All Cars, All the Time: November 2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Win a 2005 Hummer H3 (12/16/2005)

DUB your ride! Actually, they've done it for you in this case. Click here to enter! [acattcarsweeps]

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Win a Crossfire! (12/31/2005)

Dell has their yearly "Delf" promotion called "the end of re-gifting". Top prize this year are TWO Chrysler Crossfires! WooHoo! If you're so lucky as to win, try not to have your ride end up like this one. Enter here to play! [acattcarsweeps]

Monday, November 28, 2005

More Smart Clues

The Car Connection is saying in this story that smart hints at a "yes" for the US market. However, nothing in the story is real news. It's been known for some time that the next fortwo will meet all US regulations and the article mentions little else. However, for smart fans any news is good news. I still predict that the fortwo will be in the US for either the model or calendar year 2008.

Automotive News Headlines

Here's what will be shakin' in next week's Automotive news. GM is putting together a "Plan B" of sorts just in case Delphi suffers a work stoppage. If a bankruptcy judge clears the way for Delphi to rip up existing contracts and try to for a 60 percent wage cut, the UAW may choose to strike. This would cripple General Motors and at this juncture that simply can't happen. Speaking of GM, CEO Rick Wagoner has a few new "must save the company" products to push such as the new full size SUV's and a round of crossovers. Toyota hopes to make better use of Subaru's Lafayette, Indiana plant with the addition of 100,000 Toyota vehicles. Chrysler is set to ask for "the same deal" that GM received from the UAW with regards to health care costs. State and local governments in Tennessee ponied up $197 million tax incentives and financial commitments to persuade Nissan to move its headquarters to the Nashville area. Mercury is sending out teams dressed in matching shirts and slacks in six big cities in the hopes of getting young urban professionals to check out the Mercury Milan. It is doubtful that Jill Wagner will be out there with them, but you can always hope! The Mercuryvangelists are offering some goodies, so it may benefit you to check out the car. However, if they start talking about "Heaven's Gate" and offer you sneakers, run the other way! Those are just some of the headlines headed your way this week!

Win a Ford Fusion...Yes, Another One! (11/27/2005)

The list just goes on, doesn't it? Well here is yet another chance to win a Fusion! Click here to enter. [acattcarsweeps] *

*what's this? a new feature! because blogger does not offer categories, i'm working on another solution. this code is part of that project. carry on!

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Talk About Turkeys

Every Thanksgiving a new round of "automotive turkey" stories appear. It could be worst sellers of the year or ugliest of all time. The overriding principle is that the cars are losers in some regard. What upsets me about this MSNBC story of supposedly "un-great" cars is that many of the cars described aren't turkeys at all: Scion xB, Hummer H2, Citroen 2CV, and Honda Element. The story states that the xB is hip with older drivers and therefore making it unhip. This would have actually been a better case for the Element. Scion has done a pretty good job of marketing to its intended. If you spend any time driving around California's major cities, you'll see that the xB has done pretty well with younger drivers. Say what you will about the H2. It's big. It's thirsty. It may be ridiculous. But it's not a turkey. The H2 is a styling success that thrust the Hummer brand onto the mainstream market: a vehicle that truly captured the spirit of its brand. The 2Cv is funky, it's French, but a turkey? Sacre bleu! (okay, that phrase may have been from Cap'n Crunch) In any case, how can you call a peasant car a Turkey? The deux chevaux was big hit because it was simple and practical. When you're struggling to get by, you don't need a car that costs several farm animals to maintain. The Element is unique in its styling, I'll give it that. The Honda also missed its intended demographics and actually skewed much older. But a turkey? When there are so many other deserving cars out there? Please. Have you seen the new Element with painted fenders? It doesn't look so awkward. If you ask me, this MSNBC article is a turkey! Okay, that's my rant for the day. Back to my vacation! I'll see y'all real soon!

Win a Cruise! (2/15/2006)

It's the weekend again! This time the cruise is from Royal Caribbean. How about taking a cruise? Enter here to play![acattweekendsweeps]

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Win a Diamond! (11/30/2006)

Diamonds are anyone's best friend. You could win by entering here. [acattweekendsweeps]

Friday, November 25, 2005

Win a Dodge Magnum sXT (1/6/2006)

This sweeps page takes a long time to load, but it's worth the wait. The prize is a 2006 Dodge Magnum SXT. Granted this isn't the Hemi powered R/T, but you'll live! Enter here!

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Win a Toyota Tacoma! (12/31/05)*

Primedia promotes a lot of these sweepstakes. I don't know what the take rate is on the optional subscription, but maybe Toyota gives them the truck for free so it doesn't really matter. Hey, who care who runs 'em as long as somebody wins, right? Click here to enter!

*What's this? A new feature! There are a lot of sweepstakes on All Cars, All the Time. Since I've started this blog, some of the sweeps have already ended. I've decided that it might be a good idea to post the last day of entry so that folks won't click on expired links. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Holiday Safety!

Nope, this isn't about turkey fryers. After witnessing car crash into a curb and fill with smoke (what kind of a car was this?) a bystander used his 20 pound, frozen bird to smash the windows and rescue the elderly couple trapped inside. A small write up can be found here.

San Francisco Auto Show Coverage

I made a visit to the San Francisco Auto Show last night. After a quick dinner at the Metreon, we skipped on over to Moscone Center. As I had hoped, the Tuesday evening crowd was pretty light. Folks weren't waiting long to sit in cars, with the only real lineup being at hot cars like the Solstice. The SF show doesn't have a lot of fancy displays, pretty much everything is rolled in with a few highlights on turntables. If you want glitz, you've gotta head somewhere like Detroit, Los Angeles, etc. Below is my account of event. It's very stream of consciousness.

I started off at the Pontiac stand. Since I've already driven the Solstice, I only stopped to take a look a the G6 Coupe. I like overall shape of the car, much more so than something like the Monte Carlo. The interior isn't a bad place to hang out, but it's not up to rivals' in terms of touch and feel. I've just about had it with GM putting plastic blanks in the A pillars when you don't buy the side impact package. #1 Why aren't the side curtain bags standard? #2 If you are going to make it an option, then make two different trim pieces: one with the badge and one that doesn't have a chunk cut out of it. Grrr. I don't know what that bothers me so much, but it does. On to Buick and a wait to sit in the Lucerne all because some guy is trying to make time with the Buick rep. C'mon! I waited for five minutes before giving up and coming back later. If you see people waiting to check out a car, take you time to get a sense of the interior but don't just sit in the damn car and talk all day long. That's rude! Saturn had the Sky and Aura concept on display, but no touching! Saturn needs these products on the lot ASAP. Saab did not have the restyled 9-5 on display. Very disappointing. The car is supposed to make it to dealers by December, so what's the delay? Saab did have several Sportcombi's on display. The hatch area of the wagon is very nicely finished, with a big subwoofer fitted into the spare tire. I went to check out the new 2007 Yukon at the GMC display and as I was standing there the product rep jumped up on stage, put on his microphone, and started talking...to me. I looked around and there was no one within earshot as my wife had scurried off once she say what was happening. Crap. Now I'm stuck. I guess I could have walked off, but it seemed rude as he tried to keep eye contact. I guess they teach that sort of thing. Anyways, after a few minutes the rep spotted some other people walking by and tried his little eye contact trick with them. He tried to play us both, but while his eyes were bouncing around I was able to escape. As soon as I walked away he ended his presentation. Why not just ask folks if they have questions? Maybe he has to do so many demos per hour or something. We zipped through the Hummer and Chevrolet stands and stopped at Audi to check out the A3/A4/A6. I really like the idea of the A3, but when I sat in the A3 and then sat in the A4 I couldn't help but think the A4 was worth the extra money. Certainly the A3 is a smaller package and quite trick with the 2.0t and the DSG, but the interior is worlds apart from the rest of the line. Zipping again through BMW, Scion, and Mini we arrived at Lexus. The new IS is great! I love the gauges on that car! I think the IS is the best looking of the bunch right now. The car is definitely bigger than the outgoing model, but she's still a bit tight. I guess I'm a GS guy with an IS budget (although the IS can skyrocket in price if you get trigger happy with the options). On through Porsche and Toyota, stopping to look at the Avalon--that car is BIG! Honestly, the Avalon is a pretty nice piece, especially for the price. I liked that the bin in the driver's door tilted out, that's a great feature! We zoomed through the Acura/Honda pavilion. The Civic dash is something to behold. With the aggressive rake of the windshield, you've got VW Beetle style real estate on the dash--that's a lot of plastic! Honda tries to conceal this fact with a bilevel instrument panel, but that can only do so much. I'd have to test drive the setup to form a real opinion on it, though. On through Land Rover, Volvo, and stopping at Volkswagen. The Passat's on display didn't have the wood trim, so I think they looked rather stark. It's a nice interior on the car, but it just doesn't stand out like VW's used to do--the other manufacturers' are catching up. Speaking of catching up, we dropped by Infiniti next. The M looks great! I love the rosewood interior trim. Jaguar was next and the new XK was on display. The car looks good, but I'm a bit troubled by the front end. Some people say Taurus and I can see where they get that. To me it just doesn't look "gorgeous." A quick sit in the Mazda 5 revealed a fairly roomy car in a small package. Mileage isn't much better than a regular minivan, but the smaller dimensions would help in a crowded city. On through Ford stopped at the Explorer to see what the whole fuss is with the door grab handle. Doesn't seem that awkward to me. A quick check of the Fusion/Zephr/Milan crowd shows a car company that is trying. The interior is passable, much better than previous attempts. Some trim pieces did seem flimsy and there were a few pieces missing--like a cover for the wire going to the rear view mirror. I couldn't decide if the piece was removed or never there. Granted, you don't notice it right away, but having this wavy cable leading down to the mirror looks unfinished. The cable was black, but it looked rather naked. A cover should be placed over it. The Suzuki Grand Vitara looks sharp, but when closing the rear doors they seemed amazingly light. Is there no crash protection at all inside them? Subaru had the honor of "hottest product rep" and quite a few folks were crawling over the Tribeca. It was hard to determine if they were more interested in crawling over the rep or the car. Another Tribeca off in the corner sat all alone, so I think some of the interest in the car was a false positive. Zig zagging through Mitsubishi, Nissan, Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep. Why does Dodge still have the smart roadster based Slingshot still on display? Doesn't that seem odd to you? Walking past Mercedes and Hyundai. The Azera was on display, but no touching. The interior looks pretty good and I like the exterior's swoopy flanks. Zipping through Toyota and on to Zap. Much bigger crowd at Zap this year. Last year Zap looked rather forlorn, but they were doing alright this year--especially for a slow night. The OBVIO, Zebra, smart, and all the scooters were there. My beef with Zap is that they are great at generating buzz, but woeful when it comes to delivering on promises. I'd be very wary of buying anything from them. Up in the exotics section, the big highlight was the fact that you could actually sit in the Lotus Elise! It's a real challenge to get into the tub, but fun none the less.

