TTAC Commentator PG writes:
Sajeev, my 2008 Subaru WRX is like a hot girl with a coke problem – lots of fun, but I can’t keep up. Now a few months back, Piston Slap gave me some great advice on my parents’ BMW X5. They haven’t unloaded it yet, but I think they will soon. Thanks again! Now, I was wondering if you and the Best and Brightest could help me out.
Nissan has partnered with the telemetry firm Carwings for years, but with the electric-drive Nissan Leaf, what was once a way to suggest efficient navigation routes and driving techniques has become a game. Yes, Carwings allows you to track every trip in your Leaf down to the last nauseating detail and helps prevent the creep of “range anxiety,” but it also ranks you against all other Leaf drivers in your region. In short, the Leaf isn’t just a car, it’s a competition for the “Platinum” Leaf Cup. The fanboys at MyNissanLeaf.com are all abuzz over the competitive feature, which Nissan hasn’t done much to publicize otherwise. But do the early adopters who buy Leafs need a competition to encourage efficient driving, or is this just going to turn the Leaf into a posterboy for antisocial hypermiling? Sometimes getting where you need to go on time is competition enough.
Still, based on the forum chatter, telemetry data is hugely popular among alt-fuel adherents and hypermilers alike. Carwings-style telemetry reporting will definitely be a significant trend in future automobiles… even if the Leaf’s competition aspect gets left by the roadside.
Chrysler’s bailout-era dealer cull has ended up being something of a nightmare, with a number of dealers successfully fighting for reinstatement as federal investigators look into possible criminal wrongdoing. And whereas GM has basically rolled back much of its dealer cull, Chrysler has consistently used arbitrary calculi for closing dealers and has resisted giving dealers the opportunity to reclaim their franchises. Now, the dealers that have won reinstatement in congressionally-mandated arbitration hearings are facing a new threat: relocation. Automotive News [sub] reports that Chrysler’s method of dealing with reinstated dealers is to force them to relocate wherever Chrysler wants them to go. Chrysler has filed a request in a Michigan District Court, asking for the ability to relocate some 20 dealers in 6 Midwestern states, a move it says it must undertake in order to protect its non-culled dealers. But, having picked the winners and losers among its dealers only to see some of them reinstated, shouldn’t these reinstated dealers be afforded the same rights as the dealers who weren’t culled in the first place?
A candidate for the New South Wales, Australia Legislative Council is staking out a bold, pro-motorist agenda. David Leyonhjelm hopes to win a seat in the parliament’s upper chamber in the upcoming March 26 election on behalf of the Outdoor Recreation Party. The group’s platform stands for a removal of government restrictions on enjoying the use of public land for recreational purposes, including driving.
EU car owners will get a new kind of gasoline – whether they want it, or not. Most don’t want it. They get it anyway. While US-automakers sue to stop ethanol blends, an edict handed down from Brussels demands that Super has to contain 10 percent of ethanol. An alliance from Germany’s ADAC autoclub to Greenpeace says the new gasoline is a work of the devil, it is liable to ruin cars, and the environment. Read More >
Brooklyn residents, already riled by the city’s slow response to the Blizzard from Hell, have new reason for outrage. A city Sanitation Department tractor, while trying to tow a snowplow out of the snow, systematically demolished three cars on Joralemon Street in the course of four minutes. Read More >
Don’t want your kids listen to Howard Stern, the Playboy Channel, Hip-Hop Nation or Raw Dog Comedy, at least while driving? No problem: Buy a Ford. It comes with a built-in Chinese Firewall that safeguards the harmonious upbringing of our children. At least while they drive. Read More >
You have heard the whole year about the exploding Chinese car market. Surprise: Production growth in the U.S. appears to be stronger than China. In a few days or weeks, we will have the 2010 sales numbers. In this economy, what’s more important than spending money is making money, and that means jobs. For that, we have to look at the motor vehicle production numbers by country. For those, we will have to wait many months until OICA gets around to tabulating them. Let’s make a best guess estimate for who’s on top and by how much. Read More >
TTAC Commentator TrailerTrash writes:
It’s coming. My next car has been determined to be a hatch AND a stick. And here is the problem…my wife does not want a stick again. The Ozark hills require a little room for error at hill stopping. She has promised to consider one, IF it has the clutch feel that is not as brutal as out last (Cherokee).I have narrowed it down to a few cars. My choices show the need for speed…
Speaking to CNN, former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister warns that, although American oil consumption may have already peaked, high prices at the pump could come back with a vengeance over the short and medium term.
