Click here to view the embedded video.

Critics of the current administration have pointed to the impending bankruptcy of Fisker Automotive and the recent suspension of operations at taxi maker Vehicle Production Group as examples of why the government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers in it’s zeal to promote alternative energy. The DoE effort under which those two companies received financing is the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, ATVM. Putting aside political ideologies, contrary to the image given by the apparent failure of Fisker and VPG, the ATVM program actually has a pretty decent track record when it comes to picking winners and losers.

Revolution Motors

The ATVM was actually started during the Bush administration, in 2007 and received $25 billion funding from Congress in 2008, before President Obama took office, though the final determination of all loans awarded so far has been made by the Obama administration. Only a few loans have been made so far, so it’s easy track the program. In part the small number of loans is because of the political fallout over the 2011 failure of Solyndra, which got over a half billion dollars from the DoE as part of a different program at the DoE. So far less than $9 billion of that $25 billion has been awarded and none since March of 2011, though in the video above, posted in March of 2012, the Department of Energy explicitly was soliciting more companies to apply for loans.

Vehicle Production Group

Of the car companies that were actually awarded loans, the DoE did pretty well, three out of five seem to be thriving. Ford was the primary recipient of ATVM loans, $5.9 billion, used to upgrade factories in six states. Nissan came next, with $1.45 billion, used for a battery factory and preparing their Smyrna, Tennessee plant for Leaf production. Tesla, currently flying high with investors and now producing Model S EVs at a rate of 20K/year, got $465 million and has repaid it in full.

Coda

The status of Ford and Nissan’s debt to the ATVM is unclear, though I presume they are not behind in their payments. Ford has been very aggressive in retiring corporate debt since its turnaround following the mortgaging of the company for something like $23.6 billion in 2006. Of the two failures, Fisker got promised just over a half billion, of which about $200 million was drawn before the DoE put the brakes on after Fisker failed to meet loan criteria, and VPG got the smallest loan, $50 million.

Bright Automotive

Not only is the ATVM currently batting .600 on moneys disbursed, looking at the companies that have been turned down for loans, the Department of Energy has actually done a even better job picking winners and losers in determining which startup car companies had truly viable business plans.

Aptera

While it’s true that two out of the three startups funded under the program are failures, assuming that Tesla is indeed a success, those three were the only automotive startups out of 18 that applied were approved for loans. We know about seven of those rejected because they went public with the denial. All seven are pretty much out of business today. Of them, only Coda actually produced real production cars for sale to the public and in their case they only sold about 100 cars. Perhaps if your business model is significantly dependent on government financing, maybe you need a different business model. Tesla has had ample private financing and looks to be viable, but Fisker had over a billion dollars put up by private investors, about six times the amount loaned by taxpayers, and even that wasn’t sufficient.

XP Vehicles

In addition to Fisker, VPG and Tesla, whose loans were approved, companies that applied for loans and went public with their refusal, were:

Next Autoworks

Actually, a lot more than 7 other companies applied for loans. A Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2009 revealed a list of 108 applicants. So in all, there were only five companies approved for ATVM loans and 103 that were rejected or put on hold. Looking over the FOIA response, I identified another eight automobile startup companies, Zap, Revolution Motors, Electrorides, Wrightspeed, Phoenix Motors, Electric Motors Corp, Environmental Transport Solutions, and Local Motors.

Carbon Motors

Zap has been perpetually troubled, Revolution hasn’t gotten beyond a prototype for their leanable reverse trike, and Electric Motors is out of business. Four of the companies that seem to be surviving, Electrorides, Wrightspeed, Phoenix and Environmental Transport, are concentrating on electrified commercial vehicles, not passenger cars. It look like investing money, private or public, in startup passenger car companies, is not a very good bet.

Think

Rather than being a profligate waste of taxpayers’ money, the  Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program appears to have been managed in a responsible manner. The majority of the companies that received funding are in business and appear to be thriving. The majority of startup car companies, which are high risk enterprises in the first place, that were turned down for loans or that had their applications put on hold in 2011, are either no longer in business or financially troubled.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

Most of our readers probably already know the broad strokes of the Fisker story. If you’re interested in the finer details of the history of the extended range EV company that appears to be circling the drain, GigaOM, a site that covers the investment side of tech companies, has published a fairly comprehensive 4,000 word look back at Fisker by Katie Fehrenbacher.

While the ~$200 million that Fisker received in Dept. of Energy loans has gotten a bit of attention, that’s only a small fraction of the $1 billion plus that the EV startup burned through since 2007. The bulk of that money came from venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins as well as private investors.

Fehrenbacher’s been covering Fisker from the beginning and for this article she conducted a dozen recent interviews with individuals at the heart of the Fisker story. The focus is primarily on the financing, but she also goes into Fisker’s business model for building cars, like the curious fact that the company paid up front for 15,000 cars’ worth of components from suppliers, though it only assembled about 2,000 Karmas.

They also apparently paid BMW at least something in advance for the engines Fisker was going to be using on its second model, the Nina/Atlantic, though production on that car wasn’t going to start for years. Fehrenbacher also described the company as top heavy with experienced auto industry executives, many of them highly compensated refugees from Detroit.

As they say, read the whole thing here.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

This week, the idea of Brazil’s cars being “unsafe” due to inferior construction has been gaining a lot of currency on the blogosphere after the Associated Press published a report on this topic. Very few outlets have anyone posted in Brazil to do any deeper digging, but TTAC does. Unfortunately, our man Marcelo de Vasconcellos is currently in exams right now (good luck, Senhor!) and was unable to write up an article refuting these claims. Still, Marcelo took the time out to talk to TTAC about the problems behind the article.

The various articles floating around the web allege that Brazilian cars are doomed to be “unsafe” due to poor workmanship, excessive cost-cutting and poor grades of steel. Marcelo was able to speak to people at Fiat Brazil, as well as some engineering professors, and found out that the truth is that road fatalities are up, but not for the reasons people think they are.