That wraps up this year's coverage of the SF Autoshow. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Win a Subaru Legacy

I like Subaru's. I had a few gripes with my WRX: the transmission was glassy and I had to have the synchros replaces as well as the clutch (I didn't drive it like this guy) and the power was nonexistent before 3k rpm's. The Legacy I test drove seemed to address the power issue and supposedly Subaru has beefed up their transmissions. Click here to win.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Win a Mustang GT!

I really like the new Mustang and I'd sure like to win it! You can try to win by entering here.

Show Talk Newsletter

On the topic of concepts, why not head over and pick yourself up a copy of the North American Auto Show's "Show Talk 2006" newsletter! There isn't really anything groundbreaking in the PDF, but it's something to flip through. Pick up your copy here.

Hyundai News

You've seen the production Hyundai Santa Fe in other posts (which will be debuting in Detroit), here is the sketch for the HCD-9 Talus concept which will also be pimpin at Cobo: looks shapely, has RX-8 doors, and that's about all we can see here. Bring it on!

Monday, November 21, 2005

More Smart Talk! Dieter's Photo Says "Bring it On"

I've got more news on smart today! This time the article is from Edmunds. The overall discussion was regarding Dieter Zetsche's hopes and dreams for Mercedes. Dieter describes Mercedes quality reputation as being like a "savings account" and that quality woes have "withdrawn" from that account. I wonder how long it took him to think up that metaphor? How many customers have "withdrawn" their intent to purchase another Mercedes? I guess he's "banking" on the fact that things are supposedly getting better and there will be renewed "interest"? Oh no...I'm out of control. Okay, now to the smart news. Dieter once again throws his support being the smart team's turnaround plan and he's giving them until 2007. 2007 would also be the earliest that smart could come to the US. The three horseman of the smartpocalypse would be 1. The next generation of smarts that meet US standards. 2. A model that would generate enough interest/volume. 3. Satisfy the business model. What exactly the "business model" is would be anyone's guess--but I think exchange rate is in there somewhere. Dieter also admits that when it comes to hybrids "others were there first" and that the fellowship of the battery (GM, Mercedes, BMW) hopes to have hybrid models out on the market soon. I could go on, but at this point I'm just going to link over to Edmunds as I'm pun'd out.

Six Potential Adopters Lined Up For Smart Roadster

The folks over at Jalopnik pointed to an article in The Birmingham Post that discusses the future of the smart roadster. The site is rather slow to load, so I found a different article that has a wider perspective on MSN Money. Apparently six companies are making their bid to purchase the rights to manufacture the smart roadster. As mentioned in a previous post, smart has built its last roadster so any cash that DaimlerChrysler could get for the project would be gravy. A potentially nice turn of events for a very unique car. The article says that a decision could be made early next year. I really liked the limited edition RCR.

Spring Hill, Setting the Record Straight

With the flood of news articles about General Motors coming out today it has been erroneously reported in some quarters that Saturn’s Spring Hill, TN facility was being shut down entirely. In fact, only the Ion line is being shut down. The plan is to have Spring Hill back up to 100% on a new line of GM products according to UAW Local 1853 President Mike O'Rourke. More info in this article.

Challenger Spied!
As a reader pointed out below, Autoweek has some very revealing photos of the Challenger concept that is set to debut in Detroit. Sketches had shown the car to be quite faithful to the original and these pictures show how right they were! Given the run away success of the Mustang, it would seem to be a lock that this concept is headed towards reality. I like the look of the car, much more than the Charger, but I don't think I would rush out and buy one.

GM Plant Closings...It's More Than Four

As I was typing in last night's article that GM was closing four plants, I was thinking to myself, "Is that enough?" Actually, now that I look back it seems that I typed that question--the mind plays tricks. Well, in any case four plants wouldn't have been enough. Perhaps the four number came from the fact that four assembly plants are being shut down? At this point I've seen a number of estimates on the plants being closed. CNN says "about a dozen" plants and Automotive News says eight, but the solid number is 30,000 jobs. GM has to cut capacity and it is going to take bold moves to do so. GM's stock is climbing up as I write this, but we'll have to see what the analysts have to say over the next few days.

San Francisco Auto Show

For those of you in the Bay Area, the SF Auto Show is running now until November, 27. Although the SF show is nowhere near the prestige of the Los Angeles show, it does have a nice layout and is far superior to the San Jose Auto Show held in January.

My concern is that starting next year the Los Angeles show will begin migrating toward the same time slot. In fact, next year there will be two LA Auto shows: the 2006 model year’s public days will be January 6, 2006 – January 15,2006 and the 2007 model year’s public days will be December 1, 2006 – December 10, 2006. For the 2008 model year the show will move to November 16, 2007 to November 25, 2007. Aack! It’s going to be tough fitting in the usual Thanksgiving trips and a visit to Los Angeles.

SF’s press releases are touting the hybrids that will be at the show, but honestly there is nothing new in that segment at the show—I’m not even going to comment on Zap’s latest hype, the OBVIO! Also getting a push is a customized San Francisco 49ers Cadillac Escalade that will be given away during a “49ers Kick to Drive” promotion . The slade is of course based off the outgoing Escalade body style that was never anything to write home about. Sure, I’d love to win any car or truck but this thing wouldn’t be at the top of my list. The most significant models at the show in my mind will be the 2007 Tahoe and Yukon—real make or break models for General Motors.

There is a buy one, get one free deal for AAA members that will save you $8, but it is only good for November 21-23. As you might imagine, those are the least popular days and so that makes it the best time to go!

