Comments on: Volt Birth Watch 83: Gary Witzenburg’s Reasons to be Cheerful

By: Ford Guy

Ford Guy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:26:49 +0000

Does everyone realise that the GM Volt powertrain is a copy of the Renault Kangoo Elect’road 2003?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elect%27road

The only bits that are new are the GM hype and Li-Ion batteries.

“GM’s own NASA-style program to reinvent automotive technology and thus assure the triumph of truth, justice and the American Way”
Gary must be having a chuckle that anyone even bothered to write that comment down.

By: Agitated

Agitated — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:17:02 +0000

Okay, I guess I’m the only one that immediately got the “Ian Dury and the Blockheads” reference when I saw this headline…or the Gary Numan reference, “Are Friends (Tata Cars) Electric”. Gotta love New Wave!

By: Nemphre

Nemphre — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:22:31 +0000

Are PR people the worst people in the world, or do they just make it seem like they are?

By: pariah

pariah — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:18:07 +0000

Does anybody else think this series should be called the “Volt Stillbirth Watch?”

By: toxicroach

toxicroach — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:23:54 +0000

Not that I blame them, if I got that much money no matter how terribly I did my job, shame would be low on my priorities list, too.

Ha!

Good line.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:01:04 +0000

Harvey, you can be sure those well-crafted, knowledgeable, buff-directed “special advertising sections” aren’t written by the kids in the car company’s PR department, or by the people in the Manhattan ad-agency offices. You’re spot-on.

By: AG

AG — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:00:27 +0000

Actually, no. No, we’re not tired of people in other countries laughing at us. And by ‘we’ I mean Dick Wagoner and his friends who collect millions for terrible leadership, then beg the government for a bailout. Not that I blame them, if I got that much money no matter how terribly I did my job, shame would be low on my priorities list, too.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:58:59 +0000

You talkin’; to me? You talkin’ to me? I’m 72. but I’m on my way to the gym to lift weights with the cops. But I occasionally forget the way to the gym.

By: 210delray

210delray — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:39:35 +0000

Gary Witzenburg is still around? I remember reading him in the early 70s in Popular Mechanics. He must be getting up there in years (no offense Stephan); I’m not exactly a young whippersnapper anymore either.

By: HarveyBirdman

HarveyBirdman — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:30:56 +0000

Stephan,

I remember you mentioning the anonymous press-kit authoring some time ago. I think of it every time I see a “Special Advertising Section” in the buff books, and try to imagine the big-name writers grinding away crafting vintage PR-speak. It actually leaves me feeling a bit unsettled (which I imagine is your point in discussing such things).

After I read the “update” on the Volt, I found myself wondering who got the check for the piece–Witzenburg, or Edmunds. Either way, I imagine Witzenburg is doing just fine for himself.

By: netrun

netrun — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:18:49 +0000

I love how he claims it’s everyone else’s fault the EV1 failed. Then mentions that emissions on gas engines improved 10 fold during the EV1 development, that the EV1 didn’t meet the utility minimums for most people, and never had an acceptable range.

So if the Volt fails, I’ll be waiting for a second article of his blaming me, again, for the failure.

GM must be one amazing company to never, ever make mistakes or do things half-a$$ed. It’s always everybody else’s fault. Amazing.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:03:56 +0000

Gary is one of the legion of moderately known buff book writers who quickly learned that they could earn six or eight times as much as Ziff-Davis or Peterson paid them, by sliding into the corporate embrace, which I believe happened to him in the 1970s, when he was a competent car writer who went to the Dark Side. A phenomenon perhaps worthy of examining, since it happened to everyone from William Jeanes to Karl Ludvigson.

There were some who wouldn’t touch the job with _your_ dick, others who never got asked (or, more likely, simply never exploited their many corporate-PR contacts), and many who bent over and accepted the big bucks.

This is all perhaps off topic, but one would also be amazed to learn how many “famous” buff-book writers earn 80 percent of their surprisingly substantial incomes from quietly “consulting” for car manufacturers (and by no means just domestic) and for writing the major press kits that accompany the introduction of new models. Doing something like a full press kit can take as much work as writing a minor book and can earn as much as writing a moderately successful novel.