Why you should buy this car: It's exactly what the car you need, even though you think you need a midsize SUV. That, and you've had an attachment to Volkswagens ever since that weird guy who hung around your high school parking lot offered you a ride home in his microbus.
Read MoreExterior Design: *** Wagons usually come off as either nerd-chic or mom's baby-hauler. Neither option is very cool. The Passat Wagon is a shapely thing, and like we said it looks better than the sedan, but in the end it's a little too bland and vague in form. Chrome is technically more of a styling accent than actual styling, but VW doesn't seem to know that and thus gets negative points for overkill.
Read MoreOnce upon a time, Volkswagen was known as the affordable-German-car company. It built sensible but well-engineered cars, like the Rabbit, and even if they fell apart like anything touched by Isiah Thomas, it wasn't so bad because they were as easy as making toast to fix. Over time, Volkwagens grew more luxurious, expensive, and complex. Sure the new ones were nice cars, but the old Volkswagen simplicity was gone. They still fell apart, but now you had to pay someone to fix them.
Read MoreWhy you should buy this car: You always wanted a German performance sedan but care too much about what others think about you to get a BMW; you really like Audi but the wife won't let you get "that station wagon," also known as the A3.
Read MoreExterior Design: *** My man MCA's got a beard like a billy goat, which is exactly what the oversized grill on the A4 resembles. But, unlike on most people, the A4 rocks the goatee well. And it's got a little bit of flava in the headlight and taillamp treatments to give a little bit of soul to the normal Bauhaus sterility of Audi design. But only three stars, you say? Yes. It's a good-looking car, but hardly worthy of study-hall sketches or bedroom wall posters.
Read MoreOn the surface, the A4 might look like just another "premium midsize" sedan in a sea of not-BMWs. As car reviews go, this one's a challenge because, while the A4 is not the best in its class, it's none so horrible as to be dismissed from consideration. But before we condemn the A4 with faint praise, we'll come out and say it. This is a damn fine automobile. Moreover, in a world where an A3 3.2 with Quattro and DSG costs $37 grand, a top-of-the-line A4 3.2 Quattro for $40,000 somehow seems like a
Read MoreWhy you should buy this car: You'll never be late to a road-luge competition again. You feel others need to know how healthy and tan you are. Awesome rubber-coated cargo area is great for hauling your gear, bro. You can hide mass condoms in the First Aid kit.
Read MoreExterior Design: *** The Nissan Xterra looks like a high top sneaker and comes in a shade of yellow you'd never allow in your house. Still, the front bumper is larger than that of most Korean imports (and not painted in some goofy color). That gives the truck serious off-road-a-tude. Sure, the roof rack is nigh on seven feet off the ground (and therefore useless to the masses), but so what? It more than totally looks the part.
Read MoreWhy you should buy this car: You want a performance car that's friggin' sweet but need four doors or all-wheel-drive; you like humiliating Corvette owners. Why you shouldn't buy this car: You're a little too mature to have a giant wing on your car, or you're not interested in insurance premiums as high as your car payment.
Read MoreGeorge Carlin once said, "Technically speaking, Attila the Hun led an active, outdoor lifestyle." I mention this because there can't possibly be enough base-jumping, BMX free-styling, kayak-loving dudes (and dudettes) mountain biking all over creation to actually support the Xterra. Like most folks, every few years I get a sense of my own mortality, quit smoking and take up jogging. Within a month a girl breaks my heart and I wake up naked watching my dealer's one-year-old dig through the trash
Read MoreExterior Design: **** The Evo is not a pretty car, but it does have a functionally sinister appeal. Aesthetics have been thrown out the window, but kind of like how a bear holding a shark sacrifices beauty for scaring your pants off and possibly mauling you, the Evo is styled as if every part of it was made for going very, very fast. Plus if you take a wingless trunk off of the RS edition you'll have a pretty decent Q ship.
Read MoreLet's be perfectly clear right now. There are lots of very fast cars on the market, and they are all very good in one way or another. But the Mistubishi Lancer Evolution is different from those cars. It's in a higher class. Driving it is an addiction.
Read MoreWhy you should buy this car: The Mercury Milan is a decent value and a stylish alternative to blandmobiles like the Camry and Impala. Plus, it's almost fun to drive. And you can feel all warm and fuzzy about buying American, even if it's made in Mexico.
Read MoreExterior Design: *** The Milan is probably the best looking of its corporate siblings, but that's kind of like winning a beauty pageant over Denis Leary and Kathy Bates. My neighbor, who had no idea what the Milan was, said it looks "so suburban." My neighbors drive minivans, Priuses, and Matrixes (Matrices?).
