Features

Editorial: Winter Comes To Michigan

By HeBeGB
November 27, 2008 - I live in Michigan. Not on the Detroit side of things, around here it's mostly suppliers. I'm an engineer. As I write this, I'm off on unpaid furlough. I don't work in the auto business; my company is in an industry about 10 bailout levels down. But around here, it all looks the same. Two years ago the Delphi fuel injector plant was shut down; two months ago the big GM stamping plant was stamped for extinction. Winter even came a bit earlier this year. It's cold, damp, gray, and we got some snow before Thanksgiving. Not unheard of, but not exactly welcome. I think it was P.J. O'Rourke who remarked while flying over the "liberated" but still depressed Eastern Europe, "Communism is the only form of government you can see from 30,000 feet." This economy is like that. You can see it of course, but it's also cold and gray and it hangs in the Michigan air.

Editorial: Winter Comes To Michigan editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | Nostalgia | 39 comments

The 2008 Dallas Auto Show. Yes, Dallas.

By William C Montgomery
April 9, 2008 -

My personal highlight of Last year’s Dallas Auto Show was watching Sajeev work his magic on GM’s regional marketing director. He’d met her at the Houston Auto Show some weeks earlier, where they’d had a productive conversation. Apparently the Powers That Be within GM didn’t think that was a good idea. She was talking gaily with other scribes when we approached her. When she turned to greet us, her face darkened the moment she recognized the dashing Mr. Mehta. Visibly agitated, she hissed, “I can’t talk to you,” spun on her heels and scurried away. After a moment of stunned silence I asked TTAC’s lonely lothario, “Do you have that effect on all women?”

The 2008 Dallas Auto Show. Yes, Dallas. editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | Industry | Media | 20 comments

Who Drove My Cheese?

By Tom Flyer
January 2, 2008 -

Wiki.answers.com challenges visitors to ask a question, any question; from “What is the meaning of life?” to “Dude, where’s my car?” Realizing that the site’s Google-style entry bar may prove a tad daunting, the webmasters also provide a list of 20 categories for intellectual exploration. Enquiring minds can click on a relevant area and then drill down to see if someone’s been there, asked that (via unfortunately worded questions like “What’s the best food to eat with diarrhea?”). As you’d expect from a wiki site, you can also switch to “Answers” and put questioners out of their intellectual misery. I decided to apply my expertise to the automotive arena. And down the rabbit hole we go.

Who Drove My Cheese? editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | 49 comments

Marriage and Cars

By Glenn Swanson
July 22, 2007 -

When you’re young, free and single, buying a new car is easy. You match the maximum amount of available cash/credit to the maximum amount of cool you can afford and sign your life away. When you’re married, buying a new car is a pain in the ass, right from the git-go. Which car do we sell? Who gets the new car? Who gets the old car? How practical should it be? How stylish? Whose style? How much car can WE afford? Post-nuptial new car negotiations can present anything from a small bump in the marital road to a VERY expensive write-off.

Marriage and Cars editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | 41 comments

Jerry Rich, Car Collector

By Robert Farago
May 12, 2007 -

“Hi. I’m Jerry Rich.”

As I shake the golf course owner’s hand through the window of our rented Mustang, Rich’s gaze falls on my wife’s jeans.

“You got a hole in your jeans,” he remarks, eyeing my wife’s strategically distressed apparel. 

“I paid good money for those holes,” Sam retorts.

Jerry Rich, Car Collector editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | 26 comments

Car Buying Tips: European Delivery

By Jay Shoemaker
March 18, 2007 -

This wasn’t the first time I’d opted for European delivery. In fact, after counting all the license plates I’d collected from these international adventures, I discovered I was on my eighth visit. Normally, when my wife learns I want to go to Stuttgart or Munich, she digs in her proverbial heels. So I had to package my automotive connection with a week in Paris. I made the arrangements to pick up a BMW 335 at the Munich factory. Here’s how the deal went down…

Car Buying Tips: European Delivery editorial continued »

Posted in Car Buying Tips | Editorials | Features | 41 comments

The Big Apple’s Rules of the Road

By Justin Berkowitz
February 24, 2007 -

New York City boasts the highest concentration of gargantuan rear wheel drive V8-powered cars in the country, 99% of which sit on Ford’s Panther platform. Still, in layout and public transit it may be the most European city in the U.S. But there’s nothing European about the way people drive in the city’s five boroughs. It’s like the Matrix - you can’t really be told what it is, you have to see it for yourself to understand. Let’s start with the rules.

The Big Apple’s Rules of the Road editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | 66 comments

Automotive Marketing: Losing Site

By Michael Martineck
January 25, 2007 -

To say the internet has become an important marketing tool for automobile manufacturers is like saying radial tires are beginning to catch on. And yet Forrester Research reports that many car companies' websites depend on clunky photo galleries, confusing spec tables, complicated car configurators and other layout clichés. “You can’t frustrate and annoy people into liking your brand,” counsels Ron Rogowski, one of the Forrester's senior analysts. “But a lot of automotive websites seem to be trying to do just that.” 

Automotive Marketing: Losing Site editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | Sales and Marketing | 115 comments

Car Collecting: Giving Private Sellers Benjamins

By Terry Parkhurst
January 21, 2007 -

Buying an automobile from a private seller is risky business. There’s only one guarantee: you have less chance of successful legal compensation than you would trying to recover your $5 tip from a New York City cabbie. On the positive side, you can make out like a bandit. This is especially true for a privately owned collector car. Whether it’s a classic or a street rod, if someone else gets stuck with the time and expense of restoration, you win. 

Car Collecting: Giving Private Sellers Benjamins editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | Nostalgia | 33 comments

Peek Oil?

By Paul Niedermeyer
January 13, 2007 -

It’s easier to convince an Evangelical that Christ was a grifter than to persuade pistonheads to give up their regular oil change. Yea, verily, the maniacal motorists believe in the healing power of regular visits to the Church of St. Pennzoil. And they certainly have the Gospel of Jiffy Lube on their sides: Thou shalt change thy oil every 3k miles or your engine will blow up in an explosion of fire and brimstone. Well I hereby give pistonheads permission to skip their next regularly scheduled motor oil change. And the one after that one. In fact, if you’re not planning to keep your car for all eternity, consider forgetting oil changes altogether.

Peek Oil? editorial continued »

Posted in Editorials | Features | Technology | 175 comments