Berkowitz's Futures Market: Car News That's Not Worth the Fuss
I think it’s great to get excited about new cars, announcements from manufacturers, spec sheets, press kit photos, and concept cars. I’m a jerk, but I’m not a jerk made of stone. With my mea-culpa qualification out of the way though, I do find it frustrating to see what I think of as undue enthusiasm. If you jump, you can see my five TTAC-spirited assessments of the product announcements of the week.
1. Chrysler says they’re thinking about building a car-based pickup truck. Some say it would be more like a Honda Ridgeline, others that it would be akin to the El Camino. I say it’s not going to happen.
2. Everybody (save Edward Neidermeyer) loves the Buick Lacrosse. I think it looks fine, especially the interior. But who genuinely believes this is going to sell well? Other than the trick suspension, consumers are going to see a cleanly-designed but unmemorable car, from Grandpa’s brand, made by a dying company. Check the Lincoln MKS sales to peer into the Lacrosse’s future.
3. Ford Fusion’s 4-cylinder mileage is best in class (23/34). Great. But unless that’s going to be Ford’s total new image – the most fuel efficient cars on the road – it’s not going to get enough new customers into the showroom to matter. That, or $5.00 gas (wait a few years).
4. Cadillac is going to show a Volt-based car at the Detroit Auto Show. I’ve said many time that I don’t think the Volt will ever be built and sold in meaningful numbers. So the odds for this car in real life are even slimmer. As in none.
5. The Nissan GT-R Spec V is cool. Matter of personal preference. You might really love it. Or instead, you might be over 13.
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- Jkross22 Their bet to just buy an existing platform from GM rather than build it from the ground up seems like a smart move. Building an infrastructure for EVs at this point doesn't seem like a wise choice. Perhaps they'll slow walk the development hoping that the tides change over the next 5 years. They'll probably need a longer time horizon than that.
- Lou_BC Hard pass
- TheEndlessEnigma These cars were bought and hooned. This is a bomb waiting to go off in an owner's driveway.
- Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Thankfully I don't have to deal with GDI issues in my Frontier. These cleaners should do well for me if I win.
- Theflyersfan Serious answer time...Honda used to stand for excellence in auto engineering. Their first main claim to fame was the CVCC (we don't need a catalytic converter!) engine and it sent from there. Their suspensions, their VTEC engines, slick manual transmissions, even a stowing minivan seat, all theirs. But I think they've been coasting a bit lately. Yes, the Civic Type-R has a powerful small engine, but the Honda of old would have found a way to get more revs out of it and make it feel like an i-VTEC engine of old instead of any old turbo engine that can be found in a multitude of performance small cars. Their 1.5L turbo-4...well...have they ever figured out the oil dilution problems? Very un-Honda-like. Paint issues that still linger. Cheaper feeling interior trim. All things that fly in the face of what Honda once was. The only thing that they seem to have kept have been the sales staff that treat you with utter contempt for daring to walk into their inner sanctum and wanting a deal on something that isn't a bare-bones CR-V. So Honda, beat the rest of your Japanese and Korean rivals, and plug-in hybridize everything. If you want a relatively (in an engineering way) easy way to get ahead of the curve, raise the CAFE score, and have a major point to advertise, and be able to sell to those who can't plug in easily, sell them on something that will get, for example, 35% better mileage, plug in when you get a chance, and drives like a Honda. Bring back some of the engineering skills that Honda once stood for. And then start introducing a portfolio of EVs once people are more comfortable with the idea of plugging in. People seeing that they can easily use an EV for their daily errands with the gas engine never starting will eventually sell them on a future EV because that range anxiety will be lessened. The all EV leap is still a bridge too far, especially as recent sales numbers have shown. Baby steps. That's how you win people over.
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mcs- 2 inches is a lot, plus its 52.5 vs 56 in the rear seat. No one is going to cross shop the Prius with Fusion/Malibu/Accord/Camry/6 by size. They're going to say that they will sacrifice some roominess for the extra fuel mileage. Plus the Prius still looks like a Prius, which might be hard to take for some people.