I sit here in China, where supposedly the police is glued with one ear to my door and has directional microphones beamed at my windows. Looking and listening to America, I can only shake my head. No authorities needed. We are self-policing. Where did the great times of the 70’s and 80’s go? Where is true freedom of speech hiding? Pretty much nothing can be said and done anymore for fear of insulting someone, somewhere, somehow. The other day, we showed two car ads, made for network TV, and all hell broke loose. “Too racy!” “I will get in trouble with HR when I watch TTAC during work!” “Sexist!” Read More >

Chevrolet just revealed its latest offering. It’s the all new Chevrolet Montana. It has changed a lot. The last Montana had as its underpinnings the Corsa II platform. Now, it will use the new Onyx platform, which is based on the Corsa I platform (according to Brazilian car mag Auto Esporte’s ). Two steps forward, one step back? Maybe that’s why GM is being coy (or realistic) and is estimating that this trucklet will increase its sales by just 15 percent. This won’t do it a whole lot of good, because this means it’ll just hang on to third place (according to the print version of the Brazilian newspaper Estado de Minas car supplement) . Read More >

Anarchy in the TTAC! It turns out that Michael Karesh and I both got invited to short-lead Scion tC press events. His review is found here and nicely covers things like the sound system, recent sales numbers, and the American economy. It’s so comprehensive that I didn’t feel the need to attend my press preview.

I did, however, feel the need to pay my bookie, so I am dutifully submitting this piece to offset a small amount of my personal debt. If you are not in the mood to read two reviews of this car, I have helpfully summarized my review in one sentence, posted “before the jump” for your convenience:

Given sufficient velocity and violence of application, it is possible to set the brakes on fire.

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The look on my passenger’s face says it all. I’ve just late-braked a fully-prepped BMW M3 on Hoosier race tires and we are about to straight-line the infamous “Climbing Esses” at VIR. At well over one hundred and twenty miles per hour. Listen to the photo. Put your ear up to it. You can hear my passenger, a student of mine who wanted to see “the fast way around”, gritting her teeth. You can hear the 6.1-liter HEMI catapulting us down the track at full throttle, a Sprint Cup racer stuffed beneath a Deep Sea Blue bonnet. And, if you listen very carefully, I think you can hear Sara Watkins, who is to me what Mike Rowe is to “The Booth Babe”, singing “Lord Won’t You Help Me.”

The boss man emeritus, one R. Farago, reviewed the 300C SRT-8 more than five years ago. Has the car changed? Not much. So why review it again? It’s simple. The fact that Robert’s article has a whopping three comments means you probably didn’t see it. And, of course, as the self-appointed bad guy in TTAC’s pro-wrestling pantheon, it seemed appropriate that I would use the big Chrysler to ruin the day of some club racers. Here’s how it went.
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How does a brand built on small, fun, efficient city cars build up to its inevitable first-ever SUV? Apparently the answer is very little. MINI’s seems to be aiming its forthcoming Countryman squarely at current MINI owners, with the first US market ads portraying the Countryman as little more than a MINI Cooper with four doors and All-Wheel-Drive (as opposed to Subaru-style outdoor lifestyle marketing). In other words, it’s not so much a Countryman as a city hipster with a flair for rural evangelism. But are four doors, AWD and a “sliding center rail” enough to bring new buyers into the fold? There’s almost no doubt that the Countryman will be a hot fashion item for a while, but the world’s first Austrian-built MINI is going to face high prices, weak power in the base spec (1.6 liters moving over 3k lbs), and intra-brand anti-SUV snobbery. On the plus side, it’s apparently very hip.

When BMW announced that it would be building a million front-wheel-drive cars, a conflict between the new BMW-branded “Megacity” or 0-Series and BMW’s existing MINI brand seemed inevitable. And though we’ve posed the conflict in terms of an either-or decision, it’s clear that BMW sees no problem with offering small, front-drive models through both its BMW and MINI brands. In fact, BMW will offer its Megacity alongside the MINI Cooper, and, according to Autocar, a new MINI-branded model based on the same platform but slotting underneath the Cooper. MINI promises that the new city car will be no larger than the original Mini, and that it is likely to offer a two- or three-seat interior. This three-cylinder, Smart ForTwo-fighting Mini will be built to pass North American crash test standards, so don’t be surprised if it arrives stateside eventually. And though it returns the MINI brand to its roots, the question of how this sub-MINI will relate to its Megacity cousin remains an open question.

