The Truth About Cars » Question of the Day

QOTD: Is The 2013 Nissan Altima A Future Number One Or One-Hit Wonder?

Derek Kreindler — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:59:26 +0000

Our own Michael Karesh will be testing out Nissan’s new Altima this week. This is the car that Nissan is hoping will take the Altima from its current second place slot in the mid-size segment and up to the top of the pile. In lieu of Michael’s take, there are a few factors that are worth looking at.

The Altima’s reign as the beta wolf among mid-size sedans was helped along by the tsunami, which saw companies like Honda and Toyota have their production schedules become severely disrupted. The Altima’s combination of strong incentives, adequate supply and a lower MSRP than non-Japanese competitors like the Hyundai Sonata (Hyundai is known to try to keep the transaction prices of their cars higher than other OEMs, while reducing incentives and dealer discounts) helped it vault ahead in the sales ranking and shed its also-ran status.

But the Altima will need to keep improving and growing sales at an inopportune time – a new Camry is on sale, and new versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion and Honda Accord just around the corner, the 2013 Altima will face an incredibly tough field. So far, the Camry is outselling the Altima in 2012 by about 30,000 units, while the Altima has a nearly 16,000 unit lead on the third place Honda Accord. In fourth place is the aging Ford Fusion.

Nissan execs are stating that “We didn’t put all of the investment into this product and put in all the features with an expectation to be No. 2,” but as we all know, putting your best foot forward in this industry is not a reliable indicator of sales success.

QOTD: Help Pick TTAC’s Rallycross Project

Derek Kreindler — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:46:28 +0000

I wasn’t five minutes before my friend and I had gone to inspect TTAC’s Project G-Body Grand National that we began discussing the next foray into fiduciary stupidity. My friend Joey, not content with his cream puff 1986 Grand National (with a verified 38,750 miles on the odometer) wanted to know how we could “get in to rallying”.

The Maple Leaf Rally Club organizes Rallycross events a couple hours north of Toronto throughout the year. I’ve done a Tim O’Neill rally school course before, but never competed in any type of event. Joey has zero experience but is eager to learn. Based on what limited knowledge I have, a front-drive beater seems to be the best way to start.

Even though conventional wisdom suggests that a Subaru or something AWD would be the quickest path to victory, O’Neill himself seems to start his neophyte rally candidates out on front-drive cars like the Volkswagen Golf or Ford Fiesta. Having used the Fiestas during my own stint, I can attest that left-foot braking quickly washes away the cries of “fail wheel drive” from those whose competition license are issued by Forza 3.

So far the plan is to buy some kind of beater that won’t pass inspection or emissions testing for cheap (myself, Joey and another friend want to each throw in $1500). We’ll trailer the car using Joey’s work F-150 to save us from registering it, and see how our first foray into rallying goes. The only question is, what should our weapon of choice be? A clapped-out Golf or Civic seems to be the best choice, but is there anything more “interesting” (i.e difficult to repair, unreliable and from a dead marque)? Or explain to us why we’re idiots and something that sends power to the back wheels is the only choice. We probably won’t listen, but you can tell us anyways.

N.B the Grand National is nearly ready. There will be a full update. The car runs fine but we’re waiting on some interior pieces to be delivered before the car goes on the road. Joey wants it to be perfect and showroom shiny before it goes on the road – and before the inevitable upgrades happen.

Question: What’s the Most Ridiculous Example of Badge Engineering?

Murilee Martin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:00:30 +0000

After writing my earlier post on the Isuzu Statesman Deville, I got to thinking about all the oddball vehicles that have resulted from badge engineering exercises over the years. Some badge-engineered cars end up being successful for the parent company (e.g., the Colt), but most just confuse vehicle shoppers. The Plymouth Cricket. The Isuzu Hombre. The Mercury Mountaineer. The list is long, but I think the Plymouth Arrow Truck gets my vote for the most senseless act of brand-diluting badge engineering in American automotive history. The Plymouth Arrow car was a rebadged Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste, and it didn’t exactly set any sales records. Apparently hallucinating much different sales figures for the Arrow, the suits at Chrysler figured they’d slap the name on Plymouth-badged Mitsubishi Mighty Max pickups and make dozens of dollars! Plymouth had made trucks in the 1940s and revived the idea with some success in the mid-1970s, but the marketplace wasn’t clamoring for Plymouth-badged Mitsubishi pickups with confusing name similarity to a slow-selling and essentially unrelated Plymouth car. What feat of badge engineering gets your vote as the most ridiculous?

Question: Are European Cars Really More Reliable In Europe Than In North America?

