By Brendan Moore

09.30.2008

Volkswagen is very proud of their new 50-state compliant diesel powerplant and is doing everything they can to talk the new engine up among consumers.

VW is urging fans of the new diesel Jetta TDI to tell other people about the car, they are doing traditional marketing and advertising and they are also doing other PR whenever possible. In addition, they have supplied the 2009 VW Jetta TDI that a couple recently used to set a new Guinness world record for lowest fuel consumption across the 48 contiguous United States, averaging 58.82 miles to the gallon.

VW has developed a diesel section of their U.S. website where over 25,000 people have signed up to receive more information about Volkswagen diesels, and the company is also diligently monitoring independent websites that are discussing diesel engines. Volkswagen employees are participating in those online discussions and offering information about the new Jetta if asked.

The world record? John and Helen Taylor finished up their trip on September 25, taking 20 days to travel through every state.

The official press release from VWOA: Continue Reading

By Andy Bannister

09.29.2008

Marketeers would have us believe that brand image is everything, and if so they must be celebrating at Aston Martin, which has just been named the UK’s coolest brand for the second year running.

This wasn’t just a suvey of car makers. The small British manufacturer beat off competition from the likes of iPod (in second place), YouTube (in third place) and Google (fifth).

The top 20 was compiled by the CoolBrands Council, a group of style experts, designers and commentators from across Britain, and took into account a poll on the opinions of more than 2,000 members of the public.

According to the organisers, the definition of a “CoolBrand” is one that “has a magic about it, signifying that users have a sense of taste and style.”

Other high scoring brands in a decidely broad list included watchmaker Rolex (9th) champagne house Dom Perignon (11th), airline Virgin Atlantic (12th), Boss fragrance (18th) and Facebook (19th). Continue Reading

By Kevin Miller

09.29.2008

I’ve always thought that the MINI Cooper was a “cute” car, which was as much a marketing gimmick as anything else. With its available bonnet stripes and white, black, or body-colored roof, the car was really only on my radar as one chosen by drivers who are personally expressive and want their cars to be noticed. I’ve also known the vehicles to be competitive in autocross competitions, but assumed the drivers who autocrossed their MINIs simply preferred the Cooper’s look to that of a Miata, Solstice, or Golf.

My opinion changed abruptly when a Mellow Yellow 2009 MINI John Cooper Works was dropped off for a week of evaluation. The huge wheels and brakes, with lowered chassis, give the JCW an aggressive stance. From my very first trip behind the wheel, I realized I had misjudged the people who drive Minis. The car’s incredibly direct steering, coupled with nimble handling and a comfortable, spacious driver’s environment made me realize that people buy MINI Coopers because they are fun to drive.

Of course, the John Cooper Works car I drove is a more-potent version of the Cooper. With 208 HP and 192 lb-ft of torque from its direct-injection turbocharged 1.6 liter four, the JCW has 90 HP more than the base Cooper offered in the US, and 36 more HP than the turbocharged Mini Cooper S. Additionally the JCW has a bespoke sport suspension, bigger brakes, and sport exhaust. Stated 0-60 MPH time is 6.2 seconds, with a top speed of 147 MPH. It is truly the maximum MINI. Continue Reading

By Andy Bannister

09.28.2008

Not content with reviving the historic Abarth title for sporting versions of its mainstream line-up, Fiat is now considering dusting off the Dino name for an all-out sports car, according to British magazine Car.

The company is reportedly proposing a Fiat version of the next Lotus Elise roadster, mildly modified and developed at very low cost to give the company access to an area of the market it long ago abandoned.

Such a move is not without precedent. Until 2006 GM in Europe had its own version of the current Elise, built by Lotus and sold with a GM engine and different styling as the Vauxhall VX220 and Opel Speedster. It didn’t sell in huge numbers but attracted plenty of showroom attention before being superceded by a new Pontiac Solstice-derived model.

