everyday

This can be posted under: Another failing American automobile manufacturer makes yet another mistake moving them even closer to their eventual demise.

I have seen some advertisements where GM is offering a 100,000 mile warranty! Now most people will probably think “Why is that a bad idea?”, and that is a very good question, which I will try to answer. You see, GM has a cash flow problem, they have ridiculous union and pension liabilities and not enough revenue to cover them. The profit margins on all automobiles have narrowed to a point where they simply can’t afford the concessions they made to the UAW over the last few decades. The problem is so bad, that GM actually loses less money if they pay their employees not to make cars! Ha! So what does this have to do with them offering a 100,000 mile warranty? Well, this is a quick fix to bolster their short term cash flow problems. Sure, there will be an infusion of cash as a result of this offering, but without correcting the “real” problems facing GM, this will only make their end happen sooner and more drastically.

A few other car companies have offered a long term warranty to increase sales and turn the company around, but the success of this approach depends on a couple of factors: first, you have to be able to reasonably expect your cars to last for 100,000 miles without having to do major repairs to a significant percentage of them, and secondly you have to be able to rework your organization so that this infusion of cash makes you profitable. GM has not increased the quality of their products, so any extension to the existing warranty is only going to result in an increase of related warranty costs, and they certainly haven’t convinced the UAW that all of the members will be out of work sortly if they can’t turn this company around. Volkswagen offered a 100,000 mile warranty or a while, but it was after a serious reworking of every vehicle they offered and genuine attempt to gain back the public’s trust by building a considerably better car, this plan worked very well for VW, I doubt that it will do the same for GM.

via: Autopia on Wired

The subject as evidenced by the new 2007 Dodge Ram SRT10 and it’s slightly less than stellar fuel mileage rating of… 7 miles per gallon. Are they f-ing serious? Someone needs to point out that our dependence on foreign oil is the root cause for the deaths of thousands of American citizens and citizen soldiers. Radical islamic jihadists are funded with the proceeds of our gluttunous need for oil. In producing this truck, Dodge is saying that it doesn’t value these lives, that it doesn’t care about 9/11 and that it hopes the American people and the rest of the civilized West will remain sucking at the teat of the Middle East.

I know that they are just producing a product that a certain segment of the population wants, but when you are as big a corporation as Chrysler, perhaps you should show a little restraint in your quest for profits and actual make some decisions that will benefit all of us. Chrysler is bound by the same social contract that keeps us all a few inches from utter anarchy. As a gigantic nationwide corporation, their charge should be to provide the American public with a quality product that we want, but on the same note it shouldn’t be a product that will harm us in the long run.

A quote from the originating article sums up how I feel, and is a pretty damned funny too!

This truck could be more politically incorrect only if it ran on whale oil and panda tears.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, it is difficult to express my remorse over the release of this movie. I have listened to a number of commercials for it on the radio and I have seen a couple of the trailers on TV. These advertisements make me sad. Sad to see a niche auto sport like drifting being trammpled upon by the Fast and the Furious franchise.

So what is so bad about The Fast and the Furious you ask? Well, let’s start with the cars (which is all I really care about anyways). The cars in these movies are literal caricatures of themselves. The directors of these movies take otherwise nice cars and ruin them with goddy paint jobs and ridiculous graphics. Next, let’s talk about some of the events in the movies. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, the cars do some ridiculous jump that would destroy any one of the cars in the movie. In an interview with one of the actors for Tokyo Drift, he said that drifting was accomplished by using the handbrake to slide around a corner! Come on! Oh yeah, and the trailer talks about using “slick” tires to accomplish a drift. Damnit people.

Drifting, also known as Touge (which roughly means “mountain pass” in Japanese), is an amazing thing to see. You take an extremely skilled driver, a ridiculously light and powerful car, a number of sweeping turns and you end up with an exhilarating mix of burnt tire rubber and screeching sounds while a car goes flying by you into a corner at an impossible speed.

