The autoblogosphere is alight: Geely has informed FoMoCo they’re no longer interested in buying Volvo. Turns out that a previous statement that Geely wanted to aquire 100 percent of Volvo PV was a solo play from a CEO of one of Geely Groups’ subsidiary companies, not Geely as a whole. Or was it? The Swedish punditocracy is viewing this one a tactical play from Geely to lower the price, in a “typically Chinese” fashion. Meanwhile, Ford’s adamant that Volvo is getting the old heave-ho. According to di.se, Fords’ Chief Financial Officer said “Die! Volvo! Die!” Skämt. In fact, Lewis Booth said . . .
Huh? Buick has not only lost the plot, they’ve lost the title of the book. Automotive News [sub] reports that GM’s uh, something brand, is changing its tagline. Again. You may recall that Buick changed its tagline in June. As in just over three months ago. Sure, that tagline sucked. As we pointed out at the time, “Take a look at me now” is/was a po-faced echo of a Phil Collins song about unrequited love destroying the piner. Our Best and Brightest suggested alternatives, none of which included “The new breed of first class.” Buick’s choice manages the virtually impossible: it’s worse than the existing tagline.
The good folks at Jaguar have been kind enough pledge an XFR to the TTAC side for the upcoming first annual (?) Robert Lutz Sports Sedan Challenge. In principle. We still don’t know whether Lutz imagines his challenge as a head-to-head race or a hot lap time trial, and these are important factors in planning racing strategy. Not to mention expensive car-lending decisions. Still, if GM actually goes through with this on fair terms, we could have one of the CTS-V’s top competitors for a mount. And if Hyundai brass show up as is being rumored (let alone Sergio Marchionne in a Quattroporte), we could just have one hell of a spectacle on our hands.
According to the Chattanoogan.com, a recent traffic study performed on Signal Mountain roads revealed that more than 90 percent of drivers exceeded the posted speed limit. Can you guess what the city’s response was to this fact? If you guessed “let’s install speed cameras and ticket everybody,” then you’re absolutely right: “Signal Mountain Police Chief Boyd Veal, who presented the report to the council, said he believes the town should consider using traffic cameras mounted on trucks to catch speeders, as Chattanooga and Red Bank already do.” This is how speed cameras have spread across states. If a city hears that another city nearby is making a bunch of money after installing cameras, you can bet that cameras are going to be first on their list when a “speeding problem” shows up. Not everyone is on board though . . .
Just don’t ask what the newly-released rules will do to the upfront cost of your new car. Though the EPA claims that 35.5 mpg by 2016 is “within reach” of the industry, OEMs will certainly pass some of the $2 billion in costs to meet the standard onto consumers. Let’s also not forget the billions of taxpayer money spent on retooling loans intended as a payoff to the industry for agreeing to the standard, or the EPA’s estimate that new regulations will save consumers $3,000 in fuel cost is over the vehicle’s lifetime. Good thing the new rules will save the environment and improve energy independence. Otherwise we’d have a really hard time being positive about all this.
Farago clearly enjoyed his time with the old Golf R32, but I’ve always thought there was something not quite right about V6-powered Golfs. Considering VW has approximately 750 vehicles based on the same platform, I figure you save the six-pot for the Audi. Anyway, my pedantic preferences are remarkably in line with, well, rising efficiency standards, so VW’s latest top-end Golf is getting a turbo four just like God intended. And the numbers that VW is claiming for the Golf R are the kind that would make the Almighty nod his head approvingly. All wheel drive, 270 hp, 260 lb·ft between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm, 0-60 in 5.5 seconds (with DSG) and 27 MPG. All wrapped up in an reworked Mk VI Golf body that makes the R32 look like a rice special. The inevitable downside is that VW won’t say whether it’s coming to America.
I was completely prepared to leave this Bob Lutz’s CTS-V race thing to Jalopnik. And then Lutz went on the FastLane blog and said he’d welcome all comers: “One of the social media initiatives we’ve launched is a challenge with the Cadillac CTS-V, which we claim to be the fastest 4-dr production sedan in the world, and we have asked any potential challenger to meet us at Laguna Seca and race what you brung.” As the TV lawyers say, Maximum Bob opened the door. So I called Cadillac PR flack David Caldwell. Is this a Jalopnik-only deal? If so, so be it. “You know who I work for,” Caldwell said. Yes . . . “If Bob said he’d take all comers then he’ll take all comers.” Which means TTAC is in on the action, which will go down at Monticello (not Laguna Seca?) sometime in the first two weeks of October. Or not.
UPDATE: Hyundai PR’s talking to their CEO about racing MB in the Genesis. Jaguar’s pledged the XFR.
Got a heads-up from the PR Newswire re: Florida DUI Attorney John Musca. Mr. Musca wants you to know that he’s fighting for your (i.e., his clients’) constitutionally-guaranteed rights and freedoms. Musca’s press release trumpets the dismissal of a recent DUI case, where a careful reading of the law saved his client’s pickled bacon. NB: if the Florida po-po let you go after three minutes, remember: even though you’ve only got one minute to save the world, please observe all posted speed limits.
The state of Florida concedes that DUI checkpoints are constitutional and valid. The Supreme Court acknowledges that DUI checkpoints do in fact constitute a “seizure” relative to the Fourth Amendment yet are constitutionally acceptable with evident effectiveness and minimal intrusion. Hence the three minute rule where every vehicle that enters a designated checkpoint site cannot be detained in traffic for more than three minutes. In the event of exceeding the three minute time allowed, the officer in charge must temporarily suspend the diversion of vehicles into the checkpoint lanes and begin a systematic selection of vehicles to be stopped at the discretion of the checkpoint commander. Vehicles will then proceed back into the checkpoint lanes when the period becomes less than three minutes.
3,319 lb·ft of torque from four electric motors, and the best 0-60 time Audi came up with for its E-Tron concept was 4.8 seconds? Thanks but, uh, we’re not idiots.
Or is that pointlessly endearing? First off, they’re MINIs with trunks. Figure that out. Our first reaction to news of the Coupe and Roadster was to observe that the only thing the MINI brand needed was cars with a little less room. But, as MINI’s press release points out, the brand-defying decklids do have a point. Specifically, “[giving] the car a notchback look clearly distinguishing the MINI Roadster Concept from the MINI Convertible.” Too bad three-box MINIs aren’t MINIs. They’re RILEY ELFs. Ultimately though, brand confusion shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Not because nobody’s mentioned the Riley Elf in decades, but because the concept has a “buddy radar” display which alerts drivers to the presence of other MINIs. Which was a great way of addressing the second least common complaint among MINI drivers: anonymity.
The New York Times is running an Op Ed supporting Senator Charles Schumer’s anti-texting legislation. The Alert Driver’s Act of 2009 would compel states to enact anti-texting laws—or face the loss of 25 percent of their federally-supplied highway funding. The Gray Lady starts as it means to finish: misrepresenting the truth. “A leading road safety group, the Governors Highway Safety Association, has reversed field and announced its support for state laws banning drivers from sending and receiving text messages.” No, yes and kinda. GHSA Executive Director Barbara Hasha told TTAC that the organization hadn’t reversed itself. Before now, they simply “weren’t ready to endorse” the bill. And then they read the study cited by the NYT: a July 2009 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute report claiming truckers are “23 times more likely to cause a crash or near-crash than a nontexting trucker.” Why truckers? Because the stats are 10 times higher than those for car drivers. (How many truckers text vs. car drivers?) And while the GHSA is pro anti-texting laws, they are NOT in favor of Schumer’s threat to remove federal funding.
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