A report by the Associated Press cites electricty savings on welding and shoddy workmanship as a key culprit behind the poor crash safety of Brazil’s cars

“If you save on electricity, you save on cost. One way to save electricity is either reducing the number of spot welds or using less energy for each spot weld made. This affects structural performance in the event of a crash.”

Marcelo asserts that since most of the cars sold in Brazil are unibody subcompacts, this argument holds little weight. Welds are done via robot, and the process is highly standardized, with little variation. Furthermore, many Brazilian made cars are exported. Fiats are sent back to Italy, while Volkswagens are exported to Argentina, the Middle East, Russia and other locations. Any cars sold in Europe must meet strict Euro NCAP standards, and the European magazines publish the results in great detail.

Brazilian steel is also blamed due to its apparently poor quality. Marcelo asserts this is false as well. Brazil’s iron ore is a sought after commodity on the world market as well (especially in places like Australia and Brazil), and Brazil is home to ValeInco, one of the world’s leading steel producers. This is far from the Eastern European sheetmetal that was notorious for causing Fiats to rust within minutes of coming into contact with road salt. We are dealing with a globally marketed commodity that must be competitive.

Marcelo instead places the blame on the increasing number of cars on the road, piloted by first-time drivers on poorly maintained road infastructure

The professor [Marcelo's friend who is an engineering professor] also commented that while the article showed an increase of 70% in fatalities (I think that’s what the article said, I have not read it) it did not say that the market has grown more than 150% over the last 15 years. Many, many of these buyers are first time drivers. Due to credit, many people don’t have the money to buy a used car (still more expensive here than in America) but they do have credit to buy said car in 60 months.

So, first time buyer, many times the first car in the family, many times young people, a disaster is waiting to happen. The other ingredient is of course the government. Badly maintained roads, almost no police presence on streets – an over-reliance on radars, just recently a crack down on drunk driving (the limit in Brazil is now 0, yes zero), lack of signs, roads designed and engineered and built in the 60s. Plus traffic conditions lots and lots of very old, decrepit really, buses and trucks…

Of course small cars are involved in more accidents. 70% of the market in Brazil is Palio, Uno, Gol, Fox, Celta, Classic, Sandero, Logan, 208, Ka, Fiesta and derivatives. All considered subcompacts in America. Of course they are in the majority of accidents. Of course most people get killed or maimed in them. A Gol sells 30k a month, a Corolla is lucky to get 3k…

As far as crash testing goes, Marcelo admits that Brazil does have a long way to go with both crash testing standards and mandatory safety features, but notes that the country is improving.

For you to have an idea, a Renault Sandero recently crash tested did better than a Chinese JAC 3. Detail: the Sandero was not equipped with airbags or ABS and the JAC was. Brazilian built Corollas got the same results as American Corollas. Now, airbags and ABS become mandatory next year. Look for Brazilian cars to then get the same results as their first world brethren. Take an American Fusion, strip it of its airbags and it’ll get the same 1, 2 or 3 stars Brazilian cars have been getting in such tests.

Brazilian cars are sort of middle of the road. They are not deathtraps but they are not first world because they don’t have lots of active safety systems. But they do have a lot of passive systems, collapsible steering wheel columns, collapsible brake peddles, fuel cut off systems in case of accidents, crumple zones, 3 point seat belts, they are all there.

While it would be irresponsible to ignore the AP’s report out of hand, it’s worth highlighting some of the non-car related factors in Marcelo’s interview. The lack of any drunk driving regulations, the substantial amount of inexperienced drivers on poorly maintained roads with scant traffic laws and the lack of any real enforcement of the rules of the road is clearly a recipe for disaster. Whether these locally-built subcompacts are in fact death traps is another debate that I’m not comfortable wading into.

One point that nobody has raised yet is the obscene prices that Brazilian consumers pay for cars. Often times they are 2-3 times more expensive than in America. Brazilian consumers could potentially be driving inferior cars and paying through the nose for them.

So much is going on in the automotive world. Unfunded mandates by government for fuel efficiency, electronic safety systems, pedestrian safety and so on. The whole rising gas prices thing etc. etc.

I’ve found something that trumps all of those non-issues. A few weeks ago, I was driving along the Long Island Expressway, mindlessly commuting to work, when I stumbled upon this chewing up the miles eastbound.

This is a stretched 1990′s Volvo that was weaving in and out of traffic, and finally. it went into the HOV lane.

Yes, a stretched 1990s Volvo.  The thing…err…car had genuine New York State Livery plates, and was moving at a decent clip. Let me get this straight. Somebody saw a mid-90′s Volvo…and said to themselves “Yes…I want to stretch it. Add more sheet metal!” It’s madness. Pure madness!

I am writing because I am genuinely curious. Can somebody tell me first, where did this car come from?  Second, why does it exist?  Third, are there any more stretched Volvos out there? Most importantly, why would anyone ever stretch a Volvo in the first place? Do the swells in the back value safety that much that a Town Car doesn’t suffice? Do they like the cool atmosphere of Swedish decadence?

What are the weirdest stretch limos you’ve seen? Are they are perfectly lackluster as this one? Please comment below and help solve this very important mystery.

The city of Atlanta (Motto: “Home of the airport where you changed planes last Christmas”) has installed a roundabout at a rather busy intersection near my house. This is highly entertaining if you’re watching from a safe distance, such as a nearby restaurant patio, or possibly South Carolina. But actually driving in this roundabout is the closest most Atlantans come every day to serious injury, or at least a rather large fender dent.

We all know it’s true: Americans aren’t fond of roundabouts. In fact, a new survey says 93 percent of Americans would rather stub their toe on furniture in the middle of the night when trying to locate the bathroom than drive through a roundabout. Admittedly, the facts of this survey are highly disputed, primarily because I just made it up. But there’s no arguing that we’d rather have a traditional intersection, which is more dangerous, but less confusing. For those of you thinking that roundabouts aren’t that confusing, just remember: this is the country that bought a million PT Cruisers.

