New Cars for the Week of March 19th, 2018

Karlmann King

If you're shopping for a car right now, chances are you're looking at SUVs and crossovers, because that's pretty much the only kind of vehicle anyone wants anymore. If you happen to be filthy rich, not care about brand heritage, not care about performance and are shot at quite often, there's really good news! It's called the Karlmann King, and it's a Chinese-designed vehicle built in Europe, which flips the script on how most companies are making cars these days. It looks like an F-117 stealth fighter and is powered by a 6.8 litre V10 from the Ford F550. If you want the bulletproof model though, you're looking at a car weighing 13,227 pounds (for reference, cars generally weigh between 3 and 400 pounds), so obviously performance isn't great. How not great? Despite 400 horsepower, it'll only hit a top speed of 87 MPH. But since it's a car designed to be ridden in, not driven, because it has a coffee machine, flat screen TV, refrigerator, PlayStation 4 and various other pimp-my-ride-type accouterments, you probably won't care how slow you're going.

Mercedes-Maybach Pullman

If you're filthy rich, do care about brand heritage, don't like driving and don't get shot at very often, there's also good news this week because the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman S650 has been announced. Basically, this is the $615,000 limousine edition of the Mercedes Maybach S650, which means it seats six and features a glass partition between you and the driver so he can't hear you make fun of the poors like him, which should help avoid the development of simple resentment into a seething hatred, reducing the likelihood that you will be killed in a fit of rage by someone you hired to drive you around.

Volkswagen Touareg

In less fancy news, but still pretty fancy, Volkswagen unveiled their new Touareg in China this week. The premium SUV is hugely popular there, in Russia and in Europe, but sales fell off a cliff here in the states after Dieselgate. When it was removed from the market, VW officially claimed that it didn't make much sense for them to sell such a premium SUV since their brand is more of the people's car, but here they are again with a clone of the Porsche Cayenne (with which it was co-developed) but slightly cheaper. In truth, most of Volkswagen's cars have a very premium feel to them despite their relative inexpensiveness, which is welcome, especially as luxury cars are selling way more these days. And VW is sticking to what it knows and to cost efficiencies in keeping the Touareg a higher class vehicle than the Tiguan or Atlas. That said, we don't know if we'll get it here in the States yet, but the way SUV sales are going, they might as well try, even if it lacks a third row or hybrid option.

Cadillac CT6 V-Sport

Back when we learned that Cadillac was trimming the CTS and ATS in favor of something in between called the CT6, I wasn't too surprised since sales of sedans are in the toilet, circling the drain. But I am a bit surprised to learn that Caddy isn't going to just phone it in on the new car, because they announced this week a V-Sport trim package that very much keeps alive the crazy fun factor of the ATS-V and CTS-V. Not only does the V-Sport have a 4.2 litre V8, it has two turbochargers, spooling up 550 horsepower and a tire-shredding 627 pound feet of torque. The turbos actually sit inside the crease of the 90-degree v-shape of the engine. For reference, most engines are 60-degree Vs, so it makes for a pretty compact package. No performance figures yet, but I'm willing to bet that, regardless of the 0-60 time, it'll be quick and loud enough to put a smile on your face.

Jeep Concepts Galore

If you've been listening to my show for a while, you probably know that I'm not really into the muddin' or off-road scene that much. Not because I'm not interested, but rather that I've never really gotten the opportunity. My neighbors do it and love it, and I am a fan of old Wranglers and 4Runners, so I think I'd probably really enjoy it too. You know who else enjoys it? Fiat Chrysler, because Jeep makes a killing off of that scene and they absolutely know how to get to their buyers. This week is the annual Easter meet in Moab, Utah, where all the hardcore off-road types go, and Jeep is bringing seven concepts of different vehicles to the event. While most are Wrangler-based, there is a really neat resto-mod vintage-sytle Wagoneer as well as a really not-so-neat Renegade concept that basically just lifts the suspension an inch and a half. The Wrangler models all have their own brand of unique flavoring and showcase what a blank canvas Jeep's most iconic model is, and just how flexible the new JL platform can be for owners. Fiat Chrysler doesn't do much right, but it's clear that they really "get" Jeep, which is probably why they don't want to sell it even though it's the single most valuable brand in their stable.

VW ID R Pike's Peak

Speaking of fun cars you can't buy, Volkswagen has one of those. It's the ID R Pike's Peak, which is an electric race car built specifically for, well, Pike's Peak. It'll compete in the hill climb on June 24th and is aiming to take Rhys Millen's record of 8 minutes 57 seconds and throw it out the window. We don't have any sort of performance figures or power specs, but it certainly looks like a super sleek race car, and if they're explicitly going after the electric vehicle record, you know it's going to be fast. And good for them ; the more interest they can build in electric vehicles, the more consumers will trust and consider the road-going models. Or at least that's the theory.