Murilee Martin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:18 +0000

Ever since I began writing about cars for various online publications, one argument keeps showing up in readers’ comments: Many European cars that are regarded by Americans as totally flaky (e.g., Fiats, anything French) are considered quite reliable in their home continent. The subtext of this argument is generally “You can’t let Americans have anything nice, because they’ll destroy it like a bunch of chimpanzees given unlimited meth and armed with claw hammers.” Meanwhile, the American readers of these comments usually fulminate about Yurpeans being a bunch of public-transit communists who don’t understand cars. This age-old debate— which I suspect appeared for the first time in an automotive BBS, circa 1979— surfaced again in the comments of yesterday’s Cadillac Catera Junkyard Find. What’s going on here?
One big difference between Western Europe and the USA is that it’s easy and cheap to have a car on this side of the Atlantic; most states will give you a driver’s license if you fail to kill anyone during the driving test, registration fees and taxes are low, and you can find a beater car that runs (after a fashion) for next to nothing. The American economy is so dependent on everyone being able to hop in the primered-out, space-saver-spare-shod Lumina and careen down the nearest highway that the idea of putting serious hurdles in the path of car ownership is unthinkable. In Europe… well, it’s not like that. How do these differences lead to such disparity in perceived reliability of, say, the Peugeot 504, which manages to survive hundreds of thousands of kilometers on African roads with little maintenance while its American counterparts fell apart in a matter of months?
As far as I can tell, the primary arguments in this ancient debate boil down to these:
1. Americans are idiots. Americans, their automotive sensibilities ruined after generations of exposure to such primitive monstrosities as the Dodge Dart, became accustomed to ignoring all maintenance requirements on vehicles. They don’t change the oil, they get electrical problems fixed by their drunken, inbred, duct-tape-wielding cousins… and when the poor abused machine fails, they shoot it full of holes with their ever-handy firearms and buy another one.
2. Europeans are idiots. Europeans, accustomed to legions of nanny-state bureaucrats dictating their every life decision, follow the ridiculously onerous maintenance requirements of their spindly-ass cars to the letter, handing over what little loot they may have held onto after taxes to their mechanics. When some Bosch or Lucas or Magneti Marelli component fails for the fifth time in a year, this is seen as a normal operating expense.
3. Americans drive a lot more. Everyone seems to agree on this point. Does this mean that Americans simply use a tougher yardstick to measure the number of trouble-free miles a car needs to be considered reliable?
4. American roads suck. Also, American weather sucks. The idea here is that European cars are too fragile/sophisticated (depending on your point of view) to handle the Bangladeshi-grade asphalt roads of the United States, and that North Dakota winters and Death Valley summers would kill any vehicle more complex than a Model T.
I don’t know why I bother to list those arguments, because we’ve all suffered through the endless flame wars. Perhaps we can analyze this question with logic and wisdom instead of passion and brickbats. Or not. What do you think?

What Is It About The Vanagon Syncro?

Murilee Martin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

I’m now experiencing my second winter as an ex-Californian in Denver, and I feel as though I’ve been adjusting pretty well— got an Outback in the garage and everything. However, there’s one big automotive mystery here, and that’s the incomprehensible love many otherwise sensible Coloradans have for the Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro. At the risk of enraging the Vanagon Jihad, I have to say that the only way Volkswagen could have made the fragile-at-best Vanagon even less reliable was to give it four-wheel-drive. And yet I see these things being used as very costly daily drivers all the time.

I understand the allure of a lovable, high-maintenance European vehicle loaded with interesting design features and with ancestry stretching back to the pre-hippie era, but the zealots of the Vanagon Jihad believe that the Syncro actually makes sense as everyday transportation in snowy areas. Please, someone, explain this!

Question of the Day: Hoopties Past, Present… and Future?

Murilee Martin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:00:20 +0000

A hooptie is a once-semi-luxurious car that’s depreciated down to just-above-scrap value and is getting its final owner some quality, low-buck miles before being crushed. The Buick Electra 225 was the archetypal hooptie of the 1980s and 1990s, but how about today? More importantly, which current models will be the hoopties of 2025?

