Car News Articles

Only about 10 drivers were able to participate in qualifying Friday for the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway before rain started falling. After less than an hour of waiting, NASCAR decided to cancel qualifying and set the field by owners points. That put Kyle Busch on the pole, followed by Jeff Burton in second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in third. Carl Edwards will start fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth. Only the No. 34 Chevy driven by Tony Raines and the No. 70 Chevy driven by Jason Leffler missed the field. Get a full lineup here.

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It might sound shallow, but I like pretty cars. I like sleek, fluid, elegant vehicles that look like they cost six figures, especially when they don’t. Honda’s new 2009 Pilot doesn’t bust out of the pricing ceiling or qualify as pretty either. It was redesigned this year, and it’s become a big ol’ boxy, unapologetically retro-looking truck. I gave the Pilot a chance and discovered a soft heart buried beneath all the sharp edges. Just like the frog prince, the 2009 Pilot’s appearances can be deceiving. In the hopes that a fairy godmother will descend with a fabulous makeover, I hereby rename this midsize SUV “Truckarella.” She’s a hardworking princess on the inside.

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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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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 [reported here] that GM is going to borrow $10b to stay afloat. And yet tomorrow morning, GM CEO Rick Wagoner will report to work at RenCen and continue to do whatever it is he does to collect his $15.7m annual pay package. Obviously, I’m not surprised by this turn of events. Nor will I be surprised when Chrysler files for Chapter 11, or GM scores tens of billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees, tax incentives and good old-fashioned hand-outs. Or when Ford cries foul and makes sure it gets a piece of your tax money. But the thing that really amazes me: how long it’s taken for the American media to wake up to the fact that our very own automakers have been going belly-up. This even as the carmakers have pulled the rug from under our feet, exporting our manufacturing base to Mexico, Canada, South Korea, etc. Or have they? What of all the transplants building cars in the U.S., presumably at a profit? More to the point, why should we reward companies that can make U.S. manufacturing work at the expense of those that can’t? Ultimately, we can’t.  

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File this under “News That Effects Me Personally.” As in, “Those city hall pricks are taking tacos out of my mouth.” Where I live in North Eastern LA, there are– or rather were– six taco trucks with a one mile stretch along the same road. As The New York Time rightly reports, each one offers uniquely delicious fare. Except for that one up on 51st — their tacos suck. But the other five, man… So here’s the dirt straight from the hungry horse’s mouth. Restaurants are complaining (and have been complaining) that the “roach coaches” are stealing customers because their food is so cheap. My new mortal enemy, county supervisor Gloria Molina, is pushing through the ordinance that will require taco trucks to move every hour. Effectively putting them out of business. Why? Henchman Gerry Hertzberg claims the trucks represent a “big quality of life issue.” Whatever that means. Taco truck owner Jose Naranjo puts it best, “We are poor people feeding other poor people.” Yeah, and me! The ordinance goes into effect today. This is a total tragedy as one truck in particular serves-up the best carne asada tacos in all of Los Angeles. And trust me, I’ve looked. Anyhow, I wrote Molina a letter and signed the save our taco trucks petition. Though I fear you can’t fight city hall. Tasteless jerks. 

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As you can imagine, GM’s decision to close their Oshawa truck assembly plant in Ontario, Canada doesn’t set well with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). “It’s nothing short of betrayal,” CAW Oshawa branch president Chris Buckley told Reuters. “General Motors is going to produce our truck in Mexico and the United States. That’s absolutely disgusting.” If he’s looking for the real betrayal, he should think back to the contract negotiations in May, when CAW president Buzz Hargrove took a hard line stance against contract concessions, making Canada the most expensive place in North America to assemble cars. Or recall Buzz’ statement that “It’s my last set of negotiations and my legacy is not going to be that the sons and daughters of current workers that were hired over 20 years ago are going to come in at the same rate in 2008 as their parents did in ‘86 or ‘87.” It now looks like Buzz’ legacy will be unemployed sons and daughters of current workers thanks to his inflexibility driving production out of Canada and back to the lower-paid hands of the UAW and Mexican auto workers. Just sayin’.

