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Category: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
NHTSA Investigation Action Number AQ10001, opened November 18, 2010 notes:
The agency, particularly in recent months, has been informed of incidents involving allegations of personal injury and death claimed to have been caused by safety defects and failures to conform to minimum Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) on rental car vehicles for which a safety recall to remedy the safety defect or noncompliance had allegedly not been performed prior to the rental car company’s lease of the vehicle. NHTSA understands that there is presently a petition before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking to prohibit at least one rental car company from renting vehicles on which safety recall campaign remedies remain outstanding. The purpose of this audit query (AQ) is to investigate recall remedy completion by rental car companies on the above-listed safety recall campaigns. These campaigns were chosen due to their inclusion of vehicles used in the rental market. This information is expected to provide the agency an indication of how completely and how quickly rental car fleets, in general or individually, perform necessary recall-related repairs or other remedies on the vehicles owned and then leased for use on the roadways.
But rental companies wouldn’t risk the safety of their customers for a buck would they? The Enterprise/Alamo/National syndicate tells Bloomberg it grounds cars upon receiving recalls… Hertz and Avis have yet to chime in. The weirdest part of it all: only vehicles made by GM, Ford and Chrysler are being investigated. Why are the Accents and Rios receiving recall repairs while Avengers and Malibus are left to be investigated for “failures to conform to minimum Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards”? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? A list of vehicles under investigation can be found below the fold.
The Nissan Murano may start at a reasonable $28,500, but stepping up to the recently-announced CrossCabriolet version will set you back a healthy $46,390 (before $800 destination charge) according to Nissan ‘s website. That makes it the second most-expensive Nissan after the GTR, and it comes in only one trim level (with navigation, heated everything, a Bose system, HID headlights and more). So, why wasn’t the CrossCabrio released as an Infiniti again?
You have to imagine that plenty of Lamborghini Gallardo owners have been hauled in front their local magistrate for daring to allow their Italian stallion to stretch its legs… but surely none of them were ever treated as well as Leone Antonino Magistro of Perth, Australia.
If you’ve ever been to a topless beach, you know the basic problem: you expect a bunch of topless Jags and Maseratis, but what you actually get is this, the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. Four thousand pounds of roly-poly crossover blessed with the totally misguided belief that people want to see it with its top off. And it would be one thing if this were just a one-off concept, but it sounds like Nissan is considering actually making this thing. We’ll keep a corner of our eye on this as the LA Auto Show kicks off… but we’ll be sure to avoid eye contact.
The second-best thing about this video? The Dodge rep specifically notes that it’s embargoed until Monday. The very best thing? It’s been on Youtube for nearly a week. Autonetwork doesn’t play the embargo game… and as a result you get a quick peek at some new Dodges as well as a taste of the tedium that is a press launch event. Enjoy it while it lasts!
A GM press release subtitled Engine Control Module Reliably Performs 125 Million Operations a Second reveals that
A 32-bit embedded processor with three megabytes of integrated flash memory gives the 2011 Buick Regal’s Ecotec 2.0L engine microcontroller the quickest throughput, or processing power, in the automotive industry.
For the Regal driver, this means more precise fuel delivery for the best-possible fuel economy, emissions and performance.
Our question: why can’t this processor work in Chevy’s truck marketing?
We’ve heard a lot of arguments on all sides of the bailout, but we had yet to hear anyone call for prolonged government ownership and involvement in General Motors… until now. What follows is a letter from Ralph Nader, former NHTSA boss Joan Claybrook, Center for Auto Safety honcho Clarence Ditlow and Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, urging the Obama administration to suspend GM’s IPO and take firmer control of the government-owned automaker’s decisions on a number of issues including lobbying, employment and the environment. Because, despite appearing to be stuck in the 70s, Nader and company have never heard of British Leyland. Taste the madness below.
Dear President Obama,
The U.S. government bailout of, and acquisition of a majority share in, General Motors was anexceptional action, taken in response to exceptional circumstances. The U.S. stake in GM obviously poses novel managerial challenges to the government. The appropriate response to those challenges, however, is not to run from the responsibility through passive ownership and premature sale at a loss to taxpayers.