Sir Mix-a-Lot pretty much said all there was to say about the Electra as Über Hooptie of 20 years back, and other hoopties of that era are measured by their similarity to the Deuce-and-a-Quarter.
I think the Chrysler LH (Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision, Chrysler LHS/Concorde/300M/New Yorker) is the King of the Hoopties in 2011. If you see a big car with red tape for taillight lenses doing 90 on the highway with a space-saver spare on the front nowadays, it’s probably an LH.
The LH has all the hooptie qualities: it was a powerful, luxurious machine when new, the build quality was bad enough that non-essential components such as window regulators and weatherstripping crapped out in a hurrry, the paint and trim looks like hell after a decade or so, yet the running gear is tough enough to keep the thing surviving in true cockroach fashion. Like the Electra of the late 1960s, the LH started life as a good-looking car; it’s faded glory that really gives a car an edge in the hooptie battles.
Another indication of hooptieness is the quantities you spot in the high-turnover self-service junkyards. These days, the LH is outnumbered in yards’ Chrysler sections only by the Neon. Vast junkyard parts availability is critical for hooptie survival, because a hooptie’s owner never has more than 100 bucks in cash at any one moment.
A case could be made for the GM H Platform cars as King of the Hoopties, particularly the LeSabre of the 1990s, and the ’92-up Panther Grand Marquis makes a strong hooptie statement as well. I still say that, were Sir Mix-a-Lot 20 years younger and just starting out, “My Hooptie” would have featured a ’97 Concorde.
However, maybe this debate needs a real wild card. The late-80s/early-90s Toyota Camry is second only to the Chrysler LH in the 90-MPH-with-space-saver-spare count on America’s highways today, and it looks particularly unsavory with faded paint, a trashbag for side glass, and a coat hanger for a radio antenna. This generation of Camry was essentially immortal, which means that members of the hooptie-driving demographic can get away with the usual 60,000-mile oil changes, curb-bashing, and general duct-tape maintenance. The Camry isn’t exactly glamorous, but it has always been a sufficiently upscale car that a wretched one looks especially terrible.
What about the King Hooptie of 2025? Jonny Lieberman suggests the V6-equipped Chrysler 300, and I think he may be onto something. Perhaps a truck? Hyundai Sonata?

90s Japanese Luxury Car Purchase Dilemma: Q45, LS 400, or RL?

Murilee Martin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:00:10 +0000

Since my daily-driver ’92 Civic is about to become a much less civilized car (plus it’s finally made the transition from “somewhat rough” to “total beater,” I need to start shopping for another DD very soon. Since I’ve developed a fascination with Japanese luxury cars of the 1990s (the era before the Japanese Big Three de-Yakuza-ized the souls of their American flagships and started out-German-ing the Germans), I’ve decided it’s time I owned one. The question is: which one?

Ah, the LS 400. Plenty of them were eaten by The Crusher during the Cash For Clunkers era, but most of these big, dignified V8 sedans are still on the road today. It’s easy to picture a mid-level Nagoya loanshark making his rounds in a discreet gunmetal-gray Celsior, maybe with a couple of kneecap-busting heavies riding in the very comfortable back seat. You might not need to send your muscle out of the car to encourage timely payments from your clients, but the understated menace of the Celsior lets everyone know the option is there. Sadly, Toyota must have ditched their Yakuza consultants from their focus groups by 2000, because the LS 430 and successors were just very comfortable appliances. You can pick up a very nice LS 400 for about five grand, though it costs a bit more if you need to go VIP style with one.

The Infiniti Q45 is a much goofier car than the LS 400. Its V8 has about 40 horses over the early LS 400′s engine and Q45 buyers got variable valve timing, active suspension, and four-wheel steering. The reliability wasn’t quite up to LS 400 standards (watch out for those timing chain guide failures!) but there’s a huge helping of that Japanese love of technology for its own sake that’s sadly lacking in most of this century’s Japanese vehicles. The average age of a Q45 owner tends to be much lower than that of LS 400 owners, and the Q45 didn’t hold its value quite as well, which means most of them have had the crap beaten out of them by now. In addition, I must have a 1990-1993 model, with the strange grille-less face. I might not be able to find a low-mile, solid example, but we’ll see. I’m also tempted by the J30, but it’s just not as extreme as the early Q45.

The Acura Legend/RL of the 1990s lacks both a V8 and rear-wheel-drive, but I like Hondas enough to be able to overlook those glaring problems. Well, maybe. The early Legends were a bit tainted by their Sterling/Rover connections, and they just aren’t radical enough to be interesting to me, but the 3.5 RLs of the late 1990s have a bit of the old Soichiro Honda look about them. I’ll consider a nice RL for my daily driver… but then (if I’m willing to ditch the V8) I might have to take a look at the Mazda 929 or maybe even the Millenia (non-Miller Cycle version, of course). The Mitsubishi Diamante is out of the question, it should go without saying. Not that I’m completely anti-Mitsubishi; if I could find some way to get a Debonair registered in Colorado…

Question of the Day: Can You Find a Diecast Replica of Your First Car?

Murilee Martin — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:00:40 +0000

After I started getting weird diecast toy cars as LeMons Supreme Court baksheesh, my office has become crowded with stuff like a 1:43 scale Leyland P76 and a 1:40 Nissan Prairie. Yesterday, as I pondered the diecast custom vans that got away, I wondered: is it possible to get a diecast toy version of my very first car?
Sure enough, it is! Thing is, the toy version costs $49.99 shipped, or exactly one cent less than I paid for my ’69 Corona sedan back in 1982. There’s no way in hell I’m paying that much for a toy version of a car that was so ill-handling, underpowered, and shoddily built that the Toyoda family would be wise to buy every last survivor and crush it, for the sake of what’s left of the company’s good name… well, except for the fact that it’s impossible for a car freak not to love his or her very first car, no matter how terrible. So, how about you? If your first car was a Volkswagen Beetle or Ford Mustang, you’re in good shape. If it was a Matra Bagheera, on the other hand— hey, you’re still covered!