Win a Saturn Sky
I think that the Sky is a great looking car. I visited a Saturn dealer a couple of months ago and the representative was so lonely. It was the middle of a Saturday afternoon and no one was there (the Hyundai dealer just up the street was swamped). He just sat in his office gazing out onto the showroom floor with a blank stare. Cars like this will turn things around for him, if he is still there when they hit the floor. One minor gripe: I don't like those chrome vents on the hood--they look tacked on :-(

Enter here.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Another Eos Delay, Turnarounds Galore, Cayenne’s Sales Slump, VW Will Tangle with Mercedes’ CLS, Explorer's New Grab Handles, Dodge Challenger Speculation

Here are some highlights from next week’s issue of Automotive News (with some of my thoughts added into the mix). Volkswagen now says that the Eos will be delayed on July of 2006. That’s two delay announcements in the same week! They are getting close to the summer sales cutoff with that date. If the Eos is delayed much further, and at this rate how could it not be, Volkswagen’s Belle will miss her Ball. Ford’s board of directors will review a “this had better work” turnaround plan in early December which will be made public in January. GM’s Rick Wagoner will introduce a “this really had better work” turnaround plan this week. The Return of Rick is supposed be dramatic and feature the announcement of four plant closings. Will it be enough? Porsche’s Cayenne sales here slumped for the 10th month in a row. What can Porsche do to revive sales? Volkswagen is whipping up a coupe-style Passat that will compete against the likes of no less that Mercedes’ CLS and will be launched in 2008. Ford is hoping to stop the whining that it has been receiving about Explorer’s door grab handles. Ford relocated the grab handle for safety reasons, but with so many complaints the Explorer is destined for redesigned interior trim panels after only three months on the market. The hype is starting to build for the Dodge Challenger concept that will be debuting in January. Folks are really hoping for something spectacular. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the Charger, but the buzz on the Challenger has been pretty hot! Look for more as these stories unfold this week!

Weekend Activities

One of the things that gets me about the weekends is that most auto related websites shut down in terms of new posts. Fair enough, everybody has to have some time to play, but what else is there to do?

On TV there are a number of shows that I like to catch. On PBS (and also on Speed Channel) there is Motorweek: a long running show that is hosted by John Davis. The show will never deliver hard hitting journalism—I don’t think they’ve ever disliked a car—but you do get to see new cars in a video format and it’s PBS commercial free.

Spike TV (formerly know as The Nashville Network) has Car and Driver Television hosted by the excitable Larry Webster. Although almost every major magazine is beholden to their advertisers, Car and Driver does take the occasional swipe at a car and that is refreshing. I’m going to get sidetracked here, but the idea of “independent journalism” has me thinking. I remember when Edmunds first came online. Edmund’s writers used phrases like “candy assed” and “top ten cars that suckers buy.” Boy that was fun to read! Unfortunately you won’t read that kind of prose on Edmunds today. We all know what happened when Dan Neil when he ripped on a Pontiac G6 and Rick Wagoner, GM pulled all advertising from the LA Times for several months in protest. Luckily Dan has a Pulitzer sitting on his shelf which can act as a get out of jail free card and everybody knew that GM would come back, but it was a warning shot fired over the bow. Very few editors are willing to take a chance on seriously offending a major automaker, so reviews are massaged to be less offending. Some publications do a better job at attempting a good balance between frankness and advertising dollar inspired ebullience.

The Speed Channel has Test Drive hosted by Tommy Kendall. There are no illusions that this is anything but an infomercial for the brand of the day, but with that in mind it’s great to look newly released cars going through their paces. Also on Speed is Autoline Detroit hosted by John McElroy. This program is actually produced by Detroit Public Television, but other PBS stations don’t carry it. Maybe it’s too specialized? This is a “talking head” program with only a small product segment on each show, but John gets all the big names and you can really find out a lot of useful information. I always look forward to hearing what John and his guests have to say. For those of you without access to US cable television, you can access his shows online! I think that’s absolutely great!

A huge tragedy in my mind was the loss of Auto Motor und Sport Television on PBS channels. The US distributor of the English version decided to stop offering the show and Deutsche Welle, the show’s producer, has to date refused to work directly with PBS stations. I loved the opportunity to see all those Europe only cars that we don’t have here: the compact hatches, diesels, French cars, etc. There were so many great segments on specialty manufacturers that would otherwise never get any coverage over here. Woe is me.

Do It Yourself Network has a great show called “Classic Car Restoration” that has covered the refurbishment of five cars: 1962 Corvette, 1938 Packard, 1969 Alfa Romeo, 1968 Chevrolet Camaro and 1962 Thunderbird. Mark Lambert is the best of the hosts, a gentle fellow who really knows his subject.

Well, this post has exceeded my original intent of naming a few TV shows to watch, so with that I’ll sign off. I may have more to say on this topic in a future post, so stay tuned.

Win cash, a jacket, etc...
Changing oil on the weekend is a ritual. Valvoline has some nifty prizes if you enter here.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Win a Cruise
It's the weekend. Take a load off and try for a cruise by entering here.

Friday, November 18, 2005

More smart news...

It was a big love fest in Las Vegas yesterday (when isn't it) as Chrysler Group's North American dealers gave Dieter Zetsche an official send off. Dieter confirmed what we all knew, that the next fortwo would meet all safety and emissions standards for the US market. The only real question now is will they take the plunge and market the car in the US? The biggest hold up is undoubtedly the exchange rate. As of today, November 18, 2005, the Dollar/Euro exchange is about $1.17. Although closer to a 1:1 ratio than this summer, the Euro is still a bit pricey. It's my belief that the fortwo will be sold here. It would be very difficult for DaimlerChrysler to say that they gave it all they could without trying to crack the lucrative US market. In yesterday's article I said that DC would announce their decision by April of 2006. In Dieter's speech in Las Vegas he said that a decision would be made in the next six months, so that comes out about right. In an interesting side note from Dieter's speech he said that Chrysler would like to sell a car smaller than the Neon but bigger than the fortwo, but that Chrysler would have to partner with someone to make the plan financially feasible. Of course the easiest route for Chrysler would be to drunk dial former partner Mitsubishi, but it remains to be seen who Chrysler has in mind for this mission. All in all a good sign for small car fans in the USA. Things are about to get very interesting. [Update: It looks like Dieter might have drunk dialed his former right hand man Wolfgang Bernhard rather than Mitsubishi. A link over at Jalopnik pointed to this article at Edmunds that says the cooperation on the small b class car might be with Volkswagen using the Polo platform. Well this is all highly speculative but it is true that Chrysler will be manufacturing a minivan for VW, so why not take the partnership a step further?]

Win a pre-owned Ford Explorer or Lincoln LS

Now, I bet your thinking "He must really be scraping the bottom of the car sweepstakes barrel now!" when you see this one. But hey, you get a chance to win a "new to you" car when you enter here.

In fact I really like the LS. We rented one from Hertz and I thought quite highly of it except that the headliner was falling down and the "leather" on the seats looked more like pleather.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Miles of Freedom

Okay, so this completes our trifecta of incentives. The latest, of course, comes from Chrysler and I have to say I like it. Here's what you get:

A debit card for $2,400 -- the amount of money Chrysler calculates is needed to buy 12,000 miles worth of gasoline for two years at the Chrysler group's corporate average fuel economy rate of 21.8 mpg. The plan is based on a $2.15 per gallon price of gasoline.
Free scheduled maintenance for as many as 24,000 miles.
A five-year, 60,000-mile full mechanical warranty, compared with the standard three-year, 36,000-mile warranty.

You get some cash, maintenance, and best of all 5/60 warranty. I'd like the plan even better if the maintenance was 4/50.

We'll see what this does for Chrysler, but out of all three plans this one sparks my curiosity the most.

Selling smart?
Is DaimlerChrysler changing it's mind about smart? Up until today all public signs have been that Dieter Zetsche is backing a smart revival (and I still believe that he does). However German magazine Manager is reporting that the sale of a partial stake or the whole kit and caboodle of the loss making smart division might be in the offing. News of the story caused the carmaker's shares to rise more than two percent. A followup story in Automotive News says that Daimler is calling the Manager article speculative. Given the source of the Manager story, a 'board source', I would speculate that this is some disagreement going on in the boardroom and this may be a ploy to force Dieter's hand. It's easy to leak this news and then sit back and watch and the stock price rises--something that is very hard to argue with in a management meeting. Can't you just hear it now? Dieter says, "I propose that we hold onto smart" and his opponent just says "Zwei Percent" Dieter, "I think smart merits a second chance" Opponent, "Zwei Percent." I think that Dieter will stay true to his word and give smart until 2007. I also predict some sort of announcement about smart's US plans between the end of this year and April 2006.

I love honey!
I really do! I like any type really, except for some honey that was brought over from France. I don't know where those French bees were hanging out, but that stuff was n-a-s-t-y. Anyways, you can win this Superbird by entering here courtesy of Sue Bee Honey.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

To What Level Do We Stoop?

Straight out of the "How To Increase Blog Traffic" playbook it's easy succumb to the temptation that is a Paris Hilton story. Of course by mentioning Paris you can get away with mentioning Nicole Richie, The Simple Life, Bentley Continental GT and widely circulated Internet video. These key words bring in web surfers like fresh mackerel brings in marlin. But I'm sure that The Car Connection was just covering the latest news when they wrote the chopper story or this number on Carmen Electra. As Triumph the Comic Insult Dog says, "I keed. I keed." I'm guilty of if too as the lure is just to powerful to resist. Kind of like fresh mackerel. Mmmm. Mackerel.

