Car News Articles

It’s almost Father’s Day, and Volvo is helping families reconnect. You know, chat the kids up. The automaker helps get the conversational ball rolling in its “Hit the Road Talking, With Dad.” Oddly enough, it doesn’t suggest starting with, “You better start talking or so help me I’ll pull this car over!” I thought I’d clarify some of Volvo’s ideas in case there’s confusion.

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I was wrong. In spite of indications to the contrary, the GMC salesman blogger defending your right to suck-up fuel and clog the roadways with oversized trucks didn’t have a change of heart about hybrids. In his latest anonymous posting on the Commercial Auto Dealers web site, the same person who warned us about the dangers of hybrids (so quiet we’ll all fall asleep behind the wheel) is “irked”  about environmentalists who “who think hybrids are God’s gift to humankind” because of “Al Gore’s half-truths and theories.”  And he’s specifically “annoyed” with those of you who’ve commented about his views on trucks vs. hybrids. Just to make sure you understand where he’s coming from, he states “I’m sticking with my truck and I’m not going to feel guilty about it.” Neither should anyone else “feel guilty about going to your local GMC truck dealer and getting the biggest, baddest truck you can find and driving it for no reason at all.” Gas prices be damned. After all, “when [hybrid owners] need a tow, the guys with the big trucks are the ones they’re going to call first.”

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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 getting hundreds of page views where you’ve been seeing dozens, and thousands where you’ve seen hundreds. In sum, we’re still bumping along at 580k uniques and 1.8m page views per month. Of course, I’d like to grow the site beyond this glass ceiling, but not crashing has been our number one priority. Not that I’m fucking complaining. Every single day, TTAC gets new registrations. Not many, but some. Every one is precious: a testimony to the fact that we’re doing something right. Regardless of the numbers, our job to keep the Best and Brightest well supplied with new material, regardless of technical setbacks or disappearing features. (We’re still working on restoring TrueDelta pricing and specifications, and we know the comment edit button’s screwed for some of you.) At the end of the proverbial day, it’s time for a nice bottle of Coppola’s finest chardonnay. And while I’m drinking [some of] it, I know that I’m privileged to chronicle these amazing times in the automotive industry. And get paid for it, no less. I will do whatever I can to get this house in order. Meanwhile, thanks to our crack (as in expert) technical team and to you, for your patience.

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One of my stated goals in life is to never spend a minute in a courtroom. However, if I had a child at El Camino High School in Oceanside, CA, I would be suing the teacher’s lounge out of the district and the donut holes out of the CHP. On a Monday morning last month, 20 classrooms received visits from uniformed California Highway Patrol officers who informed them that 26 of their classmates had been killed in drunk driving accidents over the weekend. As was to be expected, many of the students became hysterical. But here’s the catch — it was a joke. Ha ha, fooled you! The plan was to keep the hoax up all day and announce the deception at a lunchtime rally. The best laid plans of mice and men… Turns out the students were so traumatized by the hoodwink, many teachers began telling them the truth. Though, not all. Especially students who weren’t in the one of the twenty classrooms “participating” in the “lesson” — these students heard about their fellow classmates’ deaths in the hallway between classes and had all day to ruminate on them. One 15-year-old, who I am sure speaks for both the school district and the cops, puts it this way, “You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust. But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it’s worth it.” Oh yeah, totally worth it.

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Paul Eisenstein of The Car Connection’s Industry Insider blog thinks that China’s going to cut the fuel subsidies that have insulated the Middle Kingdom from rising gas prices. Prices for gas have risen only nine percent since January 2007, compared to the nearly 80 percent jump suffered by American drivers in the same period. With the Chinese paying about $2.60 per gallon of unleaded (the exception to China’s love affair with all things leaded), demand is still rising in China, with 1,300 new cars hitting the road every day in Beijing alone. So when will China make the much-needed subsidy cuts? Eisenstein joins the growing consensus that suggests the bitter medicine will be administered sometime after the Olympics, when China will be basking in global PR afterglow. With neighboring developing economies recently cutting fuel subsidies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and India), the International Herald Tribune reports that the such cuts are necessary across the board to help keep global oil prices from spiraling out of control. With the International Energy Agency taking up the fight against subsidies, expect pressure to mount on China to end incentives for fuel consumption. Eventually. 

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Last time we checked in on the Oshawa closure debacle, a GM spokesperson was calling the CAW blockade “understandable.” After nearly a week of being barred from Oshawa by angry CAW workers, GM has lost its sense of empathy. The General is asking for a court injunction to end the protest. The Detroit News also reports that although CAW understands why GM wants their 250-car blockade of Oshawa removed, The General’s request for $1.5m in damages from the Union comes as a bit of a surprise. Neither side likes the other, and both feel betrayed, so why is GM trying to squeeze an extra million bucks or so out of the situation? GM has said the blockade caused it to lose some production. With cash burning and nothing to gain in Oshawa, well, why not get that back from the union? For CAW, this is just more insult on top of losing the Oshawa plant. In short, this is the desperate squabbling with the short-sighted over the few remaining scraps of a once-healthy relationship. Cheery stuff.

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That’s the headline on the press release sent by EPIC, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. Apparently, “Motorists are frustrated and angry about high gas prices. Everyone is feeling the pinch at the pump, which really underscores our need for biofuels,” claims Toni Nuernberg, EPIC’s exec director. “As gas prices continue to skyrocket, we must continue the push for the only current transportation energy option we have today-biofuels.” Yes, well, by their own admission, EPIC’s Royal “we” represents little more than the ethanol industry and wishful thinking. In a not-so-epic EPIC survey on gas prices, only 11 percent of 1004 online (opt in) respondents said they were “taking action to use and support [emphasis added] non-oil based energy.” Some 47 percent they’d “like to” and a whopping 43 percent “no, I have not considered this.” Anyway, I called Robert White, EPIC’s Deputy Director, to ask how soaring gas prices worked in his members’ favor. I was surprised to discover EPIC disagrees with the AAA; E85 is cheaper than regular gas! But wait, there’s more…

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Hmmm… I have one question. If we’re driving less, why isn’t there less traffic?

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Good to see some plain speaking from a senior executive in a Tier 1 on the subject of the ‘autonomous vehicle’. Makes a change from some of the hyperbole that sometimes gets flung around when such advanced technology is discussed and the supplier makes a play for the ‘at-the-frontier’ spot. We have just published an interesting interview with Peter Lake, of TRW - Dep Ed Graeme ‘The Grobster’ Roberts was asking the questions.

As Lake says, imagine the potential litigation and liability issues if too much responsibility moves from the driver to the vehicle. It might make a spilled coffee at McDonald’s look like chicken feed by comparison.   

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