Toyota Corolla Hatchback

Gone is Scion and with it their upper case-lower case naming convention, so the Toyota iM, has been redesigned and relaunched as the Corolla Hatchback. The changes are apparently welcome because the iM was a real piece of shit according to the reviews I've read. I drove an old Toyota Matrix up in Canada and really enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but that was probably 13 years ago, and I guess the iM hadn't really come very far since then, so the new Corolla Hatch features many changes. The chassis is more rigid, it's longer, wider and lower and out is the ancient 1.8 litre four-banger and in is a new 2.0 litre model. The interior has also been completely redesigned to have supportive seats and functional armrests, which was apparently a problem with the iM as well. Not to mention it really looks quite good, especially in a sort of light blue color in which it's been shown. I don't think it'll kick my GTI out of my garage just yet but I'm sure it'll be quite a capable, reliable little car.

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

Headlines for the Week of March 19th, 2018

List time!

Do you like lists? Well we got some lists this week, starting with Consumer Reports, who, uh, reported on the ten new cars most likely to last longer than 200,000 miles. This is, of course, not based on any sort of long-term testing since they're new cars, but rather based on expectations set by old versions of the cars. As you'd expect, the list is entirely comprised of Hondas and Toyotas, with the sole non-Honda/Toyota being the Ford F-150.
Another list we got was from Edmunds of their vehicle brands with the most and least loyal buyers. So did the likelihood that cars will last longer than 200,000 miles correlate with higher brand loyalty? Yep. Toyota and Honda were first and third, with only Subaru coming between them. Also in the top ten non-luxury brands were Ram, Chevy, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Ford and Mazda. Jeep just missed out on the top ten, ranking that high probably only due to the popularity of the Wrangler. At the bottom? You guessed it. Dodge, Chrysler and Fiat.

Ford’s Future Sees Several SUVs

Remember the first generation Ford Explorer? The one that had the exploding Wilderness AT tires that caused them to flip over and kill people? Well, one of the reasons that story was news was because SUVs were relatively new and the high center of gravity exacerbated the likelihood of the vehicle flipping in an accident. From that Explorer, we got tougher safety rules for tires, for roof rigidity and for rollover resistance. But what we also got were a whole slew of other SUVs that followed Ford's recipe of building large vehicles built primarily for on-road use. It's surprising then, that one of the pioneers of the SUV movement has fallen so far behind its competitors as the SUV craze heats up again. Ford's existing Escape, Edge, Explorer and Expedition are fine, but don't particularly stand out in an increasingly crowded field.

So Ford is taking action as we've discussed recently, coming out with a new Bronco and now a baby Bronco that promise off-road prowess to those seeking it, while ST versions of most models will inject some sportiness where there currently really isn't any. While other brands go upmarket, Ford is looking to expand to performance niches, which should be attractive to enthusiasts. But Ford also announced this week that it's entering a three year partnership with Indian manufacturer Mahindra to develop some small cars, but interestingly, an electric SUV. Apparently Mahindra will supply the body of the vehicle with the technology that goes inside coming from Ford, who only have a few forays into the electric vehicle realm currently. Its interesting that Ford wouldn't want to use any of their existing platforms for such a development, but perhaps Mahindra just has a chassis that caters particularly well to electrification. In any case, these cross-company collaborations are becoming increasingly common as brands look to reduce costs and expand into new markets.

Musk Makes Mad Money

Despite not accepting a paycheck for his work at Tesla, the company's board and shareholders have generously decided to force one upon him, assuming he meets specific goals related to the company's value in the stock market. The company is currently valued at $56 billion and the bonuses for performance kick in once the company hits $100 billion. If the company becomes one of the highest valued in the world at $650 billion, Musk would earn an incredible $55 billion for himself. As is, he'll have to be content with his paltry $2.6 billion in company stock, which in addition to his existing $20 billion net worth, will probably be enough to keep him warm at night. This comes despite the fact that, yet again, the company is likely going to miss its production targets for Q1 for the Model 3, which still has around 450,000 outstanding orders yet to be filled.

Shareholders and the board also don't seem upset by the fact that many of the new cars coming off the assembly line have to go directly to reworking facilities because the part quality, fit and finish are so poor. Nor does it bug them that things are taking so long because much of the cars are being hand-built while the robots that are supposed to be making them just sort of hang out in Germany. Also not phasing them is the fact that Tesla fired 700 employees in October or the fact that the United Auto Workers union is getting increasingly aggressive with its activities around the Fremont, California facility. Nope, none of this matters because they say that they see a bigger opportunity for long-term value through energy capture, storage and use. Well, unfortunately for them, they're not the only company working in each of those areas, and they certainly aren't the company with the best product in any of them. And in the interest of full disclosure, I do work for a company that produces an energy storage system similar to Tesla's, so I do have an idea of what the competitive marketplace looks like.

LSEV EV is 3DP

It was inevitable. After we heard about Porsche and Bugatti 3D printing parts for their vehicles to improve performance and reduce cost, it was only a matter of time before we saw an entire car made by a 3D printer. Well, that day is today because Chinese company Polymaker has worked with Italian manufacturer X Electrical Vehicle to produce the LSEV, which is almost entirely 3D printed. Obviously things like the chassis, tires and windshield could not be printed for safety reasons, but that's apparently about it in terms of other parts produced normally. They say they've also been able to reduce the amount of plastic parts in the car from 2,000 (which is typical in conventionally produced vehicles) to just 57. Imagine driving a car with just 57 plastic panels on it! Of course this comes at a cost, which is performance. It has just 93 miles of range and only drives 47 miles per hour, making it mildly more effective than a golf cart, which honestly probably has even fewer plastic panels and apparently fewer is better?

