TTAC’s MontanaVista sent us the heads-up: Volkswagen has released pricing and official information for its new Golf. The commentator whose name reminds me of the station wagons of my youth alerted us that VeeDub’s U.S. website has finally been updated, and the death of the Rabbit nomenclature is now officially official. Not that anyone will notice save marketing mavens, who may also wonder if the combination of “Germany’s most loved hatchback” and “It’s what the people want” is a tag-line too far—given that U.S. buyers are notoriously hatchback aversive. The rest of us will delight in the build and price widget. My ideal all-new (to us anyway) GTI includes a $2795 Autobahn seating package (goodness gracious me!), an $1100 DSG gearbox (holy frijoles!), and $224 worth of mats (OCD takes it toll). That’s $28,358. Which is a lot of money for Rabbit.
The tentative deal between Ford and UAW leadership has predictably run into trouble as it moves towards a vote by local leadership. Even though the deal would still fall short of the agreement reached with GM and Chrysler and Ford has sweetened the deal with $1,000 bonuses and 2,000 extra jobs, the union’s workers are spinning the deal into a union-breaking giveaway. “We just won’t have a union anymore if we do this,” a Dearborn Truck plant bargaining committee member tells the Freep. But the rank-and-file resistance is creating divisions between Ford, union leadership and workers. Even UAW President Ron Gettelfinger admits that “isn’t a concessionary agreement,” putting workers at odds with everyone else involved in negotiations. And their motivations for turning down the deal have to be bigger than mere frustration over $500m in labor savings already granted to Ford.
Translated as ‘dark’ from Italian, the name ‘Scura’ reflects the stealth character of this already fierce looking Lotus and its stunning soft-feel matt black paint finish. Limited to just 35 cars globally, this Exige evokes a desire to ‘indulge your dark side’. This is a serious looking car and enhancements to performance and a reduction in weight from the production level Exige S means that the Exige Scura demands to be driven by a serious driver.
The Wall Street Journal reports that GM is developing a plan B, should the European Union decide that the German government subsidies upon which the Opel deal depends are a violation of some rule or another. “[EU competition commissioner Neelie] Kroes pointed to ‘significant indications’ that Germany had made €4.5 billion ($6.72 billion) in state aid for Opel contingent on Magna winning the bid, therefore violating EU state aid and market rules.” GM now has a window of opportunity to reconsider the whole schmeer—as does the German government, Magna and their Russian sponsors. GM’s backup plan? Keep control of Opel and implement “deeper restructuring actions than Magna is planning . . . GM would fund the restructuring, which includes far more drastic headcount reductions, by soliciting government support or putting Opel into insolvency.” Which should be popular with about-to-strike Opel workers. Oh, and which government was that? Our government? No, of course not. Still, he/she who owns the gold . . .
A single red light camera in Riverside, California issued $1 million worth of right-hand turn on red tickets in just one month. The automated ticketing machine installed in March at Tyler Street at the entrance to the 91 Freeway has become the most productive of the city’s cameras and now accounts for half of the citations issued by Riverside’s vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia. The camera helped boost the grand total of citations mailed since January 2007 to 82,448 tickets worth $32,532,203.
Another day, another meticulously-crafted yet completely bastardized retro-mod, conceived but not realized by a designer working for a major car company, finished via the patronage of California collector Ron Kellogg. This time ’round, Big Ron’s looking to de-acquisition an Aerodyne Streamliner Coupe penned by Nissan Design’s California model shop manager John Toom. The quote marks denote deconstruction. Toom’s fantasy whip sits on a 1956 Jaguar XK140 frame, powered by a rebuilt 3.8-liter XKE engine. Et voila! A Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantique knock-off! Whatever it isn’t, the Jag-based whip’s got bespoke door handles, gauges, dashboard, the works. Unlike Kellogg’s cod-Bug, the sales bumph for the made-up Jag doesn’t include a list of concours events which have welcomed the car. Take that as you will. Referring to Kellogg’s car photo website, we can speculate that the collector’s willingness to do the wild thang with a Jag connects to his first car: a XK120 coupe. More than this, I do not know, and the Internets will not reveal. Suffice it to say, if I were a mainstream manufacturer’s car designer with a hankering to reinvent a classic car, I’d think twice before risking the Curse of The RestoMod Motors.
Nope. Not a bear. Although I bet this 400 lbs. bear would have liked the opportunity to take out a few cars from a chopper before Tim Lorey’s marksmanship made him take The Big Sleep (and I don’t mean hibernation). Write your answer below. THEN click here for the (an?) answer.
Auto Motor und Sport‘s Erlkönig prototype hunters tracked down Audi’s smallest car yet, testing before a 2010 European launch. Pricing and currency issues are blamed for the A1’s Euro-restricted habitat, and with a base price of €16-18k for a 1.2 liter engine, it’s no surprise that it won’t show up stateside. The possible 200 hp, AWD, seven-speed DSG S1 version sounds worth a grey market import, but at an estimated $36k, you’d have to be pretty fanatical about hot hatches to even think about it. And good luck finding a VW dealer in America who can work on your twincharger engine.
A California appellate court on Wednesday declined to publish a decision overturning a ticket issued by an unlawful red light camera operation (view ruling). California Superior Court, San Mateo County Appellate Judge Mark R. Forcum turned down attorney Frank Iwama’s request that he explain his reasoning more fully in a published decision. Unpublished cases cannot be cited as precedent in California, and motorists interested in challenging citations will have to repeat from scratch all arguments about the program’s illegality.
Why do so many folks hate SUVs? Is it angst driven? Environmental? Ideological? Or maybe a fear of domestication? I honestly don’t know and rarely did I give two flips about it until late August 2005. Once Katrina hit, the car market in the United States forever changed and so did yours truly’s viewpoint on the All-American SUV.
A recently released study concludes that Pennsylvania’s plan to toll Interstate 80 would burden taxpayers and potentially cost thousands of jobs. Grove City College economics Professor Tracy C. Miller’s analysis extended beyond the simple issue of how much money such tolling would raise for government coffers and, instead, attempted to quantify the effect of increased transportation costs on local businesses and residents. I-80 runs 311 miles across the state, serving as a vital commercial link between New York and Chicago. Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell (D) has been promoting the tolling effort in the hopes of generating $405 million in new revenue. Rendell and others refer to the toll as a “user fee,” but Miller disagreed with this characterization. “It is better understood as a tax or tariff, since much of the revenue will be used for purposes other than maintaining and improving Interstate 80 and since vehicles that use Interstate 80 already pay for using it via fuel taxes and other taxes,” Miller wrote.
The US-spec Buick Regal is receiving a better-than-Crosstour reception at Facebook, where official photos are showing some slight visual differences from the Chinese-market model. Against all the odds, the US-spec Buick appears to have dropped the Chinese version’s aftermarket-worthy fender vent. A more-subtle grille is another unexpected but welcome maturation. Or is that regression? This Buick’s as clean as the Insignia, somehow doing without the acres of chrome and tacked-on baubles that too often signify “American luxury.” Predictably, the most common comment on the new Facebook page is “needs ventiports.” Chinese-market Regal, for comparison, after the jump.
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