Tesla has finally acknowledged the existence of its Model S customers–and it’s about freaking time. It’s been more than a year since I plunked down a $5,000 deposit and officially joined the Tesla family as Model S customer No. P 717. (Projected delivery date: early 2012.) At first, the bennies of Model S ownership were pretty cool. A neck-snapping test drive in the Tesla Roadster instantly persuaded me that electric drive is the future of high-performance driving. An invitation to the grand opening of the New York Tesla dealership, located in the oh-so-hip Chelsea district, featured wine, fancy food, and thin artsy people wearing black. I sat back to await the presumed steady flow of Model S owner communications–technical updates, customer surveys, maybe even a factory tour or a test drive in a prototype for a lucky few of us.
It used to be a common joke in China that makers of refrigerators entered the car business by adding wheels to their refrigerators. (Don’t laugh: GM sold their Frigidaire business in 1979, after 50 years of making refrigerators.) Now, BYD comes full circle. They will enter the home appliance business. Read More >
The TaxPayers’ Alliance and Drivers’ Alliance last week calculated that UK speed cameras issued £87,368,227 (US $131,256,380) worth of tickets in fiscal 2009 without any demonstrable safety benefit. Since speed cameras were first installed on British roads in 1991, the roads became more dangerous than they would have been without photo enforcement, according to the report.
So far, it had been striking workers at Chinese parts suppliers that brought Japanese car makers to their knees, praying for parts needed to re-start the lines. Here is a new twist: Japan’s Hitachi ran out of chips for ECUs (commonly called “car computers”). And Japanese carmakers are shutting down the lines. Read More >
The Toyota acceler-gate provides for extra work for the nation’s sharpest brainiacs – on both sides of the Pacific. In the U.S. , the Academy of Science has been recruited by the NHTSA. Meanwhile in Japan, Toyota drew on the expertise of Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). Today, four experts appointed by JUSE presented the result of their review of Toyota’s quality assurance. In one short sentence: Read More >
China’s Changan (joint venture partner of Ford, Suzuki and PSA) wants to draw on British engineering know-how and established a research-and-development center in Nottingham, England. Read More >
Monkey see, monkey do. After Sajeev’s outstanding 300SL review I felt compelled to write on the vintage Benzo tip, yo. This car isn’t restored to anything like the condition of Mr. Mehta’s tester, but then again, I’d have felt bad going two-off during public-road driving in a half-million-dollar car…
Two news items are unnerving Japan today: The ruling DPJ party seems to be heading towards a solid defeat at the upper house elections. And Volkswagen has lost all respect for the Japanese competition. The enemy Volkswagen now fears most is – dou shiyou – Read More >
Fiat retreated from U.S. shores in 1983, but that doesn’t stop die-hard Fiat fans from keeping their Fix-it-again-Tonys alive, and from congregating once a year. This weekend, the annual convention of the Club Fiat-Lancia Unlimited was held at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. At their closing dinner, Laura Soave, Head of Fiat North America, made Fiat fans an offer they can hardly refuse: Read More >
As part of our ongoing coverage of the new Fiat Uno, undoubtedly Fiat’s Brazil most important launch yet (see here and here and here, too), not to mention the biggest launch this year in our market, I’m bringing you this little video of the car. Grab your dictionaries and for those of you knowledgeable in Spanish, can you make anything out? Priceless the faces this car provokes on the streets (as you can see at the very end of the video).
Fiat honchos have promised me a car to test drive. Until it happens (the World Cup is over, so things are coming back to normal), take the video like an aperitivo. The video is courtesy of Brazilian website vrum.com.br.
Now that the World Cup is reaching its end, and Brazil has been eliminated, traffic is getting back to normal. Not to mention safer because authorities usually turn a blind and sympathetic eye to some traffic violations perpetrated in the name of the sport. Can’t stop the celebrations! Anyway, during this month-long event whenever you went out driving you’d see people draping their cars in the flag, putting little flags on the doors and other “decorations”. It’s rather interesting to see import driving Brazilians being so nationalistic. Funny thing was, as soon as Brazil was eliminated, the flags disappeared. This I guess is the norm for talking badly about our country, among ourselves and to foreigners, too (though to a lesser extent) is a national pastime. Do Brazilians only love their country in victory? Are we only patriotic in World Cup times?
If you’re reading this article, that means Fuhrer Schmitt has figured out under what moniker this article should be filed under. As far as I’m concerned it should be a “Question Of The Day”, but it could easily slot into “WTF” and “Wild Arse Rumor Of The Day”. So, here we go… Read More >
Wasn’t Ford proud of not having stuffed themselves from the Great American Bailout Buffet? That didn’t stop them from (quietly) asking the Germans for money. And the answer is … Read More >
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