It makes no difference if it goes far. Aesthetically inspired by the architect who designed the Disney Concert Hall, a battery of Massachusetts Institute of technology students have almost kinda created the CityCar. The fact that their machine can't travel more than ten miles without a recharge hasn't stopped Fairfax DC Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova from exploring their possibilities. According to The Washington Post, Bulova thinks CityCars would be kinda neat for zipping back forth from Metro stations to home, work or the mall. And hey, why not make it one of those swipe-and-go deals? Unfortunately, fellow bureaucrats can't get their heads 'round the idea of a CityCar sharing the sidewalk with "speeding bicyclists , slow-moving children walking their pets and oblivious joggers listening to music on headphones." I know! Why don't we encourage people to walk to the station! Remember? Global warming and obesity are the twin scourges of our times.  

I heard it too: the dig at Honda in Chrysler's radio ads. As part of the spiel touting their new lifetime powertrain warranty, the announcer declared "Unlike some other rat-faced bastards (or something along those lines), we don't make lawn mowers, motorcycles or ATV's." To which Business Week writer David Kiley replies "Are you nuts? Honda is the premier engine company in the world. Ask owners of Honda cars, motorcycles, scooters, lawnmowers or generators how they feel about Honda and how much they trust those engines." More to the point, "Chrysler is advertising this at a time when its credibility is in serious question. It's latest products have fallen in quality, compared with previous models. It's losing money. It just brought in a notorious cost-cutter and b*** breaker in Bob Nardelli to hammer the operations into something that might be profitable. And you are taking shots at Honda?" Apparently so.

Helmut Becker is the former chief economist for BMW and author of "High Noon in the Automotive Industry." Normally, the German uber-beancounter cloaks his intellect in some of the most stolid prose ever offered outside of a text book (e.g. "The endogenous growth of the US automobile market… will remain predetermined exogenously by the macroeconomic / overall general economic conditions"). Speaking to Stern magazine, summarized for us by the just-auto [sub] editorial team, Becker was uncharacteristically brief about German automakers' immediate prospects: "The German manufacturers have gone for faster, heavier and more expensive. We are satisfied with high-end niches and think that we have beaten off all the competition with them." Becker believes the Germans automakers have driven down an evolutionary dead end, as the world turns to cheap, fuel efficient cars. And this they did because of hubris. "There are so many egomaniacs in the German automotive industry, who would sooner put pseudo race cars onto the road than take a leading role in developing new environmentally-friendly technologies." 

Reuters reports that European Commissioner Guenter Verheugen has a stark message for automakers hoping to cope with tough new emissions limits by paying cash in lieu of compliance: fuhgeddaboutit. "The Commission has decided that its [legislative] proposal should not distort competition among the producers," Verheugen revealed. "This cannot be reconciled with payments of compensation." Quite how "payments of compensation" differ from old-fashioned "fines" is anybody's guess. Meanwhile, the European auto industry is lobbying hard against the new rules, which force carmakers to cut new cars' carbon dioxide emissions to a fleet average of 130 grams per km by 2012. The automakers are asking the EU to postpone the requirements until 2015. They've also suggested an integrated approach to curbing CO2 emissions that would include improved infrastructure, driver training, expanded reliance on biofuels and CO2-related taxes on cars and fuels. The theoretical space between a rock and a hard place was not mentioned. 

When medical studies declared second hand smoke a danger to non-smokers, anti-smoking crusaders found the ammunition they needed to bend public policy to their will. Global warming has played a similar role in the fight against the automobile. Yes, I said the automobile, not automotive emissions. While environmentalists on this side of the pond focus on fuel efficiency, alt propulsion and bio-fuels in a "have your cake and eat it" kinda way, European governments have pounced on the connection between cars and global warming to justify their ongoing anti-car crusade. And now the BBC reports a new front: obesity. The UK-based Institute for European Environmental Policy have released a study linking car ownership and obesity. Their report recommends an "exclusionary zone" around schools– to force parents and children to walk to class. Co-author Carolina Valsecchi connected the dots. "The twin crises of obesity and climate change are clearly interlinked through the switch from muscle power to engine power for transport. Concerted action is needed to reverse both these trends." Given parental protective instincts and bad British weather, a no-drive school zone would be a severe test of the Nanny State's power to restrict personal freedom for "your own good." 

