From TTAC’s family to yours, we wish you the very best during the festive season. Just be ready to grab a dab of oppo when you’re dashing through the snow!

I will be appearing on Fox New Channel’s Fox and Friends program tomorrow at 8:40 am Eastern (5:40 Pacific) to discuss my latest NY Times Op-Ed, the auto bailout, and Detroit’s fuel economy issues. And if none of that interests you, be sure to tune in anyway for a chance to see what TTAC’s Editor-in-Chief looks like just moments after rolling out of bed.

We know there’s more than a little overlap between TTAC and Jalopnik, the Gawker Media empire’s car blog, so we’d like to remind our readers who do have a commenting account at Jalopnik to change their password (since Gawker was apparently too “in shock” to warn users earlier). Gawker Media was attacked by a group of hackers known as Gnosis, and at least 200,000 Gawker user accounts have been hacked, exposing commenters’ login information and allowing some Twitter accounts to be taken over and used to send spam messages. The attack on Gawker was reportedly a response to the blog pioneer’s “outright arrogance,” and some have speculated that it was related to Gawkers antagonism of the famed hacker hangout 4chan; we reckon that Lotus was somehow behind it. To find out if your account has been compromised, surf over to Gawkercheck.com, or simply change your password at Jalopnik or any other Gawker Media site. Or, you could just delete your account and become a regular here at TTAC instead. Just saying…

It may not be ready to take on the old Honda tagline, but our 1983 Ford Sierra Ghia is strengthening our ties with our car nutty friends from across the pond. While Capt. Mike’s UK connections are stronger, here’s the story of how our Sierra made it from the seller’s house to one of the Captain’s friend’s homes: a strong group of Nürburgring-fiends who claimed our lovable Air Force Yank as one of their own. But that’s for the next installment in this series because, as the Panther-intensive pictures show, I’m telling this portion of the story.

Read More >

Gratitude doesn’t always come easy for a bunch of opinionated car-mudgeons (just ask our pals in the PR business) but today we all have plenty to be thankful for. As Editor-in-Chief of this fine site, I am eternally indebted to TTAC’s immensely talented writers, our faithful fans, and our dedicated owners. I feel incredibly lucky to have what I believe to be the best team of auto writers in the world backing me up each day, overcoming the challenges, sacrifices and personality clashes that are our daily bread and putting out the finest car-related content to be found anywhere. Our owners at VerticalScope are owed a special thanks as well, for paying the bills while allowing us to work in complete freedom. And of course, without you, our faithful readers and commenters, none of this would be possible (or necessary). Your faithfulness to this site, your dedication to the truth, and your occasional ad clicks allow TTAC to persist, keeping our talented writers working at continually improving their craft.

So thank you to everyone who makes TTAC what it is…. without your dedicated support, TTAC might not have survived to see this day. And please believe that your trust and time has earned more than a mere post of thanks: I will carry this sense of gratitude with me every day as inspiration to make TTAC the very best site it can possibly be.

Yours in Kaizen,

Edward Niedermeyer, Editor-in-Chief of TTAC

From the moment I took over as TTAC’s Editor-in-Chief, I knew that I was going to need a lot of help in order to live up to the brand that had been built here for the better part of a decade. I was stepping into some big shoes, and filling them would have to be a team effort. I was lucky enough to inherit some of the best car writers on the web, and we’ve been able add even more talent to the roster over the last year. Now, as we welcome Murilee Martin (formerly of Jalopnik fame, also of Murileemartin.com and Hooniverse.com), we mark an important point in TTAC’s development: maturity (or something like it).

With the addition of Murilee, TTAC has a dream team of editors who will keep TTAC stocked with the freshest, most engaging car-related content on the web, and as a result we’re moving to a streamlined masthead. My faithful Managing Editor Bertel Schmitt and I will continue to handle major editorial and blogging duties while Paul Niedermeyer, Michael Karesh, Jack Baruth, Sajeev Mehta, Steve Lang and Murilee Martin each tackle the world of cars from their unique perspectives. Thanks to a major commitment from our owners, VerticalScope, we’re now able to keep this core team cranking out regular content while we augment their work with the best contributions from our worldwide  TTAC contributor family and from around the web. The goal of all this is to consistently provide the very highest quality content, to host the most engaging debates and to keep you connected with the latest developments in the world of cars.

So, please join me in welcoming Murilee and thanking our owners for empowering TTAC to be the best damn car site on the web. I’m truly honored to have the opportunity to work with my personal dream team of writers as well as to serve you, our dedicated readers and commentators. Thank you all for making TTAC’s continued success possible.

