Fisker’s plug-in luxury car has been delayed again, as sales that were once planned for March and April, and then delayed to May or June have now been delayed until July, according to GreenCarReports. And that’s not just bad news for Fisker and its customers, but it’s bad news for President Obama’s goal of getting a million plug-in cars on American roads by 2015 as well. According to the DOE, the government’s goal banks on Fisker selling 1k Karmas this year, and 5k next year, rising to 10k in 2013. It’s also a bad sign for the government’s expectation that Fisker will sell 5k of its next-gen “Nina” (which has not even been shown in concept form) next year and 40k in 2013. It seems that the DOE’s half-billion dollar loan to Fisker is still a ways from yielding the desired results…
Category: News Blog
Police in Louisiana slammed a 67-year-old man into the ground, arresting him over a questionable traffic violation. The state court of appeals ruled May 11 that Calvin D. Miller’s injuries were only worth $25,000 in compensation. Miller had been driving his big rig logging truck home to Florien on US Highway 171 at 5:30pm on July 13, 2007. As he passed through the Village of Hornbeck, Officers Kenneth Hatchett, Jr., and Andy Mitchell, 19, pulled him over because he began speeding up “about 100 feet” before the limit changed from 45 to 55 MPH. Having driven the road for the past forty-seven years, Miller was quite familiar with the speed limit. He insisted he was not speeding.
“I can see right now you’re going to need an attitude adjustment,” Officer Hatchett said to the five foot, six inch tall elderly man.
Photos courtesy of Cars In Depth
You find unusual cars down on the street, stored off of the street, parked by by the curbside, ready for the crusher at a junkyard, or sometimes even abandoned in Brooklyn or Qatar. I first noticed this Avanti II while I was taking my mom to physical therapy. She broke her wrist and until she had recovered enough hand strength to take the shifter out of park I was given the task of driving Miss Peshie (Mom’s Yiddish name). My intention was to drop her off at the clinic and then attend the funeral for my cousin’s mechutan. When I passed the Avanti I was little disappointed. I’ve tried to get in the habit of taking my cameras with me most places that I go so I can seize the opportunity when I find a car worthy of note. I had my camera bag with me but there was no way I could shoot the Avanti while we were both driving in traffic. When I got to the cemetery, though, I noticed that the Avanti driver was also paying his respects.
One year after debuting the closed version of the R8 GT in Paris, Audi will show the mess-up-your-significant-other’s-hair model at the Frankfurt IAA this fall. The Audi R8 Spyder GT will be sold as a limited series of only 333. It should be available in early 2012 at your friendly Audi dealer in Europe for 207.800 Euro ($303,886 usual disclaimers apply.) Hit the jump for pictures …. Read More >
“I’m tired of being ashamed of where I live,” declared Mark Reuss, President of General Motors North America, at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual policy conference. His colleagues are likewise frustrated. “With all the national bashing of the region,” an aversion to Michigan is ingrained in the minds of potential job prospects, said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor. Detroit is the city of long lost sex-appeal. Echoing the dejected sentiments of a clockwatching professional with a clientele of reluctant customers, Bill Ford added: “We have to do an incredible sales job to get them to come.” Read More >
I’m just beginning to figure out that Twitter thing, and there it was:
“ToyotaPR Scott Brownlee RT @YouTubeLMAO: @ToyotaPR Made this Hybrid Music Video for Toyota. http://youtu.be/8H-yUQZ9uqM < Reminds me of http://youtu.be/RksFDe6nkaY”
Say what? Read More >
After the U.S. and Canadian government are out of the car business, at least as far as Chrysler is concerned, Fiat will own 52 percent. Who owns the rest? A large chunk, 45.7 percent, is owned by the UAW. By the UAW’s VEBA healthcare fund, to be exact. And the union is in no great hurry to change that. The UAW has a big “HOLD” on their share of Chrysler, hoping that the value goes up. That’s what “two people familiar with the fund’s strategy” told Reuters today. Read More >
In the merry month of May, Germans celebrated their new-found love for das Auto. Europe’s largest auto market grew 22 percent year-on-year and 14.4 percent month-on-month. That according to just released statistics by the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt. Read More >
The ominous Hydrogen Year 2015 is popping up again. Last year, Byung Ki Ahn, general manager of Hyundai-Kia’s Fuel Cell Group said: “There are already agreements between car makers such as ourselves and legislators in Europe, North America and Japan to build up to the mass production of fuel cell cars by 2015.” Going through the many files produced in Brussels, you find that in Europe “car manufacturers are getting ready for the commercial production of hydrogen vehicles by 2015.” Read More >
Fiat has reached an agreement with the U.S. Government that will give Fiat 52 percent of the shares in Chrysler and therefore the final controlling majorioty. The Treasury said on Thursday it will sell its remaining 6 percent equity stake in Chrysler to Italy’s Fiat in a deal that will net Washington $560 million, Reuters reports. Read More >
The Russian government offered foreign automakers a deal which would be very costly to refuse: Invest heavily into the Russian auto industry, and Mother Russia will let you import parts and components at negligible or zero duty rates. Present your plans no later than July 1. Miss the deadline, and you may as well kiss the Russian auto market good-bye. Ti ponemaesh? Read More >
Mazda will stop making cars in the U.S. at around 2013, The Nikkei [sub] heard from unnamed sources inside of the Japanese company. It’s not that Mazda is leaving America. It’s more a continuing process of its divorce from Ford. Mazda wants to sell its share in AutoAlliance International Inc., a 50-50 U.S. joint venture with Ford, back to Ford. Read More >
Panther lovers, look away! The Detroit News has picked up a story on Bayliff Custom Automotive which… well, let’s just let the words take over where that unforgettable image leaves off, shall we?
“We’ve been custom-building Packard automobiles since 1978,” said [C. Budd] Bayliff, whose Bayliff Custom Automotive of Lima, Ohio, builds old-style Packards (and other cars) from the ground up and offers Packard-inspired customization styling kits for contemporary vehicles.
Bayliff Custom Automotive also does conversion work for another Ohio-based company that specializes in funeral vehicles.
The Packard kit, as shown here on a Ford Crown Victoria, is priced from $15,000 to $18,500 and includes a Packard-style grille and overhood, headlamps, rear fender skirts, an oval rear window, stylized trunk lid, custom two-tone paint, and various changes to the interior.
If that’s a Packard, I’m Enzo Ferrari. Oh, and I have a lovely original 250 GTO to sell you…
UAW Boss Bob King spoke to Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference about what he calls “The 21st Century Union,” arguing that “the union has changed and we challenge business to change with us.” But while King talks cooperation and mutual benefit, his union is preparing for what promises to be a tough fight with the automakers to create a new contract that deals with the shop floor poison of the two-tier system, securing union representation on automaker boards, and rolling back union concessions without sending automakers back towards bankruptcy. Kings words are worth listening to and considering, but the upcoming contract negotiations will be the ultimate measure of the UAW’s professed changes.
I’ll refrain from editorializing at length here because I’m genuinely interested in hearing the B & B’s take on Chrysler’s attempt to overcome what was one of the industry’s worst reputations for interior quality. The question here isn’t “are Chrysler’s interiors better?” because there’s no debate on that point. The question is: given that they’re having to do a 180 for Chrysler’s reputation, are they good enough? Personally, I find some downright appealing, some quite passable and some still lacking… and my major complaint is that I feel like the firm tries too hard to project a veneer of premium-ness on even its cheaper products, which make the interiors feel less than entirely “honest.” But that’s just my take… what’s yours? Video of Chrysler’s interior design boss Klaus Brusse, talking about the changes in Chrysler’s interiors, after the jump
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