TTAC Wishes You All A Very Merry And Joyful ...

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

It’s beginning to look at lot like than unmentionable holiday period, except where I am at the moment. But even in heathen China, the restaurant was full with cute waitresses with even cuter Santa hats today. Air China treated me to the full panoply of You-Know-What carols, from “O Come All Ye Faithful” all the way to “Silent Night”. It’s a strange world where one must fly to a communist country to hear “O Christmas Tree” without recrimination.

This being an international site, with readers and editors in all corners of the world, we celebrate this occasion in our traditional nondenominational style.

The editors of Thetruthaboutcars wish our readers a joyous Constitution Day in Micronesia, a roaring Santuranticuy in Peru, a happy Stedry den in the Czech Republic, we wish you cheerful Las Posadas in Mexico, a red, white, and blue Washington’s Birthday in the US, and a red-on-white Emperor’s Birthday in Japan. Happy Fete des Membres to our friends in Haiti, a crackling Constitution Day in Taiwan, and whatever you do on Family Day in Angola. We celebrate Jinnah’s Birthday with our friends in Pakistan and Annual Sports Day with our two readers in the Falkland Islands. Our gloves come off for Boxing Day, and back on for the Day of Goodwill in South Africa. We wish a rowdy Junkanoo to our island buddies. Y’all have a splendid St. Stephen’s Day, and may you enjoy whatever one does on a Zartusht – No – Diso.

We also wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Over and between the holidays, our usual high volume reporting will slow to a festive trickle. There isn’t much news anyway at that time. If there are monstrous news, we’ll set down the eggnog and write about it. Our friends in Germany and elsewhere in Europe are already enjoying the perfect present from the calendar: Two weeks of holidays by taking just five days off.

After we have recovered, we will hit the new year with verve. I will convince Frau Schmitto-san that it is still way too iffy for a Japanese National to be in China, and we will go back to Tokyo to cover the insanities of the Tokyo Auto Salon. Think SEMA Dekotora-style, and you will be halfway there. Derek will trade frigid Toronto with longjohn Detroit and cover the Detroit Auto Show.

And before we forget: This month is Stress Free Family Holiday Month, along with Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month: We want you all back, safe, sound, and witty as ever in the new year.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 37 comments
  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Dec 24, 2012

    Merry Christmas (and since I'm currently in Thailand I gotta say, this is a strange place to spend Christmas.)

  • Oldyak Oldyak on Dec 24, 2012

    Merry Christmas From Memphis! have a nananna/peanut butter samwich in homage to the King.... I KNOW!!!! Wrong King !!! (but a great samwich)

    • Lumbergh21 Lumbergh21 on Dec 24, 2012

      Just so long as you're not having a peanut butter and bacon sandwich in homage to the King. That would be truly weird.

  • 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.
Next