Question of the Day: Government Vehicle Emission Standards— Good Idea or Pure Evil?

Murilee Martin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:02 +0000

Since the first Clean Air Act was passed in 1963 Americans have been howling about the pros and cons of The Gubmint controlling what comes out of vehicle tailpipes. The new regs didn’t have any profound effects on what we drove until that raging liberal Richard Nixon— no doubt distracted by the Vietnam War and influenced by the hydrocarbon-o-riffic air quality of his native Southern California— allowed the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 to become law. The automakers, having relied upon their vast lobbying power to keep them safe from such troublesome government meddling, hadn’t done much to prepare for heavy-duty restrictions on exhaust emissions and had no choice but to go for the low-tech, power-killing solutions that made the Malaise Era feel so endless. We’re talking about good old-fashioned “smog” emissions here, i.e. hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide, not greenhouse gases. The stuff that made Los Angeles air nearly unbreathable for decades. California and federal smog standards made a huge difference in air quality in Southern California and elsewhere, but complying with those standards cost the American automotive industry dearly. Was it worth it? Cars sure as hell put out tiny fractions of the pollutants they once did; you can’t smell hydrocarbons on the freeway these days unless you’re behind an old car, and they say new cars don’t even make enough CO to kill you by running in a closed garage.

There are two ways to look at the early history of tailpipe emission laws in the United States, depending on one’s biases. If you hate and/or fear any form of government regulation of industry, then such laws were a conscious effort to destroy the foundations of American free enterprise, leading directly to meals of groats in the communal kitchen and your children sentenced to 25 years in the Gulag under Article 58, end of story. If you think big corporations just want to externalize all costs at the expense of public health, etc., while sucking the blood out of the working class as an added bonus, then it’s pretty obvious: the only problem with tailpipe emission laws, then and now, is their weakness. We used to have more nuanced ways of looking at such issues, but a decade or so of internet discourse has simplified matters: pick your side!

So, was it worth it? Do the less-blackened lungs of 20 million urban Californians justify a decade of 130-horsepower V8s and billions of lost profits for Detroit? Would market forces have solved the smog problem on their own? Is smog really a problem? Was it a conspiracy? Discuss.

Mini or Electra?

Murilee Martin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:00:25 +0000

I snapped this shot of an Austin Mini (technically a Morris 850) and a Buick Electra 225 parked side-by-side in an Alameda, California parking lot before I left the West Coast, and every time I look at it I wonder: would I rather have an early Mini or a Malaise Era Electra? I can’t decide!
The Mini was one of the first Down On The Street honorees, and I believe the Electra pictured here has been featured in DOTS as well. So, what’s it gonna be, assuming the cars are similar condition? The beautifully simple machine that put the tranverse-engine/front-wheel-drive platform on the map, or the float-on-a-cloud, big V8-powered expanse of traditional Detroit Luxury Iron?

Debate Topic of the Day: Longest Production Run For Any Engine?

Murilee Martin — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:24 +0000

Here’s a question that may well be impossible to answer, due to the numerous gray areas involved. Sure, we could set all kinds of limitations (e.g., “production run” applies only to engines built by the original manufacturer) and of course you stumble into the quagmire of defining when changes to an engine design become significant enough to result in a different engine… but why should we do that?

No, this discussion will ~~bring a lot more single-interest zealots out of the woodwork~~ be more spirited if we set only one limitation: the engine must have been installed by a manufacturer in cars or light trucks at some point during its history. That means no Cox .049s or Detroit Diesel Series 71s, but we will include engines that were built for use in industrial applications for years after their motor-vehicle days were done (e.g., Chrysler flathead six), engines built by aftermarket manufacturers (e.g., Volkswagen air-cooled), crate motors made by OEMs (e.g., Chevrolet small- and big-block V8s), engines built under crazy multiple-handoff licensing arrangements (e.g. flathead Fords in France), and engines that are now being counterfeited in vast quantities in China (e.g., probably every postwar Japanese design in history). So, experts, which engine wins, and why?

Ford Mustang Vs Chevrolet Camaro. And The Winner Is…

Cammy Corrigan — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:09:16 +0000

On The Booth Babe’s last article, TTAC commentator, LALoser, stated that he originally thought that I was the Booth Babe! He based this theory “because of the just below the surface Anti-Americanism.” So to address this accusation, I decided to blog the following…

Consumer Reports pitted the Ford Mustang against the Chevrolet Camaro to find out which of the poster children for American muscle cars is the best. In the comparison, Consumer Reports puts the Ford Mustang V6 Premium against the Chevrolet Camaro 2LT. The first round was price. The Ford Mustang costs $28,660 whereas the Chevrolet Camaro costs $28,195. 1-0 to the Oshawa built bad-boy. Then it all went downhill for the Camaro. Consumer Reports said that the Ford’s V6 engine was more refined than the Camaro’s, had stronger acceleration and better fuel economy. Oh dear. But that wasn’t to say that the Camaro didn’t have good acceleration, because it did, but the Camaro weighs 300 pounds more than the Mustang.