Keep it Simple, But Not THAT Simple

Ford has a new promotion to counter GM's Red Tag Sale called Keep it Simple (KIS). Apparently Ford is guarding the formula for KIS like it was the recipe for Coke. Ford Spokesman Jim Can said that KIS "represents a very good deal, but I'm not going to get into discussing plan pricing levels." Ford did provide a few examples (presumably the best examples) such as a 2006 Ford Escape that stickers at $20,685 would cost $17,294 under the program. A 2006 Lincoln Navigator with a sticker price of $53,175 would have a new bottom-line price, including $2,500 in cash rebates, of $46,747. Hmm...Now those are both SUV's. Wonder what the numbers are on the Mustang?

What is it with Ford and gas tanks anyway?

Well, the latest story is that Ford is recalling 127,493 Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans and Freestyle wagons because the straps that secure the fuel tank to the vehicle body may break—not a good thing. If the straps break the fuel tank, fuel tank heat shield, and all the king’s horses would drop onto the driveshaft or exhaust system. What would happen next is best described by Beavis and Butthead “Fire! Fire! Fire!” Full story can be found here.

Driving the Cobalt

The Saab has sprouted a leaking water pump at 23,000 miles and went to Ellis Brooks in San Francisco for warranty repairs. EB called and said the car was ready, but before it left the garage the Viggen had lit up a new idiot light--so back it went. Enterprise hooked us up with a Cobalt with less that 1k miles, so I thought I'd offer a few opinions.
First off, this Cobalt LS is an absolute stripper: manual windows, locks, and most frustratingly manual side mirrors. My wife can't adjust the passenger side mirror while in the driver's seat--a real safety issue in my mind. The interior is stark, but the gauges are attractive: very clean, without a lot of cheesy looking fonts. The radio is Radio Data System (RDS) capable so we can see what's playing on KFOG. The car also has a trip computer with average fuel economy and speed, outside temp, oil life index, coolant temp, etc. Because this car doesn't have the side airbag package we are left with low rent blanks where the Side Airbag logo would go. I hate switch blanks (look what you couldn't afford), but these look even worse--just glaring at you from the A and B pillars of the car with little cutouts where you can pry them out. There is nary a buzz or rattle from the interior trim, but there is a lot of suspension crashing noise when driving over bumps. Acceleration in town is good, but the engine is buzzy when prodded. The headlights do a very good job of lighting the way. The trunk opening is rather small which will limit usability somewhat. The steering feel of the car as I drove around city streets was very numb and contributed to the "just a rental car" feeling. After an enjoyable experience in the HHR I was a bit surprised. I was expecting more from the Cobalt. To be sure this is the entry level model but I didn't catch any hint of passion in this appliance. I'd save my pennies for a Mazda 3 or a Honda Civic.

Gack! It's another Ford Fusion Giveaway!
I tell yah, where will it end? Hopefully when one of us wins one of these cars! This contest is college student themed, but you don't have to hit the books to enter. Click here to get in the mix.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

For $10 Mr. T will tell you how to get to grandma's house

"I pity the fool who don't have navigation" or something like that is what Mr. T might say in his latest gig as a car navigation system voice over. I think I liked his Oregon lottery commercial better, but this isn't bad. In any case there will be more voices to choose from in the future as companies try to get people to download celebrity voice prompts for navigation systems just like folks download cell phone ring tones today. What a change it would be for some beauty like Paris Hilton telling you how get somewhere rather than how to get lost. Now that's hot. You can read the full story here.

Eos Mio!

Volkswagen is now saying that the Eos four seater, hard top convertible will be delayed. The launch has been moved from Spring 2006 to Summer, not exactly fatal for a convertible. Buzz on the street has it that production glitches are holding up the show. No news here as Pontiac's G6 hardtop convertible is on hold (or worse) as GM tries to straighten out problems with its folding hardtop.

No delay is good for VW, but it's better to get it right the first time rather than have initial buyers complete the debugging job. If the launch is pushed back much further however, I'm sure that VW dealers would be very disappointed. A brand new convertible arriving in your showroom just as winter sets in would be a bummer.

Two Face

In an earlier article I had speculated on what the face of Lincoln would be. The buzz has been that the egg crate, as shown on the Aviator concept, would be the winner. Well that grill appears to be only half the story. In a recent Automotive News interview Peter Horbury, Executive Director of Design for Ford North America, commented that future vehicles would wear either the egg crate or the current waterfall grill that adorns most Lincolns. Said Horbury of is new line of thinking "Is there an American face? No. Is there a Lincoln face? Well, there's two, actually." Hmmm. That seems to fly in the face of most other manufacturers who are slapping the same family schnoz on every model from top to bottom. Horbury also popped off that Lincoln was no longer in intensive care and he could begin to divide his time equally among Ford/Lincoln/Mercury. I'm not so sure about that one as Lincoln has really had gone through a rough patch as of late. Next up on the production schedule is the Aviator which by all accounts looks pretty good--but the real proof will be how much of the concept's interior has made it to reality. The Detroit Auto Show should see the debut of a large Lincoln sedan concept and there will be another sedan and "people mover" coming as well. Its a shame that the momentum of the LS was lost and that Lincoln cast about for so many years with concept after concept with none making it to production. For Lincoln the future can't come some enough.

Win a Cadillac SRX
Pasta sauce anyone? This contest has been running all year, but is set to end in December. You can only enter online once, but that's all it may take! Enter here.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Yoink! Phaeton Gets Pulled From the North American Market

Did it ever really stand a chance here? To be certain there are dedicated fans of this car, but they were in far too few numbers to matter for financially strapped Volkswagen. In my mind the Phaeton never made any sense as a Volkswagen. Certainly the car was very technologically advanced and such qualities mated with a premium brand would merit the price that Volkswagen wanted to charge. However, there were problems from the get go for the car. Firstly the styling was very conservative. I knew there was trouble when a Volkswagen executive claimed a considerable niche with folks who do not wish to display there wealth but wanted a high end luxury car. Many people may not want an extremely flashy car, but they are not opposed to an Audi or Lexus badge. The biggest flaw in the Phaeton's planning lies with dealers here in the USA. No Volkswagen dealer that I've ever visited has exuded the polish that is required to sell and service a top drawer luxury sedan. Hell, these folks couldn't even get me into a Passat. There was very little done in insure that Phaeton prospects were treated with the white glove service they were undoubtedly expecting. Combine staid styling and decidedly underwhelming customer service and you have very little to offer prospective customers. The question that I now have to ask is will something like the Phaeton ever return to our shores and should it? Berndt Pischetsrieder has publicly said that they Phaeton should have never been a staid sedan and one can extrapolate that any future high end Volkswagens released under his watch would be radically different. Given that Volkswagen could cook up some tasty looking dish;, does it merit inclusion on the US menu? I think a lot of that depends on the success or lack of that Volkswagen will have over the next few years in the US market. Something like the Phaeton should be a logical extension if a successful brand, a crowning achievement rather than a disconnected distraction for dealers struggling with flat demand. For the next few years VW needs to strengthen the its base and then slowly build upwards. The US market will see that GTI/Golf, and Eos next year and presently VW has started to subsidize leases for the Jetta and Passat to build demand. That should be enough for dealers to chew on for a little while. There is a new small suv headed our way, a forthcoming project Chrysler could yield a minivan and there is chatter about a possible pickup truck. Before Volkswagen attempts another Phaeton it had better pull a few more rabbits out of its hat.

Win a Mercedes R Class
Man is this car big. Supersized. Not as efficient as a minivan because of the long snout. When using the rear seats your cargo room is pretty limited, but what a way to take the gang out to lunch--especially with the entertainment option that gives you the lcd monitors in the headrests. Enter here. Hurry, this one ends 11/15/05.