Translation: they will be crushed with a steam-roller. Derivation: Philippine Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde. Origination: Phillipine Inquirer. Explanation: The Philippine government has a problem with high end automotive smuggling. Previously, the police would auction off confiscated vehicles. At which point the smugglers would repurchase them and sell the newly cooled loot to their customers. After consulting with her new Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force, President Arroyo has ordered that five such cars be crushed, on TV, in front of her very eyes. We're talking about a Bimmer, Ferrari (another cursed Enzo?), Lamborghini, Porsche Carrera and Cayenne. The head of the Force, Antonio “Bebot” Villar, said his team might flatten 15 more cars at the same time. No date has been set, but here's hoping YouTube's servers can cope. 

"The letter shapes of Highway Gothic weren’t ever tested, having never really been designed in the first place. 'It’s very American in that way — just smash it together and get it up there,' says Tobias Frere-Jones, a typographer in New York City who came to the attention of the design world in the mid-1990s with his Interstate typeface inspired by the bemusing, awkward charm of Highway Gothic. 'It’s brash and blunt, not so concerned with detail. It has a certain unvarnished honesty.'" Still with us? Then don't miss the six-page Sunday Times article on highway signage, specifically one man's quest to change the typeface used thereupon. No, really. "There was the original Highway Gothic; British Transport, the road typeface used in the United Kingdom; Univers, found in the Paris Metro and on Apple computer keyboards; DIN 1451, used on road and train signage in Germany; and also Helvetica, the classic sans-serif seen in modified versions on roadways in a number of European countries." Let us know how it turns out. 

Apparently, essayist Robert Sullivan has a "cross country driving hat." In a piece published by the Hartford Courant, the LA writer hangs up his metaphorical head gear and sounds the death knell for the great American cross-country road trip. Justifying his stance, Sullivan does the hippie hippie shake: "The cross-country trip became the everyday trip. Motels, which in the 1950s advertised new products for your home (air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpet) began to look like homes, or vice versa. It also created a new kind of settlement – a big-box store, fast-food chain, Gas & Go, chain motel – that is the perfect oasis of amenities for the interstate cross-country traveler. Except that its existence eats away at what the trip-taker has gone to see, which is the United States." Sounds like the missing verse of a Simon and Garfunkel song to me. Anyway, to prove that long distance road trips are off the menu, Sullivan sold his car. To achieve the same ends without the radical loss of mobility TTAC recommends replaying the bit where Clark Griswold's children see The Grand Canyon in National Lampoon's Vacation .

In a video interview with Porfolio.com, Sir Nick Scheele explains how he turned Jaguar around. Well, not exactly; after all, he didn't. But the British brand’s former CEO did, as claimed, help raise Jaguar’s American JD Power quality rankings from second-to-last to first. In that regard, Sir Nick reveals that Jag’s ascension up the quality league tables hit the wall in ‘94. The breakthrough: after two years at the helm, Scheele realized Jag’s assembly line workers knew more about build quality than the suits. Scheele empowered the guys on the factory floor, left, ran Ford of Europe for a bit, collected a gigantic pension (and a peerage) and called it good. And now Sir Nick wants Jaguar back. Nooooooo.

Online Media Daily reports that Toyota's Sciontologists are building a "branded nightclub cum hangout spot" in the virtual world known as there.com. Programmers Metaversatility are creating a Scion-shaped party tower based on the carmaker's three currents models (xA, xB and tC). They hope to entice a big slice of there's [claimed] 1m virtual inhabitants into the Scion party zone. To increase cyber-footfall, Scion will advertise its virtual hang within there via "interactive kiosks" and billboards. If all that isn't weird enough– and we think it is– what's the bet Scion will pay inhabitants to "suggest" heading over to Club Scion? Will these virtual shills get virtual rewards or cold hard cash? Will they even be real? What's to stop there from using artificial intelligence avatars to drum-up business, or, more sinisterly, send fake visitors to the fake Club Scion to bolster audience numbers? Will Chevy hire people to create avatars to trash talk Scion and their hangout? How long before someone– real or fake– gets killed? Where's Phillip K. Dick when you need him?