Given Toyota’s dominance of the hybrid market, and its early skepticism about pure-electric vehicles, it’s safe to say that we didn’t expect this badge to show up anytime soon. But sure enough, Toyota’s new corporate EV badge will grace the firm’s RAV-4 EV concept, which debuts at this fall’s LA Auto Show. And it won’t be the most jarring image on that vehicle either…
You know it’s an all-new 2011 model because of the fancy computer-generated press shots, but otherwise would you have any idea that this is the 2011 model-year Morgan three-wheeler? Yes, the wackiest of British cottage sportscar shops has dusted off its old three-wheeler designs and is bringing the model back after a 58-year hiatus. InsideLine says the new version will offer 100 HP from a Harley “Screaming Eagle” engine and will weigh a mere 1,100-lbs, giving it an estimated 4.5 second 0-60 time. Of course, it will have to be homologated as a motorcycle thanks to the missing wheel, and there’s no word on price or American availability. Still, it seems to have retained the most important quality of its predecessor, namely that it is, as Sir Stirling Moss once put it,
a great babe magnet
Automotive News [sub] hasn’t received the memo that EVs need good news, badly. Instead, AN hammers the last nail into the electric vehicle’s coffin. If range anxiety, the lack of 220V outlets at your curbside parking spot, and high prices aren’t enough to keep you away from an electric car, how about “an Orwellian future where faceless international corporations track your every move. Drop by the bar after work, call in sick to go to the beach, visit your mistress’ house. The all-seeing eye of Big Brother knows where you’ve been.”
That’s what will happen when you drive an EV, says Automotive News [EN]. Your green friend will snitch on you. 24/7. Read More >
OK, so the EMAV PRU (Electric Motors and Vehicle Company Power Regeneration Unit) isn’t expected to go on sale until sometime next year, but it’s one curious approach to the “range anxiety” problem that caused GM to develop the Volt as a range-extended EV rather than a pure battery-only EV. The PRU takes a simple concept, a trailer that can both store goods and generate 25kWh of electricity from a 750cc diesel engine in order to extend range, and makes it considerably more complicated than it needs to be. For one thing, it’s self-propelled, necessitating on-board lithium-ion batteries, as well as an electric drive unit.
As a result, the projected pricetag comes to a prohibitive $15,000, and the weight reaches an EV range-sapping 1,220 lbs. And for all that, wouldn’t a $15k hatchback make a better “range extender” than this cumbersome trailer? On the other hand, a trailer like this just might work as a rental item, offering a portable generator as well as range extension that its makers say will work with any electric car. But would something like this be more appealing as a simplified, lighter unit (non-self-propelled), or will add-on range extension always struggle to offer more for money than having a gas car as a compliment to an electric car? Given that American families typically have several cars anyway, the answer would appear to be yes… [via GM-volt.com]
I’m going drifting. I’m going drifting dressed in the finest English brown velour ever to roll out of Dagenham, England. I’m going drifting in what this week’s Curbside Classic should have been, a 1983 Ford Sierra. And with that, I rejoin TTAC after a long hiatus due to our wonderful country sending me to various deserts to hunt for Osama bin Laden.
I have survived, although my Hilux did not after one ill-placed Taliban rocket sent shrapnel through the radiator. I also relish returning to write for one of the finest audiences I know, the Best and Brightest.
We’ve known that the Cadillac Escalade was America’s most-stolen vehicle, but we never asked why. The answer: GM didn’t put steering locks on a number of Escalade and other GMT9000 Ute model years, and shifters on these models are easily pushed out of “Park.” These weaknesses (and their ineffective fixes) allow thieves to push Tahoes, Denalis and Escalades to a safe spot where parts stripping can be done in a matter of minutes. And as the report details, Onstar is rarely effective at stopping quick snatch-and-strip-style thefts, because the damage is typically already done by the time vehicles are reported stolen. Hats off to WXYZ TV for looking past the statistics and finding the truth behind the Escaladae’s stealability. GM is reportedly working on a new steering column replacement for these vehicles.
Former Audi stylist and Kia chief designer Peter Schreyer may be on a tear right now, giving Kia some of the sharpest shapes in the mainstream market, but when it came to the old Sedona, Schreyer clearly didn’t put in a ton of effort. As Examiner.com‘s Brady Holt points out, the 2011 Sedona minivan’s “restyle” was so simple, Kia didn’t even need to take new press shots. Instead they just photoshopped the new corporate grille and some side-mirror turn indicators onto the previous year’s press photos, and called it good. Weak sauce, guys.
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