Question of the Day

Question of the Day: What Do You Make of Bumper Stickers?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 18, 2008 -

There's a fascinating new study out of Colorado that suggests bumper stickers are actually road rage warning labels. Here's the jist: "Equating bumper stickers with a warning label, the research of social psychologist William Szlemko indicates that people who apply the rearward-facing declarations to their cars are much more likely to use their cars to show rage on the road than people without such stickers, reports the Washington Post. The message of the bumper stickers themselves has no relevance to the result; peaceful messages of unity are just as much a warning sign as are offensive or hostile statements." I've never thought too highly of announcing anything to the world from the back of my car. Full disclosure: I've had one bumper sticker in my life– my old band. However, when I was in junior high a friend and I ordered a bunch of screw stickers from the back of National Lampoon (squares with a picture of a screw) and ran all over town modifying Chevy Suburbans to read "I [screw] My Children" and "I [screw] My Horse." Hey, I was 12. You?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 58 comments

Question of the Day: What’s the Lowest Class Car You Can Buy?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 17, 2008 -

I was just on the virtual horn with Mr. Berkowitz and we were discussing that for $47,000 the 430 horsepower Corvette is a fantastic bargain. We're also both young, dumb and childless. So Farago's pronouncement of the Corvette as a "death Car" has no effect on us. But then Justin dropped this bomb, "my girlfriend's mom, who is on her third Lexus SC430, told me she thinks the Corvette is the lowest class car a person can buy." Ouch. Take that, Vetteirati. And hey, with the Camaro still not in production, the lady makes a point. But not a great point. See my friends, next to Dodger Stadium yesterday I witnessed the scuzziest car imaginable. That's right, a Fox-bodied Mustang 5.0 with Truck Nutz. Seriously, beat that.

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 103 comments

Question of the Day: What’s the Best Car You’ve Ever Driven?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 16, 2008 -

I'm paying $4.99 a gallon for premium. I'm not looking for sympathy (though feel free). After all, we're living in a new golden age of the automobile. Chatting with an autojourno friend I found myself saying, "435 horsepower? That's it?" Which is ridiculous. But now that gas is now horridly expensive, things are apt to slow down. And by apt I mean they will. Lots. We're already starting to see the cracks. Audi's next S4 will have six cylinders instead of eight. Which means that the RS4 might (gulp) only have a V6. Some of you no doubt remember how much I enjoyed the RS4. Which got me thinking: is Audi's four-door supercar the best vehicle I've ever driven? I get to drive an awful lot of fancy metal. The RS4 is better (if not much better) than most. But the best? No. You're going to have to wait a couple of days for my actual answer (review pending). Until then, how about you?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 91 comments

Question of the Day: How Much Does Safety Matter?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 13, 2008 -

Today is Friday so I'm keeping this one short. Reading through the Ask the B&B from earlier, I noticed that the person asking was leaning towards a Subaru Tribeca because it's safe. Yes, but it's also hideous!! For certain, one of the very ugliest cars made during an ugly time. I might opt for a lacerated spleen rather than be seen in one of those. I really might. And it's an SUV, too. As the reader was asking about a vehicle for her two kids, she's probably thinking that SUVs are safer. They aren't, as you're more likely to lose control and fall off a mountain in an SUV than a car. Sure, if you run head-on into a Brink's truck the larger bulk of the SUV will insulate you more than a car. But in a car you can proactively avoid the accident, rather than reactively absorbing the impact energy. And finally, just to kick it up a notch, have safety ratings ever influenced your purchases? Put another way, you like one car better than the other but the former gets four safety stars to the latter's five — what do you do?

Posted in Question of the Day | Safety | News Blog | 73 comments

Question of the Day: What’s a Big Family to Do?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 12, 2008 -

Ignoring completely how they got to 2.8 children, once a family is a family of 5 (or more) third rows become almost a certainty. Look, I only have one sibling, and we would have beaten each other to death on road trips if not for the third row of my family's various full-size GM wagons. I bring this up because 1) gas is over $4.00 a gallon (just about $5 per here in LA) and is never going down and 2) the Ford Flex will be on the market real soon. Let's get the numbers straight. The FWD Flex is rated at 17/24 and the AWD version will deliver 16/22. Comparable to the competition and a words better than the essentially dead body-on-frame goliaths Americans have loved so dearly for the past decade. But, is it enough? Will large families just be cramming the brood into the back of Aveos and Yari? Or are the Flex and similar vehicles (CX9, Pilot, Acadia) still viable as family haulers?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 77 comments

Question of the Day: Who Here is Ready For an Electric Car?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 11, 2008 -

