Cars! Cars! Cars!

Timing Is Everything

More supply means lower prices. He didn't do it.

Related articles
NY Times: THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE TEXAS GOVERNOR; Bush Would Use Power of Persuasion to Raise Oil Supply

Link from Daring Fireball

Time To Live In Hillbillylandia!

Oh, man. Can you imagine finding a fillin' station that literally couldn't charge what they were supposed to?

Sure, fill 'er up and throw in some Suzi-Qs, too!

What are we talking about? This:

As many as 8,500 of America's 170,000 service stations have old-style meters that need to be fixed -- about 17,000 individual pumps, said Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Referenced articles
CNN: New prices swamp old gas pumps

The Captain Has Turned On "Leave Me The Hell Alone" Sign

We listen to the radio (radio? we mean CDs... CDs? we mean MP3s... MP3s? we mean satellite radio... ah, the circle is complete) while driving. But when we get lost (daily) we turn the radio off. Our co-pilots (1, 2, 3) find this behavior odd, but it works for us.

Turns out, we're friggin' scientists! Now for the experiment of put the thing in the other thing without the second person noticing!

Referenced articles
ScienceNews: SHIFTING PRIORITIES AT THE WHEEL

The Movement To Big

Along with McMansions and obscenely big hamburgers our vehicles have grown and grown.

When SUVs first hit the scene, the Japanese car makers were caught off guard and soon rolled out with what they thought made more sense. And thus the term "cute-ute" war born.

Anyone else remember when the RAV4 was a small two-door dealie?

Referenced articles:

Autoclay When Cute-Utes were cute

We'd Buy That For a Dollar

New car criteria

Fun driving factor? Check
Great utility (wagon)? Check
Kick-ass fuel economy (60 mpg)? Check

Would you buy that? Yeah, we would, too.

Referenced articles:

Gas 2.0: 2009 Jetta BlueTDI Comes to US This Summer, Sports 60 MPG and Cleaner Emissions

For Sale

On second thought... Doeth!

Can you imagine the flips who went and bought those big-ass SUVs only to find not only can they not afford to fill 'er up, but now can't afford to sell them? And if they can't afford to sell them, how they gonna buy another one? Don't forget the flips who decided to make more of these SUVs and full-size pickups. Oh, they got bonuses? Sweet! We gotta get a gig doing something we don't know what we're doing.*

It's gonna get worse as this year goes on. Who said under 14 million will be sold?

Referenced Articles
Calculated Risk: Severely Underwater Vehicles

*Other than, er, this. Look, Summer Glau!

Drive No Mo?

Have you been driving less? We heartell that folks all over America are actually driving less because of skyrocketing fuel prices.

Weak. What kind of Americans are they? Don't they care about Exxon Mobil's bottom line? We bet they don't wear a flag pin on their lapels, either. Commies.

Referenced articles:
USA Today: Gas prices rattle Americans

Who's Expecting A What In 2008?

Ford: We're gonna need a bigger boat!
GM: (crickets)
Chrysler: Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!

Referenced articles
autoblog: Toyota expecting profit drop in 2008

Dodge Outs the Ram R/T

What the ? Did Dodge not get the memo that we're not buying these anymore? Did Dodge not get the memo that gas is $4/gallon, the economy is in the crapper and that dirty, hippy chicks don't give you dirty, hippy love if you're driving these?

Seriously, while Jalopnik reports: 2009 Dodge Ram R/T Accidentally Revealed By Dodge, that headline should read, "2009 Dodge RAM R/T Accidentally Produced"

We're not 100% sure if Summer is a dirty hippy chick, but if so, we're hoping there's dirty hippy love involved.

Doeth!

$7.50?!

Time to sell that truck, dude. Time to sell the SUV, you cell-phone-talkin' mama.

Ford: Where Leaving A Faulty Switch In Production And Letting It Burn Up Your Home Is Job #1

Ford should be ashamed. And sued.

This faulty switch stuff has been going on for (roughly) nine years now and it's still not solved.

The [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] says it can connect 65 fires to switch failures, but the problem could be far greater: the agency received 1,472 complaints or allegations of engine compartment fires related to the switches before the investigation was closed in August 2006. Because investigators were often unable to contact owners, not enough data could be collected to make a final determination on many complaints. The agency also received 60 more fire complaints since the inquiry ended.

The agency has not linked switch failures to any deaths, but at least three wrongful death suits have been filed against Ford.

Not sure how Ford folks are sleeping at night knowing 1)they used the switch for over three years and 2)there are thousands of them still out there.

Shame on Ford.

Referenced article

New York Times: Huge Recall, but Many Cars Unfixed.

Unreferenced, but still rockin'

Cars! Cars! Cars!: Switches
Cars! Cars! Cars!: More Ford Recalls?

What A Bad Idea

Here's an idea: take a ridiculously expensive car and make it impractical. Brilliant! Now, instead of selling 100 cars a year, they'll sell 101! Way to use all that R&D money for good use.

The world has been clamoring for a big limo that is also a semi convertible. Is this Maybach's last attempt at killing itself? Why not put a tub in there, too?

Referenced article

Winding Road: Maybach Landaulet to go on U.S. Sale in December

Softies

Hot damn, what's up with The Truth About Cars? Are they gettin' all soft in their old age?

We're referring, of course, to their ratings of the most recent vehicles they've been blowing red lights in. Here's a sample:

2009 BMW X6
4 of 5 stars

2008 Pontiac G8
4 of 5 stars

2008 Ford Expedition King Ranch
3 of 5 stars

2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged
4 of 5 stars

2008 Nissan Armada
3 of 5 stars

2009 Mercedes-Benz AMG
4 of 5 stars

Where's the mean ol' TTAC that we've come to love?

SSDD

Man, talk about talking it across the face! The economy is going down the toilet (free market, ha!), salaries are falling (or, at the very least, not keeping up with inflation) and now management is back at the bargaining table.

GM has managed to convince UAW to work for less -- a whoppin' $14 an hour. The only folks who are going to complain that these "unskilled workers" are still over paid are old, white dudes, so don't pay them any mind.

Meanwhile, in the other camp, we see that some management is doing exceedingly well. It's so fucking nice to the king.

Referenced articles:

autoblog: That was easy: UAW and GM agree on lower wages after six months of bargaining.

autoblog: Mullaly and other Ford execs made many millions in 2007.

Yes, we're well aware that one company is GM and the other is Ford, but it's not like compensation at GM is anything to sniff at. And Ford is going to use GM's deal as a reason to push hard against workers who are building Fords. Anyway, we found the contrast to be interesting.