The Truth About Cars » Sign of the Times

Honda Going Back To The Basics?

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:31:57 +0000

Honda has been getting flack on these pages for some time now for succumbing to size and weight bloating, a criticism that carries a special sting for an automaker that clawed its way into the mainstream by offering inexpensive, efficient models. And it seems that a little bashing may have helped. Automotive News [sub] reports [...]

UPDATE: Supportthebigthree.com Run by Toyota Supplier

Robert Farago — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:21:41 +0000

After our post on the “1000-DAY BIG THREE PLAN” to save the domestic automakers, TTAC commentators have been wondering about the man behind the website supportthebigthree.com. I’ve just got off the blower with site founder Sid Taylor who, it turns out, is the CEO of an automotive supplier named Set Enterprises. Scanning the site, it [...]

Porn Star Savannah Stern Trades Mercedes CLK350 for Her Parents’ Chevrolet Trailblazer

Robert Farago — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:32:55 +0000

Eagle-eyed, infinitely patient TTAC editor Jeff Puthuff spotted this story in the LA Times: “Less than two years ago, [porn star Savannah] Stern earned close to $150,000 annually, sometimes turned down work and drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK 350. Now she’s aggressively reaching out for jobs and making closer to $50,000 a year. As for that Mercedes? She’s [...]

Skynet? No, skypatrol

Robert Farago — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:02:07 +0000

Cruising through this morning’s autoblogoshpere, I clicked on an Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) report on telematics. In case you didn’t know, telematics is “the science of measuring, sending, receiving and storing information via telecommunication devices. In automotive terms—it is the ability to establish two-way connection with a moving vehicle.” Like, a cell phone? Yes, but better! [...]

Chrysler Isn’t Cool for Cats

Robert Farago — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:13:21 +0000

I can’t say that I’ve seen everything. But sometimes I feel as if I have. For example, the morning after we publish Bob Elton’s piece on Chrysler’s wanton destruction of its historical archives, the Detroit Free Press runs a piece on the future—or lack thereof—for feral cats hanging out on the grounds of Chrysler’s Sterling [...]

Sign Of The Times: Camry Tops “Most American Vehicle” List

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:47:48 +0000

Cars.com tackles the tough question of domestic content in its latest “American Made Index,” and comes away with a surprising result: Toyota’s Camry is the most “American” car on the market. Of course, making these distinctions in a global industry is fraught with difficulty. Though percentage of domestic parts content is tracked by the NHTSA [...]

Happy Fourth of July from TTAC

Robert Farago — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:36:43 +0000

Photo courtesy David Holzman

Sign Of The Times: Merch Edition

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:09:42 +0000

From Despair Inc (via Jalopnik), comes a T-shirt that is sure to outsell the Aveo. Is it time to declare the death of the ironic T-shirt?

Sign of the Times: Badvertising Edition

Jeff Puthuff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:32:37 +0000

What do you do when your £50,000 ($82,000) Range Rover requires, in the span of 42,000 miles, the following repairs? Six front ball joints; Four front arm bushes [bushings?]; One new seat base; Front and rear [near side?] struts; Air conditioning system; Anti-roll bar bushes; and A “full” suspension unit According to the Daily Mail, if you’re a Colchester, Essex, UK, man, you [...]

I Was a Communist Car Czar

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:25:16 +0000

Well, Ion Mihai Pacepa was. “When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided in the mid-1960s that he wanted to have a car industry, he chose me to start the project rolling. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I knew nothing about manufacturing cars, but neither did anyone else among Ceausescu’s [...]

Some TTAC Stats

Robert Farago — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:37:04 +0000

The Truth About Cars has come a long way since it had zero readers and zero page views. In the last however many years, we’ve gradually gathered a group of the autoblogosphere’s best and brightest. It is your patronage and engaged, informed and passionate commentary that has kept us honest, and made this site a [...]

Sign of the Times: Understated Edition

Jeff Puthuff — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:25:40 +0000

Folsom, CA (Yuppie-burb of Sacramento) is in my neck of the woods. I was browsing the online car ads of my local struggling newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, and was struck by the number of trucks for sale. “We’ve got more trucks than ever before . . . ” Yes, over 1,000 is quite a lot. (Get [...]

Autobahn Chapels in Germany: A Divine Cure for Road Rage?