Nissan’s Electrified Future

Nissan announced this week a new initiative called M.O.V.E., which is an acronym for "Mobility, Operational Excellence, Value to Customers and Electrification," and which aims to sell a million electrified vehicles by 2022. Of course, "electrified" can mean hybrid or plug-in and not necessarily true electric vehicles, so perhaps the goal isn't that ambitious, but another part of the plan is for 20 models to have autonomous technology. As part of this, they announced the forthcoming Altima would be the third Nissan vehicle to get their Pro Pilot autonomous system, which is pretty basic so far. And that's probably a good thing, given the week autonomous vehicles have had.

Accord to Cheap Out to Sell Out

Fresh off a redesign that has it looking uglier in almost every respect than its previous generation, the Honda Accord now features a hybrid model that uses the company's tried and true system of pairing a 143-horsepower four cylinder with a 181-horsepower electric motor to somehow combine and create only 212 horsepower. Impressively, the trunk space isn't hindered at all by the battery, which probably means there's no spare tire. Also impressive is the fact that the new Accord Hybrid costs a whopping $4,000 less than the outgoing one. The reasons for this, to me, are many. First, the new hybrid is actually less efficient than the old hybrid, averaging just 47 MPG in the city. Second, just look at it, with its awkward chrome unibrow-looking front end and Volvo knock-off rear with its incomplete styling lines and random chrome. It's an ugly car. I used to really like the Accord, but this really changes all that. Also, sedan sales are dropping like a stone and the Accord, usually a best seller in this class, is stagnating on dealer lots. As of the beginning of this month, dealers averaged a 103-day supply of Accords, which are normally so in-demand they can be hard to find. The problem is so bad that some dealers have canceled orders for new Accords and others are asking Honda to come up with some generous incentives for leases just to get them out of their inventories. And it's still not a bad car, it's winning acclaim for its performance from many news outlets. But man, just look at it! I suspect many buyers are, and that's the reason they're still sitting on the lot.

Viper Factory’s Future Features Past

When the production of the Dodge Viper ceased last year, Detroit lost a factory (again) and gained an empty building (again). Fortunately, Fiat Chrysler have come up with some plans to not just let the structure languish and decay the way so many other factories have in the motor city. Instead, the building will be remodeled to become a museum for historic Chrysler and Fiat vehicles in North America. It will be renamed the Connor Center and become home to 85 of the company's 400 or so historic cars, but for reasons unknown to me, it will not initially be open to the public. If I were Chrysler, and thank god I'm not because I can't stomach another breakdown, I'd be out there every day imploring the public to remember that we once made some cars that some consider historic. Basically anything to distract from the current fleet's J.D. Power and Consumer Reports scores.

Design Finally Trending the Right Direction

When you think of over-designed cars, the first thing that has to come to mind is the current Honda Civic. It's just vile in its ostentatious, look-at-me boy-racer styling, but it's far from the only guilty party. The new Lexus style is fairly polarizing and the Germans have been guilty of applying 15 feet of styling to a 12 foot car recently as well. But, at least in the latter's case, that's set to change with upcoming models, as both BMW and Mercedes have announced plans to tone down their looks and bring styling back to a simple, understated elegance. Honestly, it's what I like most about German cars and part of the reason I bought the GTI. For the price, for the performance, it was the least shouty choice and the silver paint really made the few styling lines on it pop in a way that I thought was really clean looking. Whereas with recent Mercedes and BMW vehicles, intersecting styling lines have tended to create design clash instead of flow, new models will emphasize sleekness. Audi has been doing this for years, but their downfall is that, in creating a minimalist design, they have minimized the differences in all of their vehicles, making them virtually indistinguishable from one another. 

Driving Test Involves Not Much Driving

Photo by Buffalo Police Department

Things didn't go too well for a 17 year-old in Buffalo, Minnesota on Tuesday, when she went to take her driver's test. Parked right out front of the exam office, the teen fired up the vehicle, which is apparently the only part of the test she got right, then shifted into drive, stomped on the gas instead of the brake and launched her Chevy Equinox straight through the front of the office. Fortunately, nobody was inside and the teen wasn't hurt, but the 60 year-old examiner in the car with her had to be hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries. While no charges will be filed against her for the mistake, I am pretty sure her classmates will sentence her to life without forgetting what she's done.

Stig’s Strange Speed Stunt

Photo by Guiness World Records

Last week it was lawn mowers, this week, tractors, as Top Gear's Stig has set a new Guinness World Record for fastest modified tractor. As a stunt for this weekend's episode, the bright orange rig with a ridiculous wing on the back hit 87.27 miles per hour after two runs were averaged. For a 5.7 litre 507 horsepower Chevy V8, that isn't very fast at all, but for the Stig, in a tractor with open sides, I bet it felt pretty damn quick. Some say, he moonlights as a scarecrow.