This is a big week for TTAC. A really properly big week. We’ve just had our new budget approved, and as a result, we’ve got some masthead changes to announce shortly… including the hiring of the newest member of Team TTAC, who just happens to be one of my favorite auto writers on the whole damn Web. We’re waiting on a few last-minute details before we make these big announcements though, so in the meantime you’ll have to make do with a smaller announcement: though you might not know it from the content that’s gone up so far today, this week will be Korea Week at TTAC.

Why? Because the rise of the Korean automakers has been one of the biggest automotive stories of the last decade. Twenty years ago, just as Japanese brands were gaining mass-market acceptance in the United States, Korean brands were the punchline of America’s new-car market. But like the Japanese before them, the Korean automakers persisted and successfully entered the automotive mainstream, both with their own brands, and as developers of captive imports and global products for American automakers like GM. Now, with the automotive industry still reeling from the economic downturn, Hyundai and Kia are poised to make serious inroads on the US market, with new products that are capturing the attention of the media and the public.

Over the next week, we’ll explore the history of the Korean automakers, their rise to power, and the vehicles that they built along the way. We’ll also be featuring reviews of the newest products coming out of Korea, starting with one of the Web’s first reviews of the 2011 Kia Optima (Korean-Market Spec), directly from our man in Korea. So pull up a chair, break out the BiBimBap, and stand by for a week of Kimchi-flavored coverage here at TTAC!

Tomorrow your humble Editor boards a plane for Michigan, en route to a date with the Chevrolet Volt. TTAC has followed the Volt’s bumpy road to production-readiness since Bob Lutz decided that the Prius had to be “leapfrogged,” and we’ve tracked every change to the Volt’s mission, message and mechanical blueprint along the way. And though cars don’t exist in a vacuum, giving the Volt a fair review will require us to leave a lot of this contextual baggage at the door.

Read More >

Edward is on a bender vacation all week south of the border. I’m heading to Paris (autoshow, among other attractions) Tuesday morning. Will I find old Citroens on the streets? Anyway, that will leave TTAC Niedermeyer-free, temporarily. The show will go on, thanks to our remaining intrepid cast of characters, but with the possibility of some reduced content, most likely the domestic news blogging.  Full throttle activity will resume next Monday, at the latest. Au Revoir!

The Panther was celebrated (and denigrated) all week here at TTAC, one of the justifications given by its proponents being that it is the oldest continuous platform still in production in the US. Well, a few strong howls of protest were heard: the Econoline has been around since the fall of 1974! Thirty six years, no less. And a chorus cry for Econoline Appreciation Week ensued. Well, some think that TTAC’s image has already been, ah…burdened a bit with all the Panther gushing, and a whole week of continuous Econoline love (in the back, I assume) would be a bit…tiring. Since I’ve established trucks as fair game on the weekends, welcome to EAW (Econoline Appreciation Weekend).

If you need some warm-up material while we get some E-posts together, head here for a superb example of an early Econoline Curbside Classic. And here’s a TTAC review of a recent Econoline conversion van.  [PS: gen1 and gen2 Econolines are not excluded from the love-fest]

How would you like to see your writing published at TTAC? Over the years we’ve always taken contributions from new writers, indeed many of TTAC’s current staffers (Editor-in-Chief included) started out here by pitching a story to our editors email. In hopes of highlighting new talent, giving our commentators a new stage, and generally providing a little more variety around here, we’ve decided to feature a piece by a TTAC reader or commenter every Saturday. We’re calling it Ur-Turn and the rules are very simple: When the spirit moves you to write something insightful, passionate or entertaining about cars, car ownership, the car industry, car sales, buying cars, or any other topic that you might about read on TTAC, send it to editors [at] ttac [dot] com. We will select the choicest pieces as they come in, provide the lightest of edits, and let you know which Saturday your piece will run. Keep in mind that because we cannot guarantee that your piece will run on a given week, time-sensitive pieces might not be the best idea. Contributions should be at least 600 words, but no more than 1500 words… although we’re willing to make exceptions for the right piece.

TTAC’s greatest strength has always been its dedicated, well-informed and tough-minded commentariat. This is your opportunity to share that story that was too long for a comments section, or start the debate that we’ve never gotten around to. And if you appreciate the kind of high-quality writing that TTAC provides, this is your chance to give back. After all, we ask for so very little…