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Some motor industry companies have got together to raise money for the relief effort supporting victims of the Sichuan earthquake in China which killed 50,000 but left millions more vulnerable.

Led by Paul Stowe, Project Director at Shanghai LTI (a Joint Venture between London taxi maker LTI and Chinese motor group Geely), and Ashley Sutcliffe, the man behind the highly-regarded China Car Times web site, the initiative involves a charity auction conducted over the eBay web site.

On offer are the following items:

Two exclusive 1:18 scale models of Lifan cars (Lifan is a fast emerging car maker with its roots in one of the world’s largest motorcycle makers) – the models cannot be bought and have fully functioning features, including opening doors and working suspensions.

A month’s free advertising on China Car Times (the space normally costs $1,000) from July to August. CCT receives over 1.6 million page views a week from all over the world and is the premier English-language web site monitoring the growing Chinese automotive manufacturing sector.

An exclusive visit to the LTI plant in Coventry UK, home of the iconic London taxi. The offer includes a private tour of the factory, lunch, a drive in one of the latest Iconic ‘Black Cabs’ and some special merchandise.

Courtesy of NAC MG, a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to visit Longbridge, Birmingham, as it re-launches the MG brand into Europe, along with the heavily revamped MGTF sports car. Included in this offer is a drive in one of the first MG TF LE500 vehicles to be built at the newly re-opened MG factory.

A visit to the Lotus sports car plant in Hethel, Norfolk, UK, with a rare chance to try a range of the latest products from the world-renowned brand on the company’s own test track.

“Thanks to the generosity of three great British car companies – Lotus, MG and LTI – we are offering prizes that money cannot buy”, says Paul Stowe. “This shows that not only is British motoring alive and well in the UK, but also that the industry recognizes that its social responsibility is global – all the companies are intrinsically linked in China having either wholly owned or Joint Venture companies established there.

“All the companies employ Chinese people and have been deeply moved by the events in Sichuan, and each has individually contributed to the Charity causes supporting the people and the families affected”, said Paul Stowe.

The Chinese charity auction concludes at 09.30 am GMT on 24 June.

Further details about the individual work done by the Chinese automotive industry are at http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/19/automotive-donation-updates/ and at Paul Stowe’s own website: www.carryoncabby.blogspot.com

The relevant eBay links for the auction are:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244883964
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244891023
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244893429
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244897166
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330244899250

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Via
Forbes.com

Commentary
The True Cost Of March Madness
By Chris Schonberger

In 2006, one critic took on a report by Challenger, Gray &Christmas–a report claiming that March Madness costs employers $3.8 billion or more in lost productivity from workers.

The critic, Slate’s Jack Schafer, wrote that Challenger–a consulting company headquartered in Chicago–reached this catastrophic figure “based on an average wage of $18 an hour and 58 million college basketball fans spending 13.5 minutes online each of the 16 business days” between the start of the tournament and the championship game.

Schafer poked a few obvious holes in the assumptions behind this calculation–most notably that the base of rabid college basketball fans is probably not that large and that there are a lot of other ways employees procrastinate during a normal workday (such as online shopping and congregating by the proverbial water cooler).

Indeed, an AOL and Salary.com survey from 2005 revealed that the average American worker wastes 2.09 hours per eight-hour workday, mostly by hanging 10 on the Net. By 2007, that number was down to 1.7 hours, so maybe Challenger needs to crunch some numbers on the waning loyalties of NHL fans.

As a writer, I am inherently unproductive. But these calculations–and Schafer’s misgivings–spurred me to ponder the true nature of workplace efficiency. For one thing, are those 13.5 minutes of college hoops really in addition to the preexisting 2.09 hours of inefficiency? Even if they are, it’s clear that obsessive bracketology is just one prevalent example of a wider phenomenon.

So why did college basketball bear the brunt of this exposé? Perhaps the college basketball lobby isn’t strong enough. What about the presidential race? A year of obsessive clicking on URLs containing polls and punditry must take a heavy toll on the nation’s productivity, no?

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