Bike Breaks, Brings Brown Boxers

In other speed-related news, things didn't go quite to plan for Valerie Thompson this week at the World Speed Trials in Australia, which takes place on a salt flat that I didn't know existed outside of Bonneville. While attempting to break her 304 mile per hour record on a custom motorcycle, Valerie's bike...experienced trouble...causing the bike to lay down and slide for about a mile, shedding bits of itself along the way as it came to a stop and leaving a bright red stripe across Australia. Fortunately, Valerie is okay and she did manage to hit 328 miles per hour before the problem started. The bike, however, needs some serious work. Experiencing technical difficulties is never fun, but I can't imagine a more pants shitting moment than technical difficulties occuring above 300 miles per hour on two wheels.

McLaren Finds Friends with Flops

McLaren may not have had much luck with Formula 1 last year since they used Honda's shitty, under-powered, unreliable motors, but they haven't lost their sense of humor. Since now all Formula 1 vehicles will be fitted with the so-called "Halo" to prevent drivers' heads being taken off by flying debris or, indeed flying other vehicles, that means there's a new hashtag branding opportunity for companies constantly seeking for a way to make the most expensive motor sport cheaper. Some have accurately noticed that the halo device looks less like a halo and more like the straps of flip flops or, if you live in Australia, thongs. So who better to sponsor the halo than a flip flop company? McLaren has brought on Gandys, a British lifestyle brand who are, fittingly, launching a McLaren-inspired flip flop called the "halo edition," from which 100% of profits will go to the company's charity that benefits orphans in Sri Lanka. So while we'll wait to see if this season has a happier ending for McLaren, we should all go out and buy some F1 flip flops and give some orphans happy endings a little sooner.

Philippines Phlatens Phat Rides

If you're familiar with Rodrigo Duterte, this next story is probably going to seem pretty tame by his standards. After all, he operates death squads that have killed a documented 1,400 drug users, petty criminals and homeless people, even children. But he is the president of the Philippines, where he rules with an iron fist and squadron of bulldozers. And I do mean literal bulldozers, which he used this week to crush 14 vehicles worth about $525,000 that were illegally imported into the country. The cars included Mercedes, Porsches and Maseratis and the show was broadcast for the entire country to see, apparently as a confirmation of the Duterte's commitment to build a country free from the shackles of corruption. There's more work to do as apparently there are almost 1,000 other smuggled vehicles on the docket for destruction. As much as I don't want to see Lamborghinis, Aston Martins and others impounded and then crushed in a reality show kind of way, I suppose it's worth it if it takes Duterte's mind off of killing the children of drug addicts.

Highway to Hellcat

A Wisconsin man apparently out to prove the unsuitability of the Dodge Challenger Hellcat was arrested on Tuesday for driving 140 miles per hour on an Indiana Toll Road. If you're thinking, "how the hell did the cops catch a 707 horsepower muscle car?" Well it's not because he crashed, it's because he got caught behind everyone's favorite rolling roadblock; two semis driving side-by-side without passing each other. This may have been the only occasion that that happening was actually a good thing. When asked for an explanation why he was driving at twice the speed limit on an interstate, the driver just said he was trying to get to Maryland. Because there can't possibly be faster ways to get there than by endangering hundreds of people on public roads with a drag race car with shitty suspension.

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

Headlines for the Week of March 5th, 2018

The Year of the ...Truck?

After a wild Detroit Auto Show when all three big American brands showed off their fancy, shiny new pickups, and on the heels of a market clamoring for bigger, butcher, gas-guzzlier vehicles, 2018 was decreed the year of the truck. So how are we looking two months in? Like maybe declaring what year this was in January was a little premature. Pickup sales were down a whopping 15% in February over 2017, which itself was not a great year for motor vehicle sales. Analysts are chalking it up to a “continued softening of the market,” which is a polite way of saying nobody is really buying cars right now. I think the best way to drive sales though, is to probably start accusing buyers of softening the market, to which all the super insecure guys will probably respond “No, you're a soft market! I'm hard all the time. Gimme that truck!"

Detroit Auto Show to Move to Fall

Speaking of the Detroit Auto Show, it usually kicks off the year every January, a time where it has to compete for attention with the Consumer Electronics Show, which is increasingly a car show as cars are increasingly consumer electronics. The idea has apparently been presented to move the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to October, when there’s less competition and the weather isn’t so shitty in Michigan and carmakers can do some things outside of Cobo Hall. The problem is, the show takes a whopping three months to set up, and there are events in the hall during those months, so the show would have to scale back on the extravagance or find another time altogether. Given that automakers have started sitting out some shows, and many didn’t come or brought a reduced presence to Detroit this year, not to mention the political pressure a trade war might bring, moving might not be the answer to the Detroit Show’s problems. 

Michigan Forgives Where Illinois Doesn’t

Also in Michigan, the state has forgiven $637 million in fees owed by drivers so the people in debt can get their licenses back. Those extra fees were a part of a scheme from the governor in 2003 to plug a budget hole by tacking on extra fees for traffic tickets committed by people with more than 7 points on their licenses. Of course, it’s not good to get any points, and perhaps if you’re such a bad driver that you rack up so many citations that your license gets revoked, maybe you shouldn’t get it back. But your tickets shouldn’t drive you into poverty such that you can’t afford to get it back. There are some stipulations regarding who can get their licenses back when, but most of the fees are being waived as long as drivers do it quickly. How many people are we talking? About 300,000 people have had their licenses suspended because of unpaid fees. That’s about half the population of the city of Detroit. To their credit, Michigan saw the error of their ways, unlike Illinois, but I can’t imagine I’d be too happy with them if I’ve had my license suspended for the past 15 freaking years, forgiveness or not.

