Audi is the official sponsor of President Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. No really. “ABC, CBS, NBC evening newscasts will be presented with limited commercial breaks exclusively from Audi. An eight-page insert in major newspapers nationwide [USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Boston Globe] highlight Audi innovations and Audi will be the sole sponsor of the inaugural address on top news sites.” Isn’t Ingolstadt a little leery of playing partisan politics with America’s well-heeled motorists? “Regardless of political preferences, the inauguration represents a unique moment of progress,” Audi NA Prez Johan de Nysschen. “That’s why we wanted to share this experience and begin a conversation about innovation, technology and the path ahead.” Get it? No? Let’s try that again…
Category: Media
“Anyway, about the new limo. The information that is floating around on this new limo, especially from the diagram that has appeared on a number of sites such as TTAC, Autoblog and GMI has a good deal of information that is incorrect. I can’t tell you any real specifications, but since a new thread appeared on TTAC, you could pass to them that much with the diagram and article is incorrect. I can tell you a few things that you could pass on that would be OK…
Of course, the next question is, will you? Companies pay millions for new logos, corporate identities and those terrific little sandwiches they serve inside the meeting rooms. Well, they used to, before the beancounters woke up from their profit-gorged torpor. So why would we ask you, our Best and Brightest, to design a logo for The Truth About Cars without paying for your mad design skills? We wouldn’t. Just not up front (our marketing budget is literally zero). We’ve entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with Car Tatts— they of the “it’s so not a bumper sticker” fame– to split the revenue from TTAC tatts. So we’ll cut our winning artist in on that deal (a buck a pop). We’ll also sneak their initials into the logo, which should please Mom no end. Car Tatts is looking for a car-oriented designer (no really) AND you get recognition and kudos from your peers. Now how much wouldn’t we pay? Anyway, the brief. The logo must be significantly better than our existing design (i.e. nothing) and win the approval of our readers (I’ll build a gallery for comment). Send a jpeg to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com. At this point, we’re talking single use; copyright remains with the artist until we sign a deal. The deadline is next Tuesday. Thanks.
“Like most people, we here at Toyota love good news.” And God knows there’s not a lot of that going around these days. Even for the royal we here at Toyota, where we’re used to making more profit per year than GM’s market capitalization. No really. “So the following piece of business from the Insurance Institute of Canada (IIoC) interests us a great deal.” Well, the intern in charge of finding non-controversial Toyota-oriented material for Open Road, anyway. “The thing that’s caught our attention is a list from IIoC that purports to detail the 10 vehicles that were the most frequently stolen in 2008, and also the 10 cars least frequently stolen.” Sorry about that “purports” thing. You try and post blogs every day with Legal breathing down your neck. “So the good news is that the IIoC listed no Toyota products on the most-stolen list. None. Zilch. Nada. There are lots of other brands represented there, some of them repeatedly. Some luxury brands, some aging economy brands. But not us.” I swear, if TTAC says one thing about how this proves that we’re somehow undesirable, they will not get one press car. Do they get press cars? Oh, OK. Never mind. [List of most and least stolen vehicles after the jump.]
TTAC has written about how Ford and other carmakers in Germany are the car-buying jobbing journos best friend. But according to Spiegel Online, when it comes to bribes, VW is their bestest best friend. VW paid for about 30 German journalists to attend the opening acts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The car angle? None. And so the German tax agency says this generosity is a cash-equivalent perk. Therefore, the scribes must cough-up the income tax on the Euro 25k trip. (You wouldn’t expect a company that has paid brothel expenses for union leaders to be skinflint, would you?) To ensure that the tit-sucking journos don’t endure “hardships,” VW has offered to pay the relevant tax bill of up to 17k Euros per scribe. Pocket calculator alert! Thirty journalists x 25k = 750k Euros. That’s about a million bucks for just one item of bribery. But wait; a 17k tax bill on a 25k perk? Anyway, all they had to do was stick the journalists into a couple of cars for a quick test drive and poof! No tax. What’s Chinese for “d’oh”?
Several of our Best and Brightest are not happy with the Nancy Pelosi-mobile post. Wolfx14 and y2dkcar protested that it highlights the inadvisability TTAC’s bailout– I mean, “federal bridge loans to Detroit”– coverage, both in terms of stance and quantity. I’m fully aware that there’s been a surfeit of bridge loan-related posts in the last 12 hours. And there’s no question that Eddy, myself and most of our writers believe that these are bridge loans to nowhere. In TTAC’s defense, the loans are a huge mistake. And there hasn’t been this much bridge playing since The Big 2.8’s execs flew into DC on their big ass jets to beg for billions. Still, we’ve been alternating money and car coverage pretty well since the last time the B&B upbraided us for out mondo-beration of the pols and execs feasting at Uncle Sugar’s bailout buffet. See? There I go again. Well, this IS the biggest story in American automotive history. And we HAVE been monitoring the situation before most people thought there WAS a situation. But I want to give you, our not-so-gentle readers, a chance to vent again on TTAC’s editorial choices. So let rip without [much] fear of deletion or amendment. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to write a[nother] pro-bailout diatribe, let me know (robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com). Thanks.
