Michael Copeland at Fortune has his priorities straight. “In my rusted jalopy, a 1991 Volvo 240 sedan, I have installed the future,” he boasts. His use of the “f-word” tells you he’s not talking about a V8, forced induction or any other fossil fuel-sucking upgrade. What then? An EV conversion? That would be too interesting. Too car-related. No, Copeland’s future shock was a simple feat: “All it took was a friend whose iPhone came along for a ride.” His argument is the same tired trope we hear every time a business writer dips a toe in the product-analysis game: make it more iPod-phone-y!
when you think about it, the car is the ultimate mobile device. And automakers need to start acting more like consumer electronics companies if they don’t want to cede one of their last great opportunities to Apple, Research in Motion or Google [Ed: as if!].
Sigh. Didn’t we go through this when Thomas Friedman called for Steve Jobs to take over GM? Incidentally, whatever happened to the Draft Oprah movement?
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada expressed concern last week over the growing police use of technology to spy on motorists. In a letter to the Nanaimo Daily News, Assistant Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier emphasized that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had not received the commissioner’s approval for the agency’s use of license plate recognition devices. Known as ANPR in the UK and ALPR in North America, these cameras use a combination of electronic databases, cameras and optical character recognition software to identify each passing vehicle. Over time, the devices create a searchable log containing the exact time and date that each automobile passed a given location.
Mickey Kaus and TheBigMoney’s Matthew DeBord joined in the recent kerfluffle over GM’s market share predictions, Kaus on the side of TTAC’s pessimism, and DeBord on the audacity of hope against hope side. DeBord grabs his spade and starts digging, and it only takes a paragraph before he strikes a vast reserve of bubbling… excuses.
declining market share has been a GM reality for decades—the company at one time had so much share that it really had nowhere to go but down or into anti-trust prosecution. The Old GM was so preoccupied with holding share that it neglected what was obviously more important, profits. New GM has a reasonable opportunity to take its smaller portfolio of brands, several relatively successful new products, and given a recovery in the truck market in 2010, book some profits ahead of an anticipated pre-midterm-elections IPO.
Still, there are plenty of critics who have it in for GM, notably The Truth About Cars, which has been heralding GM’s demise since gas was 30 cents a gallon and Sinatra was headlining the Sands. (And yet … GM lives! This has to be something like being Cuba, grimly eyeing the United States across that brief expanse of ocean, waiting decade after decade for the imperial giant to finally fall.)
So grab a Pina Colada and pull up a chaise lounge, comrades… the glorious revolution waits just behind the jump! Read More >
GM purchased HUMMER in 1988. Big mistake. Or was it? HUMMER is an enormously strong automotive brand. Its products are as instantly recognizable as the Chevy Malibu is utterly forgettable. In terms of the cultural gestalt, the automotive world hasn’t seen such a divisive vehicle since the days when a Rolls Royce was THE emblem of economic exploitation. HUMMER said I’ll see your class warfare and raise you . . . an imperialistic invasion! Love it or loathe it, you’ve got to love it or loathe it. If [like] nothing else, there’s a Hirst of modern artists who’d give their left ear to create an object as controversial, as deeply polarizing and emotionally engaging as the HUMMER H2. The H3 not so much. Now, we could debate how GM could have made HUMMER a financial success. But that would be a bit like arguing over how we could have “won” the second Gulf War. So let’s just ask the next most logical question, what can you do with a dead HUMMER?
London, England Mayor Boris Johnson is retreating from his campaign pledge to end the city’s “punishment of motorists.” Johnson’s predecessor, Ken Livingstone, lost his re-election in large measure because Johnson pledged to scale back the £8 (US $13) fee imposed on motorists entering the downtown area. Johnson announced Friday that he will boost the tax to £10 (US $16.40) to shore up Transport for London’s mass transit budget. “The proposed increase in the charge will ensure that the system remains effective in controlling traffic levels in central London, and the revenue will also help us fund the vital improvements to London’s transport network that all Londoners want to see,” Johnson said in a statement.
As an Allstate customer, a member of our Best and Brightest was not pleased to learn that GM Marketing Maven Mark LaNeve was crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage, into a brand new job. At Allstate. So he sent the insurance company an email.
The Volvo and GM brands are dead, thanks to the expertise of Mr. LaNeve and other of his ilk that have sunk them. Now he is welcomed into Allstate due to his “more than 25 years of marketing, sales and general management experience.” Good luck, you’ll need it. His sort of expertise sinks businesses. The old phrase about rats and sinking ships comes to mind.
Gregory, Floyd (Allstate Insurance Company) wrote:
Dear Mr. XXXXX:
We have completed our investigation regarding your concern and would like to provide you a summary.
The clues were too easy, I was dropping hints left and right, and DweezilSFV named the Comet on guess number three. No more Mr. Nice Guy; no more hints. If someone names this car quickly, I’m going to very unhappy, but impressed. OK, get your Google Image tabs ready and…go!
Video of the Subaru development team flogging the Toyobaru test mule around the Nordschleife reveals a hint of Tie Fighter in its at-speed soundscape. That can’t be bad. [FT86club]
People have tried to be kind, saying that it’s challenging and that it’s unusual. But the simple fact of the matter is this: it’s as ugly as an inside-out monkey. It’s dreadful. Part Austin Maxi, it looks like someone with no talent at all was trying to describe what they wanted to a blind person, over the phone.
I tried one on a recent trip to Romania and I thought it was a very good car. But that’s like saying Ann Widdecombe has a heart of gold. It’s possibly true but it’s completely irrelevant. You still wouldn’t.
