A commentator recently accused TTAC of posting a CarMax superbowl ad just because the company owns a panel on our home page. Uh, no. Short of not accepting any advertising and switching to a pay-per-view model—which our Best and Brightest rejected like a high school quarterback talking to an ugly misfit frump in a low-budget horror movie—we’ll take what ad support we can get. But we give our advertisers no quarter. I’ve seen plenty of GM, Toyota, Ford and Chrysler ads on TTAC, and you know how we roll in that regard. Some of you may also recall negative comments from buyers who felt they were boned to the max by CarMax. Personally, I really like Chris Wilmore and his crew. I also like every PR person I’ve ever met (on the personal level). Ça fait rien. No one has ever successfully messed with TTAC’s editorial independence. Nor will they. It’s our USP. It’s what we do. K? Now, CarMax ran an interesting survey asking the question above. Their results after the jump. My take: not asking TVR how long their half-sized underfloor battery could hold a charge. Yours?
I’m beginning to shop around for pads for my ’07 Sonata (3.3 liter motor). I’m looking to replace the OEM pads (which were very good, BTW) with something with a little more bite. Initially, I was looking at ceramic pads, but I’ve noticed in my shopping that Titanium Kevlar pads are roughly $10 cheaper depending on where you go. What is the consensus between Ceramic vs. Titanium Kevlar? Is it one of those you get what you pay for deals? Or is there a value? Also, would it be ill-advised to mix and match? Say Ceramics up front and Titanium Kevs in the rear? I’m having a somewhat hard time looking for sites that offer ceramics for the rear of the car. Do the B&B recommend any good sites for brake shopping? TireRack doesn’t offer them, at least for my car. I’ve scoured the forums and they are mostly useless on this subject. I basically want a set of pads that bite well, haul the car down noticeably and give good feel. I don’t care about brake dust.
and could only write tickets for ONE infraction, what it would it be? For me, it’s failure to stop at a stop sign. I live in a neighborhood that looks a bit like the one in Lady in the Tramp. We’ve got wide sidewalks, Victorian houses, well-groomed canines, equally well-groomed Swamp Yankees, a property tax bill that could crush rocks, the works. As the proud owner of four daughters and two dogs, I’m keenly aware that the sidewalks are often used for recreation: walking, running, bicycling, skateboarding, etc. (And that’s just the dogs.) So when I see a motorist blow through a four-way stop sign at speed, usually clutching a cell phone, I wish the capitol city would re-instate capital punishment. For some reason, I’m even more narked by R.I. motorists’ near-universal propensity to perform a so-called “rolling stop” at octagon-marked intersections. What part of STOP are you having trouble with? The real danger here: countless drivers perform this maneuver whilst turning at an intersection. They don’t bother checking to see if anyone’s crossing. The resulting carnage isn’t pretty. [see: above]. And I’ve seen cops watch drivers execute this illegal maneuver right in front of them, without batting a single chowderhead. So, what’s in your fictional ticket pad?
My three-year anniversary with TTAC is rapidly approaching. After meeting many great people because of this website, it’s time to meet the Best and Brightest who hail from the Bayou City. This concrete jungle has plenty of automotive venues, so let’s make it happen with the finest iron on the road today. I suggest the “Cars and Coffee” event: a non-denominational, show-n-shine type of affair. There’ll be downhome hospitality, tasty cupcakes and Starbuck’s finest to take the chill out of the winter air. Or the winter heatwave off your face: everyone knows the weather in this town is more changeable than GM’s plans for Cadillac. See you there!
When: Saturday, February 7th, from 8:30 a.m. to whenever.
Bonus! To indentify yourself from the riff-raff, the code word is “B&B.” Anyone wearing a lapel badge with those letters qualifies for one free Venti coffee, no drips, flavors, soy or other misegos.