I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. But c’mon; who came up with the idea of naming the “100 lucky people get to drive the Mexican-built U.S. market Fiesta before regular folks just like the MINI EV except perhaps not quite as exciting for the press or anyone else for that matter” website fiestamovement.com? Did one of the other Farley brothers take over for Jim down at The Blue Oval? Apparently not: “Getting serious about the small-car business is a big change for Ford,” Jimbo told Automotive News [sub.] Anyway, do YOU have what it takes to drive a stylish econobox free for six months? In other words, can you make a two to five-minute video that Ford can use for its nationwide campaign, saving themselves a million in advertising agency fees? [come on after the jump] Here’s something odd: Jim Farley says annual American sales for the Fiesta– on sale next year— could range from 30k to 70k units, depending on gas prices. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s nowhere near enough throughput to get Ford out of trouble.
“The Honda engineering team wanted something different from the Insight. They wanted a hybrid that was appealing to drive. Fortunately they already had a small car that met that criteria: the Fit. So, naturally, the important dynamic bits of the Fit form the basis of the Insight. The entire front structure of the Insight is in fact common to the Fit. Compared to the Fit, the rear axle has been moved back two inches and the roof has dropped 3.8 inches. Inside, the roof sits two inches closer to the front seat and three inches closer to the rear. That means that occupants in the Insight sit lower to the ground and have a cozier feeling than in the Fit, but the new Insight actually ends up feeling sportier than either the Fit or Prius.” Oh, and ABG achieved a claimed 63.4 mpg.
Top Gear presenter and Times carmudgeon Jeremy Clarkson is not one to walk away form a fight. In fact, you could say he never met a fist he didn’t lunge his towards. After Tesla and the MSM knocked Clarkson for pretending that a Roadster ran out of juice in an episode of the shark jumping car show, Clarkson mounted Ye Olde “Valid Yet Undeclared Fictional Recreation of Theoretical Facts” defense. And that, one presumed, was that. Only, of course, it wasn’t. In Clarkson’s Times column, the world’s most famous pistonhead attempts to disprove the English maxim “the first thing you do when you’re in a hole is stop digging.” “Tesla, when contacted by reporters, gave its account of what happened and it was exactly the same as ours. It explained that the brakes had stopped working because of a blown fuse and didn’t question at all our claim that the car would have run out of electricity after 55 miles.” Uh, yes it did. Anyway… “The problem is, though, that really and honestly, the US-made Tesla works only at dinner parties. Tell someone you have one and in minutes you will be having sex. But as a device for moving you and your things around, it is about as much use as a bag of muddy spinach.” Dodgy handling, high price, yada, yada, yada. And the Roadster’s greatest sin?
Yes, it’s that time again. Time for the Paris – Dakar Rally (a.k.a. “the most dangerous race in the world”), where large trucks, cars and motorcycles drive as fast they possibly can across the African continent. Oops. Sorry. It’s the Dakar rally now, ’cause it’s taking place in South America, even though Dakar (Senegal) is, you know, in Africa. Last year, the race was cancelled due to “terrorist threats.” The fact that the race features a bunch of Europeans tear-assing across open territory– occasionally mowing down innocent bystanders (called “spectators” by race organizers)– might have a little something to do with it. About.com glibly reports that “A total of 48 deaths among competitors have been recorded since the rally began. Spectators have also been injured and killed either by competitors or their support vehicles.” In any case, the South American version has claimed its first victim: French motorcyclist Pascal Terry. The Canberra Times reports: “”Officially the result of the autopsy revealed that the French pilot Terry died of pulmonary edema… which produced cardio-respiratory failure,” Julio Acosta, chief of the department of operations of the La Pampa province police, said.” No word– yet– on any “spectator” ksi’s.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner is out and about today, peddling his company’s ability to be all things to all people save, perhaps, enough customers to avoid bankruptcy, bailouts and brickbats. The AP reports that Red Ink Rick reckons retirees are golden. “General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said Thursday the Detroit automaker can survive long-term without cutting benefits to retired workers. Wagoner made the remarks on NBC’s Today Show, where he was joined by United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger. The two made the appearance from Detroit ahead of their renewed labor negotiations scheduled to begin next week.” Nothing like a good long suckle on the taxpayer tit to bring out a little media-pleasing solidarity. I wonder how Ron’s base feels about that one. Prety good if they’re retired, and think Uncle Sugar will cotinue to fuel the gravy train for the next twenty years or so. Perish the thought. Now, about those congressionally mandated concessions…
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