4-1 to the Mustang.

Result? Mustang won. Says Consumer Reports: “Only the Ford is recommended. The Mustang has an excellent reliability record with the old V6; we expect this one to be similar. The Camaro is too new for us to have reliability data. “

David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ test center said that “the Mustang is the more agile and enjoyable car to drive of the two,”. But what say you, B&B? Do you agree? Or do you think that the Camaro kick’s arse more than the Mustang?

Weekend Head-Scratcher: Who’s Next To Bite The Dust?

Cammy Corrigan — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 09:22:49 +0000

Dearly beloved: Supposedly, capitalism is a pretty simple process. Let the market decide who lives and who dies. It worked for the ecosystems of the world for the past 6 billion years. Darwin; natural selection, survival of the fittest (or luckiest.). Trouble is, a lot of countries preach capitalism, but seldom practice it. The bailouts of banks, fiscal stimuli and other such market distorting activities don’t really help anyone in the long run. It has long been argued that there are huge overcapacity issues around the world, and something, someone has to give. Give up the ghost, preferably. The collapse of GM and Chrysler would have addressed these issues, but this post isn’t about the bailouts of GM and Chrysler and their validity. I want to know who’s next to die.

Who do you think will be the next company to leave the market either by bankruptcy or by being swallowed by a bigger fish? Do you think it will be one of the smaller companies like Mitsubishi or Mazda? After all, Volkswagen is eying up more of Suzuki’s stock (insert obligatory Bertel Schmitt joke here). How about Daimler or BMW? Things were pretty dicey there last year. How about names on the OICA list you rarely see mentioned elsewhere? Or are you thinking sobig that another big company will fall? Toyota is stumbling at the moment and Ford’s heavy fleet sales might not be good for them in the long run. Or maybe you think GM and/or Chrysler will fall again and this time stay dead because there simply isn’t any money (or political goodwill) left to fund another bailout?

Whatever you think, give us your answers: Who’s next to pass away?

Question Of The Day: The Butt-Ugliest Car Of All Times?

Cammy Corrigan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:41:43 +0000

I was watching TV the other day and on came “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. I absolutely LOVE this film. The thought of driving 2408 miles across the United States to visit “Wally World” is something I’d love to do (OK, maybe not “Wally World”, but you get the idea). If I drove 2408 miles across the UK, I’ll end up driving my car off a cliff as we’re such a small country. However, what DOESN’T appeal to me is driving 2408 miles across the United States in a “Wagon Queen Family Truckster” (which, according to IMDB trivia was actually a modified Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon). As the picture will show you, it’s a bit of a monster. But it got me thinking…

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. But sometimes something is so hideous, even the most liberal person has to say “You’re one ugly mother f*cker!” (preferably in an Austrian accent). So here’s my question for the B&B. What car, currently on the market, is the most ugliest? Which automobile makes the “Predator” look like Angelina Jolie? Now, I’m not looking for bland. Bland is livable with. I mean so hideous, it scares your children. So, have a think and let me know. It’s a Sunday and I’m really bored! And maybe, that’s a prelude for TTAC’s 10 Worst Cars of 2010? In 2009, everything was bad. (Nominations with a link to a picture will receive honourable m,ention on Sunday.)

Question Of The Day: Kia Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Cammy Corrigan — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:54:52 +0000

If you’re reading this article, that means Fuhrer Schmitt has figured out under what moniker this article should be filed under. As far as I’m concerned it should be a “Question Of The Day”, but it could easily slot into “WTF” and “Wild Arse Rumor Of The Day”. So, here we go…

I was grazing the internet whilst watching “That Mitchell And Webb Look” on DVD when I came across an article by Business Insider entitled “Here Are The 10 Brands That Will Disappear In 2011″. So, I hit the pause button on my DVD player and took a look to see what they predicted. It starts off with names I pretty much suspected would disappear; names like “Reader’s Digest”, “Blockbuster Video” and “Radio Shack” (which I thought HAD already gone). Then, the article starts to get a bit suspect. It starts predicting that “BP” will enter bankruptcy and may even be broken up in order to distance itself from the Deepwater Horizon spill. A prediction which I think won’t come to fruition. However, what really made me double-take was the final brand they predicted will disappear in 2011. Kia.

Business Insider bases the claim on the following evidence.

