Between the Lines: Berkowitz Hits the [Toyota] Open Road
By Justin BerkowitzJune 11, 2008 -
As GM’s FastLane and GMNext blogs have demonstrated, the U.S. automobile industry has fully embraced the concept of blogging-- as press release. Toyota, of course, has entered the e-fray. Their Open Road blog may do little (as in nothing) to stretch the boundaries of Web 2.0-itude, but it offers the usual insight into the corporate culture from which it sprang. ToMoCo’s plugging the new Venza crossover, designed to fill the gaping hole in their lineup between the Camry, RAV4, Highlander, FJ Cruiser, 4Runner and Sienna. Into the depths we descend...
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | Sales and Marketing | 31 comments 
Between The Lines: MT’s Angus MacKenzie’s on GM’s Sinking Stock Price
By Edward NiedermeyerMarch 18, 2008 -
Angus MacKenzie did everything but call TTAC by name in his essay GM Shares Tumble. So What? Yes, the Motor Trend scribe can “almost hear the Detroit death-watchers rubbing their hands with glee” at the news of GM's stock hitting two-year lows. It's true. Every time GM's share price dips, we light giant cigars, twirl our collective mustache and laugh maniacally. That Mr. MacKenzie sees critical coverage of the auto industry as journalistic schadenfreude goes some ways towards explaining Motor Trend’s increasingly toothless car reviews. But how can MacKenzie, an experienced car hack, justify pinning Detroit’s woes on anyone other than, well, Detroit? Hey, a man’s gotta eat.
Between The Lines: MT’s Angus MacKenzie’s on GM’s Sinking Stock Price editorial continued »
Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | Media | 53 comments
Between The Lines: A Look Into Bob Lutz’ Mind
By Frank WilliamsJanuary 24, 2008 -
GM Car Czar Bob Lutz wants you to know what's on his mind. So, at last night's Automotive News congressional confab, Maximum Bob let rip, revealing the concerns triggering the suit's septuagenarian synapses. But, as usual, there are major gaps between Bob's thoughts and actual reality.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 34 comments
Between The Lines: New York Times Op Ed “Et tu Toyota?”
By Robert FaragoOctober 4, 2007 -
The New York Times may be called The Old Gray Lady, but I reckon it’s one of those old gray ladies you find lingering at lunch counters, constantly sticking their nose into everyone’s business. In today’s Op Ed piece, Thomas L Friedman takes Toyota to task. He's miffed that the Japanese automaker's siding with The Big 2.8 against proposed federal regs raising the required corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) figure to 35mpg by 2020. The arguments behind “Et tu Toyota?” may be old news to TTAC readers, but like the Times itself, we can’t resist a bit of nasty gossip.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 82 comments
Between The Lines: James May on American Cars and Food
By Glenn SwansonSeptember 17, 2007 -
Top Gear (TG) presenter James May’s nickname is Captain Slow. As you’d expect from a country where sarcasm is a team sport, the moniker disses Mr. May’s driving skills. But the nickname could just as easily refer to May’s intellectual agility. Like automotive alpha Jeremy Clarkson, May is always happy to take an analytical shortcut, especially if it leads to some good old fashioned America bashing. Writing about his recent stateside sojourn in the Telegraph-- "Eat Junk, Drive Junk"-- May once again reveals that the U.S. and the UK are two nations separated by British snobbery.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 133 comments
Between the Lines: Lexus’ F Ad
By Robert FaragoSeptember 11, 2007 -
During my brief stint in British advertising, I had the distinct pleasure of working with one Paul Harvey Douglas. Paul was the world’s best headline writer. He could distill an entire advertising campaign down to a single sentence, a phrase, a word. I wonder what PHD would have made of Lexus' ad for its new F-Series automobiles. “What is F?” the two-page Autoweek center spread asks. “F is everything you thought we weren’t,” it answers. I could almost hear Paul’s derisive snort. “F means their brand’s in ‘effing trouble,” he would have pronounced. Too right, mate.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 117 comments
Between The Lines: Motor Trend on the 2008 Subaru WRX
By Justin BerkowitzSeptember 4, 2007 -
As Motor Trend (MT) and its buff book brethren hemorrhage readers and cash to the Internet, they’ve reacted in the only way they know how: by kow-towing to their advertisers with even greater ardor and even lower journalistic standards (yes, “special advertising section” readers, it is possible). But what really galls is their continued belief that they’re superior to both Internet websites and those who visit them. MT’s first test review of the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX is a perfect case in point.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 77 comments
Between The Lines: AutoWeek’s Long-Term Jaguar XK-R
By Robert FaragoAugust 30, 2007 -
Press cars are specially selected, carefully prepared and meticulously maintained. Why wouldn’t they be? You can hardly expect a manufacturer to pluck a car from the assembly line and trust their model’s reputation to the vagaries of quality control-- even though the car’s less likely to receive a harsh critique than a seventh grade production of The Wizard of Oz. To their credit, the manufacturers eventually “let go;” surrendering specially selected, carefully prepared new vehicles to the buff books’ long-term fleets. When things go wrong, as they do, the result betrays the tension between payola and editorial credibility.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 41 comments
Between the Lines: Former Tesla CEO Martin Eberhard’s Email to Roadster Customers
By Robert FaragoAugust 14, 2007 -
This website has been skeptical of Tesla Motors’ claims for their lithium-ion-powered Roadster since day one. While some readers think we’ve “had it in” for the California-based car company, rest assured TTAC is an equal opportunity muckraker. Anyway, yesterday, when Martin Eberhard revealed that he’d relinquished Tesla's top job, we held fire to avoid accusations of smug satisfaction. But Eberhard’s email to Tesla customers piqued our interest. As Tesla has yet to deliver a single customer car, by thy words thy shall be known.
Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | Electric Vehicles | 47 comments
Between the Lines: Car and Driver on the New Cadillac CTS
By Robert FaragoAugust 9, 2007 -
Aside from ad revenue, why would a car magazine want to position itself as a cheering section for General Motors? Well exactly. Car and Driver’s September review of the “new” Cadillac CTS is such a blatant example of boosterism it puts the "sub" in "subsidy." This will come as no surprise to regular readers who’ve watched the buff book slowly sink into a glossy ghetto of pistonhead prostitution. Even so, I feel compelled to use C&D’s CTS review as a re-launching pad for Between the Lines, so that TTAC readers understand what this website stands for. Or, more precisely, against.
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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | 79 comments
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