Tesla Fined for Pollution

Tesla, makers of the clean-running, no carbon emissions electric cars for rich people, have been fined for air pollution. Specifically related to the excess nitrogen oxide pollution from the company’s Fremont manufacturing facility, not from the vehicles themselves. Tesla says the emissions were the result of some malfunctioning equipment that has since been resolved, but nevertheless, they have settled the case with California, part of which entails the installation of solar panels on the roof to further drive down the facility’s dependence on fossil fuels. As far as fines go, $140K and a promise to be more energy independent are getting off pretty easy.

Goodyear’s Green Tires

Goodyear is also getting in on the green bandwagon and has unveiled some new tires that are truly ridiculous and have no hope of ever seeing production, but are a neat idea and interesting to look at nonetheless. Basically, it’s an airless tire, which we’ve seen many concepts of previously, made of recycled tires, that features a healthy moss growing between its rigid rubber structures. The moss takes carbon dioxide and generates oxygen from it, and the moss is fed water by the tire, which soaks up some moisture and routes it to the plant. They said it could take as much as 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air and add as much as 3,000 tons of oxygen. That is, if everyone in a city the size of Paris wanted to drive around with fuzzy green wheels on our cars, which I’m not entirely against! Goodyear also showed off some new tires specifically designed for EVs since apparently traditional tires wear out 30% faster on electric vehicles because of both the weight and force of instant torque just shredding rubber. The new design has a bigger contact patch with the road for more grip and also generates less noise, which is great because EVs are already so quiet, tires do tend to be the loudest thing on them apart from wind, which I doubt Goodyear can do much about. These will be on the road in Europe next year, and they feature a light baby blue paint because that somehow became the official color of hybrids and efficiency.

Ride Hailing Wages In Dispute

A study released by MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research or, as nobody calls it, CEEPR, compared a survey of 1,100 drivers for Uber and Lyft with what they called “detailed vehicle cost information” and found that the median profit for drivers came out to around $3.37 per hour before taxes. It said that as many as 74% of drivers are earning less than the minimum wage their states mandated, all of which means that most people driving for these ride hailing services would be living in poverty. Uber and Lyft were quick to dismiss the study as using shoddy and/or inconsistent data and much of it was self-reported by drivers, who are incentivized to paint a bleak picture of their earnings so the companies will raise their pay rate. The disputes were so strong that one of the paper’s lead authors actually came out and said that he agreed that some of the information could be misleading and that they’d rerun the numbers to try to improve the validity of the study. Either way, ride hailing drivers probably don’t make too much money and MIT students probably don’t have enough oversight in their research.

Audi Debuts (Not Terrible) Flying Car Concept

Flying cars. We’ve all been here before, but Audi has partnered with Airbus and Italdesign to unveil a concept that’s actually not too incredibly terrible. Instead of the tried and dumb design of a car-and-plane-in-one package that is what we commonly think of as a flying car, the Pop.Up Next concept utilizes a three-part system comprised of a passenger pod, a skateboard-like road-going electric vehicle platform that the pod can sit on, and an eight-rotor quad copter-like flying unit that the pod can hang from. The concept video, which looks really neat, shows that Audi knows that only super duper rich white people are going to use this thing, and it’s designed as a sort of taxicab supplement, where you can hop in a pod with the flying unit attached once you get out of your first class or chartered flight, then fly across the city to a lot where the skateboard-EV units are located and the flying unit will land your pod on the wheeled vehicle, sending you on your way to your final destination while the flying pod autonomously flies back to the airport or to a charging station somewhere.

As far as flying car concepts go, this is one of the most well thought out versions, but there are just so many hurdles to get over before these things can ever actually be realized. But the fact that these are fully autonomous gives this a leg up because then you don’t have to license drivers as private pilots, which, given the skill level of most drivers, always seemed like a long shot.

Anything Audi Does Dutch Can Do Better

The Dutch have come along and laughed at Audi’s pitiful attempt at a complicated-ass flying car and said, “No, you krauts, this is how we will get all the rich white peoples' money!” And they tore the cover off the Pal-V Liberty, which is also a flying car, but one of those car-and-plane-in-one package. Except it’s more of a car and a gyro copter, which permits a shorter take-off and landing, which is handy since I don’t think many people have their own runway. What’s different about this is that they say it’s fully road- and air-legal and can be purchased right now, making it what they call the world’s first production flying car. How much does the exclusivity of owning such a thing run? Well, their cheapest bargain basement Liberty Sport model, which comes with flying lessons since a pilot’s license is required, starts at just $368,000, or the price of a really quite nice, large Midwestern home. But can your home fly at 112 miles per hour and get 31 miles per gallon? I didn’t think so. Peasant. 

