Podcasts

It's time for another podcast!

Just a quick note of self-promotion here. You've heard our podcasts. Now you can check out my guest spot on Consumer Guide's podcast.

As February ends, we look back a couple of weeks to the 2023 Chicago Auto Show on our latest podcast.

Time for yet more shameless self-promotion! The latest episode of our podcast is now live. On it, we discuss the Mazda CX-90, EV pricing, and Honda's fuel-cell strategy.

In our final podcast episode of the year, I chat about the new Toyota Prius and Kia EV6 GT with automotive industry analyst Robby DeGraff, who works for AutoPacific.

The latest episode of the TTAC podcast is here!

The TTAC podcast is back, and we were aggressively Midwest this time around.

The next episode of the TTAC podcast is here!

Hi there! Remember that podcast we did a few weeks back? Well, we’re back with more.

There’s also more to come.

One of my hopes as editor of this august site has been to get a podcast off the ground. It was a back-burner idea for years, then Matt and Steph and I recorded a trial run in 2020.

TTAC’s Twitter followers already know that I’m at the 2011 APEC Transport/Energy Ministerial Meeting in San Francisco, rubbing elbows with key decision-makers from the world of energy and transportation across the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier today I had the opportunity to sit down with Better Place CEO Shai Agassi, the intense, formidable CEO of Project Better Place. I’ll be writing about that conversation shortly, but many of the major points are covered in the speech Agassi gave shortly afterwards to assembled ministers, media and businesspeople. The speech boils down Better Place’s hugely ambitious plan to tackle one of the most complex challenges the world faces: transportation’s dependence on oil. If you’re looking for an Al Gore-style “green” speech, keep looking. Agassi tackles the problem from an economic and technological approach, and he makes a case that is well worth about 17 minutes of your time.

If you’re not familiar with Better Place, you can read some of TTAC’s coverage of the battery-swapping, network-managing, mileage-leasing project at our Project Better Place tag here (much of it on-the-ground reporting from Tal Bronfer, who has been following its rollout in the Israeli market). A comparison of battery swap to other EV business models can be found here, and a study of EV grid management issues can be found here.

The list of CAFE violators ( in PDF form) reads like a valet’s to-do list: Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati. These firms pay CAFE fines because, well, they can. CAFE fines are calculated by multiplying each tenth of a mile per gallon of average non-compliance by $5.50, then multiplying that dollar amount by the number of vehicles sold. As a result, luxury firms pay the highest fines when they try to go mass market: Merecedes paid about $30 million for 2007. But if CAFE is already weighted to let small companies off the hook, why are we hearing about new rules which seem to relax standards for firms selling fewer than 400k vehicles per term? Aren’t the regular loopholes enough?

As promised in today’s podcast, here’s a teaser image of the forthcoming Audi A8 (courtesy of Top Gear‘s blog).

No, we’re not talking about stalking women of a certain age. To my summer flu-addled mind, this Focus-based softroader should be on the US market already, cashing in on one of the few successful segments left here. We hear it’s going to be built in Kentucky, but when?

As Robert posted below, TTAC is redoubling its efforts to get timely road tests by reaching out to the very manufacturers we lay into on a daily basis. But why, you might ask, would these giant firms feed the mouth that bites them?

Like most people under the age of 40, I never read car magazines. Actually that’s not true. I’ve been stealing copies of Auto Motor und Sport from my dad for years. Even after its long trip across the Atlantic, the anal-retentive German’s anal-retentive car magazine still manages to scoop the American mags on many of the most compelling industry developments. But the real draw is the mag’s road testing, which really confirms every stereotype of Teutonic attention to detail. No metric is too mundane to be measured, graphed and scored… think Consumer Reports for people who actually like cars and think OCD medication is for the weak. On the other side of the equation is evo magazine, which is hands-down the best enthusiast-oriented car magazine.

GM claims to be calibrated to break even at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual sales Rate (SAAR) of 10m sales. Which assumes that GM’s portion of those sales will remain steady. As we’ve learned today, that’s not likely. GM’s market share is being pummelled by bad news, bailout backlash, and (according to the Merrill Lynch report) poor product replacement rates. While GM talks up the Volt, discusses a Prius fighter and touts an American-made compact, its major product push has been centered around a single dying brand (Buick) and its single new product, the LaCrosse. Yes there’s a new Equinox, but has anyone noticed? Camaro may be the choice of bold, audacious lemmings everywhere, but for how long? It’s gut check time . . .

We just got the fairly obvious news that the Pontiac G8 will die on the vine. Fast forward thirty years. Pontiac cars will only be a historical name, like Lagonda, or Pierce-Arrow. Imagine though, the bitchin’ 1980s-2000s collection that a retro minded old codger could have in his garage:

1. G8 GT
2. GTO (2006)
3. Solstice GXP
4. Trans AM WS6 (2002, with 325 hp LS1 V8)
5. Aztek (for historical purposes, of course).
6. Fiero V6

It could be like all the other cars (like the G5) just never happened. As if.

We’re actually planning a few meetups in 2009 for TTAC readers and writers, many of them right here in North America. But with Captain Mike’s upcoming work-related assignment to Germany – a mere one hour from the Nurburgring – we’re going to have a European adventure as well. I’m beginning the search for sponsors (who? uh…). In any case, it should make for a downright thrilling trip, including more than a few frightening rides in the ‘Ring taxi. Separate from driving, I envision copious beer drinking and regional sausages. We’ll be sure to give you plenty of warning ahead of time, should you be planning any business trips to Europe, or be sitting on a pile of frequewnt flyer miles, or actually be an EU resident yourself. I’ll bring the Porsche 911 Turbo, you bring the Nissan GT-R.

DaveAdmin over at Allpar Weblogs is just as unhappy with the coverage of the potential GM – Chrysler debacle merger as your faithful TTAC correspondents. But for different reasons. Apparently, it’s OK for the mainstream press and armchair analysts to suggest that this is a done deal, but they don’t “get it” when it comes to what might come next. In the main, DaveAdmin reckons they’re all guilty of the sin of omission. “No article I have seen suggests that maybe, because the Dodge trucks are clearly superior (especially in Class 3-5), that GM might shift over to Dodge’s designs. Only one mentioned the Dodge trucks in any way other than ‘to be canned’ at all, and that was to point out the bad timing of their launch. Ford’s big, trucklike Flex, Toyota’s Tundra (with one factory already being converted to other uses), and Ford’s upcoming F-series were apparently examples of good timing. No article I’ve seen mentions the Hemi except disparagingly, as in ‘dummies make V8s when people don’t want them any more.’ (Four years ago.) Never mind that trucks still need V8s and the Hemi is best in class, especially in variable cam form. No article I’ve seen mentions the Phoenix engines or the dual-clutch transmission technology. The latter, to be fair, appears to be dead at the moment, as Chrysler chose to cancel their launch by picking a fight with Getrag and abruptly canceling all talks.” Yeah, to be fair. It gets better…