Suzuki XL-7 Pictures
The Car Connection has a torrent (it's late, I can get away with that pun) of spy shots of the forthcoming XL-7 replacement. The new model will be based on the Theta architecture like it's stable mate the Grand Vitara but unlike the dimensional clones Equinox/Torrent, the two Suzuki models "bookend" the GM twins with the Grand Vitara being just a bit shorter and the XL-7 being longer. The article mentions "wood trim" but the interior shot is from so far away we can't really see that much. Perhaps they are referring to a shot not in the collection? Of course Theta is going in all directions as part of GM's "we sure hope crossovers are the next big thing" approach. We now have the Vue, Equinox/Torrent (they are so similar they don't deserve a comma), Grand Vitara and shortly the XL-7 replacement. In the future there is talk of Cadillac and Saab based Theta's. Check out the spy photos here.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Auto Show In Motion--The Experience

I went to GM's Auto Show in Motion (ASIM) in San Jose on Saturday. This is the second ASIM that I've attended. The first ASIM was at Candlestick/3Com/Monster Park near San Francisco. I didn't think the setup of the San Jose event was as efficient as the San Francisco one. For example, there were two tents that fed into one course. This means that 10 or more models of cars were all jostling into one road course and that meant a long wait to get to the starting line. Now take a hot car like the Solstice (of which they had four available for driving), take a line of 30 people of which almost everyone was driving and you've got an hour wait on your hands.

The most exciting event of the day was a shoving match at the front of the Solstice line. I'm not sure what started the whole imbroglio but a couple of GM reps had to run over and soothe matters. Now, I don't know what sort of conflict resolution training these folks have but they seemed to handle it pretty well once they noticed.

First impressions of the Solstice would be that you sit very low in the car, really low. My wife had a hard time seeing over the hood and she’s 5’2”. We didn't have a lot of time to fiddle with the seat, what with 30 very anxious people standing right behind us. The first thing I would mention is this sitting in a bathtub feeling. The plastics on the dash are hard and space inside is tight, but overall I liked the layout and design of the instrument panel. The car had good power out on the course, but then again it isn't much of a course. The Solstice demonstrated none of the cowl shake that the SSR did. The handling exhibited by the Solstice around the road course was excellent as was the exhaust note. We didn't get a chance to fiddle with putting the top up. Our time was too short in the car, but overall it was a very promising drive.

Driving the SSR was a treat. What a great rumble from the exhaust and the SSR didn't lean in the corners as much as I feared it would. The acceleration was great. The dash plastic is hard, just like Solstice's, but less forgivable here given the asking price. We didn't have a chance poke around in the trunk, but it's certainly good for a two seat convertible--and that's really the way I think of the SSR: a two seat convertible that happens to be loosely based off a truck platform. There was very little room to adjust the seat, but for short stints the positioning would be fine. As I previously mentioned the cowl shake was very pronounced in the SSR. The truck felt very loose going over bumps wiggling and jiggling like Jell-O brand gelatin. Still seeing the SSR's lined up on the road course I felt a certain sense of satisfaction that GM would make the SSR (warts and all).

The HHR was another ride that I was interested in. Sitting in the back of one HHR, I noticed that the passenger’s seatback had a lot of wiggle. The driver’s seat was rock solid, but I could see that one trip to LA with a ten year old sitting in back kicking/shaking that seat would drive someone through the sunroof. I presume that this wiggle wasn’t a “feature” but rather a manufacturing defect. The first thing I think of when I see the HHR is “beach car.” I just want to load that car up with body boards, picnic basket, beach gear and drive right to the ocean. If you have to drive over some hills to the ocean, you’ll certainly notice that raspy nature of the engine. Given that we drove a model with leather, sunroof and all the fixins I presume we had the 170hp mill. You don’t notice the raspy nature of the engine until you poke the accelerator, but once you do it’s impossible to miss. The ride and handling were fine for a car of utilitarian nature. I loved the upright, narrow windshield that had a gunslit feel to it. The gauges were tasteful and the control layout was fine. Once again the plastics were noticeable for their brittleness, but at this price point it is more acceptable. Upgrading to leather should give you a richer feel than the shiny, plastic-like stuff that I sat on, though. Opening up the hatch revealed considerable cargo room, if a bit higher off the ground than a regular wagon would be. Overall I came away more impressed than I thought I would be by the HHR. I would like to see more power in the high end model or at least a more refined sound coming from the engine, all airbags should be standard, the cabin materials could benefit from another $50 investment and stability control should be available. The HHR is a nice, fairly priced alternative that I would consider over something like a Vibe.

Overall ASIM was a good way to spend 3 1/2 hours. Registration was quick. Overall lines weren't that bad. The layout of the courses wasn't as good as Monster Park, especially the aforementioned overloaded passenger car/Pontiac course and the performance course which was merely an oval where we weren't allowed to shift out of second gear. The food (chips, cookie, apple) was, as expected, nowhere near what Lexus, Mercedes, Jaguar offer but I'll take GM's invitation to borrow the keys to their cars any day.

It's Sunday! Another NFL Sweeps!

This one requires some NFL knowledge, but it's a trip to the Pro Bowl and more importantly, Hawaii! Visit the Lays site here and click on the NFL Sweeps link at the top of the page. Only "Get Your Smile On" is open to everybody. That is all.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Thanks a million!

Welcome to the weekend! This contest doesn't give you a million dollars, but you do get some other nifty booty. Go ahead and try your luck here.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Uncle!
"See Some Red. Save Some Green" Well, that didn't take so long, did it? At the end of September Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, had insisted that GM would stick to a value pricing strategy for 90 days and offer no big national incentive programs. Well GM is back on the incentive bandwagon, this time with a Red Tag Sale. The twist is this time you don't get the employee pricing, but rather the pricing of suppliers' employees. What does that mean? In a nutshell customers will be paying 2% more than they did under the old program. How will they ever break the incentive habit?

He who shall not be named
File this under "What's comin from Kia." The new Sedona minivan is coming in February, a new midsize Optima sedan in April and then face-lifts for the compact Spectra sedan, Sorento SUV and midsize Amanti sedan next summer. A new vehicle "that we aren't talking about yet" arrives next fall (and it's not the rumored Tiburon derivative). Looks like Len Hunt from Volkwagen will have his hands full in his new job!

In news from Ford, a car smaller than the Focus and an SUV smaller than the Escape are on the way. The rumor has been than a Fiesta based SUV built in Brazil would be headed to our shores.

The original article for this info can be found here.

Rick, Rick, Rick
With GM's recent earnings error "what did they use a Willard?” Rick Wagoner's situation is looking ever more tenuous. News comes from this Free Press story that Rick and Co. could be held accountable for these “uh ohs.” This bad news on top of a potential Delphi’s union “work action” that could slow down parts production. As previously discussed in the comments section of another story, GM may have to strap on a lot of additional pension liability from the Delphi meltdown. Now add in a slow sales month in October and continued pain as GM tries to educate its customer base about the greatness of “value pricing” instead of meaty rebates. This isn’t looking pretty. GM is placing a lot of hope in next year’s renewed SUV line that it has been trotting out over the past couple of months. However, GM can now only hope to retain its existing market share rather than increase sales. There will be a slew of crossovers (the latest fad) and the new Malibu and CTS are supposed to look great but that’s conjecture until we see them. There is hope and it’s in the likes of the soon to be revived Saturn division and hot selling niche products like the Pontiac Solstice and Hummer H3. Mr. Kerkorian is waiting in the wings and ready to slice and dice his way to a tidy profit. Maybe Mr. Wagoner does need Amy Poehler running around to energize GM.

Get your discount Japanese auto manufacturer here!

With today’s news of Daimler Chrysler selling off its stake in Mitsubishi and General Motors recent sale of its piece of Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) one has to wonder what’s next? There is still Isuzu and Suzuki in GM’s stable and Ford has Mazda. Could any of these companies be up for grabs? Isuzu provides a lot of diesel engine expertise to GM so I doubt that Isuzu is being shopped around; however I wouldn’t be surprised to see the sales of Isuzu vehicles pulled in the US market at some point. Suzuki has a nice lineup of cars here in the US and provides an outlet for Daewoo vehicles--let’s face it, Chevy can’t sell them all.

Ford has a tremendous number of vehicles based off the Mazda 6 CD3 platform, so it would be unlikely that anything would happen to that alliance. Given the dire straits that GM and Ford are in, however, all bets are off the table. How long will GM support the forever money losing Saab? The same goes for Ford and Jaguar. GM feels that they need Saab as a luxury presence in Europe, but they are starting to introduce the Cadillac brand including a “9-3 with a nose job” Cadillac BLS. The Ford and Jaguar question is more dubious. The new XK and forthcoming S-Type refresh are going to go a long way in either lifting or sinking the brand. Without Jaguar, Ford would be missing a piece of the premium car puzzle, but with Aston Martin dropping into Porsche territory it would be reasonably possible that Volvo could be expanded upwards. Also playing into the mix is whether or not Lincoln can once again catch fire under designer Peter Horbury. Can you believe that just a few short years ago Cadillac had to fess up that they doctored up sales records to falsely claim a sales lead over Lincoln? A new Aviator and Zephyr will attempt to turn things around in 2006.

