“Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.”
According to Elon Musk, what we have here is… failure to market effectively.
Yet another bit of bleak data from Europe relating to new car sales. A popular school of thought holds that young people’s aversion to cars is largely rooted in economic factors. When everyone under 30 is broke, living at home and wallowing in student debt, the last thing on their mind is a car. But the hope is that once things turn around, it will be time for Generation Y to get motoring again. At least in North America. Over in Europe (or certain parts of it, at least) things are much more bleak.
God bless the blogosphere. All it takes is one throwaway remark for something to become a widely reported rumor heard ’round the world.
TTAC’s forays into areas like law, politics and economics are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they do matter. The dry, dense topics like regulation and financial topics have real implications for car enthusiasts, not to mention society as a whole. One subset of that is urban planning, a discipline which can have an enormous impact on our favorite hobby.
Subaru is set to expand capacity at its Indiana plant by 100,000 units, adding the Impreza alongside the Legacy, Outback and Tribeca to help fill demand for its vehicles in the United States. Read More >
Almost exactly one month after TTAC first broached news of a possible compact rear-drive Chevrolet, TTAC commenter and GM North America vice-president Mark Reuss is still dropping hints about such a product.
Honda is making a big bet on CVT transmissions, with a $470 million assembly plant that will crank out as many as 750,000 CVTs and employ 1,500 people.
In exchange for the loss of the third pedal, we now get two variants of the Porsche 911 Turbo. A standard car with a 3.8L 520 horsepower flat-six and a Turbo S with 560 horsepower. Rear-wheel steering is also in place, much like the GT3, while active front and rear spoilers will give d-bags twice the aerodynamics to manually deploy while stuck in traffic.
The revived Datsun may be aimed strictly at developing world customers, but that hasn’t stopped them from releasing a very web-savvy teaser as part of some obnoxious slow reveal campaign.
Fans of the C7 Covette may be interested to read this breakdown of the extra 90 lbs that the C7 Corvette has put on. For someone such as myself who is used to the OEMs brushing off weight gain or other uncomfortable facts with eye-roll inducing PR pap, the ‘Vette team deserves credit for this itemized breakdown of every component that added to the weight of the C7.
Apparently somebody “accidentally” uploaded this photo to Mercedes-Benz’s Austrian website. In this day and age of the internet, “leaks” are always suspect, but the next S-Class was slated to be introduced in two weeks time anyways. Here it is in all its glory. Explosive refrigerant not shown, of course.
TTAC has learned that the Ford has delayed the new full-size Transit van until Model Year 2015. This leaves Ford without a next generation full-size van to compete against the updated Sprinter and the Fiat-based Ram Promaster.
Next month’s Road & Track will be devoid of Baruthian driving impressions of the latest P Cars, but it will have lots of 991-related content to celebrate the 911′s 50 years on this planet. Among them is the scoop on the next 911 turbo, and it won’t be pretty for three-pedal driving fans.
With 70 percent of its buyers new to to the brand, the Cadillac ATS is an important way for the brand to bring new buyers into the fold. But the ATS is still missing an important product that its main competitors currently have; a coupe.
A new four-cylinder diesel set to debut on the GLK crossover will make its way to both the Mercedes C-Class and E-Class starting this year.
Recent Comments
TW4 - http://www.thetruthaboutcars.c om/2011/03/hammer-time-the-nex t-flat-tax/ In the interest of damage limitation, I’ve linked to an...
AFX - “I still can’t get over the furore over the article.” Don’t you mean “Der Fuhrer” ?.
JoelW - As for dealership-specific ads as opposed to manufacturer ads, just search “Trunk Monkey” on YouTube and see what you get. Seriously…
becauseCAR - This is an excellent car history article. Keep them coming. I want to hear your take on how Porsche decided on building the Boxster, the car that...
APaGttH - Over the weekend I saw the post about the “warning” and I was really confused. I guess ignorance is bliss as I had no idea...
PolestarBlueCobalt - How is there already an Aveo in a junkyard??? Don’t tell me “because they’re crap” because I know, but the oldest Aveo is...
Onus - They helped design the Lada Samara.
kjb911 - My favorites are the 5 vs 8 and spy hunter commercials for the G8, besides that the Jeep Liberty ad with the animals singing neil diamond is worth a chuckle…I thought...
jpolicke - Happy Birthday, Doug!
Summicron - Anyone else think Schmitt kinda looks like Einstein in that photo?