Fortunately, I’ve prepared a few tips on how to successfully negotiate a roundabout. I recommend printing this out and storing it in your car. That way, when a roundabout approaches, you can take your eyes off the road and frantically search for it as you drive through, thereby becoming the best driver in the roundabout.

Tip #1: Yield to traffic inside roundabout. This should go without saying, which is why I’ve decided to mention it. When you’re approaching a roundabout, you must yield to cars currently inside it. Note to Scion tC drivers: “yield” does not mean “downshift and floor it.”

In reality, most drivers don’t have a problem with this. Usually, people are more than willing to yield to drivers inside the roundabout, and drivers near the roundabout, and schoolchildren at recess several blocks from the roundabout. They do this as they stare into the sky, hoping a traffic light will suddenly appear and tell them to proceed. Which leads us to…

Tip #2: Be assertive. Whenever I approach the Scary New Atlanta Roundabout, I always seem to be stuck behind a Volvo 240DL. This means two things: one is that we will sit at the roundabout entrance for the next nine minutes in case someone from two counties over should consider driving through later in the afternoon. And two: as we wait, I will be staring at an NPR bumper sticker.

Yes, it’s true that you have to yield to traffic in the roundabout. But you also have to push your way in if there’s an opening, like when you’re leaving Dodger Stadium with everyone else in the middle of the seventh. And for God’s sake, when you get inside…

Tip #3: Don’t yield to traffic outside the roundabout. Once our NPR-loving friend in the 240DL gets into the roundabout, the real fun begins. As he approaches each entrance, he sees a waiting car and thinks: That used to be me! So he stops to let the other driver go, disrupting the flow of traffic. The sole exception is if the other driver is in a Scion tC, in which case he’s already forced his way into the roundabout and may be rolled over on the other side with techno music blaring.

Really, folks: once you’re in the roundabout, continue until your destination. And when you get there…

Tip #4: Signal your way out. Most drivers believe there’s no roundabout turn signal protocol. Actually, that isn’t strictly true: many drivers put their left turn signals on as they go through the roundabout since they are, technically, moving left. This is approximately as helpful as a NASCAR driver putting on his left turn signal for an entire race.

In actuality, you should use your right turn signal before leaving a roundabout, thereby giving waiting drivers the opportunity to enter. Otherwise they’re stuck making assumptions about when you might leave. And in the world of roundabouts…

Tip #5: Don’t assume. Assumptions lead to 86 percent of all roundabout collisions, according to the same company who did that poll about toe-stubbing. The main roundabout assumption is that a driver will leave before he’s good and ready.

Just a refresher: when I’m in a roundabout, it is my God-given right to exit wherever I want. In fact, I can drive around in circles for weeks, challenging anyone to enter at their own risk, sort of like a foe in an early Super Mario game. At least, that’s how most drivers think, displaying the same level of entitlement that a 13-year-old girl might get from having an iPhone.

Feel free to share other roundabout tips. Surely, there are a few I don’t know. After all, I’m new at this whole roundabout thing – and most of my experience comes from following a Volvo 240DL.

Doug DeMuro operates PlaysWithCars.com. He’s owned an E63 AMG wagon, road-tripped across the US in a Lotus without air conditioning, and posted a six-minute lap time on the Circuit de Monaco in a rented Ford Fiesta. One year after becoming Porsche Cars North America’s youngest manager, he quit to become a writer. His parents are very disappointed.

GM stockholders, especially the large stockholder in Washington, DC, have reason to rejoice: Today, GM shares “topped their 2010 initial public offering price, which will help the automaker’s largest shareholder, the U.S. Treasury, pare its losses,” Reuters says.

The price in the November 2010 IPO was $33.00. Today, the stock rose as high as $33.58 in morning trading.

According to Reuters, “the run-up in the stock price could help Treasury, which provided GM with a $49.5 billion bailout, trim losses that will likely still total billions of dollars. Treasury said earlier this month that it would begin another round of sales of its 241.7 million GM shares.”

Executives at GM told Reuters “that putting this issue behind them will improve the company’s image and boost sales, as they believe some consumers have held the bailout against the company.” For a current GM quote, click here.

Years ago, I was paid to help a neighbor clean out his garage. It was an old, ramshackle building with a dirt floor and over the years it had been filled with an amazing amount of crap. At the very back, under a canvas tarp, I found a long neglected late 60s Honda CB750 in fairly rough condition. When I asked about it, my neighbor told me how, as a younger man, he had purchased the bike new and travelled the highways and byways of the American West for many years before finally coming home a settling down to start a family. To him, it was an icon of his youth and a time of freedom. To my young eyes, however, it was just a neglected old bike covered in dirt and cobwebs, found forgotten, alone and unloved and condemned to spend its remaining years as a lifeless touchstone of another time. It struck me as a particularly sad end to a life of service and I decided then that no vehicle of mine would ever languish its remaining life away in a barn or under a cover.

It was the arrival of my third child that sparked my family’s need for a bigger vehicle. Up to that point we had been fine with my Chrysler and the Pontiac Torrent I had purchased for my wife after our return from Japan. Both cars had a pair of car seats in the back for our two older kids, but neither proved to be wide enough to add a the necessary third seat. It was obvious we needed a minivan and I soon began a long search that netted us the Ford Freestar that I have written about on these pages before. With my wife firmly ensconced in her new mommy mobile, the low mileage Torrent that had previously been hers became my daily driver and the Chrysler slipped to the side of the drive where it sat snug and secure under its cover as the Buffalo winter swept towards us.

The following year, whenever the weather looked nice, I rolled the Chrysler out of its spot from time to time for various work-related jaunts around Western New York. I took it to work on the nicest days and at other time used it for those few, infrequent errands that didn’t involve carting a kid around. It was nice to have and I used it a few times while our van went to the shop but for the most part, it simply sat and waited. That autumn, as inspection time rolled around, I found that I had put a grand total of four thousand miles on the clock. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a long unused synapse fired and a memory of a rusty, sad-looking motorcycle flashed into my consciousness. I pushed the vision back into its place and, with another winter on the horizon, slipped the Chrysler back into its place at the side of the drive way and secured its cover.

