Book Review: Sixty To Zero
Michael Karesh lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, with his wife and three children. In 2003 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. While in Chicago he worked at the National Opinion Research Center, a leader in the field of survey research. For his doctoral thesis, he spent a year-and-a-half inside an automaker studying how and how well it understood consumers when developing new products. While pursuing the degree he taught consumer behavior and product development at Oakland University. Since 1999, he has contributed auto reviews to Epinions, where he is currently one of two people in charge of the autos section. Since earning the degree he has continued to care for his children (school, gymnastics, tae-kwan-do...) and write reviews for Epinions and, more recently, The Truth About Cars while developing TrueDelta, a vehicle reliability and price comparison site.
More by Michael Karesh
Latest Car Reviews
Read moreLatest Product Reviews
Read moreRecent Comments
- Mebgardner I owned 4 different Z cars beginning with a 1970 model. I could already row'em before buying the first one. They were light, fast, well powered, RWD, good suspenders, and I loved working on them myself when needed. Affordable and great styling, too. On the flip side, parts were expensive and mostly only available in a dealers parts dept. I could live with those same attributes today, but those days are gone long gone. Safety Regulations and Import Regulations, while good things, will not allow for these car attributes at the price point I bought them at.I think I will go shop a GT-R.
- Lou_BC Honda plans on investing 15 billion CAD. It appears that the Ontario government and Federal government will provide tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades to the tune of 5 billion CAD. This will cover all manufacturing including a battery plant. Honda feels they'll save 20% on production costs having it all localized and in house.As @ Analoggrotto pointed out, another brilliant TTAC press release.
- 28-Cars-Later "Its cautious approach, which, along with Toyota’s, was criticized for being too slow, is now proving prescient"A little off topic, but where are these critics today and why aren't they being shamed? Why are their lunkheaded comments being memory holed? 'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' -Orwell, 1984
- Tane94 A CVT is not the kiss of death but Nissan erred in putting CVTs in vehicles that should have had conventional automatics. Glad to see the Murano is FINALLY being redesigned. Nostalgia is great but please drop the Z car -- its ultra-low sales volume does not merit continued production. Redirect the $$$ into small and midsize CUVs/SUVs.
- Analoggrotto Another brilliant press release.
Comments
Join the conversation
As a novice writer I've learned access is important, whether it's access to engineers and executives or access to test vehicles. Without access you're just another guy with an opinion about cars. Farago pissed off a lot of people. It helped build TTAC's brand and credibility with readers, but it impaired TTAC's access with the car companies. Remember the Lutz press event for automotive bloggers where GM's communications guy didn't even want to let Robert in the room? Hell, when I get credentialed to the Detroit show I usually get them issued for another site that I write for. If I say that I write for TTAC, I'll get a smirk and have to end up describing myself as the site's "unofficial Detroit defender". There's a saying that family therapists use, "Is this the hill you want to die fighting for?" You want to get the truth, and ask sincere, probing questions. At the same time, if you get known for negativity, you're not going to get many interview opportunities. So you try to balance fair criticism with sucking up. My approach is to not be openly confrontational, and to work hard at coming up with questions that the interviewee hasn't heard a million times. I've found that a unique question isn't usually answered with a sound bite. If that unique question is thoughtful, that goes a long way towards establishing credibility.
CJinSD - you are SOOO right!