8,500 Euros onwards/upwards. Martin Winterkorn, VW's always optimistic ex-Audi boss, seems nonchalant about the inherent dynamic problems of a tall, short, narrow, rear-engined vehicle. "With stability control, we will be able to make it handle well enough." Define "well enough."

At the "Frankfurt Motor Show India Day," Indian government and business representatives scolded Germany for their lackadaisical attitude towards the world's largest democracy. "When I speak to German companies", said the Indian Minister for Heavy Industries, "they say the Indian market for small cars is too competitive. But I tell them, you cannot afford to ignore this country, because it is as big as all of Europe, and is growing faster than any other place." Volkswagen AG's Joerg Müller said hold up: VW's offering the Passat and (wait for it) Phaeton to India. Another Indian official said get on with it, mate. "You need to combine German engineering excellence with Indian software ability and low costs to produce a competitive, mass-market product." Meanwhile, according to Spiegel, France's Renault has established a new R&D center in India, where it is developing a Three-Thousand-Dollar car". 2,000 engineers will work on a model which will severely undercut Renault-Nissan-Dacia's present €8,000.00 "Logan" model, but will probably won't make its way to Europe.

Carmakers spend millions of dollars on producing concept cars for the Frankfurt Auto Show et. al. But what is a concept car? Is it something a car company is going to do, wants to do, or might one day do? Yes. There are three main categories: teasers (cars that will eventually hit the market in castrated form), styling exercises (masturbatory, image-building efforts that showcase a carmaker's abilities) and science fiction (the shape of things not to come). Needless to say, teasers first.

If you’re a gearhead monitoring the international media, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Frankfurt Auto Show was run by and for Friends of the Earth. Low-emission Mercedes! Low-consumption VWs! Hydrogen Kias! Ethanol Saabs! Non-existent plug-in hybrids! A casual visitor to this event might wonder if he’d gone to the wrong show. Why is it that all the interesting new cars premiering in Frankfurt are non-green? Why do people crowd around sexy new cars such as the 1-Series BMW, while nobody (save the press) gather ‘round the various not-quite-developed Mueslimobiles? 

At the tail end of the last century, the European built, Eurozone-only Volkswagen Polo was the "Mercedes of small cars.” While the Golf/Rabbits MKIII and MKIV suffered from iffy quality, the smaller, staid Polo was known for being reliably unbreakable. Then, something happened. Just as Mercedes' quality nosedived, the VW Polo lost its rep for bullet-proof build. Since 2005 quality has (reportedly) markedly improved, which has put the car back on the list of frugal consumers looking to buy something “classically VW." But is it ready for a U.S. debut?

According to Speigel, Apple's Steve Jobs and VW's boss Martin Winterkorn met in California a few days ago to discuss "various projects," and set an agenda for several meetings to come. The magazine speculated that there might be a joint project: an "iCar" integrating Apple's design principles into a future "supercool" VW model. Asked about the new Wolfsburg-Cupertino axis of gizmo, a VW spokesman refused to supply details, admitting only that Jobs and Winterkorn had discussed "a lot of ideas." Given that Apple tends to ostracize any business partner who spills the beans on new projects, the iCar could be DOA. True to form, Apple will refuse to comment on the iDea, and Wolfsburg will try to spin it as a hiptastic attempt to bring der bling to die Volk. (iCarumba!) Saying that, in '03, [both] U.S. new Beetle buyers received a "free" Apple iPod during their sci-fi oblivious "Pods Unite" promotion.