The memory continued to work at me, however, and the site of the car hunkered down under its cover and covered in autumn leaves, then snow and finally the yellow pollen of a new spring, gnawed at me. A few weeks ago, I took the car out, prepped it for the summer and doted on it as usual but the seed that had been planted last fall had grown large enough that events had crossed the tipping point. I made a last work related road trip three weeks ago and upon my return posted an ad to Craigslist.

I asked too much money but, regardless, someone responded quickly. Our first conversation went well and the interested party, a man named John, seemed like a good guy, Even better he had spent much of his life in Arizona, where I had purchased the car after my return from Japan in 2010, and he knew the dealership in question. What sealed the deal was when he and his wife arrived to check out my car and I saw he was driving his own less-than-Special Chrysler 300M.

There was tire kicking, a look under the hood, a test drive and a conversation but surprisingly little haggling. John and I are men of a similar type, I learned, and he knew exactly what he was buying. Maybe it was more expensive than every other 300M in Western New York, but it was truly unique and, like me, John was smitten as soon as he slipped behind the wheel. He thought about it overnight and, after working out the finances, came back on Wednesday evening with his cashier’s check. We swapped another story or two as we wrapped up the paperwork and then he opened the door, sunk down into the seat and started the engine. The car burbled at idle as he adjusted the seat, the mirrors and took a moment to survey his purchase. He slipped the car into gear, pulled the parking brake and then, slowly, majestically, the 300M slipped slowly down the drive, onto the street and out of my life forever.

The logical side of me knows that machines are things to be used up and discarded. If a person is especially devoted to regular service and maintenance they can stretch the lifespan of a given vehicle well beyond the norm. If they have the necessary mechanical skill, or the money to access those who do, they can keep a machine running indefinitely. But if a person lacks the time or interest to do the maintenance, make the repairs or even drive a vehicle then there can be only one, ultimate result. If, as I have often posited in my articles, cars really do have souls, the deserve better than to be held prisoner of a man’s past. They deserve a chance to live out their lives in the sun, with the wind streaming over them, the road rushing towards them and the miles falling away behind. Godspeed.

Thomas Kreutzer currently lives in Buffalo, New York with his wife and three children but has spent most of his adult life overseas. He has lived in Japan for 9 years, Jamaica for 2 and spent almost 5 years as a US Merchant Mariner serving primarily in the Pacific. A long time auto and motorcycle enthusiast he has pursued his hobbies whenever possible. He also enjoys writing and public speaking where, according to his wife, his favorite subject is himself.

The Volkswagen CrossBlue and CrossBlue Coupe will be made in China by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture, Carnewschina reports today.  According to the report, the car will be built when Volkswagen’s new factory will open in Changsha in China’s Hunan Province.

The plant will have an annual output of 300,000 units, construction of the plant started yesterday.

The CrossBlue Coupe with (according to Autoweek)  “sporty looks and proportions—and eye-popping 415-hp output” and the more traditional CrossBlue were concepts shown at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show. The concept uses a 295-hp, V6 TSI engine, augmented by two electric motors that add 54 hp and 114 hp, for a net total output of 415 hp for the system.

Volkswagen  says then “when the car’s full power potential is utilized, the SUV becomes a sports car: The Volkswagen accelerates to 100 km/h in a mere 5.9 seconds, and its maximum speed is 236 km/h (147 mph).” Volkswagen claims a combined fuel consumption of just 3.0 l/100 km (in the new European driving cycle or NEDC, 78 mpg , definitely not EPA).

Whether this power train will still be in the car when it goes on sale remains to be seen. A seven-seat and a five-seat variant is planned. The production version will be based on Volkswagen’s new MQB platform.

According to Carnewschina, “The CrossBlue is developed to satisfy China’s ever growing appetite for bigger, faster and more luxurious SUV’s. The CrossBlue Concept is basically the successor of the current Volkswagen Touareg, the Crossblue is moving into new territory for the Volkswagen brand.”

According to Chinese rumors, the new Changsha factory will also build a new Volkswagen sedan, code named VW511, that will be positioned between the Volkswagen Passat and the Volkswagen Phaeton.

Car and Driver scribe (and TTAC alum) Justin Berkowitz has penned an amazing feature about the U.S. Government’s campaign against grey market Land Rover Defenders.

According to Berkowitz, Defender enthusiasts have been trying to skirt the government’s 25 year exemption for imported cars by fudging the ages of Defenders from Europe and elsewhere. VIN plates are often tampered with on newer examples, being replaced with older VIN plates that make the Defenders eligible for importation. But as Berkowitz reports, the Department of Homeland Security has gotten wise to this tactic, and have even enlisted Land Rover to help them catch cheaters. Check it out at Car and Driver’s blog.

As predicted by TTAC, European car sales were up slightly in April. Car sales in the EU rose by 1.7 percent in the month, Europe’s car manufacturer association ACEA says. We warned you not to read too much into it.

According to the ACEA, “the region counted on average two more working days compared to the same month last year, which would account for the increase.” Actually, what happened was that the Easter week fell into March this year, last year, it was in April. March and April, taken together, shows sales down 5 percent.  In the first four months of the year, the EU new car market was down 7.1 percent. A week ago, we expected the market to be “down around 7 percent for the first four months of the year.”

On a manufacturer basis, the Volkswagen Group (+9.9 percent in April) continues to outpace the market. So does Daimler (+ 10.7 percent.) Not all carmakers were able to profit from the favorable alignment of the calendars. PSA is down 10.1 percent, Fiat is down 10 percent, BMW lost 3.7 percent. GM Group is down 4.5 percent with a very strong drop for Chevrolet and a slight gain for Opel. Ford is down 0.6 percent.