Please read before screaming. Earlier today our man Wilkinson posed a very good question. Can our (in many cases) ailing power grid cope with EVs? Now, I'm lucky. I live in Los Angeles where DWP supplies the juice. DWP's union (wisely) refused to go private when out-on-his-ass former Governor Gray Davis was using Enron to help privatize most of California's electrical production. Long story short, LA has power to spare and was one of the only counties unaffected by the rolling blackouts a few years back. So, I'm confident us Angelenos will be able to handle plug-ins, capacity-wise. But where the hell do we plug 'em in? I live in a classic LA hill home. It's four flights of stairs up me. Meaning street parking. Short of running 200 feet of extension cord down a hill and across a street, I can't charge an EV. Hundreds of my neighbors are in the same outlet-less boat. That's just in my 'hood. In other words, if I had an EV, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Would you?

Posted in Question of the Day | Electric Vehicles | News Blog | 56 comments

Question of the Day: Should Cars Be Made of Metal?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 10, 2008 -

Admirably, y'all responded rationally to BMW's GINA Light Visionary Concept. Instead of just screaming "yucky!" like the rest of the car blogosphere, TTAC's B&B took a step back and said, "Hmmm…." Trust me, as someone who has to think about cars all day, it's nothing but fresh air to see readers take such a cerebral tack. And so the GINA is skinned in fabric. Hmmm… Going on nothing but my observation that in normal usage convertibles seem to have a seven-year life span, this may not be the best idea. But, Bangle's comment about "Function over dogma" got my little brain spinning. Why not fabric? Or plastic? Or anything else? Why always metal? Would you drive a non-metal car? Really?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 47 comments

Question of the Day: Dude, Where’s My EV1?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 7, 2008 -

In 1996, General Motors rolled-out the infamous EV1. The battery-powered car satisfied California zero emissions regulations (its raison d'etre), sat two, could travel 160 miles (or less) on a charge and plugged into a wall outlet. The General leased 1,117 EV1s. By all accounts, the lessees loved the car. GM killed the EV1 in 2003, claiming they couldn't make a profit on the vehicle. The automaker also maintained that they'd sunk $1b in R&D into the project. GM destroyed the vast majority of the returned EV1s and decided to sue California to recoup their development costs (even though the Clinton administration had deferred $500m in costs). Fast forward five years. Where the hell is the EV1? Forget for a minute all the drawbacks (runs off electricity derived from oil and coal, no storage space, insanely heavy) and think about $4.69 a gallon gas (what I paid this morning). Consumers are clamoring for this very car. Speaking frankly, the people least shocked by the Volt's painful birth has to be General Motors. 2010? Good luck. Why not bring back the EV1 now? Not tomorrow, but right now. Why not?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 29 comments

Question of the Day: Is Anyone Accountable?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 6, 2008 -

As I've documented endlessly, my attraction to moving hunks of iron, plastic and rubber goes back as far as I do. My father was a pistonhead, my grandfather was a pistonhead and my great-grandfather was a schmate dealer born in Odessa around the time of the American Civil War. I mention this because as a kid I read Lee Iaccoca's autobiography. One of the lessons I took away from it (besides how hard he and Hank Ford II lobbied Nixon against airbags) was that the government bailout of Chrysler was needed because so many American jobs were at stake. Sure, corporate mis-management got the brand in trouble. But it was Uncle Sam's responsibility to not let them fail, according to Lee. Today we learned that Rick Wagoner defended The Big 2.8's inability to foresee how surging gas prices could gut the entire US SUV car industry. Assuming for a moment there is blame to be assigned (and we think there is), who gets it? The CEOs, for their blind devotion to easy body-on-frame profits? The government, for not being proactive and passing tougher CAFE standards years ago which would have forced the industry to think small? Or consumers, for buying so many socially-irresponsible hulking tanks when they simply did not need them? We passing the buck here. Who wants it?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 43 comments

Question of the Day: Do Muscle Cars Need a V8?

By Jonny Lieberman
June 5, 2008 -

Looks like Farago and I inadvertently kicked open a can of worms yesterday when discussing the new/maybe one day Camaro. Robert maintained that Bob Lutz is an "Idiot" for even suggesting a 4-banger muscle car. For my part I defended Lutz (dirty, i feel so dirty), because I happen to love the engine he's talking about. See, the 2.0-liter turbocharged and intercooled EcoTec I4 puts out a robust 260 horsepower and a rotund 260 lb-ft of torque. And that's currently. Rumor has it that Chevy will be boring the EcoTec out to 2.5-liters, which could easily net the engine 50 more hp, meaning that the base Camaro would have more juice than the 4th gen V8 F-body. Of course, if you need more, get the LS3-powered range topper. Point is, does cylinder count matter? Really?

Posted in Question of the Day | News Blog | 94 comments