"Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, 'What the fuck.' 'What the fuck' gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.' Of course, we here at TTAC say WTF on a regular basis, albeit in a more quizzical context. But it behooves Ford CEO Alan Mulally to put on those clear glasses of his (sunglasses would be metaphorically appropriate, but there you go) and deal with the fact that automaking is a risky business. Ford's amazingly talented engineers lack freedom. The engineers' freedom is Ford's opportunity. And opportunity can make FoMoCo's future. As a proud American, I am disgusted at the decline and fall of The Big 2.8. GM; I don't need to say anything about GM today. Chrysler is run by a man who already pocketed $200m for running a company into the ground. But Ford clearly know what they should be doing. Bold Moves? Yes please. But they aren't doing it. I blame Mulally. Mulally is the beancounter GM CEO Rick Wagoner thinks he is. Great. Good for him. Toyota-away I say. BUT DON'T BUILD TOYOTAS. Build something uniquely American and completely spectacular. And then, if you have to, go bankrupt. But do not do so building Camcord clones in Mexico. 

Longtime followers of this website know that this is not the first time we've announced that automotive journalist Brock Yates is set to join the TTAC team. Back in the paleolithic era, we cut a deal with the former Car & Driver scribe to pen a weekly column on our readers' behalf. The arrangement went south when we couldn't put enough cash on the proverbial barrel. Now that TTAC is a bigger site– we broke our 500k uniques per month cherry today– I have more confidence that Brock's participation can take us to that place where we can recoup his fee. In other words, we can afford to roll the Yates-shaped dice. Now the last time Brock was TTAC-bound, some of you wondered– OK, sneered at the prospect. There is a school of thought that says Mr. Yates is too Old School for web 2.0land. After speaking with Brock on potential topics for his regular column, I can assure you he's just as full of piss, shit and vinegar as he was back in the day. And he's not a Lutzian recidivist dreaming of big-bore V8s. That said, I have no idea what's going to come from Yates' fevered imagination. I told him TTAC wants 800 words per week on whatever floats his boat. No holds barred. Kick some ass. This he promised to do. Fingers crossed. But at the very least Mr. Yates arrival should help this website's regular writers get some more of the recognition– and readership– they deserve.

A month or so ago, I exchanged emails with an editor whose auto blog shall remain nameless. TTAC had slated his wide-eyed, spin-friendly coverage of some auto industry news. The offended ed wanted me to believe that our sites were brothers in arms. He argued that delivering "soft news" was just as valid a pursuit as purveying "hard news." In what turned out to be my final missive, I insisted that the term "soft news" is an oxymoron. We were actually discussing the difference between good journalism and bad journalism. And that was that. But the more I surf his site, the more I cruise the autoblogosphere for honest-to-God reportage, the more I wonder if Watergate ever happened. Time and time again, the press give even the most patently bone-headed not-to-say Lutzian industry players a free ride. Even on those rare occasions when a reporter asks a suit a hard question, the self-proclaimed journalist never drills down to the nitty gritty. I guess that's why we're here. To ask the question no one else is asking. And I think the industry knows it. That's why Tesla failed to honor its promise to TTAC and followed BMW, Subaru and other automakers in refusing us seat time in a press car. But–  and I'm guessing here– our editorial independence is also one of the reasons Toyota recently contacted TTAC and offered access to their press fleet. Does this signal some kind of sea change? Is the industry finally ready to face the music? I doubt it. But like Ford CEO Alan Mulally's promise to see the world through "clear glasses," it's a start. Kudos to Big Al. And props to Toyota. While we won't give either automaker special treatment, we recognize and respect their courage.

Sharp-eared listeners to the TTAC daily podcast know that Justin shares his life with a number of canine companions. Single-minded bastard that I am, I've never asked my colleague how many dogs are in situ (situ!), their names or occupations. But I do know that Justin's father is a veterinarian. So clearly, Justin's a dog person and a pistonhead. As such, Justin does not follow the piss-poor example of pop star princess Britney Spears. He doesn't drive with a dog on his lap. Now I know that a mini-rant on the dangers of driving with a domesticated pet perched on your private parts doesn't really qualify for TTAC's hard-edged tell-it-like-it is news, views and reviews coverage; but this really sticks in my proverbial craw. If your local state government can (and does) ban drivers from talking on their cell whilst automobiling, why would they let license holders pilot a couple of tons of metal with a simple-minded animal (sorry Rosie) between them and the car's major controls? Come to think of it, I wonder if our spiritual leader, ex-Car & Driver editor and part-time paramedic Stephen Wilkinson can tell us what happens when an airbag explodes into a dog sitting on a driver or passenger's lap? Or, more generally, what happens when a front seat passenger gets hit with an unsecured pet flying through the air at 50 or 60 mph? Seriously folks, get a pet seat belt. Or, potentially, die. 