Read MoreWe've been here before, only last time it was called the Ford Fusion. Or was it the Lincoln Zephyr MKZ? No matter, this time we're looking at the Mercury Milan. It's Mercury's attempt to stay relevant by attracting new buyers to the brand — buyers who are young and hip with contemporary tastes, yet still manage to neglect all considerations for style when purchasing a car. All kidding aside, the clean lines and even proportion of the Milan make it a good looking car, but only a good looking ordi
Read MoreNot since Lee Iacocca dared TV viewers to find a better-built car than a Chrysler and buy it (they did, it was called a Toyota) has a CEO type stepped in front of a camera to pitch the company's wares. Now, finding itself in a lack-of-image crisis, Chrysler's turning Dieter Zetsche's natural blend of goofy avuncularity and stoic Germanness into what they hope is TV (and sales) gold — in a persona they're calling "Dr. Z." A Web site launch preceeds a spate of new spots that feature Zetsche answer
Read MoreThe other day, Bumbeck said to us, "Man, I may as well just go back to smoking," in reference to the air quality in LA. He's up in the hills, while we're at the tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. We're also three blocks from the Port of Los Angeles, which, combined with the Port of Long Beach, create the busiest port facility in the US, and the fourth-largest in the world. What's more the ports handle a mind-boggling 40% of the cargo to enter the United States each year. And due to the ships' ma
Read MoreLew, hero and friend to all, has been working with the crew at ad agency Nemo Design, who in turn, have been collaborating with Nike on the campaign for Nike 6.0, the athleticwear giant's action-sports brand. And what hath all of this collaboration wrought? The goddamn Seagle! We don't care if the thing was built as part of a corporate ad campaign, this simply, plainly, totally, and completely rules. Who doesn't want a six-wheeled Eagle limo designed for madcap action-adventure mayhem?
Read MoreDear people of the world. We do not sell or install things. We are a blog. We write about items that capture our fancy, both literary and corporeal. Most of you understand this. But now and then, complete blithering idiots get in touch, asking us to install bodykits on their clapped-out Supras or sell them VW-shaped clock-radios. And we try to be nice. We really, really do. But this guy apparently named Zach got all pissy with us when we didn't want to sell him a V-8 motorcycle frame. We think Z
Read MoreThnderBlt's comment on this post got us thinking about what's alternately known as the Harbor Freeway and the Pasadena Freeway and can be generally summed up by its route number, the 110. Designed by a man named Spencer Cortelyou (who, coincidentally, is the great-great uncle of the first girl we ever made out with), the former Arroyo Seco Parkway was originally built to connect Pasadena with Los Angeles.
Read MoreI was 14 years old and had just flunked geometry (for the first time) when a summer-school buddy handed me Surfer Rosa (along with Frankenchrist by the Dead Kennedys) explaining that, while I was a cool guy, I had lousy taste in music. Life being the ultimate ride, today I'm eating tacos with Pixies drummer David Lovering and he's agreeing with me that yes, Surfer Rosa is his favorite record from their catalogue. But we didn't come to talk music. We came to talk Deutsche-sleds. In particular, Lo
Read MoreDespite word we heard yesterday Ford's hybrid engineering and design team had a note scrawled on their white board exclaiming:
Read MoreToday, when we learned Hollywood in West LA, we drove up from Pedro. In a Silverado. And no girls turned the color of the avocado as we drove down the street. But oh man, that girl with the floral tattoos at the Lemon Moon restaurant really flipped our switch. Especially when she got our A-Team joke. We wanna know her story. Mooniness aside (and more importantly), it took us an hour and a half to drive the 30 miles home. In a big, honkin' quad-cab, V8 Chevy. With no other passengers. This, frien
Read MoreSweet Peet D. is at it again. This time he's taking the shine off of GM's recent buyout news and claiming it's not as rosy picture that most news outlets are reporting. The reason? Detroit's latest round of price-slashing is proof that the big three are still addicted to incentives. At least this time GM understands that a sale shouldn't last forever, says Sweet Peet D., but we're still holding our breath until it ends — incentives have a way of sticking around. But wait, wait — Sweet Peet ain't