One: That it’s always been a marginal brand (argue that point amongst yourselves) and that coupled with its sister brand, Hyundai, it comes off as a seller of “‘low rent’ cars and SUV’s” (their words, not mine).
Two: Because of GM and Ford’s retreat from the multiple branding business model, Hyundai will be keen not to repeat he same mistake.
Three: Kia vehicles sell for between $14,000 and $25,000, a price band which Hyundai already caters for. The trouble is Kia sells well in the US market, with their sales up around 15 percent for the year 2010 to date, and no signs of slowing down.

It’s pretty hard to justify closing down a brand (which is selling well), laying off all those dealers and forking out more money to win back customers from Kia to the Hyundai marque. So, I put it to you, is Business Insider orating from deep within their alimentary canal? Or could there be some validity to this theory?

Question Of The Day: Which Car Checks All 8 Boxes?s

Cammy Corrigan — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:27:56 +0000

People have different ideas on what constitutes a good car. Some people think driving dynamics are the key, which explains the sales of cars like BMW and Ford. Others look to reliability, which accounts for cars like Toyota and Honda. Then you have the skinflints who consider value their key factor, Hyundais and Kias. While each car brand stands for something, there are many people who want a mixture of many factors. After all, a car is a major purchase and you’d want it to perform well over many areas and not just excel in just one. You car is your transport, it keeps your children safe, keeps you entertained in traffic and keeps the rain off your head. And all it asks for is a tank of petrol and regular servicing. So maybe there’s more to buying a car than just branding? So here’s the question of the day: Which one does it all?

Taking into account the following factors:

[ ] Fuel Economy.
[ ] Driving Dynamics.
[ ] Price.
[ ] Reliability.
[ ] Quality.
[ ] Practicality.
[ ] Dealership Service.
[ ] Repair Cost.
Which car on the market today (please state quite clearly which market you are talking about. We don’t want a massive argument about the Ford Focus only to find out that one was talking about the Euro Focus while the other as talking about the NA one), covers all those bases the best? In short, which car, on the market today, is the most comprehensive over those 8 factors?

Question Of The Day: Is Ford On Shaky Ground?

Cammy Corrigan — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:30:30 +0000

To anyone who reads my articles, (that’d be Bertel and my mother) you’d know that I’m not a big fan of Ford. Mark Fields is Susan Docherty for Ford, their cars underwhelm me, and I don’t really like the company as a whole. Having said that, I am a journalist. (Don’t laugh! I am!) And I am professionally impartial. So, when I was on the train last night, I decided to do a quick rundown of Ford’s situation. Currently, they are the darlings of the North American market and Europe loves them, too. They turned a big profit in the first quarter of this year and confidence is growing in the company. But despite all of the this, the markets aren’t convinced.

On 4/26/2010 Ford’s share prices hit a high of $14.46, as if it was the heydays of 2003/2004. It was downhill from there. At the time of this typing, the F share stood at $12.34. It has been on a continual slide for, seemingly, no apparent reason. To be fair to Ford, they can’t impress the markets, no matter what they do. When they announced their $2.1 billion profits for Q1 of 2010, their share price fell 3.2 percent (46 cents) because the profits were “unsustainable“. What do the markets want? Blood?

Actually, more likely, a liposuction of Ford’s debt. In the same quarter, Ford’s debt mountain increased by $700 million to $34.3 billion. And as our B&B have mentioned many times, Ford’s debt mountain is a problem. So the question to our B&B is this: Is Ford’s momentum unsustainable (like their profits, apparently) or does Ford have a real chance at survival? With Greece’s problems likely to go global and Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal looking shaky, it could be the push the economy doesn’t need to set off another recession. Ford is strong in Europe, and a European recession would hit them hard. In China and India, Ford is a relative nobody. The growth there doesn’t help Ford. Looks like the smart money sold on the news.

QOTD (x2): Who Here Has The Most Miles On A Car? What’s The Most You Ever Attained?

Paul Niedermeyer — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:17:59 +0000

We can’t all be Irv Gordon, who’s racked up over 2.6 million miles on his 1966 Volvo P1800 since buying it new. And that was in 2007; he plans to hit 3 million (full press release here) sometime in 2012. I’m certainly not going to impress anybody in this QOTD: the ’66 Ford F-100 probably has about 225k on it (I’m assuming it spun once around before I bought it in 1987), and I only average a couple thousand miles a year with it (I can only use so much mulch or gravel a year). Stephanie’s 2000 Forester just turned 130k. And my five-year old xB has all of 33k on it; working at home has its benefits. But what about you? What’s the highest mile car a TTAC reader owns now? Or ever did? No exaggeration please!

The Eternal Quest To Explain The Unknown

Bertel Schmitt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:26:26 +0000

A quiet Sunday. Time to fire up Google and put in “Toyota AND [cause OR reason].” We come up with ample explanations why Toyota is not called Toyoda. Or why Peiping turned into Peking, and then into Beijing. What about the causes of sudden acceleration? Let’s see what we find. (If you have other things to do on a Sunday: We find a lot of questions and no answers.)