The issues that gave rise to high priced gasoline in 2007 and 2008 are repeating themselves, except the world demands even more oil in the next several years than before. Asian growth is continuing, e.g. 17 million new cars per year just in China, and will demand more oil. U.S. economic recovery has brought demand back to where it was before. Economic growth means even more demand. But the U.S. Government is prohibiting expansion of U.S. domestic crude oil production which puts upward pressure on global crude oil prices… If we stay on our present course there is no question but that prices will rise to the $5.00 gallon level by 2012 in my opinion.
With profits returning to the auto industry in large part thanks to rebounding sales of large cars and SUV/Crossovers, this is the kind of warning that should ring out in the headquarters of the major manufacturers. Gas prices have been on a subtle upward trend since bottoming out at just over $1.60 in December of 2008, and the national average seems to be creeping up to the level it was at before it skyrocketed to over $4/gal in the Summer of 2008. Which makes you wonder: will the automakers be better prepared to deal with a spike in gas prices this time around?
“I have something to tell you, but you cannot, I repeat, must not do anything about it.”
“Is it something I want to hear?”
“Yes, it is. But you have to swear.”
“Okay. I swear. Now tell me.”
“Maro is getting a divorce.” Oh. Maro. I remember you, swinging your legs, your perfect profile and staggeringly voluptuous figure backlit by the sun, and I remember you seated next to me, so long ago, in that little gold Nissan truck. Do you remember me?
Read More >
The other day, when a popular blog mentioned that the Porsche Boxster was judged to be the car most likely to last 200,000 miles I did a double take. You don’t have to spend very much time in the comment sections of the major car blogs or on enthusiast forums to know that German cars have, at least to enthusiasts, a reputation for being prone to frequent and expensive maintenance and repair. Likewise, a simple internet search for [porsche boxster engine problems] puts paid to any notion that the average Porsche owner has an 85% chance of his or her car lasting to the 200K mark.
Christmas 2010. Baseball cards have been replaced with Pokemon cards. An Army knife that could have made my mom faint back when, is now part of my son’s Boy Scouts arsenal. We even did a scavenger hunt for their last present. Which lead to a ‘paper guitar’ that I know has more computing power than my old Colecovision. Here I am counting my blessings while pecking away in an ‘open’ office where I get to hear and see everything. The kids have their games. The wife has enough wine for 2011, and my gas and electric bill was less than $100 for two months straight. What can I say, life is good. I also got me a present.
Yesterday morning, it seemed that Spank’s LeMons-veteran ’71 Citroën DS would be stranded in El Paso due to a bad water pump shaft seal. When your car is made out of pure unobtanium, Miami seems much farther than a mere 2,800 miles from San Diego. Read More >
TTAC will slow down for a hot minute as your humble editor makes his way to the County courthouse to pay a speeding ticket. And no, to those who might be wondering, this particular citation was not the result of some M-Coupe lunacy. I simply got busted doing 65 MPH while passing someone on a mountain highway that had briefly dropped to 45 MPH (while going through an alleged “town”)… and I was driving a Subaru Impreza 2.5. In short, there was nothing cool, fun, exciting or worthwhile about this particular transgression against the laws of speed. So I ask you, cheer me up with your wild stories of crazy speeding ticket-related encounters… remind this poor confused kid that speeding can be indeed be more than simply mundane.
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