After I finish this post, I'm off to the U.P.S. store to post a memory stick of my audition for Top Gear (posted on YouTube here). Thanks in part to the writers' strike, NBC is attempting to fashion a uniquely American version of the highly sarcastic (to say the least) British program. It's important to note that British Top Gear airs on public TV; which is funded by a TV tax. The U.S. version will air on "free" TV, funded almost entirely by advertising. Now I'm not sure how much of GM's $2.1b annual ad spend the peacock network enjoys, but I bet it's a fair old whack. And Ford's no stranger to signing huge checks with the letters "NBC" in the important space. Not to mention Chrysler, Mercedes, BMW, Subaru and the rest of The Truth About Cars fan club. So you gotta wonder about the relationship between my chances and American Top Gear's editorial freedom. My brilliant career aside (as it has been for many years), the idea of a mainstream TV show that "dares" to be critical of crap cars sounds preposterous. But I've still got that Honda-friendly ELO song ringing in my ears. So WTH. I'm sending the stick (not Stig). Wish me luck. And rest assured that while every man may have his price, the ability to tell the truth is mine. I know.. I should be so lucky. Well, guess what? I am.

Would Rosa Parks have been able to hop a bus and escape New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina if she'd been in town in 2005? It’s a pretty convoluted way to start a rant, but The Black Commentator guest columnist Meizhu Lui says Hurricane Katrina exposed the "internal combustion engine" divide. Forgetting the fact that Amtrak was deadheading [empty] trains out of town and that New Orleans had lots full of [empty] school buses, Lui flags the “alarming disparity in car ownership that literally was the difference between life and death for many Gulf Coast residents." The author then cites a “recent report” claiming that 24 percent of black households don’t own a car– as opposed to seven percent of white and 17 percent of Latino households. Rather than calling for expanded car ownership, Lui says there’s a better alternative. “Hurricane Katrina not only dramatically revealed the grotesque racial and class divisions in our country, but also pointed to some obvious causes, such as our car dependent economy. An inclusive and dependable public transportation system should be at the top of the list.”

Over the years, I've noticed that TTAC flamers arrive in groups. Usually, it's down to a reader posting a particularly blunt TTAC editorial or negative review in a fanboy forum. While these single-minded venues usually prefer to kick the snot out of TTAC in the psychological safety of their own website, an emotionally charged individual or two (or three) often feels compelled to vent their home site's collective ire in the forum that gave rise to it. Needless to say, I gently remind them of our policy, issue a warning and invite them to write an 800-word rebuttal– which is WAY too much work for most. Recently, as The Big 2.8's blunders have escalated from dumb moves to farce, the flamers have reappeared in force. I take it as yet another sign that the domestics are facing "the end of days." Later today, I'll pen a Death Watch on Rick Wagoner's pronouncement that his turnaround plan is working. Meanwhile, I noticed that USA Today published a review of a plug-in electric hybrid Toyota Prius– some two years ahead of GM's now we say it, now we don't launch date for the Chevrolet Volt. Yes, it's different technology. But surely we can conclude that it's all over bar the shouting. Which is, of course, our job.

Is it OK for a motorist to simply buy environmental absolution? The concept is certainly in keeping with traditional Western philosophy: you sin, you pay. Even a lousy student of history knows that powerful organizations have been creating, reinforcing and exploiting that equation for their own selfish ends for the last ten thousand years or so. (The Catholic Church's history of selling "penance reduction" for cash springs to mind.) And if you take the idea of paying for your sins to its logical conclusion, you end up in that kinky "I was a crack 'ho before I was born again" [applause] place, where you start believing that you gotta really sin before you can really repent. Don't you feel guilty driving that Lincoln Navigator? Hell no. I'm saving a rain forest! Call me a Rhode Islander, but I distrust anyone who brokers that kind of crazy ass deal, never mind the deal itself. Literally. Never mind it. The truth of it is, any car owner who thinks that they can buy "forgiveness" for polluting the planet (if they believe that they are) is simply trying to avoid the totality of their personal responsibility. 

One of my favorite TV ads of all time was for Q-Tips. This scruffy looking guy in a plaid bathrobe walks up to the camera and asks "Don't you hate everybody telling you how to clean things?" Bang! I'm his. Yeah! I DO hate it, all those stupid ads about cleaning stuff! I'm OCD enough without hundreds of graphic lessons in how to annihilate [previously unimagined] germs. And then the guys says "Well I'm going to show you how to clean your ears." And bang! I'm his again. OK, show me how to clean my ears! Well, this is a bit like that. Don't you hate all those morning-after Detroit Auto Show roundups? Well Jonny Lieberman's going to tell you like it was. And here's a bit of goss: it seems Loverman will once again bless us with his literary talents. Hearing the news is like a tsunami having breakfast with a sinkhole. Or something like that.

