In almost perfect contrast to Ford’s rapidly rising average transaction prices (previous post), Toyota is having to keep incentives and dealer discounts high in order to keep moving the metal. Automotive News reports that Toyota dealers, once money printing machines, are having to accept lower gross profits. Transaction prices on new 2011 models are the lowest, as a percentage of sticker prices, of all mainstream brands, according to TrueCar and Edmunds.com. And Toyota dealers aren’t denying it: (Read More…)

If you regret not buying Ford stock when it was $1, you might want to reconsider even at the current $14. Bloomberg reports that Ford may well report a record third quarter profit of some $1.37 billion, based on the projections of five analysts. Considering that the market is still depressed, some analysts see plenty of potential left on the upside, projecting a possible $20 share price within the next 12 months. The keys to Ford’s success? Here’s just one: the new Fiesta is fetching $3,000 to $4,000 above its $14k base price, because buyers are happily taking them loaded with options. The result is that average transaction prices for the Fiesta are higher than Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas. And the Fiesta is a class smaller. The small cars-can’t-be-sold-profitably-by-Detroit curse has finally been exploded. (Read More…)

You might think I’ve been taking pictures of old cars on the streets forever. Not so, actually. I’ve been ogling them, but I always saved my film for family. Probably not completely coincidentally, I started CC about the same time our nest was emptying. But there was one single exception, and today I stumbled on it: a photo of a 1951 Mercury that lived on the street a few blocks from our house in Santa Monica. Its dark blue paint was oxidizing into a divine shade of purple, and one day in 1979 on our regular walk to the beach, I had the impulse: to immortalize this aging neighbor before it disappeared. Technically, this wasn’t really an exception, because Stephanie is in it. That part has changed, mostly. (Read More…)

The early eighties was the most revolutionary and unique time in the American automobile industry ever. Thanks to exploding oil and fuel prices, and with the expectation that the increases would continue indefinitely, for the only time ever Americans embraced radical downsizing with a fervor. It was as if the US was finally joining the rest of the world. Of course, it didn’t last; as soon as oil prices started dropping, everyone quickly forgot the whole episode, and the truck/SUV boom soon exploded. But for a few short years, it was out with the big, in with the small. The little relics from that era are becoming hard to find: K-Car limousines, Chevy Sprints, Diesel Rabbits (no worries; I have). And some of them I’d forgotten ever existed, like this tiny FWD diesel KubVan. (Read More…)

First things first: having stuck my neck out a quite a bit with a piece I wrote last year The Truth About Why Chrysler Destroyed The Turbine Car, I approached this book with a mixture of eagerness and trepidation to find out if my own theory held any water. It does (whew!). This well researched book by Steve Lehto confirms it: the myth that Chrysler had the bronze beauties scrapped because of import duties that needed to be paid is utter junk and a baseless urban myth. It even confirms my speculation that the Ghia bodies cost about $20k each, and therefore any import duties would have been insignificant: (Read More…)

Dad! Would you come and check out a car I might want to buy?

Sure Will; what is it?

A Deawoo Leganza.

Oh, Um, Ah, Hm; you’re sure that you might want to buy that?

Yeah; it’s got leather, sunroof, and a great sound system.

What’s wrong with it?

The electric window switches are wackky. I don’t care.

Are you sure that’s all?

(Read More…)

The Challenge is on to stay competitive with a V6, which have become the V8s or yore. Anything less than 300 hp just won’t do, and the new 2011 Challenger does, just barely, with 305. The new Pentastar V6 has found its way into Dodge’s porky pony, and Chrysler is mighty proud of it. (See full press release here). Its lighter, cheaper to build, more efficient and powerful; what’s not to like? It still leaves the Challenger at the back of the pack. (Read More…)

Hurry home Ed, I’m obviously running out of creativity and good judgment. Bit didn’t you always wonder what Sarah Palin drove in her younger days? MSNBC has posted a Sarah Palin Retrospective,  and I should have guessed: one of my all-time least favorite cars (CC here). And is it the “Grande” version even? Not a Maverick? Well, going back even further into her childhood reveals even more: (Read More…)

Yes, we know the drill: range will vary with an EV, even more so than with a gas car. Nissan has now set out a number of scenarios to project the range of its Leaf EV. It confirms what we’ve been saying all along: this is not the car to buy if you like driving fast. There’s little doubt that a Baruthian blast could deplete one in some 30 miles or less. On the other hand, if you like driving at a steady 38 mph… (Read More…)

We’ve spent a lot of time in the sixties and seventies lately, probably alienating some of our younger readers, so lets set the time machine a bit closer to home. Why did I pick this? Because I think its a pretty fine looking car, as well as being one of the last of its genre: affordable fun-to-drive, lightweight RWD coupes. Kind of ironic, that this vintage of the SX/Silvia was a looker, because most of its predecessors sure weren’t. Some things do improve with age. (Read More…)

The wire wheel didn’t throw you guys one bit; well, some of you. starman got it right (the exact year didn’t apply in this case), beating hank with the same guess by a bit.

Lets try that again, a fender with a crease in it. But this time without a wheel to help or distract.

No, not sexploitation. If she was sitting on the fender of a green ’69 Galaxie, I would have moved right along. But Angela Dorian, aka Victoria Vetri won no less than a pink AMX for besting the tough competition in 1968. And I would never have remembered known, were it not for the fact that she was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after her boy friend was shot at close range in her apartment. And look at those …wheel covers; I could have sworn all AMXs came with styled steel wheels. There’s so much still to learn. Isn’t the internet wonderful?

blog.hemmings

Notice anything missing?

Out with the old, in with the new. Chrysler’s interior makeovers continue, now with the Journey. The engine compartment wasn’t neglected either: a new 283 hp Pentastar V6 is part of the remodeling. The exterior: not so much so. In case you forgot what the old interior looked like: (Read More…)

Too many Cubside Classics shot, not enough time to write about them extensively.  So we’ll call it CC Jr.: heavy on the pics, light on the text.

The great import boom of the fifties involved everything from Europe; from Abarth to Zagato. And the Big Three got in on the act too, selling their European subsidiaries’ wares. The Opel Rekord sold particularly well, and they used to be easy to find, in California, anyway. And English Fords were mainly the smaller Anglia and the later Cortinas. But here’s a rare bird, a Consul, looking very much like a scaled down ’55 Ford. (Read More…)