Renault’s EZ-Go Needs Customers to EZ-Come

Renault, meanwhile, is keeping its autonomous taxi plans completely grounded, but has also unveiled a pretty interesting concept called the EZ-GO. It’s all-electric and features level 4 autonomy as well as an interior that is basically just some benches and a lot of windows. It opens in a sort of clam shell way that would probably be terrible in rain but at least looks neat, and has a flat loading floor to haul wheelchair-bound passengers, which is a nice touch. They foresee this as a solution to ride sharing and ride hailing that cuts out the driver and use of a personal vehicle, which is to say a shared taxi, and are hoping to have operational prototypes on the road in the next four years. Parent company Nissan also owns a stake in a media company, which just so happens to be interested in providing content for passengers to view while riding in the EZ-GO. There were no suggestions on how much rides might cost, but if I’m a captive audience being forced to watch some commercials during my ride, it better be cheap or free.

Mercedes Puts Real Projectors in Your Projectors

Another neat concept shown at the Geneva Motor Show this week was Mercedes’ new projector headlight system. Now, projector headlights have been around for a long time. They use parabolic glass or plastic to project the output of your headlights further. But this is a bit different. Called the “million-pixel” headlight, these will actually project images onto the road ahead of you, warning of upcoming peril, or providing driving tips, or doing neat things like displaying the dimensions of your car to see if you’ll be able to fit in a parallel parking spot (in which, of course, the car will park for you). It can also detect faces and windshields and automatically dim pixels to not blind pedestrians or other drivers, which is a fantastic feature for all the old-ass Mercedes owners who constantly drive around with their brights on. I don’t think it will help them turn off their turn signals or stop mistaking the gas for the brake though. 

Pre-Production Honda CB750 Sets Record

Photo from AutoWeek

In motorcycle news, the Honda CB750 is one of the best selling motorcycles of all time. Well, that’s not the news, actually. It’s old news because they haven’t made the CB750 for decades. But when it came out, it was one of the first bikes to use a four cylinder motor and was pretty powerful. In fact, it’s referred to as the first Universal Japanese Motorcycle, which is sort of a term that covers a bunch of similar Japanese bikes to have similar specs and come out in the 70s and 80s. But the CB750 was the first, and at auction this week, a pre-production model from 1968 built for promotional purposes, and one of two produced prior to the model’s actual release, sold for a record of nearly $264,000. These bikes are so ubiquitous that you can head to craigslist right now and find one for around a grand, so why the markup? There’s exclusivity in being one of the first of the first of a kind.

Elon Set to Make ELOT of Money

Photo from Elon Musk's Instagram

Elon Musk has maintained that he won’t take a salary from Tesla Motors as they ramp up production and start fulfilling the 500,000 reservations for their Model 3, but two of Tesla’s largest shareholders are much more generous to the CEO than he is to himself. They have proposed a vote on a compensation package valued at $2.6 billion, which represents about 5% of Tesla’s market valuation, which some have accurately called ludicrously high. They apparently see it as a showing of support for the guy who has, in their terms, produced some pretty incredible things for the company so far, and they’re not entirely wrong. What he has also done is consistently over-promise and under-deliver while allowing some shady business practices to go unchecked and discourage unionization to protect the workers affected by the shadiness. And here I thought the secret to getting rich was under-promising and over-delivering. Turns out I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life. 

Saudi Sells Billionaire’s Blingy Rides

My house is a nice house, but it only has a two car garage, which is still more garage than many people have, but I think a prerequisite for a next house would be space for a third car. I, however, am not a Saudi billionaire, and it’s a good thing, because my garage space would not remotely be enough to accommodate the car collections of these guys. I’m speaking specifically about Maan al-Senea, who is being detained right now due to debts owed by his company, appropriately called the Saad Group. He owes as much as $16 billion to creditors and in order to pay off some of his debt, the government of Saudi Arabia is selling some of his cars. How far will that go? Well, considering he and his company have 923 vehicles licensed to them, it turns out the sales can go pretty far! I honestly don’t know how you store almost a thousand cars. But I’d sure as hell like to give it a try someday. But, you know, without the billions in debt.

New Cars

Chevy Bolt Rear Seat Delete

I drive a hatchback, which I occasionally use to haul work-related things, and it’s great because I can just fold the back seat down and throw in all my camera gear or whatever I’m toting with me on any given day. Hatchbacks are great for this, but I don’t think I’d ever really consider using one as a commercial hauling vehicle, but Chevy has decided that some people do actually think that’s a good idea, and that the best way to accomplish this is to take their all-electric Chevy Bolt and throw out its back seat, giving you plenty of space to store...whatever it is you have to take to your job site. I should caveat this by saying that you won’t actually be able to order a Chevy Bolt Rear Seat Delete (as they’re calling the package) because it’s restricted to government or fleet orders and is available as a $350 add-on. Which, when you think about it makes sense, because only the government would find it rational to pay hundreds of dollars more to get less of something.

