Daily Podcast: Carmageddon is Upon Us
Daily Podcast: Carmageddon is Upon Us
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Daily Podcast Lieberman Edition: I Hate Teaser Photos
Daily Podcast Lieberman Edition: I Hate Teaser Photos
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Daily Podcast: Meta-Mucil
Meta media mining can make one a bummed-out blogger. I know I kinda lost it with the AutoWeek/Danbury pimpatorial. But I have this deep-seated sense of fair…
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Daily Podcast: The Party's Over
Daily Podcast: The Party's Over
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Daily Podcast: Lieberman: "The Hyundai Sonata Handles Better Than the MINI Cooper"
Daily Podcast: Lieberman: "The Hyundai Sonata handles better than the MINI Cooper"
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Daily Podcast: Muscle Car Writing Contest Tomorrow
Daily Podcast: Muscle Car Writing Contest Tomorrow
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Daily Podcast: Motown Mooch-oirs
Daily Podcast: Motown Mooch-oirs
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Daily Podcast: Lieberman Edition: Racecars Can't Be Daily Drivers
Maserati has a new version of the Gran Turismo called the “Corse.” (Check it out at AutoFiends). It’s stripped out, no sound insulation, ra…
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Daily Podcast: Lieberman Edition – What's a Lagonda Anyway?
The name “Lagonda” is one of those car brands you hear tossed around in historical context like the proverbial football. But I was the bad athlet…
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Daily Podcast: A Giant Bowl of Stupid?
Daily Podcast: Even a Stopped Clock
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Daily Podcast: Lieberman Grumpy About 333 Horsepower Audi S4
Daily Podcast: Lieberman Grumpy About 333 Horsepower Audi S4
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Daily Podcast: Lieberman Edition
Podcast, Lieberman, Berkowitz, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche
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Daily Podcast: Bifurcating Podcasts
Daily Podcast: Bifurcating Podcasts, Farago, Lieberman, Berkowitz
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Daily Podcast: I Want to Be Bob Lutz
Daily podcast on the truth about cars about Podcast, Lutz, Lieberman, Camaro, Porsche, Berkowitz
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Daily Podcast: No More Hertz Mustangs. Only Corvettes.
Alright, that’s a little misleading. You can still pick up a regular V6 Mustang from Hertz. And I’d imagine you always will be able to. But they…
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Daily Podcast: Ferrari Enzos and Camera Phones
This past Sunday, while driving around the feudal kingdom that is Long Island, I spotted five Ferraris. They weren’t coming from a show – just ri…
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Daily Podcast: The L.A.-S.F.-N.Y. Bubble
Among other topics in today’s podcast, Jonny and I discuss the Audi A3. He and I both agree, we’re seeing them all over the place. But if you&rsq…
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Daily Podcast: Justin Case
When Justin began this, his first week as TTAC’s new ME, I warned him that running the site was like playing a slot machine. Posting blogs, editorials…
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Daily Podcast: Time to Drive
Many years ago, while riding a water taxi in Venice, I asked the pilot if he ever went onto the Terraferma (mainland) – and if so, if he needed a car.…
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Daily Podcast: Still Excited at the Mailbox
Today I got this month’s issue of Octane in the mail. What a delight. While the American car magazine landscape is severely lacking in depth, compellin…
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Daily Podcast: Farago Takes a Break
My wife doesn't believe me, but I'm taking a week off, my first in more than two-and-a-half years. This is my last opportunity to take a breather before Fran…
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Daily Podcast: What is a Chevy?

TTAC commentator Brent asked why fellow members of our Best and Brightest aren't cutting the new Cruze some slack. "All I ever see are comments (rightly) digging on GM for having no truly competitive small cars, and for having none in the pipeline. Now we learn of one that in fact *is* in the pipeline. Furthermore, it just might be competitive. And what do I see? A bunch of comments digging on GM for even trying." As a cynical bastard, I think the cynicism has been well and truly earned, through dozens of less-than-stellar (i.e. crap) GM small cars. And, lest we forget, Chevy is a brand that touts itself as "An American Revolution" whilst selling a Korean car. In fact, what equity/credibility remains within the Chevy brand? Like a Rock reliability? Not for cars. (Not yet, anyway.) So, really, it all comes down to one word: Corvette. And if that's true, what IS a Chevy? No matter how good the Cruze may be (Jonny), it simply can't traverse GM's branding issues. Nothing can. [PS: DON'T FORGET THERE'S A PODCAST BELOW]