ABC News, 11/25/2009: “However, safety expert Sean Kane said the recall doesn’t address hundreds of runaway Toyota cases he has uncovered where owners insist floor mats cannot be blamed. “What concerns me is that this recall still doesn’t get to the root cause of the non-floor mat sudden acceleration cases,” said Kane, who heads the firm Safety Research & Strategies. Overall, the firm says it discovered over 2,000 Toyota sudden acceleration cases involving 16 deaths and 243 injuries. An ABC News investigation revealed that many Toyota owners are in rebellion and have refused to accept the company’s explanation for their sudden acceleration incidents. “

Reuters 2/1/2002: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reviewed the automaker’s plan to install new parts in existing accelerator systems or replace them entirely. “Toyota has announced its remedy and based on its current knowledge, NHTSA has no reason to challenge this remedy,” the agency said in a statement. No deaths or injuries are suspected in cases of sticking pedals, the government said.”

Injury Law Blog & News, 2/23/2010: „Of the 2,000 complaints of sudden acceleration, just 5 percent blamed a sticking gas pedal. No government investigation of sudden-acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles has identified a sticking pedal as a potential cause.”

Toyota’s Pedal Recall FAQ, undated: “The issue involves a friction device in the pedal designed to provide the proper “feel” by adding resistance and making the pedal steady and stable. This friction device includes a “shoe” that rubs against an adjoining surface during normal pedal operation. Due to the materials used, wear and environmental conditions, these surfaces may, over time, begin to stick and release instead of operating smoothly.”

Carquestions.com 1/30/2010: Drops Toyota pedal in bucket of ice water, bakes it, finds no fault. Issues a call to send in pictures or videos of faulty pedal: “How is it that we cannot get a picture of one of these pedals with so many people complaining? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Techxplore.com 2/18/2010: “Mechanical failure is easier and more transparent to diagnose than an electronic problem. The average garage mechanic might miss out checking the computer micro-processing failures. Service centers usually replace the whole defective unit without some serious investigation on the cause. The management, dealers and mechanics have difficulty in diagnosing rare unpredictable failure in their electronics. The average driver does not really know also the exact problem when their cars computer or electronic gadget malfunctions. It’s hard to check wiring failures, damaged circuit boards and programming in modern cars. Thus, proving that Toyota recall as due to faulty electronics and auto computer system failure might be a difficult task.”

Ron Hart in the Walton Sun, 2/27/02: “ Congress dragged Toyota, kicking and bowing, to Washington to testify in one of the indignant show trials they so love. I wish they would subpoena themselves and bring Congress before a Senate hearing, under oath and under the hot lights of TV cameras. Then we might get to the roots of most problems in America: Too much government intervention, confusing rules, and second-guessing politicians.”

The Korea Herald, 2/13/2010: “Many observers suspect something other than safety concerns behind the harsh response of the United States to Toyota’s recall. To former Kia Motors chairman Kim Sun-hong, the U.S. reaction to the Toyota problem is an act of “killing the chickens to scare the monkeys.” This Chinese proverb illustrates the cruel yet effective tactic of killing one to tame a hundred: As monkeys misbehave in the treetops, annoyed humans violently kill chickens in front of the monkeys. From fear, the monkeys get silent and tamed. Some even fall out of the trees.”

Charlie Rossiter in Associatedcontent.com 2/07/2010: “Now, with the tragedies around the Toyota sudden-acceleration problem, I am reminded once again of how limited driver’s education is for preparing people to drive. It breaks my heart to think that most, if not all, of the tragic deaths that have occurred because of sudden unexpected acceleration could have been avoided if the drivers had only known that putting a car in neutral means that a stuck accelerator can do nothing but race the engine—it can’t accelerate the car. Knowing that simple fact and acting upon it could have saved their lives. It makes me wonder how many people know what to do if their brakes fail. I doubt that many youngsters coming out of drivers ed classes realize that if they shift to a lower gear, even with an automatic transmission, they can slow the car. Would they think to gently try the emergency?“

CNN Money, 2/26/2010: “Up until last month, you’d think there was no need to worry about angering the Japanese. But now that our best and brightest in Congress have done a wonderful job of verbally undressing the CEO of Toyota Motor in front of the entire world, are we biting the other hand that feeds us? ‘We have to be the dumbest borrower around. It’s pretty remarkable. We don’t want to alienate Japan,’ said Haag Sherman, managing director with Salient Partners, an investment firm in Houston. Japan held approximately $768.8 billion in U.S. Treasurys as of December and China owned $755.4 billion. Those numbers were just released last week. ‘$750 million times 2 is a much bigger problem than $750 million times 1,’ said Keith McCullough, CEO and founder of New Haven, Conn.-based investment research firm Hedgeye Risk Management, about the possibility of our two biggest creditors losing interest in our debt. ‘It won’t matter if Bernanke doesn’t want to raise rates. The market may do it for him.’”