Mahindra Roxor

If you haven’t heard of Mahindra, I don’t blame you. They’re an Indian automobile manufacturer who produces quite a few vehicles, just none of which come to the States. They’ve also had a license to produce replicas of the old Willy's Jeep for some time, and now, for the first time, they’re going to start releasing those replicas for sale in the US, and they’ll be made in Michigan! Mechanically, they are extremely similar to the old CJ-model Jeeps (before it was called the Wrangler), but it uses a unique power plant; a small diesel and manual transmission. Unfortunately, safety standards have advanced a tad since the 1940s, so while these are remarkably similar to the old models, they are most definitely not road legal. So if you’re in the market for a fun trail vehicle or a little utility all-terrain vehicle like the Polaris Ranger but want some vintage style, this thing is for you. Oh, and it’s also $15,000 so you could buy one or just buy a used Wrangler for less money and be able to drive it on the road. Your choice.

Obituaries

Volkswagen Beetle

We learned this week that the plucky Volkswagen Beetle will be discontinued after the current generation, though we don’t know when that will be. As all Volkswagens start to move over to the fabulous MQB platform, the Beetle doesn’t really fit and, as Research & Development boss Frank Welsch said, there’s only so many times you can have a “new new new new Beetle.” As it leaves, the new I.D. Buzz, the retro-futuristic electric minibus will be taking its place as the nostalgic vehicle in the VW lineup, albeit with a decidedly modern flair and probably no vase for flowers tucked into the dash.

Also last week was the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, and I’ve talked in the last few weeks about how so many cars had been unveiled online before appearing at the actual show. It really kind of took the wind out of the sails for the whole thing, and I wasn’t expecting to have a whole lot of new material for my usual Rap-up. So instead, in last week's podcast, I put together a little diddy that sort of expresses how I feel about this year’s event. If you haven't listened already, check it out!

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

In Trade Wars, Everyone Loses

Now, I try not to get to political because my podcast is about cars and not ideologies, but the truth is the automotive industry is heavily affected by the actions of politicians, so every once in a while, those actions are worth exploring if only to evaluate their impact on our favorite past times; cars and driving.

The policies in play this week are all about import tariffs, taxes placed on things made outside the United States for the simple fact that they were not made in the United States. Last week it was steel and aluminum, both of which are critical components in cars and which are rarely made in the United States anymore. China, specifically, is one of the world’s leading exporters of steel and and the theory is that, by imposing a tariff on Chinese steel, companies would rather purchase steel from US steel plants because it’s cheaper, thereby creating jobs in the steel manufacturing sector and leading us all to live happier, more fulfilling lives knowing that we provided people with some work.

The problem with that theory is, companies that use steel don’t exist to create jobs or give everyone a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Unless that company is Chipotle, companies exist to make money and they will fight tooth and nail for every profit margin possible. That means that, when something costs more to make, they will charge consumers more to buy it, leading to price inflation and a lower quality of life because people have less money after spending it all on whatever they are buying with steel or aluminum in it. Like, for instance beer cans or my beloved Diet Coke.

This week, the conversation turned from raw materials to completed cars, when Trump proposed implementing a tariff on European vehicles, claiming that the US had been treated very unfairly by the European Union. The EU responded by saying they would tax Harley-Davidsons if such tariffs were applied to their vehicles. And let’s be honest, people are not going to go buy a Cadillac instead of a Mercedes just because a 10% import tariff has been applied, they’re just going to pay more for the Mercedes and hate the government.

The apparent issue at the core of this is that Trump thinks that, because the US has a trade deficit, that means that everything is all wrong and we’re losing and everyone else is winning and we need to be the ones winning, when that simply isn’t the case.

Here’s a quick explanation of the trade deficit; I go into Chipotle and I get steak tacos, I have a trade deficit with Chipotle and I have to pay them for the product I received. This is partially because it’s more expensive to go buy the ingredients myself, but also because I am lazy and by having Chipotle do the hard work for me, my quality of life is higher.

And that’s what it boils down to: quality of life. The primary argument for implementing tariffs and reversing the trade deficit is to create jobs, but that effort is doomed to fail because we have things like the minimum wage here, and health and safety rules that make the production of goods more expensive than they can be produced in China or most countries in southeast Asia, where there is little to no worker protection. And why have those regulations in place that guarantee a certain hourly wage and working conditions that aren’t likely to wind up in employees dying? Because we want a higher quality of life. Part of the price we pay for that is a trade deficit, where we consume more than we create, product-wise. What we also get are cheaper goods, access to more and varied items and low inflation.

And now we’re at a point when our chief executive is calling for a trade war that he insists is good and will be easy to win. What we’ll get with a trade war is more expensive raw materials, more expensive products, access to fewer items, higher inflation, higher debt from greater spending on more expensive items and the accompanying high inflation, which will likely increase personal bankruptcies and lead to actually fewer jobs than it will create because we can never truly compete with our trading partners in some sectors. Especially after we learned this week that Americans owe more than $1 trillion in car loans, and we’re borrowing record amounts of money to buy cars, often at deep subprime interest rates, we simply cannot contemplate policies that will only cause us to plunge deeper into personal debt. There’s no such thing as a good trade war, and there are no winners. In a trade war, everyone loses, including us petrol heads.

Authored by
Devlin Riggs

New Cars for the week of February 5th, 2018

McLaren MSO X

It seems like every month or so we’re getting a new vehicle from McLaren, which is definitely not a bad thing. They said that their Senna is able to beat the P1 around any track in the world, which makes sense, it should, it’s a faster and more expensive car. But this week they took the baby McLaren, the 570S and handed it over to McLaren Special Operations, the customization division for their road cars, who churned out the MSO X, which is essentially a road-going version of their 570S GT4 race car.