The Ford Fiesta looks to be picking up and moving from its current assembly locations in India and Mexico to a central location in Thailand when the next generation rolls around in 2016.

While other outlets are reporting the story as a rumor, TTAC has confirmed this news via an independent source. Since Fiesta’s main markets are Europe and Asia (as well as South America, which loves the ungainly 4-door sedan version), Thai sourcing is seen as the smart move to help bring costs down.

Moving the Fiesta from Mexico will also free up production capacity in a NAFTA country. Thailand does not have a free trade agreement with the United States or Canada.

If it weren’t for a Papal visit, Dr. Z may never have come to know Mercedes-Benz.

A brief article in Automotive News mentions M-B boss Dieter Zetsche’s first encounter with a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which ultimately led him to the company that he is now CEO of

During the launch of the new S class in Hamburg last night, Zetsche said what he remembers most from a pastoral visit that Pope Paul VI made to the area where he was living as a young man was the Mercedes that his holiness was being driven in.

Mercedes’ top-of-the-line model wasn’t known as the S class at that time, which didn’t matter to Zetsche. He said he knew right then and there that he had to figure out a way to someday get behind the wheel of a car like that, “without having to become pope.”

As far as Popes go, Paul VI is a fairly controversial figure for some Catholics. I always thought the faux-Idi Amin S-Class used for the Entebee raid was the world’s coolest S-Class but that’s just me.

The Yaris is made at Toyota’s Onnaing-Valenciennes plant in France, from where it is shipped to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Quebec accounting for 65% of Yaris’ Canadian sales, and with this, “a warm welcome will be assured for this ‘Made in France’ vehicle,” Seiji Ichii, CEO of Toyota Canada, said.

The Yaris accounted for nearly 22 percent of Toyota’s total European sales in 2012, with 182,841 vehicles, Toyota told Reuters.

When you think Toyota, you think export from Japan, but this is changing. This year, Toyota will ship U.S.-made Venza to Russia and China, said The Nikkei [sub].

Toyota will ship 4,000 Venza to Russia, 1,000 to Ukraine, and “several thousand” to China. By 2014, Toyota expects to be exporting 150,000 vehicles a year from the U.S., 20 percent more than in 2012.

In December, TTAC reported that transplants export cars in surprising numbers. BMW exported 70 percent of the 276,000 cars it built 2011 in Spartanburg, SC, helping South Carolina overtake Michigan as the No. 1 exporter of automobiles. Mercedes-Benz exports half of its cars made at its Birmingham, Ala. plant to countries outside NAFTA. Honda wants to become a net exporter of American made vehicles.

State Sen. Nicholas Sacco, D-Hudson, says drones could benefit society if used correctly; his bill , introduced on April 25, would let police and fire departments use drones for extreme conditions that might be too dangerous for humans, or where existing tools simply wouldn’t work.

“Think about missing children, missing seniors,” Sacco told the Star-Ledger of Newark. “The immediacy and the ability to use drones to find them quickly is very important. Think about forest fires. Things like this are extremely important.”

Children: Used As A Vague Justification For Tyranny Since About 1950! Is there anybody left who is naive enough to think that drones will be used to find missing children? After all, missing children tend to be inside buildings and/or surrounded by other, taller people. Not great conditions for drones, really.

On the other hand, a freeway is a great place for drone surveillance. And while they’re up there scanning the freeways tirelessly for missing children, seniors, or forest fires, they might as well issue some speeding tickets, right?

Welcome to the traffic Skynet. But New Jersey already has a John Connor.

International Business Times reports that some New Jersey legislators just cannot wait to get some drones flying over the freeways. They want New Jersey to get those birds in the air by 2015, well ahead of when the FAA is expected to have some half-assed thing together that makes it impossible to fly a Cessna because all the space under, say, 28,000 feet will be reserved for surveillance drones, traffic drones, and drones that seek out microaggressions against womyn and punish it via the so-called “castration ray”.

Unless a whole hell of a lot of children and seniors can be persuaded to go missing for extended periods of time, those drones will probably be used exclusively for traffic ticketing. Drones are a municipality’s dream. They can fly above traffic and issue hundreds of speeding tickets in minutes. Imagine a world where doing 68 in a 65 down a hill immediately “originates” a drone speeding ticket. That’s the future.

Luckily for the State That Made Snooki Famous, there are already voices speaking out against SkyNet. New Jersey Assemblymen Robert Schroeder and Declan J. O’Scanlon, Jr, who was recently described by my perceptive subconscious as “someone who might possibly be of Irish descent”, have introduced a bill that requires a warrant for all drone surveillance and specifically prevents the use of drones for traffic enforcement. This bill is likely to be treated like toilet paper the minute anybody takes the time to look at it, but it’s nice to know that the drones already have enemies. In the near future, which actually means the somewhat distant past in this case, we can probably expect a Resistance-captured surveillance drone to pop out of a time warp and impregnate Declan J. O’Scanlon, Jr’s mother-to-be so that he can lead the Resistance after Judgment Day. I’ve written a brief fragment of a movie script describing this:

The scene is a PARKING LOT. The DRONE-1000 is flying in a circle approximately five hundred feet above DECLAN J. O’SCANLON JR’S FUTURE MOTHER, who looks up at the faint noise overheard.

D.J.O’S.J’S.F.M.: What’s that up there?

DRONE-1000: It’s me, the Drone-1000! I’ve been sent back in time to protect you so that you can be the mother of the Resistance! In order to do this, I have to impregnate you!

D.J.O’S.J’S.F.M.: That’s weird, it’s making a noise.

DRONE-1000: I haven’t figured out the impregnation mechanism yet, but a primary data approximation says it would help if you could rent a small aircraft for an hour or so and come up here! Better make that two hours — I like to take my time!

D.J.O’S.J’S.F.M.: Huh. I wonder if Jameson is on sale at the Quickie Mart.

FINIS

While our hero drone is working that problem out, now might be a good time for TTAC readers in New Jersey to contact their local legislator.