I have been thinking about what new cars I would most like to own (realistically). These are cars that when I see them on the road they inspire me. They have the perfect combination of styling and performance, in my opinion of course. One recurring theme you will notice with this list is that they are all realtively powerful and rear-wheel drive, both a “must have” for me. So without further ado, the list (in no particular order and subject to constant change):

Infiniti G35 Sport Coupe 6MT

The Infiniti G35 Sport Coupe 6MT pretty much has it all as far as I am concernced. Power, handling, styling, comfort and luxury for a little under $34,000 (US). This car sets the bar in the “bang for the buck” category.

Under the hood the G35 sports a 298 horspower 3.5 liter V6, the relatively new, standard setting VQ35DE. This power gives the G35 a respectable power to weight ratio of .084. The G35 also shares the chassis of the Nissan 350Z, which means that it’s handling is superb. Apart from impressive performance, I think the G35 is one of the most attractive cars ever built, and I mean ever. It is aggresive and beautiful all at the same time! This is something that many car makers have tried to do, but only a few have ever succeeded. The G35 Sport Coupe is due for a facelift sometime soon, the car debuted in 2001 and is getting a little long in the tooth by automotive industry standards. The sedan version received it’s facelist for the 2007 model year, so one would assume that a revised coupe will be forthcoming. Hopefully any changes to this masterpiece will build upon and accentuate the perfection that is the Infiniti G35 Sport Coupe.

BMW 330Ci

Those crazy Germans! The BMW 330Ci probably wouldn’t have made my list in the past, but recently I have had the great fortune of being able to drive one of these wonderful cars. This car is an amazingly capable pice of road going machinery. It seems that it handles whatever you throw at it with a certain elegance and poise. This car does not ever want you to see it sweat.

As with most things German, this car is uber-engineered. Every little insignificant part seems to have been designed by an entire team of world leading engineers. I think this stems from their (BMW’s, and it seems Germans’ in general) design process being more evolutionary than most other car manufacturers.

While the power to weight ratio of 0.068 (horsepower per lbs.) is significantly less than that of the G35 Sport Coupe, I would assume that it’s driveability and handling would make up for any shortcomings power wise.

As for price, well it is defintily the most expensive of the group at $37,600.00. Of course you also get the most luxury and refinement of the group for that price as well.

Nissan 350Z

Ah… How I love Nissan. Every one of their vehicles leads their class in power output. While not as refined as the BMW, or as classy as the Infiniti the Nissan 350Z offers performance that neither of those cars can touch. Utilizing the very capable VQ35DE (same as the G35 Sport Coupe) with more aggressive tuning, the 350Z manages 300 horsepower which provides a power to weight ratio of 0.083 horesepower per pound.

If you have ever noticed a Nissan 350Z going by you, perhaps you have heard the wonderfully low and grumbling exhaust note coming from the tailpipes. It seems like every aspect of this car is designed for performance and, as always with Nissan, value. The “Z” offers performance at a price point that just isn’t matched anywhere else in the automotive world. Just $34,500.00 will get you the “Track” model which has bigger brakes, lighter wheels and wider tires. Notice that these are actual performance upgrades and not just ground effects (although it includes those too!).

Subaru Impreza WRX STi

Last, but certainly not least in my roundup of cool cars is the Subaru Impreza WRX STi. This car is born of a heritage that has been a major player in the World Rally Championship for many years. While not as good looking (to some) as the other cars in this brief list, the WRX is definitely eye catching. I don’t know if it is the hood scoop or the wing, or maybe just the overall demeanor that this car projects, but it certainly looks like it can move.

The WRX STi has the best power to weight ratio of this group, 0.0895 pounds per horsepower. This is acheived with a 2.0 liter four-cyclinder “boxer” engine putting out 300 horsepower and curb weight of only 3,351 pounds the WRX STi is a rocketship on four wheels. As with all Subaru’s the WRX STi is all-wheel drive. While certainly adding to the complexity of the drivetrain, it should also allow those 300 horses to plant their hooves with confidence. The WRX STi is also the cheapest car of the group, coming in with a base price of $32,995.00.

