According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Redflex Traffic Systems, a stringent review process guarantees the accuracy of every citation issued under the statewide photo radar program introduced last year. Evidence obtained this week from a confidential Redflex ticket processing manual, however, suggests that the state police and its Australian contractor may be misleading the public with such claims. “Redflex employees under our contract review the civil queue,” DPS Lieutenant Jeff King explained in a written presentation on the photo ticketing program. “If a driver can be identified based on comparisons of the license description and ‘flash photo,’ they accept the violation and a Notice of Violation is automatically printed and mailed. If photo quality is poor or face is blocked, etc., it will be rejected and placed in dormancy.”
Jesus Christ. Isn’t it enough that car dealers rape you on finance charges and extended warranties and paint sealant and God knows what? Oh NO—they have to put an ugly ass sticker or cheap chrome applique badge or hideous license plate frame on the back of your car that ADVERTISES THE FACT THAT YOU’VE BEEN SCREWED BY A DEALER. [Note: I’m not saying that Mr. Barrett was anything but open, honest and above board. May the Bricklin owner rest in peace.] If you want to advertise on TTAC, you have to pay for it. ’Cause that’s how advertising works. But if a car dealer wants to plaster his or her name on the butt of YOUR car YOU have to pay for it. And even if you accept this ass-backwards idea, why for FS can’t these guys at least TRY to match the manufacturer’s typeface and style? I’d recommend CarMax to all my friends who chew gum. But I had them pull that sticker off my GL before I ever rolled out of the customer handover area. Not on MY gas-sucking SUV you don’t.
Subaru’s first US-market continuously-variable transmission (CVT) was a major factor in the 2010 Outback’s recent two-star TTAC review. Not in the “one niggling fault” way either. Think more along the lines of the “metaphor for myriad brand betrayals” kind of dislike. Subaru’s vehicles are getting heavier, their interiors are becoming more plasticky-gimmicky and much of the driving fun once available in say, a stock Impreza, has gone the way of quirky styling and rugged functionality. And guess what? Subaru’s mainstream trend-encies look to be here to stay.
“We’re building more than one car; we’re building a brand,”
McLaren boss Ron Dennis, on the announcement of the one car that McLaren is bringing to market in 2011, the MP4-12C. By 2015 McLaren hopes to offer a 911 competitor and a Carrera GT-class super-duper car, bringing total volume to 4,000 units per year, reports the Times. The MP4-12C is named for Dennis’s 1997 Formula One-winning race car, and will be rocking all the mid-engine V8, adaptive suspension, carbon-fiber chassis, gullwing doors and seven-speed accoutrement one expects at a $250k price point. Meanwhile, the designer of McLaren’s first road car is betting on tiny city cars. And it’s tough to tell which of the two is crazier.
The United Steelworkers had a big hand in putting Barack Obama in power. Now they want some payback. The United Steelworkers lodged a complaint that a flood of cheap Chinese tires had cost more than 5,000 union jobs in recent years. Obama has until Sept.17 to rule that the White House put a 55 percent tariff on tires imported from China. Which would be the end of Chinese tire imports. Tires? Steelworkers? Read More >
Aw shucks, I was wrong. In my usual exuberance, I had said that triple digit growth could be in the cards for August auto sales in China. Big mistake. China’s passenger vehicle sales, including sedans, MPVs, SUVs and minivans grew only 94.7 percent year-on-year to 849,376 units in August, China Daily reports.
“The booming sales in August have surpassed even the boldest prediction in the industry, as sales in August were previously the weakest of the year,” said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association.
China is well on its way to sell more than 12 million vehicles this year.
GM set off something of an insanity bomb a few weeks back by claiming their Volt moonshot would get 230 mpg based on draft EPA testing standards. Nissan countered via Twitter, claiming that its forthcoming Leaf EV would get 367 mpg using the same test, and the age of EV efficiency madness was initiated. Needless to say, neither the Volt nor the Leaf can be directly tested to give an apples-to-apples comparison to internal combustion-powered vehicles, and this opening salvo seemed bent on removing plausibility from the EV efficiency equation. But sanity in EV efficiency has an unlikely new champion in luxo-EREV maker Fisker.
In other words, it ain’t gonna happen. If GM was going to sell Opel to the Canadian-fronted Russian consortium, they would have done it. Remember, the German elections are coming. The sale would have pleased the Russians, Germans and Canadians, but since they aren’t going to do it before September 27, it’s a clear indication that GM’s either going to sell Opel to Belgian-based private equity boys RHJ International or . . . raise some cash, pay off the Germans’ €1.5 billion “bridge loan,” put some more money in the brand’s empty coffers and keep Opel as the US outpost of a nationalized American automaker that provides a host of unloved automobile platforms to moribund GM badge engineers. Automotive News [sub] doesn’t quite make that analysis, but it’s close enough for government work. At least they see the downside . . .
600 to 1500 miles a week. Some of you may consider this travel excessive, or, perhaps, bordering on the psychotic. In the auto remarketing business it’s a way of life. Wholesalers, auctioneers, ringmen, and managers of varying stripes all have to spend their time on the road. Auctions are often separated by several hours and states. Not to mention that the folks in the Great White North often have to travel to different provinces, upwards of 2000 miles a week, to get where they’re going. That’s a lot of time with a seat, a dashboard and a radio. You may think that a Camcord or some type of hyper-efficient vehicle would be the car of choice for so much travel . . . but you would be dead wrong.
The Chinese government has sent back Sichuan Tenzhong’s bid for GM’s Hummer brand, reportedly due to uncertainty regarding whether Hummer’s patents were part of the deal. “I, based on the current situation, understand that it’s not in coordination with our nation’s industrial policy,” Vice Minister for Commerce Chen Jian tells Bloomberg. But, says Chen, it was not the commerce ministry that nixed the deal. A different “relevant department is currently reviewing and has expressed opposition,” Chen said. It seems Chen was probably referring to the National Development and Reform Commission. GM and Tenzhong both claim to still be pursuing the deal. [Hat Tip: ohsnapback]
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