That way, Daimler gets around using the new R1234yf refrigerant, and can continue the old. Instead, the new S-Klasse has “six eyes and six ears – is sounds like Frankenstein, but it looks much better,” quipped  Daimler’s Zetsche.  The car points cameras in all directions, it even visually acquires cars that are about to rear-end the new S-Class, and it takes appropriate action.

The S-Class doesn’t have a single light bulb, instead, it has some 500 LEDs. As a nod to China, the new S-Class was developed  with a long wheelbase, the shorter wheelbase is a derivative, and not the other way round.

Reuters says the new S-Class is “make or break” for Daimler. It also claims that “a larger and longer S-Class, widely expected to be dubbed “Pullman”, will compete head on with Rolls-Royce and Bentley for the hearts of the super rich.”

Thursday-afternoon press  conferences at Mitsubishi and Nissan remained mostly deserted  as the Fourth Estate congregated at Honda to hear the not so secret news that Honda will return to F1. I didn’t go because I thought we don’t cover F1. When I remembered that we now do, it was too late. Did I mention that running around Tokyo covering the auto beat is a world of tough decisions?

Honda had exited the sport in 2009 after what the BBC calls “years of poor results with its own team.” Of course, the global meltdown had something to do with it also. Honda will be back as an engine supplier to the McLaren team, or, as its statement says, “Honda will be in charge of the development, manufacture and supply of the power unit, including the engine and energy recovery system, while McLaren will be in charge of the development and manufacture of the chassis, as well as the management of the new team, McLaren Honda.”

Formula One will introduce a blown 1.6 liter V6 engine with energy recovery systems, a move that fits into carmakers’ plans of disengaging from 8 cylinder engines.

With Nissan drinking Red Bull and Honda powering McLaren, all eyes are on Toyota. There are off and on rumors that they might be back as Lexus, but nothing official yet.

The annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is quickly turning into a Nurburgring equivalent when it comes to bragging rights of electric vehicle makers. The venue is perfect for EVs:  The track is 12.42 miles long, as cinch even for the most range-challenged EV.  The track finishes at 14,110 ft, a height that deprives ICE-powered cars of oxygen and some 40 percent of their power. An EV just laughs at the breathless engines. I learn all those trivia today in Mitsubishi’s showroom in Tamachi, Tokyo. A descendant on Mitsubishi’s iMiev will be part of the electrified hill climb.

The last year’s winner was the Toyota TMG EV P002. It will defend its title.  Across town in Tokyo, Mitsubishi fields its MiEV Evolution II all-electric racer.  The sport appears to be one for mature men. Mitsubishi-driver and two-time Dakar Rally overall champion Hiroshi Masuoka is a relative youngster at age 53. Toyota’s driver Rod Millen is 61. Pikes Peak legend Monster Tajima, himself 63, won’t return in an EV, but will arrive with a 670hp hachi-roku.

SUVs are usually regarded as safer than small cars. However, “most of the small SUVs tested for safety in crashes did not fare well in more stringent tests” performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Reuters says.

“US small SUVs scored badly,” writes the wire. Top honors took a trucklet that, according to the Urban Dictionary, is “driven by post-menopausal lesbians:” The Subaru Forester.

The Forester is the only small SUV that received a “good” rating in the newly added Small Front Overlap Test. The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport received an “acceptable” rating on the overlap test, and made second. The Forester and the Outlander were the only small SUVs to be awarded the IHS “Top Safety Pick+.”

The best-rated Detroit trucklet is the Buick Encore on place 6 with a poor Small Overlap rating. The Jeep Wrangler brings up the rear with a truly mediocre showing. Boo, hiss, Detroit – pussy-whipped by a Japanese transgender crossover that is also known as a “vag-wag?”

PS: Before you start to tar and feather me for Detroit bashing LGBT discrimination, please be notified that according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the term “dyke” originated “as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists.” Shame on them. “However, some persons attempt to use it in a manner that they see as positive, or as a neutral synonym for lesbian,” and those persons include the Schmitts.

Bad news on the subprime front, as credit rating agency Experian reports a rise in delinquencies and repossessions for auto loans in Q1 2013.

Melinda Zabritski offered a rather dubious explanation for the nearly 17 percent rise in repos (as well as the 1.3 percent uptick in 30 day delinquencies and 12.4 percent rise in 60-day delinquencies)

“Obviously, we never want to see a rise in delinquencies or repossessions, but when you compare the current findings with previous years, they are still lower than the recession-level rates…However, one thing most lenders will agree upon is that today’s subprime borrower is less delinquent than those in the past.”

Zero Hedge, reporting on the latest data from the Fed, is reporting a nearly 24 percent rise in delinquent balances year-over-year. Experian only expects things to get worse, stating

“As we continue to move forward, we should start to see more increases as some of the subprime loans coming onto the books begin to deteriorate.”

And still, financial institutions are happy to keep pumping out bad loans. The total dollar volume grew to $726 billion, up from $663 billion in Q1 2012. Banks increased their loan portfolios by $20 billion, finance companies by $18 billion, credit unions by $14 billion and captive finance arms by $12 billion, while but average charge-off amounts rose by 9.8% to $7,401 on each defaulted loan. But, as Experian kindly reminded us, “Charge-offs are still well below recession levels, however, as Q1 2009 average charge-offs were $10,126.”

That’s definitely reassuring news!

Aftermath of Carrollton, KY bus crash May 14, 1988.

No one is in favor of drunk driving. Don’t do it. Now that I’ve completed the ritualistic incantation prior to writing a piece about drunk driving, let’s hit the jump and discuss the latest proposal from the NTSB.

Yesterday the NTSB began a campaign using its bully pulpit to encourage state legislatures to adopt a per se blood alcohol content limit of 0.05%, a significant reduction from the current standard of 0.08%.  It’s common in other countries, particularly European ones, to have the limit set that low. However, as with, well, everything, at some point you reach a point of diminishing returns.

