Daily Podcast: The Value of Value
A friend of my father's taught me there are only three markets: price, value and quality. Price-driven consumers want the lowest possible purchase price, per…
Read more
Daily Podcast: No More Mr. Nicely Nicely?
I'm a big fan of Autoblog. While there are some who might suggest that there's a good reason that re-writing (or republishing) press releases is a lost art f…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Safety First
AdAge reports "supermodel" Ganna Makeeva is suing Leo Burnett for negligence. Apparently, whilst shooting a superbowl ad for Cadillac back in '05, Ms. Makeev…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Phoney War
Well, I've sent it off: my email to the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. I've politely requested that their Credentials Committee reconsider their decision…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Prius Profiling
We here at TTAC have gone out of our way not to characterize Toyota Prius owners as left-leaning tree-hugging pompous, uh, people. As the Toyota gas –…
Read more
Daily Podcast: No Good Reporter Goes Unpunished
We're preparing our reapplication for press credentials to the Detroit Auto Show, but it's hard to know what to send. TTAC's mono-maniacal Managing Editor Fr…
Read more
Daily Podcast: TTAC Denied Detroit Auto Show Press Credentials
Unique visitors. I just love that term. It's not quite as Walt Disney World politically correct creepy as "special"– all visitors to Mickey's Kingdom a…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Color Me Impressed
Sometimes my fascination for all things automotive scares me. What if Yellowstone blows up and plunges the world into a new Ice Age– mit famine? The ar…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Auto Show Me the Money
In its unstoppable quest for pistonhead patronage, TTAC is boldly going where all our competition has gone before: the North American International Auto Show…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Roger Smith RIP
“Roger Smith led GM during a period of tremendous innovation in the industry. He was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Hold on Tight to Your Dreams
I can't get that friggin' song out of my head. Even my trusty pop hook removal methodology– humming Elvis' Rock A Hula Baby– won't exorcise the t…
Read more
Brits Need Roads
The Association of British Drivers (ABD) is calling for the UK government to get their thumbs out and start building some more damn roads already, and bloody…
Read more
Daily Podcast: See, They Install That TruCoat at the Factory. There's Nothing We Can Do.
North Dakota has a population of 640,000. It also has the largest state-owned sheep research center in the United States. What it doesn't have, however, is e…
Read more
Energy Bill Deal Due Today
The Detroit News reports that the House and Senate are close to cutting a deal on the bill that will determine what kind of cars automakers will be building…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Darwin Rides Shotgun
I am not one to hang about whilst driving. Oh, I know how to cruise. And I know when cruising's the better part of valor. But there are times when I don't sp…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Another Milestone
How did Stevie Wonder go from "You Haven't Done Nothin'" to "I Just Called to Say I Love You?" The easy answer is money (they don't call it "selling out" for…
Read more
Daily Podcast: One Step Ahead of the Shoe Shine
I don't normally read Car and Drivers' letters to the editor section. But the sub-head over a readers' missive caught my eye: "Is our BMW Bias Showing?" I'd…
Read more
Honda's Clarity Fuels Hydrogen Hype
Honda is about to offer the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity to "customers" on a limited long-term lease basis. For 600 bucks a month, a handful of lucky leaseho…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Although the Last, Not Least
Ted Turner used to have a sign on his desk: "Lead, Follow or Try to Snort as much Cocaine As I do." No wait. "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way." Americans…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Geography of Nowhere
I remember when Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen were all subsets of a larger brand: "German car." Although Mercedes best exemplified what is now called the moni…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Purse-spective
My wife's South African. She knows a thing or two about bigotry. I'm not speaking about her up-close-and-personal experiences under The Republic's heinous sy…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Same, Only Different
