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All right, I have a thing about short cars. I haven’t spoken to a therapist about it yet. Perhaps its just a reaction against the obesity crisis in modern cars and trucks. But where did they all go? There were once so many of them. Well, I’m going to collect all of them: Have the Suzuki Samurai, X-90 and the shorty Kia Sportage. That leaves as few to still find: (Read More…)
As an American citizen, it is tough on my part to pay tax dollars to an entity that can turn around and use those tax dollars to get my fellow American citizens to not do business with me. The government owns 60% of General Motors, and these American tax dollars are funding business activity for one company, with the express goal of negatively impacting another company
Paul Atkinson, President of Toyota’s National Dealer Council, manages to capture the central problem with government intervention in industry without resorting to the hyperbole that so often accompanies such lines of criticism [via Radio WAOI]. Examples?
Here’s Nissan’s solution to keep the underutilized Titan lines moving, and it’s a bit different. A van body has been grafted to the Titan front end, which brings certain obvious benefits and disadvantages. Nissan claims that US van owners are unhappy with their ancient Econolines and Chevy vans. According to Nissan: “Looking at the CV market in recent years, there’s been a migration of van users to light-duty pickups due to the lack of comfort, image and dependability of the current outdated van platforms. Yet many of these truck owners admit they need a van for weather protection, security and the convenience of a tall roof van to carry large items or equipment.”
The upside is a roomy pickup cab with no engine dog house. The downside? A lot of wasted real estate, especially compared to the European-designed Sprinter. (Read More…)
Who doesn’t like a proper wacky duel? Like the one where James May raced a Ferrari against a camel, or when the guys from TopGear did a “train vs Aston Martin” from London to Cannes?
As in the case of the proverbial hare and tortoise, when you set two unlikely opponents against each other, you get some entertaining results — and you might even prove a point. That’s what Germany’s AutoBild (print edition, March 5) tried to do when it tested the assumption that power = speed.
The first videos of the Honda CR-Z lapping Suzuka have surfaced, and they’re about as exciting as C-Span after a handful of Valium. And this is apparently a tuned version. Between this and the recent pre-launch equivocation by the CR-Z’s chief engineer, our expectations for Honda’s Insight Coupe couldn’t get much lower [via Autoblog].
![Change can be so hard (courtesy: Joel Feder [via Twitter])](http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/12/markofexcellence.jpg)
In 1989, Toyota launched a new luxury brand that would go on to largely replace Cadillac as a vernacular term for excellence in luxury. Known as Lexus, this brand has spent the last 20 years making headway in the US market without ever publicly associating itself with its parent brand. Could this strategy have contained a lesson for the brand managers at GM who have spent the same 20 years fretting (or not) about declining Cadillac sales? Apparently so, as BusinessWeek reports that Cadillac is distancing itself from the corporate mothership in hopes of improving Cadillac’s aspirational appeal. And yet, strangely, it’s still not clear that the lesson has actually been learned.
Edmunds AutoObserver Michelle Krebs, commenting on the termination and replacement of Cadillac’s leadership, concluded, “If GM is going to change and is going to succeed, it must change people.” Paraphrasing Eistein, she added that “Doing the same thing over and over again with the same people in the same positions and expecting a different result is…insane.”
Michelle Krebs is far from the first to suggest that, to survive, a struggling company must replace the executives that oversaw its decline. And she won’t be the last. But this is a superficial solution that, without additional measures, will surely fail.
GM’s recent reinstatement of 661 culled dealers has put pressure back on Chrysler to come to arrangement with the dealers it shed during last year’s bankruptcy and bailout. Rep. Chris VanHollen, the sixth ranking Democrat in the House or Representatives, tells Automotive News [sub] that with GM buckling to dealer pressure, the time has come for Chrysler to follow suit. “There’s no quicker or easier way to build this network than to reinstate its terminated car dealerships,” says VanHollen, who drafted much of congress’s dealer arbitration legislation. The Committee to Restore Dealer Rights contacted Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne “to discuss the reinstatement of the rejected dealers who had their franchises so abruptly taken and were unfairly terminated.” The response?
We believe that all communications concerning the subject matter of the arbitration should be between counsel and request that your clients follow this procedure in the future. Please ask them not to send such communications to Mr. Marchionne or any other Chrysler personnel.
Oh snap! Chrysler isn’t going down without a fight… even if that means taking on the representatives who have oversight of the government’s eight percent stake in the automaker.
(Read More…)
In celebration of our first anniversary and one hundred feature length Curbside Classics, I’ve put together a portal for all of them here (after the jump). There are probably at least that many or more shorter-length CCs and Outtakes. They can be found here: Curbside Classic Capsules and here: CC Outtakes. Our goal is to set up a comprehensive portal that includes all of them, similar to TTAC’s New Car Review Portal. (Read More…)











Recent Comments
Accazdatch - MAN Oh MAN! Read my mind! Who had the idea to restart the plant to give it to some fleet buyer..so he / they can use it for.. 5-10k mi.. and dump...
gslippy - Such tactics don’t result in more sales; they just make good-humored people chuckle and drive on.
Robert.Walter - and in the meantime gives the vehicle a bit of character and adds rigidity to some very large class-A panels.
radimus - IH Scout 80’s and 800’s need to be on the shorty list as well.
johnny ro - Tonight I got passed coming out of a green light by black Chrysler 300 wagon with big exhaust, maybe SRT version. Loud car. He stomped that automatic from 20mph,...
SilverCoupe - I can see where the general direction of this discussion is going, and, I agree with it; I would not expect to actually get anywhere significantly faster in a...
JD-Shifty - @TH009 no, morgan olson, utilimaster and union city body have been making them on just about every chassis out there. what’s so special about Nissan?
Robert.Walter - I heard they are going to Iran before the really tough sanctions come… ;o) (but seriously, this could be some kind of a UNHCR or USAID...
johnny ro - I bet that entire console arrangement is held in with 4 8mm nuts on studs welded to floor. Or, 4 8mm bolts into 4 nutserts. And who knows maybe a dangle with...
th009 - @JD-Shifty, Nissan has?