The usual suspects are lining up on both sides. The NTSB has no regulatory authority, so it can’t impose this. However, as with the campaigns to lower the limit from 0 .10 to 0.08 and the push for mandatory seatbelt usage, eventually the threat of withholding Federal highway funds from states that don’t adopt the lower limit will bring the states in line. The insurance companies are on board, of course, with the NTSB’s recommendation. Advocacy from MADD will most certainly begin apace.

On the other side you have the MOD squad, represented in the Post piece I linked to above by Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute.  Ms. Longwell pointed out that fatalities aren’t occurring at .05 to .08. They occur most often at .16 or higher. God speed, Ms. Longwell. You’re about to get the opportunity to really earn what I’m sure is the quite handsome salary that ABI pays you.

So, in a nutshell the facts are these: The NTSB proposes lowering the per se BAC limit to 0.05%.  They have no legal authority to enforce such a recommendation, but they don’t need it because their sister agencies and (let’s not forget this) private associations like the IIHS and MADD  have both the legal means and the moral authority to accomplish what the NTSB wants anyway.   They’ll work to push it through.

On the other side you have the ABI and… selfish alcoholics? People who don’t care to get blitzed (and then endanger themselves and their fellow citizens) allied with the greedy capitalists (with blood stained hands) looking to turn a profit are the only ones who will do much more than raise token opposition to this proposal.

That’s the problem. The motives and the storyline are set and the characters have all been cast.  Rant all you want about “unconscionable Federal power grabs” and wave your dog-eared copies of Thomas Paine. A betting man would figure that the limit will be 0.05% before the decade is over and buy stock in O’Douls.

We can deride the NTSB, IIHS, and MADD as “nanny staters” and the like, but in the end, they’re not wrong. Places, such as Australia, that have lowered their limit to 0.05 have seen a reduction in DUI related fatalities. 12% in the case of Australia. That’s not nothing.

To argue the other side means that we have to recognize, and agree to live with, an “acceptable level of DUI related fatalities,”  to paraphrase the British during the hey- day of IRA bombings and Ulstermen knee cappings,Who wants to stand up and say “Almost 10,000 men, women, and children were killed in DUI related crashes last year and I say that’s still not enough!”

If we could guarantee that only drunk drivers and, perhaps, their passengers would be the only fatalities in DUI related crashes, then most of us would be on board, the way laws requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets have been repealed.  It doesn’t work that way. Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Carrollton bus crash. While largely forgotten elsewhere, it approaches something close to a state day of mourning in Kentucky.  The NTSB wasn’t particularly shy about using the anniversary as a backdrop for its announcement either.

Of course, a 0.05% limit wouldn’t have mattered in the Carrollton case. The driver who hit the bus, causing it to erupt into a fireball that killed 27 people, was at a 0.24% BAC level. Sentenced to just 16 years, Larry Mahoney spent less than 10 in prison after a jury of his peers elected to convict him of involuntary manslaughter instead of Murder.

So what’s to be done? Or not done? I’ll close with these few personal points and then turn it over to the B&B to hash out in the comments thread. I don’t drink very much. A six pack of Bud Light in the fridge will normally last me month.  Lowering the BAC limit to 0.05% won’t affect me personally.  Two drinks at dinner won’t put a guy in my weight class in any jeopardy of violating per se.

However, a single drink would probably put a 120 lb (or less) woman in jeopardy of per se. Two drinks will do it now at the 0.08% limit for many women.  That’s not “fair,” not that “fair” has anything to do with anything any more.

I was also never much of a “drunk hunter” in my patrol days. I’d take a DUI if it rolled in front of me, but I was never one to lurk around bars and wait to see a drunk stumble out to his car. Some guys, particularly in some of the third shift squads that overlapped with me on second shift, were like that. I never cared for those guys, not because I didn’t consider ‘sporting” to fish for drunks in a baited pond or because I felt sorry for the poor schmucks they were popping for DUI. I didn’t like those guys because they’d get themselves tied up on a DUI arrest for two to three hours, leaving me and my fellow second shift officers to continue to catch calls after we’d already been running call to call for six hours before they came on shift. (Not particularly noble, but it is what it is.)

I can say that of the DUIs I did arrest back in the day, I never had one that I stopped on suspicion of DUI for driving in what we will call a stereotypically drunk manner (weaving, too slow, crossing the center line, etc.) who was under a 0.10.  Sure, I caught a few that were less than that after I stopped them for something else that sober drivers sometimes do, like running a light or an equipment violation, and detected alcohol when I made contact with them. But for the behaviors that we all generally recognize as “drunk driving?” Never under a 0.10 and usually 0.12 or greater. I know, I know. Anecdotal evidence, particularly personal anecdotal evidence, doesn’t count.

What counts are studies, which the NTSB has in droves. In fact, one of the little nuggets in their announcement yesterday was that their research has shown that impairment can start as low as 0.01%.  Take a healthy swig during Communion and risk losing your license? Admittedly, that’s hyperbole, but it’s not far off.

I’m not in favor of drunk driving. No one is. But I truly believe that we’re past the point of diminishing returns on per se BAC. Arresting more people for having drunk less alcohol is bad policy. Keep the levels the same, but let’s get serious about the penalties. DUI law as it’s currently written serves mainly to feed the courts and the lawyers while ensuring that the suspects get off with relatively light penalties particularly for the first and second offenses. Getting a DUI will cost you a lot in court costs and lawyer’s fees, but it doesn’t really hurt you. If DUI is as deadly as we all seem to believe it is, then let’s stiffen the jail terms and driver’s licensing penalties for it and concentrate on waging a little shock and awe on first and second offenders. That would be a better tribute to the victims of crimes like Carrollton.

Do you have a truly bespoke pair of shoes, hand-made, to the tune of $1,000? Or a truly bespoke suit, not just one off the plebeian racks of Armani or Ermenegildo Zegna? Watch out, “bespoke” is losing its worth faster than a dollar during the peanut president regime. Oddly, it is Rolls-Royce that is behind that dangerous paradigm down-shift.

