The paint scheme is a big but obvious clue, but today’s cop car theme makes this irrepressible. Today’s Rampage guessing turned into a rampage of correct right guesses, within minutes of posting it. Steve Campen jumped in first. I’m guessing someone’s going to guess this one even faster.

In typical Carlos Ghosn style, the father of the Nissan EV throws down the gauntlet. gm-volt.com quotes him from a talk with reporters:

“Frankly, I mean so far there is no competition. Let’s be serious. It’s not because someone is coming with a prototype and one car that this is competition. The question is how much capacity are you building. What I am sure is that in 2011, I am going to be the only one on the market”.

In that regard, Ghosn has put production capacity where his mouth is with Nissan planning on 500k in global sales by 2012: “The numbers are big,” Ghosn said. As a frame of reference, GM has indicated production of 8k Volts in 2011, and an ability to ramp up to about 50k annually thereafter. Did GM bet on the wrong horse with its smaller battery but range-extending generator equipped Volt? GM NA Prez suggests that might well turn out to be the case. (Read More…)

The passenger car-based mini pickup niche is as old as as the Crosley Roadside, if not older yet. It’s also a highly ephemeral one, that seems to repeatedly draw car makers to it like moths to the flame. And the results are about the same: here today; gone tomorrow.  (Read More…)

Do I love the internet. I thought I’d seen every old VW oddity, but doing a google image search for “VW pickup” brings up this gem. I knew that in the early days the VW factory built a number of specialized vehicles to transport bodies and things around the grounds. But this goose neck fifth wheel trailer rig hauling another Beetle takes the cake. Another VW view of the same Volksamino follows: (Read More…)

Good work! majo8 won quadruple points in yesterday’s Clue. No bonus points today, though; just the glory of being the first to id this car. Ready, set, go!

All right, I have a thing about short cars. I haven’t spoken to a therapist about it yet. Perhaps its just a reaction against the obesity crisis in modern cars and trucks. But where did they all go? There were once so many of them. Well, I’m going to collect all of them: Have the Suzuki Samurai, X-90 and the shorty Kia Sportage. That leaves as few to still find: (Read More…)

Here’s Nissan’s solution to keep the underutilized Titan lines moving, and it’s a bit different. A van body has been grafted to the Titan front end, which brings certain obvious benefits and disadvantages. Nissan claims that US van owners are unhappy with their ancient Econolines and Chevy vans. According to Nissan: “Looking at the CV market in recent years, there’s been a migration of van users to light-duty pickups due to the lack of comfort, image and dependability of the current outdated van platforms. Yet many of these truck owners admit they need a van for weather protection, security and the convenience of a tall roof van to carry large items or equipment.”

The upside is a roomy pickup cab with no engine dog house. The downside? A lot of wasted real estate, especially compared to the European-designed Sprinter. (Read More…)

Despite the fact that I’m not superstitious or religious, I’ve learned to gracefully accept that certain things seem to happen as if a bigger hand were at work; as though some things were preordained. One year ago exactly, I stumbled on this old Cadillac (actually a ’72, it turns out), and it inspired my first Curbside Classic. It started out about the year I turned eighteen and left home, and hitched a ride in one just like it. But it ended up as a rambling reflection on the fall of Cadillac, the economic circumstances of 1971, and how they’ve changed since then. One year and a hundred Curbside Classics later, I decided to revisit the old DeVille, to see what it might have to say to me now, and to indulge in some more musings. And what has taken up residence with it? A 1976 Toyota Corolla. A mere coincidence, of course. But one that is mighty pregnant with symbolism. (Read More…)

No, its not a recall. But not surprisingly, he’s trying to sell you service for your Ford. Service has always been the big profit center for dealers, and nothing has changed in almost one hundred years.

(Read More…)

Kudos to John Margherita for nailing the BMW 1800, and pdq. Today, we have a two-fer, for a special CC occasion. Tomorrow’s CC is in the front, but the car behind it was a previous CC. You get triple bonus points if you remember the general theme of that CC. And quadruple points if you know why that CC has historical significance (at TTAC). Rack those memory banks!

One of my pet gripes about the media and celebrities is the lack of follow-up and accountability. Remember all the hoopla about Steve Wozniak’s Prius with the mysterious electronics glitch that he could manipulate to create UA? My take was that obviously his cruise control had a minor bug that only showed up at over eighty mph. Woz readily admitted that he could disengage it with a tap on the brakes. Well, thanks to his celebrity status and the coverage, the story ended with Toyota agreeing to take his Prius for a week to test it thoroughly. So what happened? (Read More…)

Among the many unanswered questions as to what Prius owner James Sikes actually did or didn’t do to try to bring his runaway car to a stop, one claim of his definitely smells.  He says he received a recall letter from Toyota, and when he took it in to the dealer, he was told his car was not on the recall lists. Ouch! (Read More…)

Risky business. That defines the car business, and never more succinctly so than in the case of this car. Rarely has a desperate last-minute gamble paid of so handsomely as the “Neue Klasse” BMWs. Today’s new owners of Saab can only dream (hallucinate) about turning their business around so quickly and definitively as this BMW did. But  having the guts and money to back the risk taking is only part of the equation. Most of all, it’s a matter of being at the right time with the right product, and having the smarts to recognize it. In 1962, the seemingly impossible wasn’t. Today? Good luck. (Read More…)

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I’m going to try to stay ahead of the curve and keep CC Clue coming a bit more consistently. Too often, I don’t decide what I’m going to do for the next day’s CC until after dinner, or even in the morning. Well, it’s almost dinner time now, but at least I’ve decided. And some good wine won’t hurt either, although it sometimes does lead to a more…uhm…subjective (exaggerated?)  style of writing, like this one. Well, today’s mystery car is historically significant (oops; well they all are!), so I’d better keep my wits about me. Kudos to big_gms for being the only one to identify the 1976 Honda Accord. That was a bit tricky. This one might be too.