It has all the same aero, producing 220 pounds of down-force at speed and a fairly Spartan interior that has been rendered in bare carbon fiber and includes no cup holders, but there is a place behind your seat to stow your helmet, because you’ll feel the need to wear one even if you’re not on a track in this thing. They’re only making ten of them... and they’re gone. Totally sold out even before it was announced. And this is becoming a thing, which makes me think that these cars are only being announced so that, on the rare occasion one special edition is spotted in the wild, we know what it is and how rare it is so we can be even more jealous of the car’s owner than we would be if we just thought “hmm, that’s a racy-looking 570S."

 Rezvani Beast Alpha X Blackbird

Apparently coach-built versions of existing cars are a thing this week because we also have the ridiculously named Rezvani Beast Alpha X Blackbird. The last time we heard of Rezvani was when they took a Jeep Wrangler and made it into a tank-inspired off-roader and tacked a shit ton of zeroes onto the end of its price. Well, this time they’ve done essentially the same thing to a Lotus Elise, but used the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird as their inspiration. They didn’t just leave the changes aesthetic though. This thing pumps out 700 horsepower and will hit 60 in 2.9 seconds while maintaining the agile nature of the Elise and the fun wind-in-your-expensive-hairpiece feeling of a Targa top. What’s most ridiculous about this car isn’t the $225,000 base price, it’s the fact that Rezvani managed to squeeze 700 horsepower from a 2.5 liter four cylinder. I wouldn’t want to be the head gaskets on one of these things. But I dig it. Way better than their Jeep thing. I’d take one in a heartbeat.

Fisker Latigo

On the other end of the spectrum is the BMW M6-based Fisker Latigo, which is, to be blunt, just very, very ugly. Good thing there’s only one of them. Fisker really knows how to design a shit looking car with a nasty mustache-looking grille. 

 

Mercedes Sprinter

Like coach-built versions of other cars, it was also a really great week for new cars if you like vans. Mercedes unveiled their all-new third generation Sprinter, which you are free to mock right up to the point where you ride in one and think, “Wow, I’ve never been in an airport shuttle this nice.” Apparently the new Sprinters can do way more than ferry people around to Missouri wineries. The new version is more adaptable than ever and can be had in 1,700 different variants for different purposes or needs. These things are way more common to see in Europe, but Mercedes, and me, are hoping these catch on stateside. It’s a pretty excellent van for pretty much every need, plus it’s plush and comfy.

Ford Transit Connect

Also this week we got a new version of the Ford Transit Connect, which is sort of like a smaller, slightly less capable, less plush and comfy but still decently plush and comfy Mercedes Sprinter. Outside it’s been styled to look like a Ford Escape. Inside it’s been styled to look like a cargo van with seats, but those seats apparently now have more cushioning. This may not be the most exciting new vehicle segment ever and honestly, we could cover the performance specs but they don’t really matter. Just know there’s a new option you can rent instead of a minivan that will do the job just as well.

Nuro

A couple of former engineers from Google’s self-driving company Waymo got together and formed a new company called Nuro, which has developed an innovative new delivery vehicle. It is completely driverless and passengerless and instead of space for people, the vehicle features compartments that can be customized to hold any number of kinds of items, from parcel lockers to shopping bags to warming ovens or dry cleaning clothing racks. These compartments sit above the batteries and drivetrain of the vehicles, but we don’t have any details on performance or range. These are apparently designed for either fully-autonomous operation or remote operation in case it runs into trouble and needs human help. The company has approval from California to test on public roads and it hopes to have a limited number of prototypes in service by the end of the year, but this looks like it could be a great option for companies looking to replace delivery drivers. 

Nissan 370Zki

You guys remember 2009? The financial markets were melting down and jobs were scarce. Pay sucked (and it still does) but Obama was just beginning his first term as president and the country was filled with hope for change, and Nissan was there with the change where we needed it most; sports cars. In 2009, they introduced the 370Z to replace the 7 year-old 350Z. Now, almost ten years later, here we are with the same 370Z and no replacement on the horizon. According to Nissan’s chief planning officer Phillippe Klein, they are working on it but don’t know what direction to take it. The market for small, inexpensive sports cars is apparently down and Nissan is facing stiff competition from the best Mustang and Camaro ever made. With SUVs and crossovers all the rage currently, do they pull a Mitsubishi, spit in the eyes of their enthusiasts and make the Z a crossover like the Eclipse has become? Or do they try to weave in a bit of future proofing and make it a hybrid or electric vehicle?

While we wait on a more permanent answer to the Z’s future, Nissan has decided what the Z’s present needs is more snowmobile. So they took a convertible Nissan 370Z, lopped off all four wheels, fitted some skis up front and put modified tank treads in the back, to make the 370Zki. The rest of the car is virtually unchanged, but if you think a rear-wheel drive car can’t handle well in the snow, Nissan says, "Are you guys silly? I’m still gonna send it."

Authored by
Devlin Riggs