18th
July
2009
Keep Your Backpacks Packed Up; Parenting.com
Blogger Jenn nearly had a panic attack when she saw the rows and rows of school supplies at her local store. While I’m not having panic attacks, I’ll admit that the school-supply displays are stressing me out because I have no idea what my first-grader will need for next year. I recently caved and bought my son a new backpack and lunchbox. I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist the siren song of the 24-pack of crayons much longer.
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18th
July
2009
What is Susan Docherty smoking? At the unveiling of the new Buick LaCrosse, the VP of Buick, Pontiac and GMC (which one of these things is not like the other) told Bloomberg that GM aims to keep a “75-day to 90-day” supply of the model on dealer lots. A 60-day supply is considered ideal. But, apparently, a 15 to 30-day overage would be OK, ’cause the supply would be “consistent with similar premium models such as Honda Motor Co.’s Acura TL.” And there we were thinking the LaCrosse was aimed at something in the Lexus portfolio (48-day supply). Docherty’s comparison to the Acura TL is, shall we say, invidious. The TL is a dog, with a 100-day supply on the ground. Also worth noting: Acura dealers have a 62-day supply of RLs and a 32-day supply of the TSX. And if you figure-in Acura’s SUVs, the wayward Honda brand’s total dealer inventory represents a 58-day supply.
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18th
July
2009
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.
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18th
July
2009
Last night, I watched a Flood Automotive Group TV ad touting “Cash for Clunkers.” The message was simple: Uncle Sam’s got $1 billion for clunkers. Come get $4500 for your clunker. Not a single word about which vehicles qualify for the money. It didn’t even refer viewers to a website for details—like this ad for C4C “designated” dealer Phil Fitts Ford. A quick ring ’round twenty dealers nationwide shows a definite “reluctance” to discuss the particulars of the CARS program over the phone. “I’m sure your vehicle will qualify,” a Chrysler dealer told me re: my theoretical 2005 Chrysler 300. “Bring it down and we’ll have a look.”
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18th
July
2009
America and Canada have spent tens of billions in taxpayer money “saving” Chrysler and GM. During this Year of Living Parasitically, Toyota hasn’t said boo to a proverbial goose. This despite the fact that a non-governmental ChryCo Old GM Chapter 11/7 would have eliminated most of the North American market’s production over-capacity, setting the stage for a more rapid recovery. Politics, doncha know. Anyway, yesterday, sitting in a Volt prototype at a Toronto GM Chevrolet dealership, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made an announcement. After July 10, 2010, customers plunking for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles would be eligible for a $10,000 rebate. The car most likely to be so blessed: the Chevy Volt. But that’s not what really got Toyota’s goat. As the Leader-Post reports, “Mr. McGuinty said he wants one out of every 20 vehicles in Ontario to be electrically powered by 2020.”
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18th
July
2009
It’s a pretty intense competition going on for control of Opel/Vauxhall. From what I can gather, GM in the US is having major second thoughts over selling to Magna. Now that it is out of Chapter 11, tails are perhaps up a bit at the Ren-Cen.
Losing control of its European operations might not look to clever in the future. GM is said to be keen on a buy-back clause - which is not at all attractive on the Magna side. But RHJ International might not mind that at all - in fact, its investors might be reasonably optimistic of a sizeable return and, let’s face it, they probably don’t want to run a car company for fun or the long-term.
There is a big but, though. That ‘but’ is German politics. German PM Merkel has entertained Russia President Medvedev today. Medvedev’s timing looks good, but actually might backfire. He has apparently got Merkel to voice strong support for the Magna bid.
However, that very explicit Russian political involvement might serve to highlight to the Americans at GM that they are perhaps on the verge of giving away something really rather valuable. The US financiers behind RHJ are more of a known quantity (and potentially more pliable) than the Russian interests standing just behind Magna.
The Atlantic divide here may actually be getting deeper.
So, RHJ needs to address the German question. A problem: the hard-nosed financiers may well have concluded that Opel’s biggest competitive problem is its heavy German manufacturing costs. Ah…
And from the other side, the Magna bid needs to give GM in the US more of what it wants. But Magna has Russian backers who are going all out for a strategy that could help secure a sustainable auto industry in Russia. And it also wants the rights to build and sell Chevrolet models in Russia.
Who will be first to meet somewhere in the middle? It could drag on.