I was more than a little hesitant about blogging the LA Auto Show, As someone who abhors officious glad-handing, detests news conference narcolepsy and despa…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Affluenza
As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously opined, the rich aren't like you and me. Ipso facto. What would you be like if you could do anything you wanted to do from ch…
Read more
Daily Podcast: I Wouldn't Do That Job for a Million Bucks
So the D.C. DMV reckons the best way to cut lines is to remove the human element from the parking ticket adjudication process. In other words, as of December…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Embargo THIS
I never understood the concept of an automotive-related news embargo. It's easy enough to see what's in it for the carmaker. They can time their marketing an…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Maybe Next Time
My first car was a Ford. As was my second. And my third. They were all hand-me-down Ford Pinto station wagons. And I owned all of them in the space of one ye…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Don't Chrysler for Me Argentina
The truth is I never hurt you. Or at least that's U.S. Representative Candice Miller's take on Chrysler's back-in-black Thursday. Here's the full text of the…
Read more
Daily Podcast: TTAC Ten Worst Results Delayed 'Til Monday
Sorry about this, but the winners of TTAC's Ten Worst automobiles will now be announced on Monday morning. The reason for the delay is simple: me. As you pro…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The IS-F is God's Way of Saying Lexus is Making Too Much Money
My wife and I were talking about Tom Cruise the other day. After discussing the diminutive actor's parenting skills and religious beliefs, we came to the som…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Thread That Wouldn't Die
I have been reading the comments to the post "In Defense of American Automakers" with ever-increasing fascination and mounting excitement. As of this writing…
Read more
Daily Podcast: To Review…
Branding guru Al Reis has soothed this publisher's fevered e-brow on more than one occasion. "Chill out," Big Al recently advised. "The strongest brands star…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Raking Muck
After a few months of constant scanning the web for automotive stories, you get a real feel for who covers what, how and when. The Detroit News never fails t…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Ugly
After I labelled the Volvo P1800 ES a hideous mutation, TTAC commentator beetlebug questioned my aesthetic sensibilities. The usual reply to such cavil: beau…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Big Bang
Henry Ford firmly established the economic benefits of leveraging large economies of scale– for both the automaker's profits and the customer's wallet.…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Persistence
I just finished editing a piece by Steven Wade about Saab's renaissance. Bolstering the arguments of a writer whose opinions I don't share may seem a bizar…
Read more
To Tell the Truth: Ford's Quality Guy Talks to TTAC (Pt. 2)
There's something reassuring about talking to employees who work for a really large company. You can almost hear a well-stocked 401k plan in their voice. Now…
Read more
To Tell the Truth: Ford's Quality Guy Talks to TTAC
Even before I pronounced Ford’s “new” Focus a one-star car, FoMoCo PR had suggested a little tete-a-TTAC with one of their quality guys. We…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The End of History
Yes, I've driven the "new" Ford Focus. And yes, it blows. I'm working on the review now, trying to summarize the vehicle's ghastly gestalt without resorting…
Read more
What Women Want: Fold Down Rear Seats
It's true: TTAC panders to PR-meisters who use surveys to hook hacks into stories with only a peripheral link to the companies that sponsor them. And more th…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Must Focus
So here I am, on the phone to a car dealer to hook-up a test drive in the "new" Ford Focus. As I type, I'm on hold, listening to an ad for Stop and Shop. Whi…
Read more
Daily Podcast: X Marks the Stain
There are plenty of auto industry execs who see car enthusiasts a bunch of Buddy Pines. I'm talking about the sycophantic fan in The Incredibles: a boy whose…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Veni Vidi Video
I remember the afternoon Nancy Reagan sashayed into CNN for an in-studio interview. I was tethered to camera two, panning its unblinking eye left and right s…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Planning a New Hatch
I'm somewhat proud that the first Survivor winner was a fellow Rhode Islander. As is the case with many successful Ocean State natives (e.g. former Providenc…
Read more