Read MoreYou know, we like the Ram SRT-10. We like it a lot in fact. But it's emphatically not of the brethren of grand Camino-hood. We liked that it wiped the smile from snotty Lightning owners' faces (we find F-150 owners to be the most smug of all truck people), but if there was ever a pickup to dethrone the Ram as the fastest production vehicle in the world with a pickup bed, well, it pretty much hadda be a ute. Infected by HSV (Holden Special Vehicles, the most unfortunately-acronymed performance ar
Read MoreMark "movie star" Fields now has his big-budget action flick — where he can show his pluckiness, his spunk, his grit and determination. Or at the very least it's a place where Fields can make the case for Ford being an "underdog." We'll let you make the call on the veracity of that statement yourself. The prologue's great — it's like a making of the making of the making of Bold Moves. But it's the first webisode where Bold Moves strikes the purest of gold. Our favorite quotes from the first of 2
Read MoreYeah, sorry for the mixed movie titles on the headline — but it's true. Today we've seen a picture of a huge animatronic Bumblebee (who was just dressed up as a Camaro last time we saw him) from the new live-action Transformers movie scheduled for release next summer. But that's only part one — after the jump (SPOILER WARNING) we've got screen captures and a description of the teaser trailer is due to hit theaters next week during the Fourth of July movie season. Oh yeah, it's totally drifting i
Read MoreDespite sales numbers indicating folks in their golden years are snapping up cars like the Scion, Toyota's entry-level threesome of the xA, xB, and xtC are still branding thesmelves for the whipper-snappers. Toyota's asked its Pasadena-based ad agency, Interpolls, to put together their online campaign — featuring all sorts of interactivity and personalization to show off the Scion's "personality" — the many customization options that can, but never actually are, installed on your car. The ads
Read MoreNow and then, Thnderblt Doherty sends in a tip so hilariously-worded that we really can't improve upon it. And when such a thing comes to us in a state of basic perfection, the words on Charles Bukowski's grave come to mind: "Don't try." In that spirit, take it away, Mister D.
Read MoreWe admit that we love Prada lip balm. We admit to reading our girlfriends' magazines. We'll even admit to being obsessed with our weight. (That said, we've got a Craftsman torque wrench that we're not afraid to use!) But if there's an business this side of the auto industry (other than music or film/TV) more rife with feel-good self-congratulatory blue mud than fashion, we've yet to run across it. As such, Dieter's denizens at DaimlerChrysler have partnered with the producers of the filmic depic
Read MoreWe know you got soul, dear reader, but did you know that Seoul pulled a Malibu and claimed another Enzo? This one cracked up just outside the South Korean city's airport. According to a cabbie on the scene, the driver was just fine. Enzo price-figures just went up, and we're having more and more faith in the passive safety features Maranello incorporates into its vehicles, although we're starting to worry about the supercar's handling characteristics. Or alternately, the wisdom of the choices on
Read MoreFord must really think the public is concerned with how they're turning the company around because Ford's hitting the "big (little) screen" like a star — like a not-so-bright, not-so-shining star — in a 50-part documentary series highlighting the "Bold Moves" FoMoCo is taking. In an e-mail today to all Ford staff, Mark Fields, President of Ford North America, outlined exactly what the documentary would accomplish:
Read MoreWe've always believed technology should help us live our lives easier and more importantly, in the most sloth-like way possible. Well, how's about two new ways technology can help you tell that right-on-the-ass car behind you exactly how you feel:
Read MoreWe got a strange e-mail filled with unsubstantiated yet plausable conjecture regarding the Pontiac Vibe. Of course we're going to publish it in its entirety for you, dear readers, to consider (or poop on). Taken one way, it's some good old GM bashing at its cattiest; taken another, it's an indication of how petty GM's armchair critics have gotten — messing with the poor Vibe. Here goes:
Read MoreDuty called as I was asked to visit a customer in Seattle on Monday of this week. I caught an early morning flight to SeaTac and was admittedly giddy to see what Hertz had lined up for me that day. Being a Hertz Gold Card member has its benefits, including the occasional upgrade to a Lincoln Navigator or Nissan Xterra at econo-box prices, so I had hoped that it would be something better than the usual Taurus, but not the faux-Jaguar X-Type Taurus (Jag or not, I have some dignity).