2009 Corvette ZR1 - First Drive

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Daily Podcast: Sign of the Times
According to our pals at pistonheads, old people are pissed that the UK's "watch out for old people" traffic signs depicts old people as, uh, old people. You…
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Daily Podcast: The Ugly American?
"(Americans see it as) their God-given right to buy the largest vehicle they possibly can, own as many vehicles as they can, trade them for new vehicles as o…
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Daily Podcast: Needs Must?
"Selling consumers more vehicle than they need has been the mainstream auto industry's business model for most of the past century," Joseph P. White writes i…
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Daily Podcast: No Long Termers Need Apply
There is an argument to be made for car mags and websites accepting manufacturer-supplied long term test vehicles. But I'm not going to make it. If these con…
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Daily Podcast: All Hail Frank Williams
Frank Williams arrived at TTAC as a reader. He became a writer. Then an editor. Then Managing Editor. His tenure at the top has been a blessing, freeing me f…
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Daily Podcast: The Bottom Line
As TTAC's Black Friday Redux coverage gathered pace, I paused to scan a USA Today profile of VW's new U.S. boss. If you don't read the article too closely, y…
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Daily Podcast: A Pom-Pom Free Zone
I've been exceptionally busy on the flame-suppression front. This week, I've removed dozens of offensive comments, and permanently banned more than a few unr…
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Daily Podcast: America is Waiting
I was delighted when I read CSJohnston's comment under the last Podcast intro. Responding to the question "What is a Ford?" he wrote "One could sum up Ford a…
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Daily Podcast: First We Kill All The Lawyers
But we've got to do it soon. Justin takes his New York bar exam on Tuesday and Wednesday, and our resident new car guy is no John F. Kennedy Jr. Fortunately…
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Daily Podcast: The Infiniti G35 Wrecked Everything

A few years ago, when my mother was car shopping for entry luxury sedans, I suggested she "just get an Infiniti G35x." I've never been wild about the G – especially when laden with AWD – but it had more power than any competitors at the time, offered the AWD, the all-important luxury badge, and it was the best price in the class. I cannot count the number of time when I've seen in car forums somewhere, a debate or discussion in which the G35 plays the role of spoiler. "Why get a BMW 328i with only 230 horsepower when you could get an Infiniti G35 for the same price with 300+?" Replace BMW 328i with Mercedes C300, or Audi A4, or Lexus IS. That being said, they moved about 5600 G35 and G37s in June, compared to over 9000 BMW 3-Series sold in the US that month. Then again, the BMW 3-Series has a cult following going back 30 years. While the Infiniti G35 wears the legendary Skyline name in Japan, 99.9% of car shopping Americans don't know that. (Ken Watanabe, Japanese movie star and costar in The Last Samurai, is featured in the ad above). The bottom line is: Infiniti figured out how to get to the bargain breaking point. By that, I mean the position at which they offer the best value in the class, but not so much value that their car is no longer desirable.

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Daily Podcast: "Tell Me Something, Anything… I Feel the Need to Be Inside of Your Head If I Cannot Be Near You"
At the risk of being sued by Julie Roehm, inventor of the Dodge brand's ill-fated lingerie bowl, the ex-auto exec strikes me as a bit of a bunny boiler. The…
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Daily Podcast: Stupid Useless Vanity
For the past six years or so, I steered clear of SUVs. A car guy bought cars. End of story. And now, suddenly, I want one. Not a cute ute or anything as sens…
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Daily Podcast: The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven

Motown pundit Peter DeLorenzo frequently takes his hometown heroes to task for their insularity. It's more than a bit ironic; the self-styled Autoextremist steadfastly refuses to allow comments underneath his weekly rants. The columnist also backed out of simultaneous TTAC publication because he didn't want to respond to TTAC's Best and Brightest when they ripped his writing to shreds thoughtfully analyzed his insightful commentary. In e-pistle 454, DeLorenzo once again tries to play it both ways. On one hand, he validates the "perception gag" [sic]. You know; the deep psychological chasm between U.S. consumers' understanding of GM and Ford's products (ominously enough, Chrysler's been excluded) and the vehicles' "true" competitiveness with their transplanted rivals. Well, some of them. OK, the Chevy Mailbu. On the other hand, Sweet Pete eviscerates The Big 2.8 for their "indecision, non-decisions and monumentally bone-headed decisions." In sum, uber-mensch Bob Lutz and his pals tried hard to do/build the right thing. They got tripped-up by gas prices (in just three months!) and hamstrung by their handlers' stupidity. And who do you think you are criticizing Detroit, Jane you ignorant slut? Despite DeLorenzo's writing talent, it's clear the inside outsider is rhetorically conflicted. But at least DeLorenzo has doubts. Even now, deep into the last act of a Shakespearian tragedy, the same can not be said for the people who once paid his salary.

