Talking about cars is cheap. Actually making one? Well, that’s a whole different story…

I’m often amused by some of the simplistic commentaries you read about new vehicles, the state of the auto industry, and the abilities of the folks that run auto companies. How do you make a great auto company? Build great automobiles. Duh, yeah. But getting from here to there ain’t always as easy as it seems. Just ask the guys at Cerberus.

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The longer I’m around the automobile business, the more amazed I am that automobiles get built at all. That shiny new car or truck in your local dealer’s showroom is more than just hardware, more than just metal, plastic, glass and rubber bolted together. The reason it exists is the result of a complex interaction of people, politics, and process. You only have to see how Washington works to figure how that can really screw things up.

I speak from experience. I have been to the dark side.

Ten years ago, the automaker I was working for (I spent nine months with the company before terminal boredom drove me back to journalism) wanted to find a way of promoting the fact one of its engines had met a tough new emissions standard. Simple, I thought. Let’s just paint the cam cover green, an easy way of drawing warm and eco-fuzzy attention to an engine that was far from the freshest in the line up.

A meeting was called, and maybe 20 people turned up. We had representatives from PR and marketing, as well as from engineering, design and manufacturing. Plus, of course, there were the finance guys. (The first thing you learn working for an automaker: You can have a meeting, but it really isn’t a meeting until you have a finance guy involved, because unless you have a finance guy involved, anything you might decide at the meeting will only take another meeting — with a finance guy involved — to be put into action.)

The designers wanted to decide what shade of green we used, the engineers needed to know the green paint wasn’t going to peel off, and the PR and marketing guys wanted to make sure the green wouldn’t clash with the rest of the company’s eco-branding. The manufacturing guys were worried that they’d need to make alterations to the paint shop (all the cam covers were painted black at the time) and then they’d have to figure out a way to make sure green-painted cam covers were fitted to the right engines in the factory, because they built different versions of the engine for different markets, and not all met the new emissions standard. Meanwhile, the finance guys had costed the project at — from  memory — not that far south of a million dollars, and naturally wanted to know how many extra cars we would sell because of it.

After several weeks of meetings focusing on increasingly arcane detail, I almost lost the will to live. We never did get the green cam covers.  But I did learn something: Making even the smallest change is extraordinarily difficult in the auto business. People, politics, and process.

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It’s the second biggest car show held each year in Detroit’s Cobo Hall, and while the lighting and display poshness suffer badly by comparison with that Other Show, the vehicles are equally interesting–if you can appreciate automotive artistry applied ex-works. AutoRama is one of the premier events at which to display customized cars, owing largely to the prestigious Ridler Award. Named for Don Ridler, a sports hall-of-famer and event promoter who did much to elevate the status of the AutoRama during the 1950s, the award is presented to the best built, most creative customized car making its world debut at AutoRama. We’ll show you several of the finalists and you can match your tastes with the judges’.

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Tenneco Inc., the maker of Monroe shock absorbers, gained court approval to buy a plant in Ohio from bankrupt Delphi Corp. for $18.8 million, Bloomberg News reported today.

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Henrik Fisker thinks he can have his $80,000 (about €54,390) Karma lithium ion plug-in hybrid vehicle on the road by the end of next year. The CEO of Fisker Coachbuild tried to quell industry skepticism in an interview.

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Reckon so. The next-generation large SUV concept unveiled today at the 2007 Tokyo show features an advanced hybrid system with a V6 petrol engine, an electric motor and all-wheel drive, just like the RX’s, but now it’s wrapped up in a more modern and purposeful exterior skin.

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VIDEO: The stars of the 2008 Geneva show

By Ben Pulman

Video

07 March 2008 10:21

CAR’s team presents the best (and worst) from the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. We cover everything from the tiny Tata Nano to the vast Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe in our exclusive video.

Mark Walton is your guide to the craziest and wackiest cars from the show, including a ‘car’ that can topple over at traffic lights.

We also examine the Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Scirocco, Saab 9-X, Nissan GT-R, and Renault’s Megane Coupe concept.

Don’t forget, if you’ve got any videos you’d like to share with the world you can publish them directly onto this website. (If you’re having problems viewing this video you may need to update to the latest version which you can do free here.)

 

 

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BMW’s new X1 is the real green 4×4 from Bavaria. Forget about X5s with solar panels on the roof because this baby SUV will have an eight-speed auto and Efficient Dynamics technology. It’ll also spawn a Mini 4×4.

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In the category of “It was only a matter of time,” Kyle Busch led 173 of the 325 laps in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway en route to Toyota’s first points-paying win at the Sprint Cup level. Busch’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, Tony Stewart, was second, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third to notch his second consecutive top five finish. Carl Edwards, winner of the past two Cup races, had a strong car late and was leading when he had an engine problem that knocked him from the race with 51 laps remaining. He finished 42nd.
The race proved to be a physically demanding one with the combination of the new Car of Today, hard Goodyear tire and worn/rough race track. Several drivers were comparing AMS to Darlington with the way the cars were sliding through the turns. Jeff Gordon, who finished fifth, said, “I felt like I was going to crash every single lap.
“I’m exhausted right now,” Gordon told nascar.com. “I feel like I’ve run a thousand miles here. That was the hardest day I have ever had at Atlanta, especially for a top-five finish. This car, this tire, at this track was just terrible.”
Read more about Busch’s win here.
Stewart hated the tires despite his top-five finish. Read his rant here.
Find out where your favorite driver finished here.
– Michele Vincze

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I haven’t been so deceived by a car in recent years as I was by the Buick Enclave. My week test-driving the Enclave exposed an endless string of secrets, misconceptions and outright falsehoods.

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