Read MoreSo a couple of the boys from Automobile were heading out in the 2007 Dodge Magnum fitted with the for-law-enforcement-only police package yesterday at the Chrysler Proving Grounds. Recognizing an opportunity for a ride we've usually only seen after a night of binge drinking, we asked if they minded a ride-along as they played a bit of Cops n' Robbers on the ride performance track. Also, they almost let Wert play with the siren — almost. Have fun with the video, and then click the jump to read a
Read MoreInvestors in the credit markets are a finicky group. The pits of world credit markets are filled with highly-strested investment managers playing a high-stakes game of craps with debt instruments and detault insurance premiums. What with the daily ups and downs of the domestic auto industry, we can only guess the amount of Maalox and Tums auto debt traders down after every market swing. For a long while it's been GM giving them heartburn, but it appears there's been a switch in the trading de
Read MoreAs month-end quickly approaches, US auto execs are getting copies of their double-super-secret internal sales numbers — which probably explains why we've been seeing so many of their faces turning whiter than snow despite the hot June sun. Our insiders tell us they can already see the sales declines — and the fear of what's yet to come this summer. So what's that going to mean for consumers like us? Well, it'll more than likely mean the Big Three are yet again taking from the Oprah playbook —
Read MoreApproaching the rental lot at the Manchester, NH airport, I was struck by the sheer abundance of Chevy Impalas. Seems the erstwhile Ford Taurus has finally met its match — so much for GM kicking its rental habit. With keys in hand, I set off to sample Chevy's latest full-size offering, a silver LS model with a mere 70 miles of abuse on the odo.
Read MoreWe grew up in Sacramento, a town which didn't care about aping its classy, PC neighbor to the southwest. Screw SF, we wanted to be Los Angeles. Which is why, to this day, we're saddled with a ridiculous San Fernando Valley-uptalk speech pattern. We refuse to call you "brah," but we'll say "rad" fifteen times in a 20 minute conversation. So if LA had such an influence on a group of hosers only 400 miles up the 5, one can only imagine the impact the California myth had (and still has) on people ac
Read MoreMuch like the wind cries "Mary," there is a Blt that Thnders "DOHERTY!" And said Thndering Blt kicked us down another heartwarming odd vehicle theft involving a drunk guy in New England. 26-year-old Michael Moran found a street sweeper with the keys in it in a parking garage, and in a fit of drunken New English logic, decided to take the machine for a cruise. Our favorite bit is this: "Moran traveled several blocks before he was caught by people chasing him." We're imagining an army of torch-wie
Read MoreAs part of its "Bold Moves" campaign, Ford's signed on to sponsor AMC's new western, "Broken Trail." Ford'll be featured in special 30- and 60-second vignettes, logo presence on print ads and some online exposure on AMC's website — for AMC's Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church Brokeback-wannabee. So what's "Broken Trail" got to do with Ford? Well, here's the "story" from AMC's website:
Read MoreThe fervor with which Brits protect the commons gives us a warm feeling in our various bits, but we get ornery when they cut too close to our purview. For instance, a UK watchdog group is upholding a complaint against a Mazda print ad for what they feel is a reckless usage of blurring effects and text promoting dangerous driving. We'll let the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) explain themselves:
Read MoreYes, we know the Hinckley - Jodie Foster reference is in bad taste — but come on, if The Family Guy can do it, why can't we? According to our media maven masthead Gawker, Foster and Neil Jordan were shooting their new film The Brave One over on New York's Upper East Side. The plan was to film a scene over on East 87th, 88th and 89th streets this morning beginning at 7:00 AM — a plan necessitating movement of the cars parked on either side of the street. To make sure the residents in the area
Read MoreThe US Senate has themselves an idea of how they can legislate change in automotive fuel economy that mixes equal parts innovation and stupidity. Innovation in attacking fuel economy with new ideas — stupidity because the ideas are exasperatingly obtuse. Their strategy, called '10 by 10' would force automakers to up their average fuel economy numbers from 25.4 mpg to 35 mpg by 2017. Here's just a piece of their gameplan, as reported by the Detroit News:
Read MoreThe strapping men of Zuffenhausen only ever built 35 550As, but what mighty wee machines they were. Taking the first through fourth places in the '59 Targa Florio, the A-model 550s were a beefed-up and lightness-added version of Porsche's first purpose-built racing car. Steve Terrien, a former Porsche employee and die-hard enthusiast has owned this particular A (the '61 SCCA national champeen) since 1984 and has spent the last few years restoring it for concours and vintage racing events. We wan
Read MoreA GM insider forwarded along an incentive program bulletin the General sent out to dealerships this week. The bulletin announces GM's (continued?) intent to push dealers to "form, increase, or maintain service/rental fleets that feature GM vehicles." Ok, that's an interesting thing for a dealership to get into the business of — one would hope GM would want dealers to be focusing on selling cars rather than random one-off daily rentals. Because we know DaimlerChrysler and Toyota offer a progra
Read MoreIt's on days like this we wonder if it's really the best idea in the world for a bunch of white guys from the midwest, who wouldn't know mofongo from chicken-fried steak, to be promoting a campaign to attract hispanic buyers. Also to blame are the hispanic-market consultants who've lived in Pelham Manor so long the vowels on the end of their names are like dead appendages. To wit:
Read MoreOur historian-of-all-things-freakishly-fast pal Cole Coonce kicked down a link earlier today regarding the reissue of a record of Craig Breedlove's attempt to break the Land Speed Record. To get even more meta((l) circus) with the refs, H sker D 's SST labelmates the Descendents recorded a cover of "Wendy" by the Beach Boys, who of course wrote "Spirit of America" about Breedlove's LSR attempts. Meanwhile, Cole provides an excerpt from his book Infinity Over Zero; a transcript of a recording of
Read MoreFamed custom vehicle designer Robert Q. Riley has worked on everything from bikes to kit cars to hovercraft to submarines. Now's he's drawing up plans for a high-performance, diesel-electric hybrid. A spec image (pictured) features a drawn-to-scale victim of Auric Goldfinger, though it's doubtful the figure in any way represents Riley's target market. Do-it-yourselfers can watch for the blueprints, coming soon.
