Now that we're in the post-Christmas pre-New Year interregnum, the media is, as usual, attempting to fill the void with retrospectives. The New York Times Dealbook looks back at the wheelers and dealers that filled their column inches in '07. And you just knew Cerberus' takeover of Chrysler Corp. was going to be in there somewhere. Somewhat surprisingly, scribe Andrew Ross Sorkin decided to upbraid the private equity firm for its lack of PR skills, rather than its decision to invest billions in a sinking ship. Perhaps that's because Cerberus is only slightly more media-friendly than Leonid Brezhnev's Kremlin. Well, not exactly. While we were expecting criticism of Cerberus' decision to dump combative Chrysler Spinmeister Jason Vines, and the resulting circling of Chrysler's PR wagons, Sorkin seems to think Cerberus' management style makes them unlikeable. "To lead Chrysler, Cerberus chose Robert Nardelli, the former chief of Home Depot, whose high-handed style helped get him ousted from his previous job. Layoffs grew, but so did losses. Then Cerberus dented its deal-making reputation by walking away from two previously agreed-to deals — for H&R Block’s mortgage arm and for United Rentals. So far, this charm offensive is light on the charm and heavy on the offensive." Don't look for Cerberus to answer Sorkin's emails anytime soon. 

I know TTAC is the hard man of the autoblogosphere, but sometimes I can't resist taking a walk on nerdy side (and the pistonhead girls go do do do do…). The International Herald Tribune addresses one of rivet counters' most vexing questions, as above. Previously, on "You Need To Get A Life," Trib author Jan Freeman declared that the appropriate term for more than one Toyota Prius was "Prioria." Reader Christopher Casey took exception, kinda. "You were right that Prius is the neuter nominative/accusative singular of the adjective prior, but the plural forms of the word – which means 'earlier, better, more important'- would be Priora, not Prioria." Freeman rang-up Harry Mount, author of "Carpe Diem" (a.k.a. "Latin isn't half as dull as you think it is. More like a quarter"). "Yes, it's Priora," he told Freeman, "because it's neuter plural. But if you cheated a bit and made the car masculine or feminine – and I do think of cars as female – then it would be Priores. And Priores has nice undertones of grandness – Virgil used it to mean 'forefathers' or 'ancestors.' So if your hybrids are named for the dames of ancient Rome – Drusilla, Octavia, Agrippina – you're granted poetic license. Otherwise, Priora is the Latin plural you're looking for." Mea culpa! TTAC's been using Prii. We sit corrected. 

If you're looking for a reason to be hopeful for strong sales of Pontiac's forthcoming G8– an imported Australian Holden by any other name– News.com.au's got a story for you. The news agency reports that sales of Holden's V8-engined cars down under are up 183 percent year-on-year. Of course, we're talking about absolute numbers so small they wouldn't even twitch the sales needle for GM. "We look like we'll sell between 11,000 and 12,000 V8 Commodores and Caprices," John Lindsay revealed. Still, "People seem to be adjusting to higher fuel prices. It's also important to remember that modern V8s are more economical than those of the past." The article points out that all may not be as it seems; sales of Ford's V8-powered cars are flat (the last of the great V8 Interceptors?) and overall Ozzie sales were up for the period. Still, it's true that V8s haven't reached a commercial or technological dead end. And the idea that consumers prefer rorty V8s is a nice thought for Motown denizens who [still] share GM's Lutzian perspective on the average consumer's desire for maximum horsepower. 

Manitoba is set to become the second province of Canada to adopt the same emissions standards as California. CTV News reports that Manitoba premier Gary Doer– fresh off winning his third election– is hot (so to speak) to make the Canadian province Kyoto compliant. "[Cars] represent 33% of our challenge," says the former corrections officer. Earlier this month, Québec became the first province to adopt California's stringent auto regs, setting average emissions targets that must be attained as early as 2010 (CAFE by any other name?). Doer suggests that Manitoba's measure is only a first step on the way to more stringent federal standards. He notes that having provinces and states enact tailpipe standards produces a piece-meal approach to Kyoto and, thus, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Readers are invited to gloss over the fact that pollution of any kind has a global scope, not a national one.