UK Road Safety Campaigners Get Wasted
The Evening Leader (Wrexham, Wales, UK) reports that a road safety-oriented theatrical production called "Wasted" has kids swearing off cars. After watching…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Talking 'Bout My Education
I was hanging-out with Dad yesterday, waiting for Mom to come out of surgery. When he mistook a passerby's ringing cell for his own, I said it's hard to im…
Read more
EPA Strugges to Devise Plug-In Hybrid MPG Rating
How the Hell do you calculate the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mileage figures for plug-in or serial hybrids, vehicles that can/will operat…
Read more
Daily Podcast: The Police Chase Stops Here
This morning, Frank Williams blogged the AP's report on OnStar's new "Stolen Vehicle Slowdown" (SVS) option. Tick the appropriate box on your OnStar service…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Pickup After Yourself
Although Justin wonders how the loss of "lifestyle" buyers may hurt pickup truck sales, I never held much truck with the idea that Urban Cowboy-ism accounted…
Read more
Ener1 Announces Li-Ion Battery Breakthrough
I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of Lithium-Ion battery technology. I know the basics: they're smaller than the nickel metal hydride cells…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Bullet-Proof
Prior to the late 80's, Mercedes were known for its "bullet proof" build quality. Of course, they were no such thing. A well-placed slug would stop a Mercede…
Read more
Daily Podcast: In Praise of Vanilla
I like vanilla ice cream. I know: as a guy who chooses "media" from the drop-down menu of professions, I should be into something exotic like swordfish pecan…
Read more
Daily Podcast: In Praise of Driving Large Cars Really Fast
I know really big cars are deeply unfashionable amongst people who know who Tim Robbins is. And driving fast is about as socially acceptable as smoking a cig…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Pain Threshold
Owning a Ferrari is like having a mistress. When you're with it/her, you understand exactly why you were willing to risk life, limb, your children's happines…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Motorcars of the Classic Era
Is the name of the coffee table tome resting underneath my left elbow. Michael Furman's photographic study of automobiles built from 1925 to 1948 leads with…
Read more
Solomon Technologies Appeals ITC Ruling on Synergy Drive Patent
The International Trade Commission has ruled that Toyota did not pilfer key technology from Solomon Technologies to create the Synergy Drive system used in T…
Read more
Daily Podcast: By Thy Deeds Thy Bangle Shall Be Known
Again, for the record, TTAC has never accused Chris Bangle of being a racist. We accused the BMW designer of racial insensitivity. He singularly failed to re…
Read more
Daily Podcast: As Fall River Falls so Falls Fall River
Samuel Slater started the industrial revolution in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Slater's 1793 textile mill set-off a manufacturing boom in The Ocean State, which…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Warning!
An investment banker once told me business isn't risky. People are risky. One guy can take a dumb as toast business plan and make millions. Another guy can t…
Read more
Daily Podcast: Go to Work on an Egg
Few people will recognize the name Salman Rushdie. Those who do will know know Rushdie as the Indian-born fiction writer whose novel The Satanic Verses inspired the Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a death sentence against its author. After attempting to read the work in question, I can tell you that it’s far more likely that the the fatwa was, in truth, an act of literary criticism, rather than a divinely-inspired retribution for Koranic blasphemy. Suffice it to say, the rest of Rushdie’s literary canon can be safely placed in that special category pretentious people call “challenging.” In fact, Rushdie’s greatest work was penned when he worked as advertising copywriter for Ogilvy & Mather. The headline above is one such Rushdie meisterwerk, written for the UK’s Egg Council. He also wrote “Naughty but Nice” for a cake maker. But just try and find a bio that gives proper credit for these bon mots, or explains the creative process they required. As Justin and I dissect ad slogans on this podcast, try to remember that it takes a blazing talent to find a few words that can carry a car brand into the hearts and minds of consumers. And a great company to recognize and embrace them.
Daily Podcast: Buy the Right Dog
Failing upwards is a very strange concept, one that I don't pretend to understand. For example, Mark Fields took the reins of Ford's doomed-from-birth Premie…
Read more
Recent Comments