Read MoreThe Insurance Institute for Highway Safety apparently likes it like we do — releasing the results over the weekend of the 2006 side impact crashworthiness (we didn't even make that word up!) tests, and now we're treated to 75 articles in papers across the country all saying "Study: Side Air Bags Improve Safety." Well — umm — yeah, that's true, and thank you Associated Press for your hard work in making it clear to the whole world it's better to smack your head into a pillowy cushion of air th
Read MoreAlthough politically we're generally pretty lefty, we're feeling like Brock Yates on potentially lethal cocktail of bad speed and cheap whiskey right now, all due to Manohla Dargis' review of Cars in the NYT. Now, we admit that story-wise Pixar has crafted stronger efforts, but the sheer love of automobilia and the intrinsic understanding of the pleasure of driving is implicit in the film, and because of that, to us, Cars is our favorite of any of Pixar's efforts. Tony Shalhoub as a Fiat Cinquec
Read MoreNow this — this is what we call entertaiment — Woodward Avenue style! Here's some video Ray snagged last night of what we think is a 1954 Ford Crestline with a Chevy smallblock engine — but the really cool part? Fire! Fire! Fire!
Read MoreTwo cars, for reasons undetermined, smashed their way through the plate glass of a cell-phone store on Chicago's Southeast side earlier today. Tragically, one person was killed and a number of the passengers were either thrown from the vehicles involved or crawled away from the wreckage before police arrived. Either way, an ugly situation. The question is, what caused it?
Read MoreGo ahead. Call Richard Petty a relic. Call him back-asswards on women's issues. Fair game, of course. But never let it be said that the man doesn't have personality. The kids over at thefirehouse.biz, Chrysler's media-only blog, posted a podcast featuring some short interviews with NASCAR drivers past and present, and while Petty was diplomatic, at least he was instructive and human, explaining the post-Second-War origins of motorsports in general. On the other hand, Kurt Busch, Jeremy Mayfield
Read MoreWith the Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions standards coming on line for larger light trucks and tighter restrictions all around, there's a lot of revamping and temporary discontinuation going on. GM's Duramax diesel, which has been a bright spot for the company, is undergoing an extensive redesign with all sorts of newfangled frippery to meet the mandated 90% reduction in NOX emissions, including a variable-geometry turbo and a revised EGR system.
Read MoreCheck this out. The original Mazda RX7's air conditioning unit seriously sapped power. Remember, this little Japanese sports car had a Wankel rotary engine up front, a handbag-sized three-piece Wearing Blender that stumped-up just 135 hp (or, with the chiller engaged, less). That meant, if you happened to encounter a late '70's Yank tank spoiling for a fight, you'd reach-up and press the little button that turned the AC off. The RX7 bucked slightly, as the engine regained lost vigor. You kinda f
Read MoreChrysler's been hyping the new third shift being added to the Toledo, Ohio plant to boost production of the Liberty-platform Dodge Nitro SUV. And no wonder — they're hiring the 750 added workers in Toledo from the pool of UAW workers sitting around in the job bank. That's the type of news that makes the UAW very happy — unlike the news out of the Belvidere, Illinois plant. They'll be adding a third shift, just like Toledo — except with one minor difference.
