When there’s less to do, it’s harder to get things done. This is a rule. The same as the one about peanut butter and dogs. Anyway, Robert and I spoke about all things bailout on Wednesday. And in other news, the V8 version of the Pontiac G8 gets better pricing with every day – 2008 model year cars with under 10,000 miles are going for the mid $20k range on eBay Motors. This particular one, with 8900 miles, is marginally even broken in and it’s only $23,900. Beats the heck out of the $32,000 MSRP this thing originally had. Imagine how cheap these beasts will be in a year.
With my private jet finally out of fuel, we decided to crash land in North Korea. It turns out to have been a wise choice, because aside from the fact that it’s a tyrannical dictatorship with millions of starving people, there are no “Saved by Zero” ads from Toyota. So that’s a hint of silver lining. Also, while my Gulfstream had poor cell phone reception, I’m able to make all the phone calls I want from Kim Jong Il’s pool house, which he has been kind enough to lend to me. All he wanted in return, oddly enough, was a box of Ray Bans and an the newest DVDs. So, after surrendering my copy of “Employee of the Month” to the Dear Leader, I’m now able to podcast freely.
I’m going to England tonight. Well, I leave tonight and arrive there on Friday. Hooray! A working vacation is still a vacation, right? Sort of, maybe. Meanwhile, I’m going to need wheels for at least a few days that I’m there (don’t fret though, I’m not maniacal enough to drive in London). While I’m working on a press car for myself, the big question is – if I end up renting something, what could it be? What will it be? It is, for me at least, the closest approximation to a kid in a candy store. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten emails from someone called “Reality.” And he tells me a number of alarming things. The first was “Don’t kill yourself, driving on the left and shifting with the wrong hand.” Well I knew that already, but thanks Mr. R. Second, he said “You know, the European Focus is just better than the American Focus. It’s not something amazing. Especially with a tiny engine.” Yes yes, I know that too. But it’ll still be different. But then Reality dropped the bomb “With your luck, Berkowitz, your rental car is going to be something that’s on sale in America.” Heaven forbid. I’ll keep you updated on this tremendously important story.
We just got the fairly obvious news that the Pontiac G8 will die on the vine. Fast forward thirty years. Pontiac cars will only be a historical name, like Lagonda, or Pierce-Arrow. Imagine though, the bitchin’ 1980s-2000s collection that a retro minded old codger could have in his garage:
1. G8 GT
2. GTO (2006)
3. Solstice GXP
4. Trans AM WS6 (2002, with 325 hp LS1 V8)
5. Aztek (for historical purposes, of course).
6. Fiero V6
It could be like all the other cars (like the G5) just never happened. As if.
Ouch. Normally we shoot to put up our podcasts midday, but wouldn’t you know it, I accidentally stepped on my official TTAC podcasting headset. Between that, and the fact that the car industry is in meltdown mode, we weren’t able to get to a podcast until 6PM. And then I got wrapped up trying to get an idea of the approximate number of Americans and Canadians that will be out of jobs if/when the Chrysler-GM merger actually happens. Since that’s like trying to count the number of lights while driving through the Lincoln Tunnel, I had to give up. And here we are. Have a good night, folks!
We’re actually planning a few meetups in 2009 for TTAC readers and writers, many of them right here in North America. But with Captain Mike’s upcoming work-related assignment to Germany – a mere one hour from the Nurburgring – we’re going to have a European adventure as well. I’m beginning the search for sponsors (who? uh…). In any case, it should make for a downright thrilling trip, including more than a few frightening rides in the ‘Ring taxi. Separate from driving, I envision copious beer drinking and regional sausages. We’ll be sure to give you plenty of warning ahead of time, should you be planning any business trips to Europe, or be sitting on a pile of frequewnt flyer miles, or actually be an EU resident yourself. I’ll bring the Porsche 911 Turbo, you bring the Nissan GT-R.
The big story in the media, and of course with TTAC at present is the GM-Chrysler merger. Or whatever you want to call it, as the transaction’s characteristics are reported differently with every day. We’re covering that, in all its ridiculous glory (or glorious ridiculousness) with the same “nothing but the truth – and the occasional pun” attitude you’ve come to expect from TTAC. But there’s another, albeit interlinked, story here: the utter failure of the media to report on GM-Chrysler with any meaningful scrutiny or candor. Whether it is the hypocrisy of the reporters or the lack of thoughtful commentary, this casts a shadow on the value of the information and opinions we read and hear, from the Detroit News to CNBC to CNN Money. So while our mantra is focus, focus, focus (with no hat tip to Ford), we’re focusing on the news at present: not just the message, but the messenger.
It’s Friday and it’s the end of the week. And like any other week, we couldn’t have made it without you. While we don’t always have time (and occasionally forget) to put a note in the posts themselves, we do appreciate your tips, your links, and your story ideas. TTAC doesn’t work without people telling us what they want to read or think would make for a great article. Or just letting us know about some breaking news. I don’t have a list of folks to rattle off, but if you’ve sent something in, hear our thanks. Even if they don’t always make it to articles, we appreciate it.
This is about as scientific as the fifteenth-century Vatican, but I think 3.7 liter engines are cursed. Six vehicles come to mind, featuring five engines. Click through to see the gallery and my descriptions.