Of course, there is talk that if things become much worse a company like General Motors could be an acquisition target itself. However at this point, its pension and health liabilities seem to be a sufficient poison pill. We’ll just have to keep watching and waiting to see what happens next. Personally I wish them all good luck.

R.I.P.
CNN

A few thoughts on Volkswagen
With Volkswagen's recent trials and tribulations I have paused to ponder the future of "The People's Car." In the 90's VW had it all--the "Blue Sky" or good will value of the dealerships led the industry. The New Beetle drove traffic in and the Jetta hooked 'em. But things haven't been so peachy lately. There was the injector debacle where failing injectors were replaced as they failed instead of a one time service campaign because parts were in limited supply-which meant up to four visits to the dealership for the same problem. Then the entire product line started to age. The complex W8 engine equipped Passat never took hold and the W8 engine will never return in a Volkswagen. The high end Phaeton required massive incentives to move off the lot. The retro minivan that was planned for the US market was scrapped. Volkswagen was also very hesitant to offer incentives either in terms of cash on the hood (customer money), in the trunk (dealer money) or subsidized interest rates-hurting showroom traffic.

Moving on to the next generation of cars, the big gun, Jetta, has received mixed reviews for its styling with some calling it a derivative of Japanese cars. So far the Jetta hasn't done as well as had been hoped. The Passat is only now coming online and is receiving some heckles regarding its styling. The Golf, next in line and already on the market in Europe for several years, is the next model to hit our shores. In some ways, the Golf may be the biggest hit with its back to what made it great GTI earning rave reviews. There will be a folding hardtop convertible (Eos), a small SUV (Marrakesh/Bedouin), and more than likely a VW badged Chrysler minivan headed our way. There may also be a racy Boxster competitor inspired by the Concept R and a possible pickup truck. What troubles me is that the mainstay cars aren't "gotta have" products. What makes things worse for VW is their less than stellar reliability with stories like this example. Another example would be our friends who leased a V6 Touareg that was in the shop so often that they fought Volkswagen to pay for a month's lease payment. Volkswagen has shuffled the management deck in the USA, but I don't know what that will accomplish. Former Volkswagen of America executive Len Hunt was a customer motivated guy. Len campaigned to bring the five door GTI it the US market, chatted with enthusiast on vwvortex.com, and I think that he will be sorely missed by the enthusiast community.

Volkswagen stepped up their warranty from the "we don't trust it either" two years to a more import standard four years. They are splitting up future model launches so that they don't all hit at the same time. Diesels are beginning to pick up steam in the US market and Volkswagen is poised to be a leader. They hired Daimler Chrysler's whiz kid Wolfgang Bernhard and he's already playing hardball with the German unions. Future products will bring the brand into new markets. Porsche has stepped up its investment in Volkswagen perhaps signaling more cooperation between the companies. One would hope that these steps would help Volkswagen right the wrongs of the past. I would hate to see Volkswagen one day leave our shores like Fiat or Renault, but the only the consumer market will dictate how Volkswagen's future moves are received.

Win a Ford Fusion!
Ford is really giving them away! This completes the trio as I've already shown you the links to win a Milan and a Zephyr. Click here to win. Best of luck!

Not so Smartz
Ron Tonkin, a Portland, Oregon auto dealer recently thought he had a bit of a coup on his hands: the rights to sell smart cars at his dealership. Ron even placed an ad in the Sunday paper and took in 33 $500 deposits. However, it now appears that the "distributor" Smartz USA Incorporated doesn't have what it takes to certify the cars for sale. The EPA says that only G&K Automotive Conversion Inc. of Santa Ana, California (the company working with Zap!) is working to certify 2005 smarts. Where does that leave Ron and the supposed $100k that he spent on obtaining those rights? Not looking very smart I'd say. You can read the full story here.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

2007 Cadillac Escalade

The pictures have finally been released. There was a lot of fuss made over the fact that celebrities were consulted on the design--did they make that much of a difference?

Win a Zephyr!
This particular sweepstakes requires a certain amount of commitment to get through all of the flash animation. A number of instant win prizes and of course the chance to drive off in the a new Zephyr. Enter here. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Get a $25 gift card!
If you are in the market for a truck and have a few minutes of time, check out this link for a test drive certificate. Drive a Tundra and get a $25 Chevron or Home Depot gift card!

Get muddy...

...in a new Jeep Commander! You could win this truck by entering here. As always, best of luck!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

New stop/start technology from Mazda!
An engine that can shut itself off when the car is stopped just makes sense. Mazda says that they have a very clever way of doing this that doesn't require an additional motor or other wizardry. Instead Mazda says they can use direct injection to place some gas in the cylinder and then set it off with a spark--hmmm, very similar to claims that my brother-in-law makes about barbecuing. Making this kind of technology cheaper and more readily available means that we all win. Just as long as they keep my a/c running cool. Tree hugger has it all right here.

Sorry
It has come to my attention that there have been some horrendous spelling errors on this blog. I want to apologize for that. Given that I just watched the movie Spellbound, this makes me feel even worse.
In my attempt to get content on this site I skipped the all important spell check process. However, I do have a few excuses:

1. My popup blocker kept messing with blogger’s spell check window and…
2. Blogger’s spell checker isn’t that good anyway.
3. Judgement looks correct and judgment doesn’t
4. I wanted to get content on this blog quickly and skipped “unneccessary” steps. I promise that in the future these steps will be considered necessary.
5. Many car nameplates show up as being misspelled when in fact they are not. All these false positives caused me to skip over legitimate misspellings.

Dreamy
Have you ever visited bobaedream.com? They have a lot of new Hyundai Santa Fe stuff on display. I've mirrored a couple of shots here, the rest you can get there. Looks like they are cranking them off the assembly line!

Freshened 9-5 headed our way
The restyled 2006 Saab 9-5 is coming soon. Saab has a handy spec sheet available for download here. Nice to see that they are consolidating the lineup with only one engine choice (the one with balls): the 260hp, 2.3 liter, 4 cylinder engine. Unfortunately the new twin turbo mill from the 9-3 won't fit. You can read Edmunds' first drive here. I really am a Saab fan, even if mine is in the garage being repaired more often than I'd care for it to be. The Car Connection is reporting that the 9-5 sedan starts at $34,820 and the wagon begins at $35,820. Hopefully those vented seats are still available!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Win a Ford Explorer
Ah, the inevitable product tie in. Does the pairing of Ironman and Explorer really work? Who cares it's a free truck (a much improved truck at that) and a trip to Hawaii. They had me at free. Enter here. Good luck!

so long smarty pants
The last smart roadster has rolled off the line. Any thinning of the smart herd is a bit painful, but hopefully the renewed focus on the remaining lineup will yield dividends for us here in the USA. I for one thought the roadster was a pretty trick little buggy especially in Brabus trim.

Awfully similar, no?

Take a look at the Opel Antara and then take a look at this Saab spyshot. Looks pretty similar, no? So what would the guess be? 9-4? 9-6? Look for this concept to debut in the first few months of 2006. You can check out the full size photos of the Saab here.

Win a Lancer Evolution IX

I think most folks would agree this is a nice prize. Good luck!

Sunday, November 06, 2005

smart fortwo, some additional thoughts

So I've already discussed the smart on loan in San Francisco, but what I didn't mention was the salesperson who called to let me know about it. I've called a number of Mercedes dealers over the years to ask about smarts coming to the USA and I've usually received the brush off or worse. Rick at Mercedes Benz of San Francisco as been the only salesperson who expressed interest and actually called me back months later to stay in touch. So, a hat tip to Rick for that. There are no guarantees about smarts in the USA, but if you are interested in the car Rick is a good person to have in your corner. You can reach him at 415-673-2000, I think there are multiple Rick's at the dealership, but only one Rick in sales.

Ding!

You know all those Southwest commercials that run during the Sunday football games? Well, they have a sweepstakes and that's today's entry.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Mini factory tour

When we visited London earlier this year, my wife and I took a side trip to Oxford to take the Mini factory tour. I made arrangements via e-mail and all they asked for was for three British pounds which went to a local charity. We took the Oxford Tube a bus service from Buckingham Palace Road to downtown Oxford (a lot cheaper than the train) and then a local bus out to the plant. Before starting the tour we had to don orange jumpsuits. The tour is a complete one, unlike some plants where the body had already been assembled and painted. Lot's of sparks on the assembly floor where all the welding is taking place. We didn't get to see the painting facility, but we did see a video about it. I thought it was interesting that they inject wax into some of the body cavities and then roll the car around to allow the wax to flow into all the crevices as rust proofing technique. The remaining assembly of the car is pretty straightforward with components being snapped into place by teams as the cars march down the line. It's fairly quiet and very clean on the assembly line with parts being constantly being delivered by forklifts. A great chance to see all the various paint colors that are available. All that plus a free beverage vending machine in the waiting room (I love free vending machines). What's not to love?