Read MoreIt's almost like after four salvos of this word war they've finally started to talk like civilized opponents. In the beginning it was all fun bitch-fight rhetoric with the Times calling GM a "crack dealer" and GM slapping back with Friedman being "intellectually dishonest." Now everyone's just playing nice — where's the fun in that? Even gearheads like us are getting bored of this crap. Our only consolation lies in Steven Harris' belief that the Fastlane blog is a real blog. To wit:
Read MoreAlfa Romeo tuner Autodelta has introduced its Alfa Romeo 156 Super, powered by an aftermarket-supercharged version of that Alfa's Jet Thrust Stoichiometric (JTS) direct-injection gas engine. Jet Thrust whosits?:
Read More(Jalopnik is particularly psyched to introduce Rally Blog, an ongoing series by rally driver Matthew Johnson, 29, pilot of a bright-orange Subaru WRX in the PGT rally, for team Carolina Rallysport. "I've been rallying in an actual car since 2000, I've been rallying in my heart since I was born," he says. "I enjoy sharing some of the details of the sport of rally and what it's like as a competitor trying to figure out how to make a living out of his dreams." Johnson will be writing on the joys an
Read MoreThe 'Today Show' ran a nice little piece this morning on the "fact" that foreign automakers are just as "American" as can be — and yet again we're wondering if the mainstream media ever does their homework on these pieces or if they do — what's their litmus test for what makes a company "American." We feel like maybe we've got to give them a little primer so they've got the right notes for next time.
Read MoreCanada's not minding in the least being lumped in with the US of A today — they're just happy they're getting a piece of this titanium-trimmed beauty — because it's only going to be available in North America. The titanium edition gets its name from the "titanium metallic trim" exclusive to the model. It's available in four exterior colors, "Pure Red", "iceland Silver Metallic", "Marine Blue Metallic" and — "Black." That's right — no fanciness on that one — just plain black. Like the Cayenne
Read MoreSome days, joy comes by mail. Despite having missed the deadline for our last "reader rides" feature, a Michigan-based reader sent in an account of his many rides, all of which are awesome by degree. Without further ado, let's take a walk on the wild side with Bob, shall we?
Read MoreThe campaign word-war between the New York Times editorial page and General Motors keeps heating up — and the latest salvo was fired by Times columnist Thomas Friedman in this morning's Times. Just so you can get your bearings, let's recap — Thomas "World Is Flat" Friedman, in a New York Times editorial two weeks ago engaged in what can best be described as a hyperbol-gasm over GM's latest sales promotion, the fuel price protection program. Friedman called the promotion, an offer of $1.99 gas
Read MoreWe remember when the World Cup came to the motor city back in 1994 — we saw the first-ever indoor World Cup game at the soon-to-be demolished Pontiac Silverdome. It was an epic struggle between two powerhouses — the US and Switzerland — and by powerhouses we mean both teams bumbled to a tie. The best part was how excitedly drunk the fans from other countries looked — they made college kids look like the amateurs they are. So although we'll never understand why yard drivers at the Burnaston fa
Read MoreThere's some mighty weird stuff happening over in the glass house of Ford — first they were trying to get their employees to become a new dealer network for them in exchange for a Ford-branded fleece. Now, they're resorting to pushing e-mails out to staff touting the most recent crazy/sexy/cool online advertising campaign — trying to get the employees to help them to make them go viral. Cause like they so don't have anything else to do with their time in the office, right. Witness as example
Read MoreGM may have liquidated off its Isuzu ownership in a fire sale, but the two companies are still planning new joint ventures. Take, for example, this story out of Moldovia today: GM and Isuzu are launching a joint platform-development project from which will spring the underpinnings for a new generation of pickups for emerging markets (read: cheap) and cars. Dubbed LCV Platform Engineering Corp. (no subterfuge, here) the venture — capitalized for less than a week's worth of lunches at the Renn Cen
Read MoreIn many places across this great gas-guzzling nation of ours, public transit just isn't an option — and if you're one of the growing numbers of folks with high debt — most lenders won't even give you the time of day, much less cash to pay for a ride. And with no ride, you've got no job — and with no job, you've got no family — and with no family, you'll end up in a no-wheeled van...down...by...the...river. And nobody wants that. Well now hope comes in three...
Read MoreWe used to go to get our oil changed at this little quickie lube down in Dearborn just because of the gorgeous brunette there who serviced our engine — and, well — we'll leave the rest of the innuendo to your imagination. And if you're a guy who loves cars — you know there's nothing hotter than female mechanics. That's why we're excited to hear about an enterprising young photographer hailing from the Bluegrass State named Sarah Lyon. Sarah's looking to use hot and one would hope half-naked g
Read MoreNADAguides.com is celebrating Father's Day by examining the cars of some famous TV fathers. While we'd always been partial to Mike Brady's seemingly endless selection of Mopar convertibles, we hadn't considered Ward Cleaver's similar proclivities, of the Plymouth sedan variety, or Al Bundy's '72 Dart (what else would he drive?). Still, even with Tony Soprano's SUV's and Hulk Hogan's Viper, there are at least two TV-dad rides they failed to mention. Check 'em out after the jump, and include your
Read MoreOne of us remembers that time when our parents were out of town on vacation and we decided to cut loose. It was all going fine until we made the mistake of taking Dad's Porsche out for a ride and accidentally drove it into the river. Wait a second...maybe that was 'Risky Business' — we can't remember...all of the 80's was such a coke-induced haze anyway. The point is we know what it's like to accidentally get into trouble with someone else's car — just like Paris Hilton's cousin. Apparently,
Read MoreIn the pilot episode of MTV's "Fast Inc.", Jennifer Love Hewitt is on the phone. She's looking for an early-70s BMW 2002 — a birthday present for a friend. The catch? It has to be cream with tan — and automatic. "Ohh," Todd Ashley, one of the show's three expert car hunters, deadpans, just barely giving away that request's level of difficulty. "Yeah, we'll sort it out." It's no spoiler to say they do.