Kia’s Soul didn’t have the most electrifying launch sales-wise, but with the release of its second buzz-worthy ad, the funky little box is becoming a major player in our A/B/Small Hatch segment. The Nissan Versa is clearly the dominant player here, selling nearly twice as well as the Soul. Meanwhile, there’s a tight pack of offerings that have moved at least 20k units this year, that ranges from the aged HHR to the MINI Cooper. Look for a big shake-up in this segment once Ford’s Fiesta production hits high gear.

78 liters of displacement, 18 cylinders, 12 turbocharges and a tame 3,500 hp and 10,300 lb-ft of torque make for one mean Mini. Well, it would if it actually worked. Instead, this will probably just be on static display at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Fun fact: the engine alone weighs about 15 times what an original Mini did.

TTAC reader JeremyR writes:

My trusty 20-plus-year-old Accord is getting a bit long in the tooth, and I’m starting to think about a replacement. While the car will be used primarily for commuting, I’d like to maximize the “fun to drive” quotient while respecting some other requirements:

* must have a manual transmission
* must be reasonably efficient (30mpg+ highway)
* must be reliable (though I don’t mind occasionally getting dirt under my fingernails doing some maintenance)
* must be able to seat four in reasonable comfort (the back seat should be adequate to transport two adults across town)
* should be a five-door hatch (but other configurations will be considered)
* should be under $10K (USD)

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With apologies to Robert Burns, the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ marketers gang aft agley. That’s certainly what’s happened to MINI’s plan to race a Porsche 911. Porsche said “no thanks” to MINI’s challenge, which is exactly what MINI was looking for. Then Hyundai had to come in and force MINI out of its underdog status, making it defend itself against a cheaper competitor. And the search for a meaningful race-as-marketing-stunt continues…

What?: A race between a MINI Cooper S and a Porsche 911.

Where?: Facebook, and presumably an extremely twisty track.

Why?: Brand equity. Publicity. Mid-life crisis sales. Making sure nobody knows the Cayman exists.

Having some time on my hands, I ventured out again into cardealershipland. Wanted to get my hands on the mini mites that inhabit many an urban Brazilian cowboy’s dream. You know, the call of the sertão (that’s what you think we call the pampas.) In the left corner, all the way from Italy, but made in Brazil, the long-time favorite and market leader Fiat Strada Adventure Locker. In the right corner, the Teutonic tiny titan, the all new VW Saveiro Cross. As the long names suggest, these are the top of the line offerings from each maker. Both offer cheaper, less equipped versions for the daily grind and/or work routine. So hold your cavalos, vaqueiro, I mean, hold your horses, cowboy! Which one comes out on top? Read More >

It might be hard to live down to that exact headline billing. And this Mini-based Wildgoose RV is certainly bigger than the human-powered RV we covered here. But of you’ve ever been around an original Mini, you’ll be able to appreciate the scale of this rig. Read More >

John Steel, 42. Resident Nurburgring hotlapper, amateur race driver and menace of all slow moving objects. On weekends, he likes thrashing his Porsche 997 Mark II GT3-RS around the local track. Karen Levy, 25. Professional mall stormer, party queen and dedicated student. Enjoys a fine café-latte by the Mediterranean Sea and the gentle spring breeze while driving her Fiat 500C.

Two people, two separate sides of the automotive equilibrium. This time, driving around the peaceful and slow moving streets of southern Tel Aviv, amongst buzzing restaurants and overcrowded coffee shops, I get to explore the latter. Meet the Fiat 500C: the open-air sibling of the 500 retro car, and an inevitable win of form over function.
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That Bible of the intelligencia, Consumer Reports, has released its 2010 Annual Auto Issue, and once again, denizens of Cambridge, Austin, Berkeley, Eugene, and their sister university towns all over the land are parsing its pages, seeking cars that will maximize their utility. Or maybe I’m projecting. Anyway, with apologies to Michael Karesh and True Delta, here’s a summary of the work of the wonks from Yonkers and East Haddam.
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