Recent Comments:
VIDEO: 2010 Jaguar XJ in motion, interior and interviews + expanded gallery and pricing! {Autoblog}
Jul 10th 2009 1:34AM Yeeeah... I'm having a really hard time with this one. The classic-look XJ may not have sold well lately, but it's been one of the most distinctive, consistently recognizable cars on sale since 1968. The new one looks like a frumpier XF with Korean taillights.
I'm not convinced that there was anything wrong with the current body style that some marketing--ANY marketing--couldn't fix. "Trad" British character has always been Jag's selling point in foreign markets, and I'm not sure where that leaves Jaguar's identity now that all of its cars are derivative (if pretty) Euro-blobs.
FOLLOWUP: GM orders YouTube to remove "tasteless" gay Camaro promo video? {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2009 11:30PM My "common sense" suggestion would be for everyone to get over themselves. If you're not gay, and don't like others being gay, don't go to "Gay Day at the Movies." There, you won't see the ad, problem solved.
Hyundai CEO Krafcik on production Veloster: "Think of it like a four-passenger Honda CRX" {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2009 10:30AM Well, I'm intrigued. It's not like Honda builds Hondas anymore, what with the electric steering and strut suspensions and ever-increasing size and heft--the new Si is nowhere near as much fun as it ought to be.
I'd love for another automaker to take up the lightweight, mechanically direct, good-handling cause, whether it's Hyundai or anyone else.
REPORT: Lexus preparing soft-top SC430 successor {Autoblog}
Jul 9th 2009 10:19AM That's a relief. The SC wasn't that competitive in its class even when it was new, and that was seven years ago. Lexus moved fewer than 2,000 in MY2008.
I always thought it was a strange follow-up to the first-generation SC/Soarer, which was really a masterpiece for a car that debuted in 1991.
BREAKING: Bankruptcy Judge OKs sale of good assets to New GM {Autoblog}
Jul 6th 2009 11:26AM Taxpayers take a bath on bankruptcy proceedings every year--it's just that, in this case (and Chrysler's), more of them are paying attention.
Regardless of one's political opinion of the bailout/bankruptcy, getting GM in and out of court and back to making cars within the month is a good thing--and a minor miracle on Gerbe's part. In addition, GM will be walking out with exactly the makeover that, by all accounts, was all it needed to succeed. It's going to be very interesting to see what they do with it. Fingers crossed...
REPORT: Toyota plans to manufacture up to 30,000 plug-in hybrids in 2012 {Autoblog}
Jul 5th 2009 7:37PM Electric *is* the future because an electric car doesn't care where the juice on the grid comes from--coal, nuke, or wind/solar--and requires no adaptation as clean plants gradually replace dirty ones.
With diesel, the car will only ever be as efficient as its onboard engine, and today's combustion engines are about as squeaky-clean as a series of controlled explosions can get.
By contrast, we're nowhere near tapping out the efficiency of electric drive. Hybrids will be remembered as a relatively crude stepping-stone.
REPORT: NHTSA to mandate lane departure warning and auto-brake systems? {Autoblog}
Jul 3rd 2009 4:36PM "There is no room for alternative solutions. Their rules enforce a method rather than an outcome, making creativity and innovation impossible."
This is true, and an excellent point.
REPORT: NHTSA to mandate lane departure warning and auto-brake systems? {Autoblog}
Jul 3rd 2009 3:50PM I agree regarding the need for better driver training, but I don't think the "extra weight" argument holds a lot of water in this case. This technology is as much software as it is hardware.
In fact, more generally, the idea that gov't-mandated safety features are responsible for today's overweight cars is pretty misled. Aside from huge progress in structural dynamics, most of the safety hardware present in today's cars was there, in some form, in the '70s. As for the bits that weren't (i.e. computer modules, airbags), if you've held an ECM module or airbag-equipped steering wheel in hand, they're really pretty light. Swing open a crash-beam equipped modern car door--it's still way lighter than the doors from the '60s-'70s.
No, the weight creep is from consumers' clear preference for family wagons big enough to seat seven (whether they're a family of seven or three), with all-wheel-drive (whether they need it or not), in bodies as long as a DeVille and half-a-car taller, riding on chrome 20s that add 150 lbs to each corner, with electronic motors to power the windows, locks, pedals, steering columns, doors, mirrors, and backseat-folding mechanisms to avoid the possibility of burning a calorie.
Surely, that's why a 2009 Chevrolet Traverse weighs upwards of 5,000 lbs, where a similar family's 1969 Chevelle wagon weighed 3,600.
REPORT: NHTSA to mandate lane departure warning and auto-brake systems? {Autoblog}
Jul 3rd 2009 2:29PM IIRC, most (if not all) of these systems that are currently available have a kill switch for those who find them annoying. Anyway, people got their panties in just as much of a bunch over ESC 10 years ago, and ABS 10 years before that, and airbags 10 years before that... none of it killed fun cars.
The real crime (again, if the past is any indication) is that insurance rates won't ease up commensurately after new tech like this is implemented. That whole industry is a monumental scam.
Review: 2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet undone by tricky transmission {Autoblog}
Jul 3rd 2009 1:41PM The trouble with reviewing this car in the U.S. is that it was designed for a type of driver that doesn't really exist here. Namely, the urbanite whose cities' congestion and parking fees make a bus the most likely alternative, and who, when traveling long-distance, would rather take a (fast, cheap, comfortable) train anyway.
Common enough in Europe; not in a country where cities are designed for cars and mass transit stinks. It's too bad the Smart comes off as such a faddish hipster accessory as a result.