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Of course that was NEVER going to apply to me and my nerdy, car-clueless Father. He drove boxy Detroit stripper sedans. I drove VW’s and Peugeots. He’s a world-renowned neurologist– but totally impractical. I never finished high school– but rebuild cars. I grew-up in the time when political pundits pronounced our cultural chasm a “generation gap.” Except ours was more like the Grand Canyon. Or so I thought…

The Swaziland Observer gives us evidence that automotive obsession is a worldwide phenomena, with dangerous side effects on marital relations. And for once, I'm snarkless, awed by Dumisa Dlamini's rhetorical brilliance. "These three-legged animals just love their cars and women hate the cars with a passion. From his first income, a man would neglect any sort of expenditure and concentrate on buying a car. There is a time in a man’s life where the color, shape, size and model does not matter. So long as he has a car he can call his own life better, complete and the gentleman blissful. Through his car, he can have most desires of his hearts including the very woman who comes to fight him over the automobile… Will men get rid of their cars or rather prefer their women more than the cars? This is a balance that lies deep in the man’s heart. It would seem a man without his car is like an emu- a big useless and flightless bird. He can’t have his desires, dreams and aspirations met. He cannot even afford to please his woman when his car is not around." Sigh.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sets Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards and collects fines from manufacturers who fail to meet their provisions. NHTSA recently updated their website with a list of CAFE fines the agency collected for model year '06 scofflaws. DaimlerChrysler's $30,257,635.50 penalty covers Mercedes models both imported and domestic, and represents an enormous jump from last year's cost of doing business ($16,895,472). In fact, the now defunct DaimlerChrysler's fine is the largest single amount NHTSA's ever collected, eclipsing BMW's massive penalty in 2001 ($27,985,925). That's not to say that BMW got off lightly for their '06 models; the Sultans of Stuttgart forked over $5,056,012.50 for not meeting the required fleet-wide federal mpg standard. BMW's whack just "beats" Porsche's '06 model year CAFE fines ($4,599,864.50). No wonder Porsche was trying to change the new law to get an exemption as a low volume automaker. Speaking of which, Ferrari shelled-out $842,160 to the feds for their fuel-sucking models' mpgs. As the new standards get tougher, the Germans and Italians are going to have work harder to make the grade, or dig deeper into their corporate coffers. Oh, and if you think about it, guess who really pays these fines? 

Judging from the comments on this site, the average TTAC reader is closer in age to a Buick buyer than a Sciontologist. Then again, you never know. I would have given my right testicle to find a site like this as a boy– you know, if it had dropped by then. In deference to the possibility of juvenile readers, I tend to keep the language in the posts and comments G-rated. Or at least asterisked. God knows why. Three of my four daughters– aged ten through 14– are fully conversant with every one of George Carlin's seven words you can't say on TV. I reckon it's a matter of days before my four-year-old learns that "stupid" isn't on the comedian's list. Just last week, I overheard one of these fine little ladies tell a notoriously aggressive classmate to f-off. Did I upbraid her? Yeah right. Truth be told, I'm a big fan of swearing. Although I don't swear in front of the kids, I'm not averse to a little plain speaking in unmixed company. In fact, I've toyed with the idea of using swear words on TTAC as a way to differentiate us from our more mainstream competitors. But the last time I deployed obscenity on this site in the name of art, the shit hit the fan. I received a barrage of emails suggesting that my salacious sailor-speak destroyed TTAC's credibility. Fair enough. So I want you to know that the F-bomb in the attached podcast was entirely inadvertent, although, I thought, editorially appropriate. You be the judge.

[Warning: the attached podcast contains intemperate language, including the "F-word"] 

At Tesla's recent e-town hall meeting, company Chairman Elon Musk said the erstwhile automaker "might" build some Roadsters with a temporary transmission, until such time as they can find one that lasts longer than a week [paraphrasing]. Tesla's new head honcho Ze'ev Drori has just turned that possibility into a certainty– in as much as one can be certain about any promises made by the Silicon Valley start-up. The EV-in-Chief made the new tranny for new announcement on Tesla's eye-searing blog (white on black text is against the Geneva Convention guys). "To help speed delivery of cars, we will begin production in 2008 with an interim transmission design. These transmissions will meet high standards for reliability and durability, but the car will not meet the original performance spec for acceleration, reaching 60 mph in 5.7 seconds instead of the promised 4 seconds. When the final transmission is ready, we will retrofit all cars, at Tesla’s expense, to meet the promised performance specifications." Speaking of promises, Tesla has a new new production date: Spring 2008. That said, "the ramp rate of the production volume will depend on how quickly our suppliers can ramp production of parts and how quickly Lotus can increase the rate of the production line. Because of this dependency we don’t yet know when each car will be built or how many cars will be completed in calendar year 2008." How reassuring is that?

Jonathan Schipper is an artist with a web page. The liner notes to his work take the form of an essay entitled "The Shortcomings of the Living World's Experiences vs. The Infinite Potentialities of The Universe: A DEATH CATHARSIS PARADIGM." Right, well, the above ALL CAPS TITLE refers to one of Schipper's most recent works. Mr. Schipper explains why he crashed two 1:18th scale muscle cars, but the mechanics behind the madness is much more interesting. It takes about a month to unconvincingly compress two cars together without bending the hood, damaging the bumpers or molesting the paint. And, thankfully, crashing two $30 diecast vehicles for the sake of bad art is better than throwing away $150k on the real things. Oh wait. "These are models for a full sized piece yet to be constructed." Oh dear.