Fresh Mixin...

I loved the old Mitsubishi commercials and I wanted to listen to some of the songs. I went on iTunes and couldn't find an iMix, so I created a Mitsubishi iMix here (iTunes required to view).

It's the weekend...

So instead of winning a car, let's try for a boat! Click here to enter the drawing.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Back off?

Dr. Brian Clifford has invented a clever little device that you can stick on the back of your car. The plate has the numbers 7, 5, and 3 in decreasing font sizes. If you're traveling at 70mph and can read the 7 then you're too close, etc, etc. Now, the problem that I see with this is that most tailgaters aren't the conscientious sort. These folks know they are too close and they want to be so that you'll get the message and let them get past. This enables them to cause an accident several miles down the road and induce all sorts of road rage. Type A personalities aren't going to say, "Oh my, I can read the seven, perhaps I should adjust my following distance." No, they are probably going to try and read the 3 while going 90.

Originally found this in Autoweek magazine, but you can read about it here.

Color me impressed

MSNBC has a nice piece on forthcoming paint colors such as liquid metal, glistening textural effects, watery blue-greens, check out this article here.

2007 Cadillac Escalade to Debut at South Florida International Auto Show [corrected]

It seems everyone is asking, "Why is the Escalade debuting on a Saturday?" The answer is in Florida. It seems that the SFIAS press events will include the auto show debut of the all-new 2007 Cadillac Escalade. You can read the press release here and the SFIAS website here (oooh discount coupon!). Well, if I read the schedule I would have noticed that the Cadillac press event is Friday 11/11. So the whole Saturday thing was just a goose chase. Quack! Oh well, my bad. Enjoy an interior shot.

Ford Edge interior spyshots

MPH just posted a shot of the Edge's interior. The overall layout looks nice, but that sure is a sea of gray plastic--what a lump that armrest is! Well, we'll have to reserve judgment until the final version.

Click here to check out the photos of the interior. The exterior shot was from this thread at The Car Connection.

Smart photos

Here are the smart photos that a promised in yesterday's post. As I had mentioned, the car is located right by the receptionist where they are keeping the "surveys." I still don't know how much of a stunt this is, but while you are there you can check out the rest of their inventory. There is an awesome SL65 with over a 20k markup, a beautiful green CLS55, and an SLK 350 with the 8K graphite package. They also have an R Class with some monster rims that sort of look out of place on the car. Looking back, I should have taken pictures of these cars, but oh well.

Today's prize is a Mercury Milan

How many of you folks are putting Mercury on your list? Okay, now how many folks have put Jill Wagner (for those at work: that's a Stuff Magazine link so use your excellent judgment) on their list? C'mon, fess up! Well, you might have to put a Milan on your tax return if you win. Good luck!

Click here for your chance to win!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Incentives down, Sales down

Auto manufacturers dropped their incentive spending by an average of 20% in October '04 / October '05 comparison. However, there is already signs of folks breaking ranks. Today (11/3) Ford announced additional rebates and on Tuesday (11/1) Chrysler said that it would offer rebates of at least $1,000 on every 2005 and 2006 vehicle.

My apologies that some links will require site registration to view. Here's a no registration link that sums it up pretty well.

What's Mazda up to? [Update]

The Car Connection is offering a few more details on the new Mazda concept headed to the Detroit Auto Show. It sounds like the Autospies reader was on to something with his post: "From the side and rear view it is pure Aston and from the front it’s a more radical RX-8." I just can't want for the next season of auto shows to begin!

Check out The Car Connection post here.

Belta out a new one!

At SEMA Toyota only gave us a teaser shot of the Yaris sedan. They said that the official intro will be at January's Los Angeles Auto Show.

However, it's probably a safe bet that it's gonna look almost exactly like the Belta which is based on the Yaris platform.

Smart in San Francisco

Okay, so I'm back from SF. The fortwo cabrio was a lime green color. The dealer said it was a diesel, so I imagine that they just trucked it down from Canada. The car was located right by the receptionist (I'll post pictures tomorrow). Not that much enthusiasm from the dealer. The questionnaire was really a joke. It was maybe 10 questions: what traits do you associate with smart, how much do you think it costs, would you buy one. That was it. It was beginning to smell a bit fishy--almost like the SF dealer brought the car in themselves. The salesman that I spoke with said that MBPS had indeed placed the car there. You could tell that he wasn't a "product specialist" and he even mocked the safety of the car "I wouldn't want to get hit in one of these."

As for overall interest in the car, when we walked in, the first person to greet us asked if he could help and when we said that we were here to see the smart, he said "Wow, everybody is coming to see that smart!" The second salesman wasn't so upbeat--"We've had some interest, but we should park in near Union Square, then we'd have a ton of interest." I tend to agree with him--the car is an attention grabber. He also mentioned that their new facility which will be opening soon was originally going to be a smart showroom, but since that fizzled out they were going to move the MB showroom there. The sales rep also said that they are showing smarts in other major US cities as well. What does all this mean for smart? My money is on a second generation fortwo intro in late 2007 as a 2008 model. The fortwo is a very unique car and deserves a chance, certainly in our bigger cities. I hope that MB will give the fortwo its due.

Rentin’ till it Hertz

On a recent East Coast trip we rented an LR3 from Hertz to spice up the trip a little. We picked up the car early in the morning during the recent rain storm. Having the all the latest safety goodies was a real plus. Before driving off we were greeted by many different glowing buttons, some with strange symbols. Several hours into the ride it all made sense, but at 5AM it was a bit daunting.

Being a previous Discovery owner, I was very curious to see how much additional scoot the new V8 was brining to the party—the answer is some, but not as much as I would have hoped. The LR3 was constantly downshifting whenever I asked for more “go” and an eye on the trip computer said we were getting 14-15mpg. I found an under-inflated tire on the back of the truck (15lbs instead of 42) so that made a bit of difference with both power and economy, but overall I felt the truck could use a bit more Pepe. Braking was vastly improved over previous Discos. The fact that the tire pressure monitoring system didn’t say anything about the rear tire was a bit disconcerting. How low on pressure does the tire have to be? Speaking of system monitors, I was amazed to see the number of potential errors that the computer could alert you to. There were at least four or five pages of error messages and explanations. From my past experience with Land Rover, chances are you’d see a good number of those messages in four or so years of ownership.

The interior was of the charcoal variety which makes things easier to keep clean, but also a little drab in my opinion. The new fixed rear sunroof over the second and third rows let in a lot of light and I didn’t miss the tilt/slide feature as I can probably count on one had how many times I opened the rear sunroof on the old Disco. There weren’t very many rattles, but several trim pieces were misaligned and in the rear a trim piece had to be pounded back into place. The real star of the interior show was the third row: I could actually sit in it and feel comfortable—a very nice upgrade indeed. Although front a rear seats were heated there was no seat cooling—a feature I’ve become rather attached to. The weather was cold, but when driving for 5 hours straight it is sometimes nice to have a cool breeze on the old bum.

The LR3 is nowhere as easy to drive as an Odyssey, but then again an Odyssey isn’t taking you very far off road (no matter what my sister-in-law tries). I know that during my Land Rover experience I visited the dealer at least 16 times for warranty fixes, suffered long slogs uphill while the motor struggled, visited nearly every gas station on Interstate 5, had to plan ahead for any serious braking, and got taken to the cleaners when I went to sell it. But all I remember is the fun we had taking that truck where no car could travel. The new LR3 may fix some of these flaws, but it will still ask for a bit of understanding and a considerable sum of money from its owner. Are you up to the challenge?

Win a 2006 GMC Yukon Denali...

...and a 16' travel trailer. Even if it's not the ride of your dreams, you can always sell it and buy whatever it is that does make your toes curl.

Click here to enter.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Z4 coupe test video!

Autoexpress offers up a nice vid of the Z4 coupe being flung around the test track clipping apexes. They are saying that this is the high performance M version. Looks like BMW will be going up directly against the Cayman S and forthcoming Cayman with the Z4 M coupe and Z4 coupe.

Click here for the video.

Tundra spyshots

Can you feel the anticipation? Toyota's Texas built truck is about to take the stage! Toyota has slowly been attacking the full size market with the T100 and then the Tundra. Each model comes closer to the ideals that Americans hold for trucks. Will the next Tundra be a bull's eye or a near miss? Speculation at this point, but with GM introducing their new full size pickups soon Ford is going to have to pull a rabbit out of the hat! You'll find more info and a full size picture in the link below. The article mentions a hybrid version coming soon, but rumors are flying that Toyota is having problems mating their hybrid system and the heavy duty applications that trucks are expected to perform.

