TTAC Wishes You All A Very Merry And Joyful ...

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

It’s beginning to look at lot like than unmentionable holiday period, except where I am at the moment. But even in heathen China, the restaurant was full with cute waitresses with even cuter Santa hats today. Air China treated me to the full panoply of You-Know-What carols, from “O Come All Ye Faithful” all the way to “Silent Night”. It’s a strange world where one must fly to a communist country to hear “O Christmas Tree” without recrimination.

This being an international site, with readers and editors in all corners of the world, we celebrate this occasion in our traditional nondenominational style.

The editors of Thetruthaboutcars wish our readers a joyous Constitution Day in Micronesia, a roaring Santuranticuy in Peru, a happy Stedry den in the Czech Republic, we wish you cheerful Las Posadas in Mexico, a red, white, and blue Washington’s Birthday in the US, and a red-on-white Emperor’s Birthday in Japan. Happy Fete des Membres to our friends in Haiti, a crackling Constitution Day in Taiwan, and whatever you do on Family Day in Angola. We celebrate Jinnah’s Birthday with our friends in Pakistan and Annual Sports Day with our two readers in the Falkland Islands. Our gloves come off for Boxing Day, and back on for the Day of Goodwill in South Africa. We wish a rowdy Junkanoo to our island buddies. Y’all have a splendid St. Stephen’s Day, and may you enjoy whatever one does on a Zartusht – No – Diso.

We also wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Over and between the holidays, our usual high volume reporting will slow to a festive trickle. There isn’t much news anyway at that time. If there are monstrous news, we’ll set down the eggnog and write about it. Our friends in Germany and elsewhere in Europe are already enjoying the perfect present from the calendar: Two weeks of holidays by taking just five days off.

After we have recovered, we will hit the new year with verve. I will convince Frau Schmitto-san that it is still way too iffy for a Japanese National to be in China, and we will go back to Tokyo to cover the insanities of the Tokyo Auto Salon. Think SEMA Dekotora-style, and you will be halfway there. Derek will trade frigid Toronto with longjohn Detroit and cover the Detroit Auto Show.

And before we forget: This month is Stress Free Family Holiday Month, along with Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month: We want you all back, safe, sound, and witty as ever in the new year.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 37 comments
  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Dec 24, 2012

    Merry Christmas (and since I'm currently in Thailand I gotta say, this is a strange place to spend Christmas.)

  • Oldyak Oldyak on Dec 24, 2012

    Merry Christmas From Memphis! have a nananna/peanut butter samwich in homage to the King.... I KNOW!!!! Wrong King !!! (but a great samwich)

    • Lumbergh21 Lumbergh21 on Dec 24, 2012

      Just so long as you're not having a peanut butter and bacon sandwich in homage to the King. That would be truly weird.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
Next