I got an email yesterday from a mob called LandLine TV. They sent me a link to the above video asking if I wanted to post it for your amusement. Of course I said no. It’s so not funny. OK, the pitchmen have natural comedic talent, in that gormless, Pineapple Express kinda way. But the ad itself could’ve been made by a 12-year-old with his mom’s video camera. I suppose that’s the point, but, again, it’s just not funny. So I wrote back explaining why the faux ad didn’t work and offered my services as a script writer. That fish is wiggling on the hook. They sent me back an email saying that they were open to suggestion (the seminal work on hypnosis by the way). They’re thinking about spoofing this Caddy ad. Not only is the Caddy slingshot ad older than John McCain (in Internet time), but who cares? Why not spoof the Caddy Escalade Hybrid ad. Or the Dodge Boys’ “man step” dissing ad? Or… well, there are lots of possibilities. And so I throw it open to you, our Best and Brightest, to share some ideas for spoof car ads. And remember: these guys are hiring.
A TTAC reader writes: “Hi Robert I re-read your article on the Porsche Carrera 4. I’m looking for more info to help me decide if I should get a Carrera S or Carrera 4S later this year. I took a 1/2 day Porsche Driving Experience a couple months back with the Carrera S, and the handling was awesome plus the PSM seems to handle a lot of the ‘saving you from yourself’. Do you have any other input that could help me decide if it’s worth the extra $6k? I do not live in an icy part of the country, but down the road I don’t want to regret not getting it.” My take: if you drive like your hair’s on fire, the 4S is well worth the extra money. The only way to kill yourself is to aim at something. If you’re not Mr. 10/10ths, you might as well get a Boxster S or Cayman S. They’re more fun to drive at sane speeds, and a lot less money. Alternatively, why not consider the Panamera? You see how wrong that is? OK, B&B, what’s your advice?
I come before the Best and Brightest in search of technical enlightenment and Zen master like clarity. The problem? My tweaked Lincoln Mark VIII is losing its factory-fragile transmission, leaving a hot mess of smoky-pink fluid everywhere I park. So my car’s looking for a bailout, and spending a couple grand for my (don’t laugh) dream transmission is now a reality. A more efficient torque converter is on the must-have list: but what stall speed do I chooser? I’m looking for a converter that’ll send the Lincoln down the righteous path of lower ETs with effortless highway cruising and no drama when stuck in traffic. I think a 2500 stall unit is good for street/strip duties, but perhaps its too conservative. What about a 3000 stall converter? The fate of my timeslips (and checkbook) is in your hands. Thank you.
“Am I reading this right?” That’s the question posed by one of Our Best and Brightest regarding GM’s recent SEC filing [excerpted text after the jump]. The 8-K details the automaker’s purchase of GMAC shares. A purchase funded with your money (thanks to the Treasury Department). Here’s Uncommon Sense’s take:
1) GM is now the majority owner of GMAC
2) GM has to sell from over 50% to under 10% in 3 years — sounds like some cash
3) GM can’t try to influence GMAC until March of this year
My take: the more you monkey with a free market system, the worse it is for the consumer. Yours?
TTAC commentator Kurt B writes: “I’ve been a long-time Mazda owner; I’m on Mazda number six. But I’ve finally hit the wall. The center stack is too wide in my current Mazda 3 and the seat doesn’t slide back far enough, which forces me to tilt my right foot to the right slightly while driving. Now that I’m approaching 40 (I suppose that’s the reason) I’m starting to get wicked hip and joint pain and a sore knee on drives over an hour, which are, unfortunately, too frequent these days. I also own a Mazda 6 wagon which is slightly better but not perfect. Headroom is another issue to be considered as I’m 6’4″. The Mazdas have no problem there.” So, assume that Kurt B wants the same car only better. What would that be?
This subject came up in the comments underneath my review of the Bugatti T40. [If you haven’t come across dogboxes before, they’re explained (or at least chewed over) here.] Googling to shed some light on the debate, I came across this hair-raising video of BMW supercar with a straightcut dogbox eating up the competition, sounding like something out of Star Wars. My take is that while straight cut spur gear are weaker (in principle), they can be constructed to be enough bigger in the same space that they end up stronger (in practice). Perhaps TTAC’s Best and Brightest would care to comment?
