Recent Comments:
Pitt Bullitt: classic McQueen remake to begin production {Autoblog}
Jul 5th 2007 3:44PM Nonsense.
McQueen was a film actor. He had a nuance that would not have worked on the stage, but was ideal for film.
Pitt's not bad. I actually enjoyed both the first Oceans remake and The Mexican.
But when both an actor and an industry reduces itself to plowing an old furrow, neither benefits.
Actually, much the same could be said for Ford.
Pitt Bullitt: classic McQueen remake to begin production {Autoblog}
Jul 5th 2007 2:11PM Not the point.
Being the real thing, not a copy, has something to do with it.
But real men cut their own way. Brad could pump iron for 20 years and Ms. Jolie for thirty, but it wouldn't make him enough to copy McQueen. Not that he's doing poorly, mind you.
Just that he doesn't deserve to stand in McQueen's shoes. McQueen, with all his flaws, was the real thing.
Pitt is a product of careful evaluation, and careful promotion.
Anyway, be a mistake to remake Bullitt.
Can't improve on perfection.
Pitt Bullitt: classic McQueen remake to begin production {Autoblog}
Jul 5th 2007 1:13PM NO!!!
Brad Pitt? Are you kidding? Mr. WIMP. The guy that arrives at the Oscars in a hydrogen powered BMW 7 Series.
Puke.
This is even worse than the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair.
McQueen was a man.
Brad can dream about being one.
VIDEO: Fo' SHO: Original commercials and a Gen III on the 'Ring {Autoblog}
May 22nd 2007 7:13PM The first generation may have been truer to the concept, but the second generation was the better car. The first generation came witgh clutches that were toast in 15,000 miles, and it took Ford half the model year to develop one that could handle the Yamaha's power. It also had much more torque steer than the second generation and less accurate steering.
But that second generation SHO was just about perfect.
Too bad Ford can't seem to cerate products like that today.
Chrysler Imperial one step closer to production {Autoblog}
May 17th 2007 12:09PM The Imperial concept is incredibly ugly. I can't imagine it selling any better, in its market, than did the Imperial of the late fifties and early sixties. At least some of them were beautiful cars.
The underlying, but unspoken, thesis of all this seems to be that the money in the car market is in the luxury and near luxury segments, so if you make cars, that's what you ought to be making, now that making trucks seems a less than stellar idea, at least for the moment.
If Chrysler is going to build a luxury car, they need to recognize that which Cadillac has forgotten: there are now two parts to the luxury market: those who want European style luxury, such as Mercedes, BMW, or the copycat Lexus. The other segment is those who want a traditional American luxury car, such as the deVille/DTS. Cadillac has consistently tried to shift its product line to the European luxury model. Yet, the current DTS, a car that dates to 2000, outsells the STS, Cadillac's most recent effort to copycat the Europeans.
People who want European luxury are going to buy imports. There is, however, still a market for the traditional American luxury car. If Chrysler is going to manufacture a new Imperial, it ought to abandon the incredibly ugly concept car and attempts to copy the Bentley (reminiscent of Korean attempts to copy the Rolls Silver Shadow) and, instead, actually design an American luxury car.
Chrysler Corp. will revive Pentastar logo {Autoblog}
May 17th 2007 11:59AM I don't associate the pentastar with quality. Exactly the opposite. This isn't a symbol with rich history, like the Ford script and oval, nor even the GM logo. Chrysler's glory years -- the years when the company had reputation for superior engineering -- predate the pentastar.
Returning to it is a mistake.
If they need a corporate logo, they should try to come up with something fresh and new -- something that conveys to potential purchasers the message that the company is making a fresh, new start.
Bob Lutz will address better Buicks in China on Autoline Detroit this weekend {Autoblog}
May 4th 2007 11:56PM It is galling to see GM prove the ability to produce world class cars in a foriegn market and elect not to do so in the domestic market, while simultaneously claiming it has a recovery plan. GM's putting Zeta on hold at the same time it comes out that Hyundai has a full luxury rwd vehicle in the works that should be out within the next year or so, one that's been in development since before 2005. That's a platform that will be a direct competitor to Buick.
While I think that it's true that most don't care whether its fwd or rwd -- per se -- I do think that GM's seemingly perpetual day late dollar short approach to products in the domestic product is the primary reason that they've lost market share for years. There may be excuses for that, such as labor costs and legacy costs. But management exists to sell cars, not a concept which GM management seems to have understood since the '60s.
In the end, if GM can't make a better Buick, Hyundai will. And then GM won't be making Buicks at all,
Saturn kicking butt and taking conquests {Autoblog}
Apr 24th 2007 7:52AM Part of the brand identity problem is that the grill of an Aura looks as though it was a Honda. It was an obvious effort to copy the Honda apperance, but it means that people who see an Aura think it's another Honda. GM loses because it didn't have the courage to make the Saturn product a Saturn brand.
Shanghai Auto Show: More pics of the Buick Riviera Concept {Autoblog}
Apr 18th 2007 9:17AM Not pretty. Bill Mitchell must be rolling in his grave.
Chrysler's savior? Kerkorian stresses his desire to partner with the UAW {Autoblog}
Apr 8th 2007 10:02AM The UAW has much to loose by agreening to an equity ownership deal for Chrysler. In effect, they would both be loaning money to effect the buy-out of Chrysler by someonne else and simultaneously undercutting their bargaining position with GM and Ford over similar "legacy" issues. The leadership of the UAW has evinced absolutely no level of vision for the future, always focusing on the near-term. So, there seems no reason to believe they will figure out that restructuring the industry to give it a future is really in their interests.
It's also impossible to see why anyone would be willing to trust Kerkorian in any deal.
