Horns are a fixture of Indian driving. Rather than being used to signal anger like in the United States, horns are used for almost everything on Indian roads – one study found that major intersections in Calcutta have one horn honk every three seconds.
Give the crew at Motor Trend some credit: they aren’t even pretending to be anything other than an advertising outlet for the automakers. Witness this particularly succulent bit of bragging by Ladyboy-Editor-in-Chief Edward Loh, published yesterday:
Ever wonder what it might cost to borrow a brand-new Nissan GT-R Black Edition for a year? Try 33,482,741 views. What’s that, you say? As of this writing, that’s the total number of views of the top 16 GT-R related YouTube videos Motor Trend has produced.
Until recently, Motor Trend at least kept up the mildest of facades that its million-dollar fleet of brand-new vehicles served some purpose that would be beneficial to the mixture of waiting-room residents, caged parakeets, and ESL students that makes up approximately 99.97% of its readership. That facade has now been thrown aside with a shameless flourish worthy of Messalina. Motor Trend, in its agent as an advocate for Nissan, has produced at least sixteen promotional videos for the Nissan GT-R. They have been duly rewarded with a one-year lease of a $106,000 car, something that would probably cost the little people out there in Readerland four or five grand a month if they wanted to have the same car under the same conditions.
There you have it. Editorial content, bought and paid for. But what’s this business about “meat in the face”?
This coming Monday, new car sales for March will be announced. Forecasters increasingly are of the opinion that March will look like carmageddon never happened. Real-time data equipped TrueCar has released its opinions. Here are the highlights:
A year ago, I penned a passionate defense of the new direction that was being taken by Lotus. In the piece, I chastised enthusiasts for their armchair criticism of Lotus management and their resistance to bringing out new vehicle to replace the nearly two decade old Elise (which would hit that mark by the time a replacement rolled around in 2015) and their lack of faith in the stewardship of CEO Dany Bahar, the man who helped Luca di Montezemolo turn Ferrari around. Now it looks like I’ll have to retract those words and admit I was wrong.
The 1LE package Chevrolet Camaros have a long history in competitive motorsports, with the 1LE package on the third and fourth generation Camaro offered as a means to make the car competitive in SCCA Showroom Stock racing. For 2012, the 1LE will return to compete with the Ford Mustang Boss 302.
There had been rumors that Honda might flee Thailand after Honda’s Thai operation literally drowned. These rumors have been put to rest. The Nikkei [sub] says that Honda decided to build a second factory in Thailand. The plant is said to be placed into the southeastern part of Thailand where the risk of flooding is lower. Read More >
Last December, Toyota and BMW announced “a long-term technological partnership.” Ostensibly, it was about developing batteries together, and about BMW supplying diesel engines, in that order. Four months later, the priorities seem to have changed a little. Read More >
The Infiniti JX marks the fourth SUV or crossover for the brand, slotting between the FX sporty crossover and the gargantuan QX56. According to Infiniti, the brand had nothing to stem the flow of customers who were dabbling outside the brand when it came time for a three-row luxury crossover. Instead of letting their clients go off and get an Acura MDX or Audi Q7, Infiniti took the underpinnings of the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder and co-opted them for a luxury vehicle.
New and old media feigned outrage about the crapload of money the Chevy Volt supposedly saves its drivers if the new testimonial ads are to be believed. Honestly, we don’t give a crap. GM’s agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners probably told the client that in order to cut through the clutter, you need some shock value. When that didn’t work, the admen most likely put up a PowerPoint that showed that a YouTube video with “crapload” will receive 695.5 times the clicks of an ad that uses “a whole lot of money.” That would clinch it with Joe Ewanick, who wants to save a true crapload of money by increasing the efficiency of GM’s ad dollars.
No, being Thetruthaboutcars.com, we think the ad is shit, because the statement simply is not true. Read More >
Iraq hasn’t had anything noteworthy in the automotive space since the Iraqi Taxi debacle of the 1980’s, but with a population larger than Saudi Arabia, substantial oil reserves and increasing stability, Iraq is becoming a new target for automakers eager to sell cars to a population that’s been barred from Western vehicles due to international sanctions.
THIS IS THE MUSTANG THAT JUMPED OVER A HILL okay that’s all the Jalop-channeling I can do for right now. Tonight’s episode of “Alcatraz” will feature YABCST (Yet Another Bullitt Chase Scene Tribute), only this time it looks like a Mustang chasing a Charger. You can check out a video preview here. TTAC readers, with their eye for the story behind the story, will note that, while the Mustang is a spankin’ new 2013 model, the Charger is the original, frumpy LX from a few years ago, not the sleek new one, which can be taken as evidence of Ford’s marketing involvement.
The Economist has put together the above chart showing global gas prices as of February 2012, as well as how fast they’ve risen in the past 12 months. Even with gas approaching $4 overall, we’re not doing too badly compared to the rest of the world.
A123 Systems will be replacing battery packs built at their Livonia, Michigan plant that contain prismatic cells – the same type used in the Fisker Karma. The recall is estimated to cost A123 about $55 million. The defective batteries are linked to the recent problems experienced by Fisker Karma owners, according to A123 CEO David Vieau.
Last week, Opel’s labor representatives complained that GM does not want to negotiate with them. Now it’s the unions that don’t want to talk. Today, labor representatives of eight countries sent Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke a letter. The letter consisted of only one sentence, written in eight languages: Read More >
If GM managers are faced with a problem, say a nasty warranty problem or god forbid a recall, they now pull out a box full of LEGO blocks. The block color identifies the area on the vehicle and the block size denotes severity; the bigger the block, the bigger the problem. Problem solving becomes child’s play. Read More >
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