Reported sales of hybrid cars were down by ten percent in 2008, according to Green Car Congress, who keep track of these things. Keep in mind that 2008 was the year that saw $4+ gas, $7k Geo Metros and a general wave of related hysteria. On the other hand, gas has also become quite cheap in the last few months, and hybrid sales are undeniably falling off a cliff. December hybrid sales are down 42.7 percent year-on-year, as Priora pile up on lots and Americans re-learn how to save money. But is the hybrid downturn a sign of a dying fad, or a temporary blip? There’s a strong argument to be made that the hybrid price premium will be a tough sell in weak economic times, but if another oil shock comes that premium could look like chump change. But this is not just a question of predicting the oil market. If any of us could really do that, we’d be doing the backstroke in a Scrooge McDuck-sized vault of ducats, not discussing the auto industry. Toyota thinks that they can whittle the hybrid powertrain premium down to a mere $1,500 over normal ICEs, but then they built the hybrid bandwagon nearly single-handedly. Meanwhile, Honda is attacking the Prius on price point with the Insight, and Ford is going after the Camry on patriotism with its Fusion hybrid. But will this competition saturate a still-niche market and destroy profitability? After all, hybrids still only make up 2.4 percent of the US market, causing some to call hybrids a dying fad. Or will hybrid technology eventually become ubiquitous, rewarding those who made early investments in it?
You may recall that TTAC reacted to the plethora of top ten automotve lists proliferating on the web by running a list of the ten best cupholders. Now that Forbes Autos has gone to the big cache in the sky, the number of top ten lists-makers has dropped significantly. But they’re still out there, somewhere. And they’re still annoying. All-Stars? Pretty much says it all. So we turn again, from the ridiculous to the sublimely ridiculous. We ask you, our Best and Brightest to name the best Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) controls of any car sold in America as new. Please send an email with a jpeg to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com. Put “HVAC” in the subject bar. In the body of the email, please write your screen nic, which car’s climate controls I’m gazing upon and why they deserve to be honored as one of the ten best HVACuees. The winners will be chosen by Eddy and myself through the usual arbitrary process. Thanks for your help.
Last Saturday, we asked the B&B: “What will be Monday’s SAAR?” You know, that funny Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, where they look at the sales for a month and then act as if it’s the whole year. Bloomberg had asked a bunch of high paid analysts, and they had it all wrong. Most of them guessed too low. Only Christopher Cearso came kind of close with 10.2m for December.
Our own Mikey iced it: 10.4! That’s exactly what Automotive News has as the, well, not quite official, but officially “preliminary 10.4 million seasonally adjusted rate.” Congratulations, Miky! The title of AFB&B (AbsoNSFWingly Best & Brightest) is deserved well. Second places go to confused1096 with 10.1m and MikeInCanada with 10.7m. Both were only a smidgen of 300K off. And both were still doing much better than Bloomberg’s analysts. We call you the B&B for a reason.
“The whole world shines shit and calls it gold,” remarked Michael Steintorf, the savvy chief of staff for The Wire’s fictional mayor of Baltimore. Which goes a long way towards explaining the one-word job description of auto show “talent.” As part of its ongoing effort to document the lifestyle formerly known as Detroit, the Freep has a list today of notable former auto show talent. And boy does that list say it all about the career opportunities for auto show personalities. Pam Dawber of “Mork and Mindy,” OJ Simpson murder non-witness Kato Kaelin, and Tim Allen are the most recognizable names listed. And besides following the luminous paths forged by those visionary performers, new auto show talent will apparently also have a leg up in the worlds of local broadcasting and trophy-wifedom. So we must know: who do you, TTAC’s Best and Brightest, think should take up the thankless task of burnishing Detroit’s products at this year’s Detroit Auto Show? William Hung? Ashley Alexandra Dupre? Barney Frank? Let us know.
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