No-one could accuse Fiat of putting all its eggs in one basket. The company is the acknowledged master of partnerships these days, and is already working with BMW, Ford, Peugeot and Suzuki, among others. Another project is to build a new microcar in conjunction with Zastava of Yugoslavia. Continue Reading

By Brendan Moore

09.28.2008

Paul Newman’s death last week at 83 caused me to reflect on just how many things Newman could do well, including, of course, driving a racecar.

Many people that knew about Paul Newman’s film accomplishments and his charity work knew very little (or nothing) about his racing career. But the guy could flat-out drive. The reason that many of his fans knew so little about his driving exploits is that he didn’t brag about his racing prowess; in fact, he really didn’t talk about racing except with other racers. As in the rest of his life, he was very self-effacing and genuinely modest.

Newman mostly raced modified sports cars in endurance events, and he won a lot of them. He won the IMSA Class at LeMans in 1979 driving a Porsche 935 with Rolf Stommelen and Dick Barbour. They came in second overall in a close finish. He raced in the Baja 1000, he raced at Sebring, and he raced at Daytona. He raced in the Trans-Am Series. He won four SCCA national titles in three different classes.

In 1983 Newman teamed up with Carl Haas to form Newman-Haas Racing, which won seven championships as their drivers racked up 97 total wins as a professional racing team.

Oh yeah, he also made more than 65 movies, some of which will forever be considered cinematic classics, was married to the same woman for 50 years, made millions of dollars for charity by founding and running a food products empire and opened summer camps for sick children.

He accomplished all of this with grace and style and with a minimum of fuss and personal drama. The personal construct of admirable results and genuine personal humility that Paul Newman lived in is a rare combination is this world and worth consideration by all of us.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant – All Rights Reserved

By Kevin Miller

09.26.2008

Improved taxicab fuel economy and emissions are among the goals of New York City’s PlaNYC 2030, mayor Michael Bloomberg’s roadmap to improve housing, transportation, energy infrastructure and air quality in NYC. The plan’s new rules for taxicabs, which were to be in effect beginning October 1, 2008, require new taxicabs to have a minimum 25 MPG city rating, and 30 MPG for new taxis beginning in 2009. As it turns out, most taxi-sized vehicles with a city rating of 25 MPG or better are hybrid vehicles.

Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, a taxi industry group, filed a Federal lawsuit seeking to block the city’s 25 MPG requirement for new taxicabs. The lawsuit contends that the city’s fuel economy rule violates Federal laws, which state that only the Federal government can set rules on fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions. The suit also claims that fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles were not built to withstand the heavy use that city cabs endure. Finally, the suit states that hybrid taxis are unsafe because they are smaller and lighter than the taxi-standard Ford Crown Victoria, thereby subjecting drivers and passengers to a greater risk of injury in an accident. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case next month.

The city’s fuel economy rule, and all other regulations governing operation of taxis in NYC, are overseen by New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). The TLC is represented by the NYC legal department, which declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Taxi and Limousine Commission has previously stated it is confident that hybrid cabs are safe. Continue Reading

By Brendan Moore

09.26.2008

The USD $25 billion loan package to the U.S. automakers and parts suppliers passed the House Wednesday and will arrive in the Senate within the next few days, where easy passage is forecasted. The White House has already indicated that it will sign the bill when it hits the President’s desk.

The auto industry loan proposal is merely a sidebar to the massive $700 billion federal bailout package for Wall Street currently being wrangled over in Congress, and thus has not garnered a lot of attention from the public in the last few days. The automakers and Washington would like to keep it that way and get it passed without a lot of contentious debate.

The auto industry loan is, at least ostensibly, to help the car companies retool their plants in order to make more fuel-efficient cars like hybrids and EVs and meet the new fuel economy rules recently put into play. The current language of the loan program requires that the money be used to retool or retrofit only plants that are at least 20 years old and that the refurbished plant will be used to manufacture vehicles (cars or trucks) that produce an approximate 25% improvement in fuel economy over similar models in their class at the time of the loan.