Incidentally, I got the chance to drive a Chevrolet Cruze today. This car is important to Chevrolet’s future growth, globally. What’s it like? Nicely styled saloon. A bit plasticky inside (the hard plastic, that is) but it is a value brand product and is perfectly fine for the money. Myself and my co-driver Mark Bursa have fairly different body shapes, but at least it comes with an adjustable steering wheel (it took him ages to get comfortable…).
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18th
July
2009
THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson
“Writing is not a job; it’s a hobby!” thundered my father when I told him my plans for college. “You need to get a profession: medicine, law, engineering or accounting.”
I cheerlessly acquiesced and enrolled in a Pre-Med program, but at the end of my first year, after struggling through Chemistry, I changed my major to Philosophy. When I told Dad, he grunted, “That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee.” He passed away shortly after that but his words echoed in the back of my mind for years.
After graduation I searched for a job in writing. At the same time, I wrote short stories like crazy, and sent them off to dozens of magazines. Years passed and I failed to find a job in writing, so I supported myself by waiting tables and bartending. Meanwhile, rejection letters from the magazines began piling up, and I was beginning to get discouraged.
Then one day, I met a friend for a beer in a bar near the campus of my alma mater. When I visited the restroom, some graffiti written on the wall with an arrow pointing to the toilet paper dispenser caught my eye. It read: “Bachelor of Arts Degrees – take only one, please!” Rather than laugh, I grimaced and thought, “Boy, does that sound like my Dad.”
Five years had gone by, and other than a few freelance jobs writing advertising copy, I had not made a penny from writing. I was beginning to re-think my life, when I recalled the encouraging words from my ninth grade English teacher.
Complete Article
Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert’s programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com
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18th
July
2009
Just for the record, regardless of how this looks, this is not an RIP. Nobody has died
In the August issue of Car and Driver, editor at large Pat Bedard announced that he’s leaving the magazine after 41 years in the saddle. This might not sound like big news; after all, editors and writers leave magazines all the time. But, to me at least, this is a pretty big deal.
I have been a car magazine junkie since roughly the age of 8, and Car and Driver has been my favorite magazine for most of that time. Other kids were fans of Magic Johnson or George Brett; I avidly followed Pat Bedard and Don Sherman. I’m not aware of any other young magazine groupies among my peer group, but had they existed, I’m sure we would have created and bartered Jean Lindamood, William Jeanes, and Brock Yates trading cards. As it is, over the years I’ve collected virtually every C&D printed back to 1968 and keep them lovingly preserved for reference and rereading.
This is why Bedard’s retirement from C&D hits me so hard–I feel like he’s been a life-long friend. While I have been alive for only 33 of the 41 years Bedard has been at C&D, I have read virtually all of the road tests, short takes, and columns he has written during his career. I frequently disagreed with his more political columns, but Bedard has always been a fantastic writer with a style so distinctively fresh and entertaining that I can recognize his writing even before I check the byline. Plus, he earns a little bit of extra credit with me for for his (painful) racing experience, and his various looks and styles (I was partial to the huge 1970s mustache), and his odd visual similarity to my dad.
The only constant is change, of course, and given the challenges C&D is facing, it’s probably not a bad idea to bring in some fresh voices and ideas. There are still a lot of great writers on staff, among them John Williams, Aaron Robinson, Tony Swan, and, weirdly, for the first time in decades, David E. Davis. Still, it will be weird to read an issue of C&D that doesn’t feature Pat Bedard, Brock Yates, or Csaba Csere on the masthead.
I have no idea what Bedard’s plans are, but I hope he will continue writing somewhere, anywhere. Pat, any interest for writing for Car Lust?
–Chris H.
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18th
July
2009
The new Kia Forte LPi hybrid joins its sibling, the Hyundai Avante LPi hybrid, in the Korean domestic market.
(Photo courtesy of Kia Motors America)
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18th
July
2009
The spy photographers snap shoted a new 2010 Mercedes E-Class Cabrio without camouflage in Germany.
The four-seater CLK Convertible’s replacement will come in several performance flavors. Customers will most likely have the same five engine choices as in the E-Class Coupe that include two diesels, a 204HP 2.2-liter four-pot and a 231HP 3.0-liter V6, and three petrol units, a 204HP 1.8-liter turbocharged-four, a 292HP 3.5-liter V6 and a range-topping 5.5-liter V8 churning out 388HP.
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class Convertible will make a world debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show and will arrive at Mercedes showrooms before the end of the year and in some markets, in the beginning of 2010.
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