Read MoreIt may be quaint and old-fashioned, but we're sure there's nothing like the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment from working for one company your entire adult life. We'll never know the pleasure of opening up a box and finding a personal note from the CEO and an application for an "anniversary ring" to thank us for our 30 years of service — just like the one Michael Stawasz received from Ford last week. One little problem — our man Mike was fired by FoMoCo in January — nine months before
Read MoreThis morning one of us was out on the grounds of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in beautiful Auburn Hills, MI — to check out the Chrysler Employee Motorsport Association (CEMA) 17th annual car show. This year's theme for the massive Mopar extravaganza is "Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Dodge Charger" — so one can guess which pony's featured today. But the event's not limited to Mopar muscle — it's a veritable cornucopia of automotive Americana. But CEMA ain't just a "show car" club. Sinc
Read MoreWhen Ray and Austin crashed the parade in Indy and ended up in a car with Karen Catchpole and her husband Eric Mohl, the masterminds behind Transamericas Journey, for some reason, it didn't click. And then in some sort of delayed reaction, we hear from the mighty Lew last night, saying "Karen Catchpole!" And it still didn't click. And then he added context clues and we were like, "Oh, duh. That Karen Catchpole!"
Read MoreFord's like the GM in the corner nobody's talking about — until yesterday. Ford's stock price hit a 52-week low after Fitch Ratings dropped Ford's credit rating to BB minus — three levels below what's considered "investment grade." That put's Ford's shares at a value of $12.7 billion, or one-fifth of what it was worth five years ago. Talk about a negative return on your investment. But Fitch ain't the only ones jumping ship — earlier in the week Moody's Investors Service said it was also thin
Read MoreProbably reason #1 for why we don't commute is the lack of any public transit in Metro Detroit — but this has got to be another one for us to add to the list of reasons why we prefer having our own vehicular transportation. It's a little video from Hong Kong that's apparently been downloaded over five million times from YouTube and has become such a sensation that the Wall Street Journal profiled it, which is where we found it. Since the Journal charges, we've dropped a couple paragraphs on the
Read MoreWe kinda feel sorry for the General today, cause it feels like GM's working real hard at this whole "Delphi/UAW buyout talks" thing — and even the Wall Street Journal's saying that the talks are going pretty well between the three parties. Today's Journal outlined a deal to offer thousands of Delphi workers lump-sum payments of $70,000 to $140,000 to leave the company and their health-care benefits behind. Additionally, GM's also close to offering Delphi worker-bee's in the five smaller union
Read MoreWe're hearing the Mercedes-Benz US unit is going the way of the General and offering voluntary buyouts to staff at their Montvale, NJ corporate headquarters. According to the the North Jersey Media Group, no details have been made available to the press or the workers affected — other than it'll be likely offered to those with at least ten years of service with the company. Since this is the second time Montvale's been targeted for employment reductions, we're starting to wonder if there's an
Read MoreWe're one of the first people who grumbles whenever we walk past a handicap parking spot and see some Prada-wearing and Gucci-carrying trophy wife unable to walk the extra 30 feet from her Hummer to the door of the local Whole Foods. We mean, come on — why do we get the hassle from the 5-0 when we're not coming to a complete stop at a deserted intersection, but a man in blue ain't around for li'l miss when she gets out of her car. That being said, somebody please tell us why Paris Hilton is able
Read MoreOne fine early-fall day in 1960, writer William Glen Davis set off from California to New York (by way of Mexico City) on a street-legal go-kart (good, old days indeed). At a cruising speed of 60 mph (!) — and averaging in the neighborhood of 45 mpg — he dashed, in a sense, across the USA. Maybe he should have started in the spring:
Read MoreWe of the amoeba-sized attention span here in the blogosphere had moved on from the Thomas L. Friedman-vs.-Iron-Maiden-bassist pissing contest of last week, but Sweet Peet D.'s just weighed in on the topic, and he's got lots to say that, well, he's said before, and tosses off the line, "Much to the Detroit-haters' chagrin, this country simply couldn't function without the wide array of vehicles that the Detroit car companies make." Wait, work crews couldn't drive Unimogs? Truckers couldn't drive
Read MoreYou know it's a bad day for a CEO of a company like General Motors when the best anyone says about you at the annual shareholder meeting is:
Read MoreWe still can't get enough of those cute little scamps from the meadow — Pig & Bear. They're just too...darn...adorable — even when being served up on a platter by the equally scampy Dodge Caliber. Well, we've talked to the creators of the little munchkins — better known as the good people at BBDO Detroit — and they've decided to honor our obsession with the lovable little rapscallions by helping us find an iPod for a contest of creativity. Want to know more? Hit the jump.