Jeff Puthuff — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:19:10 +0000

In California, weary road warriors who need a place to temporarily rest have few options if they’re traveling outside the reaches of its sprawling cities. The drive between the capital and L.A. is especially dreary: miles and miles of industrial farms, oleander and eucalyptus trees. Worse, rest stops are barely-maintained, glorified pit toilets. You’ll never [...]

Color Me Gone

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:30:11 +0000

But as one door closes, another opens. With Pontiac dead, Automotive News [sub] reports that GM will use its NUMMI capacity for some other Corolla-based GM product. Because, as one Pontiac spokesman puts it, “there’s really nothing wrong with the Vibe. Its only problem right now is that it is a Pontiac.” G8 Gt slow motion [...]

G8 Gt slow motion burn out

Ask The Best And Brightest: Can It Be Darkest Before the Dawn?

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:03:35 +0000

Or, more specifically, what in the NSFW is going on at Suzuki? To this industry observer the last year or so has seemed like one giant shakeout, with the hand of Darwin separating the wheat from the Sebrings. Certain automakers appear to have been grabbed by said hand and dragged screaming down a swirling trough [...]

And Yet More Ways To Cash In On The Economic Downturn

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:33:35 +0000

Not everyone can weather an economic downturn with the grace of, say, a Ferrari. Even with Wall Street bonuses under fire from DC, The Scuderia’s North American boss tells Wall Street Journal that “our customer base is not mainly those people. Our people have serious money.” No, really. Giant, heaping piles of it. Which is [...]

Lower Gas Prices Don’t Inspire More Driving

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:07:50 +0000

Apologists for business-as-usual in the car game often took to blaming unnaturally high gas prices for last year’s trends towards smaller car sales and fewer vehicle miles traveled. When gas prices go back down, went the argument, Americans will go right back to buying thirsty SUVs and Crossovers and driving more miles. Not true, it [...]

CNN: Americans Are Giving Up Their Cars

Robert Farago — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:45:06 +0000

No, not that! Anything but that! Oh, hang on; if you’re an environmentalist, that’s a good thing, right? Less carbon in the atmos. Less congestion. (Bonus! The remaining drivers can zip about faster!) But the majority party isn’t against cars per se, are they? They just want smaller, cleaner cars. And OK, yes, lots of [...]

Chrysler Joins Clock Cutting Craze

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:14:59 +0000

What do you do when you’re out of time? Get rid of all your clocks! GM has already taken the humiliating measure of cutting clock maintenance from the RenCen budget, and Chrysler is now following suit. William Wolf of Chrysler Paint, Pilot and Facility Operations notes over at Chrysler Blog that “every little bit helps.” [...]

Chrysler’s New Viability Plan: Cheap Flash-Based Games

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:39:39 +0000

OK, so I don’t expect (most of) the B&B to be entertained by a Flash-based, Frogger-clone “driving game” for more than a few seconds, but if iMotor’s “Save Chrysler” game isn’t a sign of the times I don’t know what is. The gist? Choose from Chrysler’s best products (PT Cruiser, Sebring Convertible, Viper ACR or [...]

Fuel Efficiency Still A Consumer Concern

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:25:22 +0000

According to a study by the Consumer Federation of America (PDF), relatively low gas prices haven’t done much to change consumer trends towards more fuel-efficient vehicles. This revelation comes amid claims that small car demand was artificially inflated by high gas prices and increased truck production from General Motors. The survey asked respondents to rate [...]

Toyota U.S. Production Cuts. Why Not?

Robert Farago — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:08:03 +0000

Toyota is declining to provide details on its next round of U.S. production cuts. Automotive News [sub] illustrates the automaker’s newfound inscrutability. ”This is a tough environment, and it may continue for a while,” said Jim Wiseman, Toyota’s vice president of English understatement. Just kidding: Jim’s ToMoCo’s Veep of external affairs. ”In addition to slowing production, we [...]

“I didn’t get out of bed early on a Sunday and come all the way down here in snow for nothing”

Edward Niedermeyer — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:25:30 +0000

The New York Times reports that 600 GM employees “accepted a company invitation to demonstrate as reporters walked to a G.M. press conference Sunday morning.”

NOW How Much Would You Pay? Corvette Z06 $65k, Jeep Commander $26.7k

Robert Farago — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:13:56 +0000

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