Norfolk Daily News, 2/4/2010: “Wrecks involving old cars are a lot like wrecks involving any newly recalled Toyota: far more often than not, the cause is not mechanical. The cause is the driver, and there’s no recall procedure for that.”

Reader totothedog in the (usually heavily redacted) comments section of China Daily, 2/9/2010: “Toyota Pedals Cause Power Cut at Santander. The Spanish bank has bought a string of Poodleville banks in recent months, similar to the way Icelandic banks bought Poodleville’s high street retailers. As a result, Santander which is probably on the same terrorist list as Iceland, has had several computer and power failures in the poodle state. Strangely, no such power cuts occur in Spain. The recurring faults have been traced to pedals installed in the power station which are identical to those used in Toyota cars.”

US Recall News, 2/3/2002: “Toyota recall: Four different causes. So which is it?“

Wikipedia, undated: “The 5 Whys is a question-asking method used to explore the cause/effect relationships underlying a particular problem. Ultimately, the goal of applying the 5 Whys method is to determine a root cause of a defect or problem.”

QOTD: Is This The Bugazzi Of 2046?

Paul Niedermeyer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:58:23 +0000

What Car Is Your Wife/GF/BF/SO or EX?

Paul Niedermeyer — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:41:43 +0000

Last weekend we got to know what car you are. Not surprisingly, we have quite a range of personalities in the TTAC parking lot: everything from a MB (Grosser) 600 to a Toyota Echo 2 door. Now we get to know about the big love (or ex) in your life. That’s a bit trickier, especially since mine reads everything here religiously. I thought hard about the Nissan Pao, because its trim size and distinctive and quirky aesthetics certainly work. But the Pao is too underpowered, and strictly a city car. Fun to look at, but no go. So it’s a toss up between a Mini Cooper S and the Fiat 500 Abarth. I have to give the nod to the little Italian, even though Stephanie is more of an Anglophile, for two reasons: The Mini is too common, and the Abarth is an unknown. Stephanie and I fell in love on Thanksgiving weekend 32 years ago, and were married the following January 7th. Hows that for taking a flyer? Just like buying the first hot-rod Fiat 500 that arrives on these shores.

Question Of The Day: What Car Are You?

Paul Niedermeyer — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:32:08 +0000

It’s time to get to know each other a little better. So which car best describes you? Pretend you’re on Dr. Freud’s couch and take your time, unless you’re impulsive of course. Me? I spent almost a half hour tossing this around while still in bed this morning, but here goes: a Mercedes 300 TD 4-Matic Wagon, late eighties vintage (W124): Germanic, pretty solid and trim for an oldster, a touch arrogant, thrifty but like not poky (turbo diesel), practical, versatile and everything still works! It’s a variation of one I had, and it did feel like an extension of my personality. Now I’m not sure this exact combination was ever made, but it’s good enough for this exercise. Since we’re throwing in a little wishful thinking, how about an adjustable suspension, since I spend a lot of time on hiking trails. For bonus points, name a new car if your first choice was an out-of production car; or conversely, a vintage car if your first pick was a new one. For me, that would be a VW Tiguan TDI.

Quote of the Day: Maximum Chaos Edition

Robert Farago — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:54:42 +0000

[Comment From Guest ]

What is your number one priority in your new role and please be as specific as possible?

Bob Lutz

Until I know more about the job I won’t be as specific as possible because i might have to recant next month when i know what i’m doing.

TTAC Contest: Maximum Stoned Speed

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:14:35 +0000

Popular Science clears the air (so to speak) about which of America’s favorite intoxicants impairs driving skill the most. And it turns out that the stoned driver is a careful driver. Well, compared to a drunk driver, anyway. Research from a fancy driving simulator at Ben Gurion University’s Laboratory for Human Factors in Road Safety shows that reefer-crazed drivers drove considerably slower than the control group, while drunk drivers drove faster. In addition, “the drinking drivers also tended to be confident and boast a sense of control, while the pot smokers seem to be ‘more aware of their impairment.’” Of course, PopSci and Ben Gurion University don’t exactly condone doobing and driving. “None of the doped-up or drinking drivers were models of safety on the road. They tended to switch lane positions, swerve, and vary their steering,” is the verdict. But that’s just, like, their opinion… man. In honor of TTAC’s recent exploration of the legal grey areas of on-road behavior, we thought we’d ask: what are the five best rules of stoned driving? Entries will be accepted until 6pm Eastern Time. The winner gets the unclaimed (previous contest) Taschenwörterbuch der Kraftfahrzeugtechnik (English-German car technical dictionary). Because compound words are mind blowing after a toke or two. Dude.

Question Of The Day: Name This Junkyard Find

Paul Niedermeyer — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:08:54 +0000

Can anyone recognize this junkyard find?