The auto industry did a great job of pushing the loan package through, but they have not been able to get the terms of the loans modified to make those terms less restrictive. The Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler LLC) are all facing a tremendous cash crunch and would like more leeway in how they spend the money loaned to them. Even if the terms remained the same, industry analysts believe the cash infusion would mitigate a lot of Detroit’s immediate cash flow issues, but the auto companies don’t want to be tied down to a particular part of their business getting the money, and other areas that are just as needy getting nothing. Continue Reading

By Dennis Haak

09.26.2008

Just as the tentative deal on the Wall Street bailout collapsed yesterday in the US, so did a tentative deal in Europe that had been agreed upon between the European Parliament’s main socialist and conservative parties on a series of carbon emission caps for new cars and lower penalties than originally sought for noncompliance.  However, members of the Parliament’s Environment Committee rejected many key aspects of the proposal that had been crafted by members of their respective parties, and instead endorsed a proposal with stricter rules that had been created by the European Commission, which is the EU’s executive arm.  This is bad news for both car enthusiasts, consumers, and in fact the economies of Europe and any other countries that might choose to model a carbon cap program from this idea.

Currently, there are only voluntary agreements from automakers to reduce their models’ CO2 emissions, but environmentalists say that the voluntary limits do not go far enough.  The current proposal endorsed by the committee will require automakers to meet a fleet average CO2 emission target of 120 grams of CO2 per kilometer.  The fleet averages are based upon European sales only.  The fines under the new proposal for noncompliance are €95 ($139) per gram beyond 120 grams per kilometer per car. Continue Reading

By Chris Haak

09.26.2008

Bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp., which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2005, and saw its last exit financing plan go up in flames a few months ago when Appaloosa Management LP abandoned deal to invest as much as $2.55 billion in the company to help fund its exit from Chapter 11.  Subsequently Delphi sued Appaloosa for breaking the agreement, which was likely broken because Appaloosa was concerned about GM providing additional funding to Delphi, and what that meant for their own proposed equity holdings in the fresh-from-bankruptcy company.  There have been valid questions posed over the past few months about whether Delphi really will, in fact, be able to emerge from Chapter 11, or whether the firm’s US operations (only Delphi’s US operations are in bankruptcy proceedings, not the entire global corporation) and would be liquidated via Chapter 7 of the US bankruptcy code.

Now, good news (or less-bad news) finally came for Delphi, and indeed GM (which depends on Delphi parts for continuing its vehicle production activities; a Delphi strike or shutdown would literally stop GM production cold in its tracks).  The news:  Delphi’s unsecured creditors have come to a tentative agreement with Delphi and GM on a revised financing deal that includes a total contribution from GM of $10.6 billion, which includes a $3.4 billion assumption of Delphi’s unfunded pension obligations.  In return for this assistance, Delphi agreed to grant GM a $2.1 billion administrative claim that can be redeemed in preferred stock and, perhaps more importantly, waives all future claims stemming from Delphi’s 1999 spinoff from GM. Continue Reading

By Chris Haak

09.25.2008

When Daimler (then called DaimlerChrysler) sold 81.1% of its stake in Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management in mid-2007, it held onto the remaining 19.9% of Chrysler.  At the time, Daimler made all kinds of noise about how they believed in Chrysler and wanted to hold onto about a fifth of the company to reap the rewards of its success, and so forth.

Subsequently, Daimler was forced to belly up to two massive write-downs in its Chrysler stake based on the decline in the book value of its investment in Chrysler, according to international accounting rules.  The size of these write-downs, easily extrapolated (by multiplying them by five) led many industry analysts to speculate that Chrysler was losing huge amounts of money.  These rumors caused tight-lipped Cerberus, as well as Chrysler, to release public statements concerning its cash position, operating cash flow, and operating profits – in spite of there being no statutory requirement for doing so.  Even if the accounting rules that Daimler must abide by are different (more strict in this case) than US accounting rules, the fact remains that Chrysler is still an albatross on Daimler’s neck – albeit only 19.9% of an albatross relative to what it would otherwise have been).  (A brief editorial note:  I’m not here to say that Daimler didn’t have an awful lot – if not nearly everything – to do with the situation Chrysler finds itself in today.  After all, Daimler did own Chrysler for nine years, and oversaw the approval and development of every model in Chrysler’s current portfolio.) Continue Reading