Recent Comments:
Chrysler hates phone cams: 2009 Dodge Challenger revealed {Autoblog}
Oct 15th 2007 12:57PM Dodge, GM, or Ford fans? Do these really exist as seperate fans any more? I'm sure in some of the flyover states, they're still hacking out whether Jimmy's Ford or Jeff's Mopar will pick up more confed cuties, but most fans these days seem to be broken into Domestic, Japanese, and European camps, with at most a slight preference for a particular brand.
Of course, there are those niche brands like Subaru, Mazda and VW that command extreme loyalty and even English-footballer levels of fandom at times, but for the most part, folks seem less attached to makes than in the past.
That's how it looks from California anyway. And we all know that California is a 20 year preview of the rest of the country.
Strike stats: What's GM losing during the UAW walkout {Autoblog}
Sep 25th 2007 2:04PM From NPR
"A strike lasting close to a month or more would cause GM to burn up $8.1 billion in the first month and $7.2 billion in the second month, assuming the company can't produce vehicles in Mexico or Canada, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson.
Otherwise, a strike of two weeks or less would not hurt GM's cash position and would actually improve its inventory situation, Johnson said in a note to investors."
Yay Union!
Short strike = GM gets to fix itself, and you lose dollars in pay.
Long Strike = GM sinks, and you lose dollars in pay.
Do you get the feeling that maybe this was orchestrated by GM, to allow the Union to save face and GM to improve its bottom line?
Saturn Outlook cleans up in Consumer Reports comparo {Autoblog}
Jul 3rd 2007 5:29PM Consumer Reports is perhaps the only auto-industry publication that does not bend over to the domestics at every opportunity.
Have you seen a Motortrend or Car and Driver lately? They are practically PR mouthpieces for their ad-money sugar daddies. The mainstream auto-press follows a nearly bulletproof formula.
1. Always show the "great new products" the Detroit 3 have in the pipeline.
2. Give their products great initial reviews.
3. Keep propping them up at every opportunity.
4. When the disparity between their shoddy products and the competition begin to become undeniable, speak of them as "aging" in order to save face, then begin plugging the incoming "great new products" ad infinitum.
Pontiac G8 GT pricing to start "well under" $35K {Autoblog}
Jun 19th 2007 1:19PM Forget about Chevrolet... They are the GM cheap junk brand. They've trashed the brand so badly in Europe that they're too embarrased to even associate "Corvette" with it, and have spun it off into it's own brand.
Since Saturn is basically the conduit for GM's world cars, make a car with this platform, optional AWD, and give it lines like the Aura. THAT would sell. At the very least, not associating this car with the shady past of Pontiac is a great idea. At the very least, new models shouldn't be associated with any name that has been trashed, such as Grand Am, Grand Prix, Trans Am, Phoenix, etc.
Tempest would be nice. They could have Marisa Tomei in the ads!
Honda goes looking for a few extra MPGs in Canada {Autoblog}
Jun 14th 2007 5:14PM A shorter geared manual transmission allows more highway hill-climbing without having to disengage the cruise and downshift... which even most manual drivers don't want to have to do on the road. An automatic can downshift, or even just unlock the lockup-torque converter to get a bit of extra punch up a hill.
Study: Kids are the biggest driver distraction {Autoblog}
Jun 11th 2007 12:12PM Bah, Jonathan Swift was ranting about it hundreds of years ago. A real problem is the fact that:
A: Overcrowding of the population is an issue for other continents, not ours. We have adequate resources, and in reality, could use the extra hands. The problem is third world bogholes in which people pop out child after child with no means to care for them.
B: We absolutely need a continued growth in our population, or the entire system will crash like a deck of cards... Social security woes are just the beginning.
If the rate of reproduction dropped significantly, our country would cease to exist. The government has every reason to encourage reproduction!
Good riddance: The demise of the in-dash CD player is nigh {Autoblog}
Jun 8th 2007 2:02PM bgdc: I have one CDRW that I keep in the CD player in my car. When I'm tired of the music on there, I take it into the house, and burn a new batch of songs on it. No clutter.
Not that it matters all that much, because I'm usually listening to XM anyway.
As for "beating the Ipod", that was in reference to my portable MP3 player. it looks like a jump drive with a screen and a few buttons. You can load it up with music by simply dragging and dropping, it takes one AAA battery, and if I break it, I'm out $40. I looked at Ipods, but couldn't see the point. You can't just drop new batteries in if the existing ones wear out, you have to use proprietary software to transfer playable music to them, the they are heavy (aside from the shuffles) and they are cumbersome. And, to top it off, I hated the gawdawful control pad. I bought a model very similar to this:
http://www.cobyusa.com/_en/prod_item.php?item=MPC888&pcat=portaudio&pscat=mp3&pscat2=
It's compact, dirt cheap, and nearly impossible to break. And, it doesn't have Apple's proprietary fingerprints all over it.
Good riddance: The demise of the in-dash CD player is nigh {Autoblog}
Jun 8th 2007 12:48PM Er... that's supposed to read "MP3 Player."
Good riddance: The demise of the in-dash CD player is nigh {Autoblog}
Jun 8th 2007 12:01PM I have a 500mb Coby CD player that doubles as a jump drive (it's the same size), runs on one AAA battery, and has an integrated voice recorder. In my car, I just load CD's with MP3's (800 mb) and pop them in the CD-MP3 player.
If I smash it, I'm out $40. Beat that Ipod.
Hyundai tops in Strategic Vision Total Quality Awards, Toyota a no show {Autoblog}
Jun 6th 2007 5:25PM Wow.. 2 points for making a moronic statement without even checking the referenced press release. And 2 more points for following it up with a cocky "Thanks for playing."
It reminds me of Chris Farley, rolling his eyes dismissively and saying "No, it's HERBIE Hancock."
From the Press Release:
"The Total Quality Index™ is the premier measure of new vehicle owner satisfaction. It asks buyers to rate all aspects of the ownership experience, from buying and owning to driving. Although Toyota improved overall with their TQI scores, the most significant change in 2007 is the lack of any Toyota brand segment leaders. Examining the number of problems or T h i n g s - G o n e - W r o n g p e r v e h i c l e ( t h e t r a d i t i o n a l d e f i n i t i o n o f q u a l i t y ), T o y o t a a n d L e x u s a r e s t i l l a m o n g t h e b e s t . "
(Emphasis mine). The test is subjective. We already have a test of the subjective desirability of a car, balanced with its value for the price. It's called "sales figures." The VW Golf may be the "best" compact multiuse vehicle according to SV, but let someone vote with $20,000 or more of their own hard earned money, and you'll see the truth.