Some two weeks ago I opined that Tesla, Carbon Motors, Fisker, and other startups might show the future of the auto industry. Small firms, smaller volume, lots of venture capital funding, and the sort of flexibility you’d assume to be inherent in a small operation. Now that I see Tesla’s current predicament, it makes me think that perhaps that flexibility will be utterly crucial to surviving more than one product cycle. Tesla is cutting back on employees (and shifting to their fourth executive in 12 months), presumably for financial reasons. In other words, they need more money, and at $100,000 a pop, sales of fifteen Tesla roadsters isn’t going to cover all the bills. While Tesla intended for the Roadster to be a break-even project, I can’t help but think that the media and consumer public’s ADD is going to hurt them. Since gas came down, somewhat, in price, I haven’t been seeing the panicked news stories about the man that rides a stray Lion to get to work everyday, braving the carnivor hunter’s back to save on fuel costs. Nor have I seen anything about how the Tesla is the future of the car. Whether Tesla’s fifteen minutes of fame has passed is a separate question: the more important one is whether having only fifteen minutes of fame means these small firms are going to sink afterwards.
The best part of my job: getting to drive, think, talk, and write about cars all the time. The worst: when someone asks me what my favorite car is. The answer is “all of them.” At this point, the person thinks I’m being a jerk, which I am, but doesn’t understand that car lunatics have a different favorite car every day. And often many favorite cars. Right now, I’m really liking the Jaguar XJ8, particularly because used ones are so reasonably priced. And I also am loving listening to Ferrari after Ferrari on YouTube. Is it a problem? Yes. Is it interfering with my work? Well, yes and no, for obvious reasons. Last week, I was really excited about the new Ford Fiesta, which with any luck I’ll be driving and reviewing later this month. Tomorrow it’ll be something else that I’m really interested in. It’s not my fault. It’s just that I love cars, even when I hate them (see: Lamborghini. see also: Toyota Camry).
Well, not lied, exactly. More like flip-flopped. In my last podcast epistle, I said TTAC wouldn’t make you jump on blog posts because that would be better for us (page views) than you (convenience). And it’s all about you (TTAC readers), not us (anti-social writers who have to make a living somehow). And then Justin and I began to discover something interesting. While other automotive websites use the click through to bore the shit out of readers with press releases (Autoblog), or as a money shot come-on-you-know-you-want-to (Jalopnik), we found we could do more creatively using two bites than one. In other words, we can provide the main news and then give you some background info and/or additional de-spinnage. Headline. Then color. Of course, that’s not true in every case. So we’re restricting ourselves to those occasions where it, uh, is. If this is pissing you off, give it a few days for us to get settled-in. And meanwhile, we know we have some tweakage left for the new design. The programmers are, unlike some of us, taking the day off. Hence today’s profusion of profanity. Cooler heads will prevail tomorrow. Or not.
As they used to say in England, TISWAS (Today Is Saturday, Watch And Smile). Oh wait, it’s Friday. MAN, what a week. The news cycle has been nothing short of ferocious, what with the financial meltdown setting a blowtorch to GM, Ford and (latterly) Chrysler’s assertions that they’re going to get the Titanic to New York if it kills you (i.e. taxpayers). Yes, there is that. We’re going to start our Bailout Watch 2 series next week, as it’s only a matter of time– and not much of it– before the whole “Too Big To Fail” shtick pops its head above the proverbial parapet. Meanwhile, we’ve been grappling with the new site design. As expected, the new format killed a LOT of page views; visitors no longer have to click to individual news stories via the home page. We played with the idea of splitting the news posts up, “click through for the payoff” Jalop and Autoblog style, but discarded the idea (any such bisection would be more about us than you.) The good news: the galleries created a net page view gain. When the feature went live, we saw a net gain of 40k page views– in the first day. Fair enough. But that’s from our perspective. What’s your take on the new design? And while you’re thinking about that, Justin and I devote the entire cast to the pall cast over Detroit by, well, lots of stuff.
Sometimes, when we podcast, we just have too much fun. Jonny and I were yammering about the Nissan GT-R, Porsche’s PDK transmission, and of course Toyota’s ass-kicking Hilux and Audi’s bizarre plans for the R8 (which I still don’t totally grasp). The result? We ran way over time. Twelve minutes, forty-one seconds. That’s not okay. The mission is ten minute podcasts with perhaps a minute for a grace period. We’ll be sticking to time from now on. As for the video, never underestimate the stupidity of Russian oligarchs and their even stupider children.
WARNING: Podcast contains some profanity, including an f-bomb.
One of the joys of telecommuting: no actual commuting. No train ride (I’ll thank you for not spilling your coffee on my New York Times again, strangers) and no car ride. Where do I go? To my home office. The consequence is that I’ve been driving for fun and when I’m too short on time to walk the 3/4 mile trip to the grocery store. It’s a breeze parking my little VW GTI between the beheamoth luxury SUVs that have become suburban landmarks. What I always forget, while I arrogantly load up my hatchback with a 24 pack of toilet paper, is that I share a big SUV with my father – an eleven year old Ford Expedition. We bought it with 150,000 miles for about the same price as a really nice big screen TV and use it for, well what you really would need a big truck for. That means hauling lumber from Home Depot, or double sized mattresses and coffee tables simultaneously, or towing the 23 foot Chris Craft we bought to restore, or driving six of my friends comfortably to Atlantic City. While the old Ford only gets to stretch its legs once a week or so, it’s there when we do need it. It seems somewhat wasteful to have an extra car; then again, whether you consider the total cost of the small and large cars, or the carbon footprint (ahem), or the amout of gas we use, it’s all very small. I do know people with a fleet of new cars, large and small, for different tasks too. Some relatives are augmenting their current Saturn Outlook with a Saturn Astra and a MINI Cooper Clubman. That strikes me as excessive. But who am I to judge?
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