Read MoreToday's the day when RIck n' the boys truck down to Delaware for the annual shareholder meeting — and it sounds like there is all sorts of fun lined up this morning at 9 AM. The best part? It'll be broadcast live on the interwebs! This will give everyone the chance to view sausage being made close up in the never-before-seen-by-non-GM-shareholders meeting. Especially because the always influential proxy advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), is throwing it's weight behind fo
Read MoreThe 2006 Greenwich Concours d'Elegance is the kind of event where the parking lot could be confused with the show itself: I puttered in as a guy driving a Maybach 57 was coolly gliding out. You see that kind of stuff in Greenwich. You also see tiny dogs being chauffeured in man-purses, but we're here to talk about cars.
Read MoreThose crazy frogs — always coming up with something to get us to love them again. First it was baguettes after WWI — then it was hot chicks with hairy pits after WWII — this time they've helped to quash those robot withdrawal symptoms with those funky-fresh transformin' Citroen C4 ads. Oh yes, our use of the plural was correct —as we reported earlier this week, there's now a second ad. And now we've got the video to prove it. It'll have to hold us until the new Transformers movie comes out next
Read MoreOk, so let's say you're an data analyst at accounting and security consulting firm Ernst & Young down in Texas and you're hoping to get some work done tonight at home. Your big client Hotels.com is all ready to jump down your throat cause you guys hadn't put together that promised credit card tracking system they'd been looking for. So as you drive up to your home late in the evening, you remember "golly-gee, 'American Idol' is on tonight — I better hurry on up inside — plus I can't wait for
Read MoreImagine you've landed on a tropical island and your first stop after baggage claim is the unnamed, ubiquitous car rental agency. You could go for the convertible Ford Mustang, but the price of admission is out of your league. The Chevrolet Impala is the reasonable choice but its vanilla appearance (and performance) annuls any umbrella-drink fantasies yet to be fulfilled. After exhausting all of the options and the patience of the folks behind you in line, a silver HHR is insured, signed for and
Read MoreObviously, most civilian contractors in Iraq don't get government-issue motor gear like Humvees. That means they've got to use their Halliburton bux to build their own vehicles to protect themselves while on mobile security detail. As this Flickr photo spread indicates, the private security contractors have modified Detroit's and Japan's finest to become makeshift gun trucks. We'd imagine this Chevrolet Avalanche (above) is wishing it'd been adopted by a guy who just wanted to load up a barbecue
Read MoreOur gadgety friends at Gizmodo tossed us this one — there's a company called Hydrogen Technologies, and they used distilled water in some kind of a chemical process to run a car. Here's the best part — it gets like 25 miles to the ounce! Someone's gotta get some protection over to these guys pronto before they get black helicopter-ed by ExxonMobil and the rest of Big Oil.
Read MoreAs Francis Bacon said, "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." (Mmmm, bacon.) As such, petrolheads in the UK are none too pleased with sculptor Anthony Wilson, who forms his own mysterious works from pieces of classic cars. Take, for example, "Aztec Scorpion" (pictured), one of his latest, which depicts our neighbor Mrs. Henley explaining the plight of her trampled forsythias in great detail to the postman. (We didn't even know she'd been to Heytesbury.) In this case, Wilson use
Read MoreWhen we were just a wee lad starting out in business, Grandpa used to say, "Kid, find a need and fill it." At the time, we were loathe to listen, mainly because he was referring to his highball glass. Nowadays, we revere inventors, like these Swedish guys who solved a vexing problem: How do you get a tow truck through traffic caused by the car that needs towing? (Also known as Cooter's Paradox). They built a Honda Goldwing that carries all the kit needed to tow a car. Yep, we're serious.
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