Click here for the complete picture.

It's official, USA gets Yaris 3 door liftback and 4 door sedan

Today's Toyota press launch included the official introduction of the 2007 Yaris to the USA. As expected the second model will be a 4 door sedan to be shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January. I'm a bit bummed as I view the 3 door to be a bit impractical and feel that the 5 door would sell much better. I guess Toyota is worried that a 5 door Yaris would bump heads with the Scion xA. I just worry that 3 door hatches will become self fulfilling prophecies that hatches don't sell in the USA--BMW 318ti and Mercedes C Class hatch as examples. I would say that previous failed hatches had been less than appealing for a stylistic point of view. All one needs to do is look to the Mini to see what a well designed and marketed hatch can do in the USA (even if it doesn't have an extra set of doors--yet). In any case I welcome the new Yaris and bid farewell to the mostly unloved Echo sedan and coupe that the USA received.

What's Mazda up to?

There is increasing chatter about a mini RX-8 along the lines of the MX-3 that Mazda will unveil at the North American International Auto Show in January. An Autospies reader claims to have gone to a focus group where one was displayed:

From the side and rear view it is pure Aston and from the front it’s a more radical RX-8. It has big bulging front wheel surrounds. Even more pronounced than the RX-8. The car would have a 161HP, 129 ft lbs torque 4 cylinder engine and weigh 2436lbs.

You can read full description from the Autospies reader here.

Another article referring to the car is found here at the car connection.

You have WON a cool 1/36 Scale model Chevy SSR

Woohoo! I love winning! So with that introduction, I give you today's sweepstakes GM Quickwin. Click here to enter.

Good Luck!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Lots of Lincoln news!

First Lincoln showed us the Aviator concept. Now we've seen the official rear 3/4 view of the production model. Everybody has been asking, what will the front look like?

Live from vwvortex we see the front end of what appears to be a Navigator under testing. So the answer is it seems that they are staying pretty close to the Aviator concept's schnoz. Is the official face of Lincoln SUVs going forward? Check out the vortex forum thread here.

Awww Nuts...Delta's Swan Song

Not car related, but close: Delta is shutting down its Song low cost airline unit with the last Song flights scheduled for May 2006. This really bums me out because I liked Song. True, much of it was a Silly Putty transfer of Jet Blue's approach, but what is wrong with live tv, onboard trivia and increased legroom? To be fair, Delta says that they are going to take the best bits from Song and implement them into the "Delta travel experience" but somehow phrases like that don't always work out like the brochures say they will. Check out this Delta press release.

So long Song, we hardly knew yah.

Jazzed about the Fit?

Well, the Honda marketing machine is starting to collect the web equivalent of interest cards on the Fit. I had a chance to drive a Fit while in London and was pretty impressed with the car, especially the trick folding rear seat that creates a completely flat load floor. Unlike other cars, the bottom seat cushion flips up and when the rear seat back folds forward it's to the level of the cargo floor. It happened so smoothly that I didn't even notice until I studied it further. The Fit/Jazz has been out for some time, so there was some wishful thinking that the US would be getting the second generation model. However in spite of Honda's claim that "there will be a few surprises for those expecting the steering wheel to simply move to the left" I don't think we're getting a brand new model. This car will be going directly against the Chevy Aveo, Toyota Yaris, and the Nissan Versa to mention a few names. For more info click here.

Breaking news! smart car headed to SF for customer evaluation!

I've just been contacted by Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco regarding the smart! A smart, presumably the fortwo, is being delivered today(11/1/05) for evaluation by potential customers. The salesman who called me said that no one is making any promises, but MB is trying to get an understanding of what the demand for the smart would be like. They are asking that interested parties contact MB of SF 1-888-226-3400 to make an appointment to view the car. Test driving will probably be verboten, but every person who shows up to view the car and fill out a survey will be helping to make the case for the car.

Menlo Park, CA car dealers?

In the past few months car dealers along El Camino have been leaving Menlo Park like it was a sinking ship. First it was Cadillac Buick Pontiac GMC and now Anderson Chevrolet. The Caddy dealer was GM owned while Anderson is owned by AutoNation. What's going on? Several things I think. First, auto dealers feed off each other. Where there is one, it is best to have many and now MP has less and less. Lot space is valuable and you need a lot of frontage--freeway frontage is best. Land lease rates are also a factor--an auto lot isn't the apple of every property owner's eye. Just look at Redwood City's squabble over the soon to be vacated Century Park Cinema. A great location for an auto mall, but the property owner wants housing. Menlo is looking into an auto mall, but that will take time. Back in Menlo Park I'm sure all eyes on University Ford and Stanford Lincoln Mercury.

What's with all the vents?

Lately it seems that everyone has been adding vents to the sides of the cars. Look at the LR3, Dodge Nitro, 2007 Cadillac Escalade, Jaguar XK, etc. Obviously, it has been decided that this new styling queue is that latest way to stand out (but from what if everybody else is doing it?). Is this the modern interpretation of the port hole? I guess I'm not swayed one way or the other, but it'll be a hassle come wash time: fibers from the wash mitt will get stuck in there, dirt will be hard to get our the small slits, and inevitably some of those panes are going to break off at some point--not to mention the plastic aging and discoloring. Okay, so I guess I do have an opinion. I don't like it. This extra tack on piece certainly must add some small price to the car, why not spend that money on the interior or longer lasting paint for the bumpers.

ForTwo for all?

ZAP has sent out a press release informing folks that that “a petition for import eligibility has been granted by the United States Department of Transportation for the 2005 Model Year "Smart Car ForTwo Coupe & Cabriolet." This will eventually pave the way for ZAP to start selling new(er) Smart (yes, I know that smart doesn’t capitalize its name, but for clarity’s sake, I do) cars in the US market. To date ZAP has two refurbished Smarts: one to a buyer in Reno and the other via Ebay to a buyer in Phoenix. ZAP still has a problem in that DaimlerChrysler won’t sell ZAP new Smarts directly so ZAP has to use “third party” distributors—does that mean used?

Another problem is that ZAP still hasn’t received certification to sell in states that have adopted California emission standards (eight states total at last count)—preventing many eco minded/big city folks from getting a Smart. The EPA and ZAP have also been squabbling over the mileage that these little beauties actually get.

No news has been heard from the other would be Smart importer, J.K. Technologies in Baltimore. The last response (5/10/05) to an e-mail sent asking about their status was: “no news right now with USEPA. Everybody in the country is still working hard but no progress as of yet.” Smart USA whose marketing division was gutted and integrated with MBSUA is also being mum on the prospect of selling the ForTwo here in the USA, but the latest from Dieter Zetsche is that it just might happen.

All in all, ZAP and its partners have gotten farther than anybody else, but they've been quiet as of late. What remains to be seen is how quickly they can ramp up deliveries and get 50 state legal or will they move their marketing push to the OBVIO!?

Drive cars and eat for free

Now there a 'road shows" from other manufacturers that have better chow. But you can't beat the come one, come all tent revival that is GM's Auto Show in Motion. They may be coming to a city near you, so why not register and check out all the fun! There are some competitive models there for evaluation as well, so you're usually not just limited to GM products. To register click here. Enjoy!

Wobble Wobble

My goal is to always update you with whatever fixed my car. My hope is that maybe I can save some folks some trouble on down the line. Our 2004 Odyssey had a steering wheel shimmy since day one and 13 miles. I always thought it was a balancing issue, especially when I had the front tires rotated to the back. When it was time to rotate again, the problem came back so I had them balance all four tires. The shimmy came back! I took the van back to Firestone and they said I needed a new wheel $50 to $150 according to them. Hmph. So I took it to Honda and after checking things out they determined that the tire had been mounted improperly at the factory. No long road trips yet, but it seems promising. On a side note, they said that my tires were already cupping a bit. This troubles me because I've been rotating religiously. Honda says that you just don't send the tires front to back, but cross them as well: front left to right rear. Other folks say that you should just go front to back. The official response is to do whatever your owners manual says. All I know is that lately I've had a lot more issues with tire cupping and the associated roar than I ever did before.

Car giveaway

I think you're a winner or should I say potential winner? I love automotive sweepstakes because I love cars. I bet you do to? Anyways, this contest is a pretty good one with one car given away each week! Hey, if you win you've gotta give me a ride in the new wheels! Click here to enter.

Automotive peep show in Vegas

Toyota is offering a live peep show on the new Yaris, to be revealed at SEMA. Given SEMA's new rules on appearance, could this be as titillating as it gets? :-)