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Daily Podcast: Scraping By?
Sam scraped the Honda Odyssey. Again. This after stoving-in the Boxster's front end and then, after its repair, scraping the roadster's flanks. There was a t…
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Daily Podcast: Willit Exist?
The new 3G iPhone went on sale on July 11. So people lined up overnight. In the first three days, Apple moved one million iPhones worldwide (but none of them…
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Daily Podcast: "There is Nothing so Useless as Doing Efficiently That Which Should Not Be Done at All"
The debate over Toyota's Tundra over-eagerness (and subsequent production juggling) got me thinking of the above quote from management guru Peter Drucker. An…
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Daily Podcast: Cheesecake
There are three phases of life. 1. When you don't know any of the songs playing in the elevator. 2. When you know all the songs playing in the elevator. 3. W…
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Daily Podcast: U.S. Market Stunned by Plunging SUV, Pickup Values
Automotive News reports that the perfect storm TTAC predicted last year is now a howling hurricane. "In June, used full-sized pickups sold at auction for…
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Daily Podcast: Euthanizing Euphemisms
Henry Ford: "You don't build a reputation on what you're going to do." GM CEO Rick Wagoner: "Our team continues to develop further action plans to optimize o…
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Daily Podcast: Paralipsis
Obviously, TTAC's Best and Brightest know that paralipsis means drawing attention to something soyou can prove that it's unimportant by proceeding to ignore…
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Daily Podcast: Channel Your Inner Elvis
By 1968, Elvis' career was over. The King had squandered his cultural capital on an endless series of hokey flicks with soundtracks so forgettable I've forgo…
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Daily Podcast: Motor Trend's Name is Mudd
Yesterday felt like some kind of tipping point. TTAC's traffic didn't jump (growth continues to be slow and organic). We didn't land a new advertiser or scor…
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Daily Podcast: Must Focus
Autoblog: "You're going to be reading in the mainstream press about how horrible sales were in the U.S. during June, 2008. Yes, they were bad for many autom…
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Daily Podcast: Off-Topic
Back when we started the TTAC news blog, I posted an item about the Maine DMV issuing drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants. The site took a real beating f…
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Daily Podcast: Welcome!
TTAC has finally broken through the 600k unique visitors per month barrier again (606,569 as of today). Our page views are also looking healthy: 2,018,749 pe…
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Daily Podcast: Collateral Damage
I promise we'll post something quirky to lighten the mood later, but I feel compelled (compelled I tell you) to mention that Detroit's meltdown is finally ge…
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Daily Podcast: TTAC Meet-Up This Thurs. 7pm NYC
One of the guys who delivers– well, delivered– press cars to my humble abode related his "normal" phone conversation with the PR folk. "I know th…
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Daily Podcast: Sitting Shiva
Man, am I getting old. I surfed onto The Incredible Hulk on the SciFi channel last night to find David Banner getting all Gamma rayed-up. The Hulk burst thro…
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Daily Podcast: Share the Pain?
So GM's share price closes the day at $14.75, down 6.7 percent. The new historic low came in response to the news that GM is going to borrow $10b to stay a…
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Daily Podcast: Read My Lips: No New Niches
In today's most excellent editorial, Michael Karesh highlighted Toyota and GM's relative approaches re: creating and selling new automotive technology. Kares…
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Daily Podcast: Sex and the Motor City
Last night, I commented on the fact that Autoblog reported on Pamela Anderson's Viper sale– without postng a shot of her breasts. I was a little, uh, "…
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Daily Podcast: Page Views
We've finally removed the broken page view counter. The numbers we've been displaying for the last week or so have been completely misleading. We've been get…
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Daily Podcast: All of the People Most of the Time
Michael Karesh's deconstruction of J.D. Powers' Initial Quality Survey (IQS) got me thinking. Clearly, J.D.'s mob shelter behind the assumption that most…
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Daily Podcast: Fear and Loathing in Detroit
Hunter S. Thompson's early work is his best. No, I mean his really early writing, before the inventor of Gonzo Journalism reported on– and then succumb…
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Daily Podcast: 29 Percent
Google is a rational thinker's nightmare. If a surfer has the slightest pseudo-scientific bent– astrology, phrenology, Dianetics, Jessica Albanism&ndas…
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Daily Podcast: The Green Hell With It
TTAC's Justin Berkowitz and Robert Farago discuss the day's car news.
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Daily Podcast: There Behind the Glass
TTAC's Robert Farago and Justin Berkowitz discuss the day's car news.
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Daily Podcast: Okay, What Have We Got?
TTAC's Robert Farago and Michael Karesh discuss the day's car news
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  • Varezhka Of all the countries to complain about WTO rules violation, especially that related to battery business…
  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
  • Lorenzo Are they calling it a K4? That's a mountain in the Himalayas! Stick with names!
  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.