According to most dictionaries, from Oxford to Webster, “bespoke” simply stands for “custom, made to order,” something that sounds just right on the shingle of any tailor, whether on Savile Row or in a seedy side street of Kowloon. Now, the meaning of the term “bespoke” is slowly fading into “fancy,” or “high end.” Even in the pages of TTAC, the word “bespoke” has been used to gussy-up a simple top-line Acura.

The forces behind this semantic race to the bottom appear to be aligned with Rolls-Royce.  As anybody in the high-end business knows, a Roller is hardly bought off the rack. Or, in the words of a Roll-Royce press release, “nearly every Rolls-Royce Phantom and almost three in four Rolls-Royce Ghosts sold around the world are commissioned with Bespoke personalisation.”

So, they are Custom, made to order personalizations? Made by Two twins?  Sold at a High expensive price? The effects of this tauto-logic are wide-spread. From Autoevolution to  Motor Authority , car blogs have reprinted Rolls-Royce’s silly press releases for multiples of 12 Month years.  Next step:  Tailors will have to remove the term from their shingles, because Rolls-Royce’s parent will Trademark the patent on Bespoke. As you may have noticed, they already capitalize the B in Bespoke, soon they may want to capitalize on it.

Beleaguered EV start-up Better Place faced yet another blow this week, as Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn declared that rapid-charging, not swappable batteries, will be the predominant charging technology for EVs.

Israeli business outlet Globes quotes Ghosn as saying

“When you look at the overall trends, we must conclude that replaceable batteries are no longer the main track for electric vehicles…The main trail is flat batteries in cars with charging. We believe that people want flexibility in the technology, and we can see that the demand is for rechargeable standard batteries.”

Ghosn stopped short of completely writing off Better Place and their battery-swap technology, but Ghosn made it clear that the focus would be elsewhere. Commercial fleets were one area where Ghosn identified potential demand for swappable batteries, due to a lack of downtime with charging the vehicles.

“There may be cases where people prefer replaceable batteries – as we have tried to include Israel and Denmark. Here we will continue to offer the Fluence with replaceable batteries. There may also be large companies, where they have a huge fleet of cars, and do not want to wait for charging. But it will not be the majority of the market, and going forward, our focus is on the charging technology, among other things look at our new Nissan Leaf.”

Increasingly efficient rapid-charging technology and a lack of demand for EVs has led to a downward spiral for Better Place’s fortunes. The company recently shuttered their American and Australian operations and gave founder Shai Agassi the boot.

Scaling back from its former intentions of becoming “China’s No. 1 automaker by 2015 and the world’s leading car maker by 2025,” China’s BYD now wants to become a world-class fish in Hong Kong’s taxi pond.

BYD has six electric e6 taxis running in Hong Kong, across the border from its Shenzhen, China, headquarters.  Its plans call for much more: “We expect to increase the number of e6 taxis in Hong Kong to 5,000 in three years,” Liu Xueliang, general manager of BYD Asia Pacific sales, told Reuters. Hong Kong Taxi & Public Light Bus Association said it is renting from BYD an initial fleet of 45 taxis for around US$1,000 each per month.

Back home in China, BYD sold about 1,700 e6 vehicles last year. They go for around $60,000 and are reluctantly bought by local governments and taxi companies that want to shine their green image.

Hong Kong’s taxi fleet consists mostly of often LPG-powered Toyota Crowns. Last year, BYD announced plans to export 50 e6 taxis to London.

GM won’t punish its German workforce for the uppity behavior of Bochum’s employees. Instead of moving production of the Zafira to UK’s Ellesmere Port, as some expected, production will remain in Deutschland.

According to Reuters, “General Motors’ loss-making European brand Opel will move production of the multi-purpose vehicle Zafira to Ruesselsheim in Germany, shoring up its headquarters as it prepares to close another German site.”

“The decision strengthens the traditional Hessian plant and will increase capacity utilization. Ruesselsheim will thus be the exclusive plant for the two biggest and most sophisticated Opel/Vauxhall model lines,” GM said in a statement.

It was decided that something had to be done. Special committees were formed and within a matter of weeks, the belching black smoke that came out of the roof of GM headquarters via a Chevrolet Chevette diesel signified a new initiative for the company.

A human sized cat with the “head of a Datsun”, as lineworker Ben Hamper put it, was given a plastic cape and marching orders to change GM quality by any means necessary.

This meant walking around factories and waving. No, that last sentence is not a joke. GM hired the then un-named Quality Cat to walk around and wave to all the assembly line workers while they were busy installing rivets on trucks whose designs dated to the Nixon era.

It worked in much the same way as putting various small flags on Oldsmobiles made them more competitive with imports. The line workers cheered on their new savior for all things quality, and were even given the rare privilege of naming the human sized, cape wearing mascot.

“Management announced that they would reward the most creative of these entries with a week’s use of a company truck. Hot damn! The eventual winner of the contest was a worker who stumbled upon the inspired moniker Howie Makem. Sadly, my intriguing entry, Wanda Kwit, finished way the hell down the list somewhere right between Roger’s Pussy and Tuna Meowt.” (click here for the full story)

A star had been born. At least for a short while. Rumor has it that Howie Makem’s popularity was soon a liability in the insular GM universe that was the 14th floor, and a long line of enemies soon emerged.

GM unfortunately had three other feline Howies vying for CEO Roger Smith’s attention at the time. Howie Rakem, assistant to GM’s Chief Financial Officer. Howie Fakem, lead engineer for the Cadillac Cimarron, and Howie Takem, chief architect for the Hamtramck plant which required the condemnation and eviction of over a thousand Poletown residents.

The three Howies considered the idea of a quality cat to be about as welcome as a stupid dog, and quietly gave Howie his walking papers.

Since then Howie Makem is rumored to have moved to Reno where he has decided to reach out to the greater GM community along with fans the world over. So please. say a happy birthday to Howie today, and perhaps offer him a little kibble for all the good work he did back in the day.