Someday my car will look like this! Well, without the stickers.

Photo taken at the JGTC event in Fontana, CA on December 18, 2004.

Every time I see an Infiniti G35 Sport Coupe on the road, I begin to salivate. This is the most beautiful car on the road today, period. If I were to win the lottery tommorow, I would buy 3 of them. One heavily modified for the track. One moderately modified for the street. One luxuriously appointed for comfortable cruising.

I have a new favourite car! The Nissan GT-R PROTO. This amazing looking vehicle is due in 2007, so start saving now. There are no specifications as to engine type or power output. I would assume that Nissan will attempt to make it more powerful than the previous GT-R, the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R which was never sold in the U.S. but was highly regarded as a world class super-car. I have been a fan of Nissan since I purchased my 240SX in 1999. I admire the fact that they build high quality, high performance vehicles for a relatively low price point. I say keep up the good work and please bring the new GT-R PROTO to the U.S. with a price tag under $100,000.

via: Wired

Autopia (a blog from within Wired) has an article talking on the economic downward spiral that the big three (Ford, GM and Chrysler) are facing. The article doesn’t say much as to the reason these three, former megalithic, companies are failing. It points to production cycles as a reason, saying that they are a few years behind their Japanses counterparts in terms of styling and fuel economy. I would argue that their problems are endemic to their corporate culture.

The first problem for the Big Three is that they are saddled with enormous liabilities caused by an overly greedy union, the United Auto Workers. The Big Three have agreed to numerous union demands instead of really fixing any of their employment problems. They have given away ridiculous retirement packages in leiu of wage raises. This was fine in the 60’s and 70′ s when their profits were sky-high, but as the rest of the world ate away at the Big Three’s market share, they failed to see the writing on the wall. As a result of this, just as the pension liabilities were coming due, profits were dwindling. Had they seen the writing on the wall, they would have been capable of making changes to ensure that they could remain competitive, not that they would have, but they could have.

The next major problem is more of a problem with the culture of the American auto manufacturers. These companies, for a long time, had a virtual monopoly on the market. They were able to extract enormous profits from absolute crap, the “crap” being the cars they built. They were able to make piles of cash without innovating or doing any research. Take the new Ford Mustang for instance, this is the first time in this car’s storied history that it has ever sat on a entirely new chassis. This means that all previous Mustangs were, to some extent, still rolling around on a chassis that was engineered and developed in the late 50’s. That is simply ridiculous!

The only way these companies can turn themselves around is to work as hard as possible at emulating Toyota and Honda. They need to focus on crafting quality, innovative automobiles that people will actually want to purchase. Then they can leverage their brand name recognition and the loyalty that many people (for reasons unbeknownst to me) still have for them.

via Wired News

Looks like the feds are at it again [article]. Instead of providing incentives to purchase vehicles that merely sip gasoline instead of beer bonging it, they have introduced legislation that creates greater incentives for SUV hybrids than for hybrids that get “good” gas mileage. The monetary incentive is based on the mileage savings over vehicles in the same weight class. Using this brilliant method, a hybrid International CXT would garner the highest tax break, even though it may only get 10 MPG! Brilliant! There are other ludicrous restrictions that will favor domestic automobile manufacturers who haven’t had the foresight to research hybrid or alternative fuels technolgy like foreign manufacturers. So perhaps the feds are actually trying to bail out General Motors.

Truck and SUV Sales Plunge as Gas Prices Rise. Perhaps the feds will bail out Ford and GM (again?) by forcing gas prices down… Oh wait, we don’t control the price of oil, OPEC does. Damnit, if only we had the technology to rid ourselves of our foreign oil dependence.