After two pages of digression and British pop culture references, Jeremy Clarkson finally decides to tell us what he really thinks of the Porsche Panamera. By digressing into British pop culture references. Which begs the question: who comes out of this looking worse? Or, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, tomorrow the Panamera will still be a fairly desirable car. Whether Clarkson will be able to offer anything resembling a credible or readable opinion in his next Times review is still very much an open question.
Congress has passed legislation qualifying three-wheeled vehicles for federal subsidies by classifying them as advanced technology vehicles. According to Automotive News [sub], the legislation has passed the House and Senate and should be signed by President Obama by week’s end. The classification is crucial for firms like Aptera to secure the federal Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program funds that have been critical for firms like Tesla, GM and Ford. Aptera has asked for $75m, but efforts to include the three-wheelers like Aptera’s 2e have been criticized by GM, which is waiting on $10b in Department of ATVM funding. So, on the one-hand you have self-interested, tax money-bloated firms like GM who want the money for themselves, and cottage industry EV freaks who call their three-wheeled designs “innovative.” But not only are three wheeled designs far from unique (they tend to show up in every major recession), they also aren’t cars. If the Feds are going to give money to to the makers of three-wheelers, which have to be licensed as motorcycles, they should have to allow electric motorcycle firms like Brammo and Zero to apply as well. After all, a $10k motorcycle isn’t any less ridiculous than a $45k Volt or a $40k Aptera.
Since it’s shaping up to be Luxury Sedan Day here at TTAC (actually, it’s water-heater explosion day here at TTAC West, but that’s another, less-interesting story) we thought we’d show you Toyota’s Mark X [via Autocar], a sedan it figures could be a budget competitor to the BMW 5 series. But rather than getting hung up on what Toyota wants this car to be, let’s take a look at what it actually is: a Toyotaized version of the GS-series Lexus. This is the same strategy Toyota has taken with its HS250h, offering a JDM-only Toyota version of a Lexus product, although the Mark X’s differences go beyond a cheaper interior. Detuned versions of the 2.5 and 3.5 liter V6s found in the IS-series are offered as engine choices, in hopes of not intruding too much on the GS’s territory. And though none of this is likely to impact the US market, it’s worth noting that this is a questionable strategy at best. Lexus has succeeded in this country because of Toyota’s diligence in differentiating them from pedestrian T-branded offerings. If Toyota ever gets the brilliant idea of offering quick-and-dirty, down-economy rebadges of Lexus vehicles, it will find itself in a GM-sized branding nightmare before it can say “Buick.” And don’t think for a second that nobody at Toyota is thinking of making this the next Toyota Avalon. Just say no!
Our friends over at wreckedexotics.com have hooked-up with realcartips.com (be careful when driving your exotic?). This week’s alert: luxury hybrids are a drug on the market. Hybrid Escalades are going for ten grand under sticker. Lexus dealers have been instructed to sell their remaining stock of 2009 Lexus 600h Ls for $10k off sticker. And, we might add, the rest. After all, the second you drive that $106k-and-up top-of-the-line hybrid off the lot, you’ll lose a LOT more than $10k. Still, the discount could take some of the heat out of torching 10 Grovers—and drive down the the price of pre-loved examples. A 30k LS 600h L is yours for around $75k. And the rest, now. At any price, the 600h L is one of the world’s best luxury cars— that’s destined to remain the deep-pocketed eccentric’s choice. Or, as was the case with the VW Phaeton, not.
Global Times has an official image of the production Hyundai Azera-based Kia Cadenza, the replacement for the aged and unlovable Amanti. Not long ago, TTAC’s sharp-eyed readers had a surprisingly hard time identifying this car’s interior as a Kia at all. And with a new Schreyer-styled look that’s light years beyond the Amanti’s crude E-class cribbing, the Cadenza’s exterior could fool a few observers as well. With GM positioning Buick as “luxury without paying for status,” a Kia like this seems to be that brand’s chief competition. Who saw that coming?
Hi Sajeev, I recently overpaid on my purchase of a 1986 Dodge Diplomat SE in order to save the car from meeting a grim end in the Cash 4 Clunkers program. The car is in good shape and has 98,xxx miles on the odometer. My question is this: The Diplomat has a 2bbl 318 V8, but every single gas station in my part of Florida only sells E10 fuel. I’ve read that running E10 in a carbureted engine can cause some big problems. If this is true, what kind of trouble should I be expecting, is there anything I can do to mitigate the negative effects of E10, and how long do you think I have until issues start to crop up? Would I be better off just searching out a station that sells pure gasoline even if it’s fairly far away?
Toyota has taken a massive hit to its rep, due to reports of floor mat-related unintended acceleration, and the automaker’s subsequent recall. The headline case: a fatal crash on August 28th. As The LA Times reports, a “runway” Lexus ES350 slammed into another vehicle and embankment, killing California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law. The Times raises an important point: ” . . . a close look at the Lexus ES 350 raises questions about whether the car’s very design may have compromised Saylor’s skills. One obvious line of defense is to simply shut off the engine, a step that may not be intuitive on the ES 350. The car has a push-button start system, activated by the combination of a wireless electronic fob carried by the driver and a button on the dashboard. But once the vehicle is moving, the engine will not shut off unless the button is held down for a full three seconds — a period of time in which Saylor’s car would have traveled 528 feet. A driver may push the button repeatedly, not knowing it requires a three-second hold.”
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