Perhaps I should explain why I gave GM Car Czar Bob Lutz his nickname "Maximum Bob." Nah. Why bother? TTAC's archives are suffused with the demented ramblings, patently absurd pronouncements, wildly inaccurate analysis and stupefying statements of GM's resident bodacious braggadocio. He really is God's gift to TTAC. We [also] thank GM CEO Rick Wagoner for appreciating his own true nature as a Harvard-trained beancounter; a realization that led him to place the entire global product line of the artist once known as the world's largest automaker into the hands of an ill-informed, ADD-addled executive. An automobile executive who couldn't name all VW's brands. But I digress. Automotive News [sub] reports that Lutz is tired of fighting. The Car Czar wants to know why can't we all just drive E85? "There's no reason the automotive industry can't go to 100 percent E85 vehicles, and the world we love doesn't have to change." You see, the thing is, the automotive world already has changed. A funny-looking car called the Prius has outsold the once mighty Ford Explorer– and that's just for starters. Shhhh. Don't tell Bob. TTAC wouldn't be half as interesting without him. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're a GM employee, dealer, customer or stockholder), it's only a matter of time before Maximum Bob unfurls his bankruptcy-proof golden parachute and floats off into a gilded retirement home (or three), proclaiming himself the architect of GM's product renaissance. He will be missed, but in a different sort of way by a different kind of people. If you know what I mean. 

My apologies to those of you who've come to depend on TTAC's daily podcasts to relieve the monotony of your daily running machine ritual. You can forget that trip to the tailor as Justin and I get back into the groove with a quick roundup of the action at the North American International Auto Show. And did you know that the show isn't over– not even the press day bit? I was so caught-up in the fog of war that I forgot that there's a whole 'nother 24-hour stretch of PR madness to go. Luckily, it's a more subdued deal, with some 80 percent of the hacks headed home for the homilies. So we'll be bringing you more dirt from Detroit today, and some damn fine Pixamo-living pics too, as Bill has traded his mono-pod for a tripod. Oh, and stand by for Justin's review of a highly anemic automobile, a car plying the roads of the Middle East with appropriate lack of abandon. 

I read a disturbing comment over at Jalopnik today. It was underneath a post by former TTAC'er Jonny Lieberman on the stress of covering the North American International Auto Show. RLJ676 accused me of wishing for our domestic automakers' downfall, and then attacked TTAC's posting policy. "Further, he runs the place like a fascist and bans for disagreeing with him under the guise that it was a 'flame.' That's what leads to (nearly) everyone on that site agreeing, coincidentally, with all of his articles, etc. Like I said, there's very little 'truth' to be had." I am well aware of TTAC's rep for dwelling on Detroit's dark side. And I know plenty of people see our no-flaming policy as thinly-veiled editorial censorship. When I contemplate these issues, I sometimes wonder if TTAC is not just a lone voice in the wilderness, but an unimportant one. We are so far out of the mainstream we barely get our feet wet. Is it worth it? What's the point? All I can say is that my high school's motto was "For the honor of truth." Not the popularity of truth, or the rich financial rewards of truth. The honor. OK, it's also fun to be the asshole sometimes. But as long as there is ONE visitor who shares the site's crusade for honesty and integrity in an industry that we love– yes, love– then WTH, we'll keep at it. For now, it's time to rest. Perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub. 

It's day two of the North American International Auto Show pressstravaganza, and our man Montgomery is up with the angels, beating all those hung-over scribes to the showroom floor for a sneak peak of the new Corvette ZR1. Surprisingly, the vehicle code-named the Blue Devil– named after GM CEO Rick Wagoner's beloved alma mater's Blue Devils basketball team–  is now slate gray. With blue brake calipers. Enjoy Bill's shots as we prepare our assault on the suits who put this kind of stuff, and the less palatable fare, on your plate. Click through to hear our man express suitable podcasted reverence.

Click here for TTAC sneak peak at the Corvette ZR1

[Reported by William C. Montgomery]

Kelley Blue Book is one of the good guys; the organization that led the way towards pricing transparency for consumers. So it's no surprise that their Western Sales Manager Jay Campbell thinks car dealers' websites would benefit from some user generated content. Writing for Dealer Marketing Magazine, Jay uses the term CGC (Consumer Generated Content) while making his case for e-Glasnost. "Today, consumers turn to auto enthusiast sites, online forums and message boards, question and answer sites, and blogs to post their feelings. Imagine how large and untapped this opportunity is for your dealer Website?" The misplaced question mark tells the tale; the idea that car dealers would open themselves up to potentially negative comments from the great unwashed requires a leap of imagination that Evil Knieval wouldn't have attempted in his [fall into the] heyday. Although Jay's heart is in the right place (gold star from TTAC), I felt compelled to call him and see if he lives anywhere near planet Earth. 

[Apologies for the low audio levels.]

After Altairnano's Eliminator dragster eliminated the world's record quarter mile sprint for an electric vehicle (EV), I called the company to ask them what it's like to own the "shit off a shovel" EV mindspace. During my podcast (below) with Bob Geobel, the company's Sales and Marketing Veep claimed his company's high density lithium-titanate battery is ready for hybrid passenger car prime time. "It's the low heat and low resistance of the battery that allows power to come out of that battery much quicker than standard battery technology. It can be charged quickly without thermal damage or overheating" And that means faster recharge times (four to five minutes using a 250 volt charger), more on-demand power and only a nine degree increase in the battery's temperature. So why haven't carmakers jumped on the zero emissions NanoSafe bandwagon? "While they're all looking at it, they've got it programmed in possibly in three to five years." That "possibly" doesn't include any contracts. If you're thinking why not Tesla, it seems the Silicon Valley start-up had their packaging requirements locked-in, and couldn't change gears. So to speak.