Speaking at a management seminar, a senior Chrysler chemist cast aside political correctness and identified five groups standing in the way of America's alternative fuel future. Automotive News [sub] reports that Loren Beard fingered five Powers That Be who oppose E85 and suchlike. 1. OPEC (natch) 2. Big Oil ("It will cut into their market share") 3. Japanese automakers ("silver bullet car companies") 4. environmental groups (employ scare tactics against alternative fuels to raise money) and 5. aliens (my guess, Automotive News didn't say). While we await for suitable spin control on Chrysler's new blog (as if), suffice it to say Beard doesn't see any alternative to alternative fuels, other than continued dependence on foreign oil. So much for that, then.

TTAC's Deep Throat tells us what common sense has suggested right from the start of Cerberus' involvement in Chrysler: the private equity firm has no intention of hanging onto Chrysler ten minutes longer than it takes to arrange a profitable transfer of ownership. "It’s going to take a mountain of cash to turnaround Chrysler– with no guarantees of success," DT emails. "The last thing Cerberus wants to do is pour money into the car business. Think about all the pieces in the deal… Why is Bernhard gone? Why hire Nardelli, unless Cerberus wants to marshal cash by having a strict numbers guy run the place? And don’t forget that the banks control Chrysler, not Cerberus – they’re holding $10 billion in loans." So? "Cerberus will sell Chrysler to GM in exchange for the rest of GMAC, or they’ll sell it to the Chinese who are much better capitalized than GM and can afford a 50 year view." Remember: you heard it here first.

It may have started with hybrid tax credits and California's hybrid carpool lane stickers, but Ontario is taking the whole governmental green car incentive thing to the next level. The Toronto Star reports that the provincial government has unveiled a plan to issue "green" license plates to drivers of environmentally-friendly cars. Vehicles that qualify for the "eco-plates" will enjoy special perks, which could include free parking and access to commuter lanes. "Now we're saying we're going to also put some more factors on that table to help you make a decision that's good for your family and good for the environment," Environment Minister Laurel Broten told a news conference. Minister Broten will consult with carmakers and environmental groups to decide which vehicles qualify for the new plates. Now that ought to be an interesting meeting.

Yesterday, we reported on Tesla and Toyota's [potential] troubles with lithium-ion batteries. Little did we know there'd be an explosion (so to speak) of Li-ion news. Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that GM Car Czar Maximum Bob Lutz announced an "expanded" deal with lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems (first in the phone book!). The Watertown, MA company will develop nanophosphate-based Li-Ion battery packs for GM's E-Flex hybrid system. Lutz promised to have the technology sorted by 2010, when GM's E-Flex-equipped Volt is scheduled to appear at a Chevy dealer near you. Meanwhile, AN also reveals that Chrysler will shove some lithium-ion batteries into their Sprinter vans this fall. As for fire and explosions… ""We are approaching safety…with a layered system approach," says Johnson Controls-Saft engineer Mary-Ann Wright. "We will ensure safety performance is achieved at the cell, pack and system level." Sounds like a plan.

The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) says they've added four more co-sponsors to the Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act of 2007 (H.R. 2694). The four Dems (Howard Berman of CA, Alcee Hastings of FL, Donald Payne of NJ and Albert Russell Wynn of MD) bring the total number of lawmakers lining-up behind the legislation to 24. The Act would require all automakers operating in these United States to provide "full access to all tools and service information needed to repair motor vehicles to independent repair shops." In other words, automakers couldn't use proprietary software to lock out independent mechanics, ratchet up repair rates and endear themselves to franchised dealers for all time. In case you thought this was strictly a Davis vs. Goliath kinda deal, the bill serves-up a carrot with that stick. Car companies get "strong protections for their trade secrets unless that information is provided to the franchised new car dealers."