January 30: Little luxuries

Dreaming about a Honda or possibly a Toyota or maybe even casting your eyes on a Hyundai? Wishing you could look more like Trump and less like a chump? Not to say that those other cars are for losers, as one might say that looking like the pres would make one more loser-like, but that is a whole other conversation. This blog is talking about how you spend your coin and what you might be able to buy. Think in your wildest dreams you might be able to conjure up an Audi or a Mercedes or be still my heart, a BMW?

Thank your lucky stars that you are dreaming in the early 21st century. All those companies and others are striving downwards in an effort to get you into their fold, so that when your ship comes in, you will hopefully move up the ranks of their fine automobile line.

Lovin' those suv's, but there are oh so many CR-V's roaming your hood? Patience my friends, as your Audi dreams are on the verge of being realized, as their little A1 hatch has morphed into a full on junior suv, the Q1........

As Audi extends their product line downward, your Hyundai, Toyota or Honda money may well get you into a prestige brand. When you pull into the parking lot at the gym, all those folks will see are those four rings in the Audi symbol and not the bill of sale. Life is good.

Audi not your bag? Too subtle for a luxury brand? Ok, then let's go whole hog and put a Benz in the driveway.......

We've seen this one before, as the nondescript little A Class hatch got all wheel drive, got raised up a bit and got wheel arch flares. Presto folks, as here's the suv for those with Honda coin, but with Mercedes aspirations. Once again, ain't no one looking at your bill of sale.

Audi and Mercedes are fine rides, but you picture yourself as a BMW driver, and why not, as those ubiquitous 3 Series sedans have been blanketing your 'hood for years. You know those people are no better than you. Easy there, little spender, your hopes are about to be realized, as the 2 Series is on the verge of receiving

a mini suv, that is just hankering to wrest you away from that Hyundai salesperson.......

 















And to top it off, this X2 just might be the best looking of all those Bimmer X series rides. Compact size and compact budget fitting price.

Two problems with these new additions to an already crowded market place. First off, one of these may not make its way to North America (Audi, I'm looking at you) and secondly, have you priced out luxury brand maintenance these days? That latter point may surprise a few of the luxury ride dreamers. Might take their breath away when they see that first oil change bill. But one step at a time, cause if there's a will, there's a way and those luxury car dreams are oh so sweet.

Until next time.........

January 26: PSA Group - come on over!

 PSA Group? Done any reading in your paper's business section or a car site on the net in the past few months? If you had, you'd recognize this company name and not just assume it was something to do with testing for prostate cancer (man, I'm way too familiar with that). The news was that this French group, which includes Citroen and Peugeot (remember them?) had just bought Opel from General Motors. If you don't recall those two French car names and if you are of a certain age, they may mean squat to you, here are a couple of their old classics, the 408 and Batman's favorite ride, the Citroen SM.

Both brands withdrew from the North American market many years ago, when their not so special cars' sales slowly ground to a near halt. Now they have brought Opel into the fold and once again have focused those avarice corporate eyes on our market. How serious are they? Very, since they are in the process of hiring people to work in the North American office, which will be in Atlanta.

They have anything interesting? I think so, as a quick look at the Citroen line shows a couple of worthy candidates for our suv lovin' market, the C3 Aircross and below it the C4 Cactus..........

Both are compact suvs and you all know that that us North Americans go after suvs like a starving dog goes after a bone or President Trump, a good lie.

From the Opel line there are also a handful of interesting vehicles, but they may leave them out of the fray for awhile, since GM has rechristened them as Buicks for our market. Expect that to change in a few years.

Sedans?

How about this handsome Peugoet 508? Sure, Barry, just the thing to gather dust in the PSA showrooms, as buyers rush past it to drool over some sort of suv type vehicle. But maybe make a few minor changes and it could be possible to actually sell something resembling a make believe suv........

You know the drill, if not, Google Volvo Cross Country or even better Subaru Outback to see what I mean. But let's get back to what actually turns our North American crank, something like this Peugeot adorned with all those interesting design features that are making the scene these days.........

Being a practical kind of guy and knowing how electric cars, etc are plugging into everyone's save the planet vibe, I see a real need for the Citroen E-Mehari, whatever the heck it is........

Come on you people, don't you feel the need for a bit of whimsy in every showroom? Give the salespeople something to joke about, "What, you actually want one of those?". No wonder the PSA Group is rushing to our North American market.

See a place for any of these "foreign to us" vehicles on our shores? Well, somebody does and folks, it's all about choice. I've never figured out how a market like Europe, which has many more brands fighting it out for market share, manages to do it. Stay tuned, as it's going to get interesting, as these new Europeans, new South Koreans and new Chinese companies muscle their way into our hearts, minds and driveways.

Somebody is going to suffer, but it won't be us consumers.

Until next time.......

January 23: Mid-engined Corvette - when??

Here is without a doubt the biggest disappointment for us car people. This is the big no-show from the Detroit auto show last week, the expected and the much rumoured mid-engined Corvette. These spy shots have been circulating around the net for several months and they show a fairly production ready car, not some hacked together mule, that may or may not be a real upcoming car. So what happened? Did Chevrolet not want to eclipse the new full size pick-up intro? Maybe they felt the Chicago or New York shows would be a better venue? Unlikely due to their smaller size and this is a big deal intro. Maybe since the 2019 ZR1 was first shown at Dubai, a show in Europe, like Geneva or Frankfurt might be a good choice. Why? Well, this is a car that GM hopes will show well against the other established supercars, so why not unveil it in their backyard?

Worse case? This has been another tease and god knows there have been enough of them over the years, from this rather conservative tail heavy one from the late '60's.........

.........to this myriad of stunning maybes from the next three decades.........

Any one of these could have worked for the brand. Possibly alienate the Vette's traditional fan base? If that was the thought, then still sell the front motored one along side one of these, until Chevrolet was forgiven and the traditionalists saw the light. Maybe GM didn't see those foreigners as the Corvette's real competition back then. Well folks, if not then, no question that they are the real competition in 2018 and beyond.

One more to consider........

Seen enough? Yeah, well we all have over the years. Every time a new generation of Corvette was being readied for release to the salivating sportscar loving public, there would be a rumour that a mid-engined version was under consideration.

Fast forward to today and the rumour mill is smokin', it's been worked so hard, aided and abetted by those spy photos. "Take it off, take it all off.", we screamed, referring of course to that camo covering. No luck. Detroit has come and gone, no new Vette, but with an apparent insider saying the covers will come off at Detroit 2019. Really? By that time, with all the subsequent spy shots, it may be an anticlimax. Worse case, this is another never-to-be car. Perish the thought!

For car folks, hope springs eternal. Will this car finally see the light of day and look like these pics sneaked onto Corvette Forum?

 

If it does show up and if this is indeed the finished product, I think the line up for this beauty will be longer than a list of Trump's mis-statements over the past year.

Enthusiasts, write those letters. Cross fingers, toes or whatever you have. Religious types can pray that this isn't just another tease. And, by all means start saving.

Until next time.........

January 19: Avalon - a pleasant surprise?

The anticipation was palatable. Forget about the monster sales and profits of the new pick-ups that Chev and Ram would be introducing. Forget about all those cute teaser ads that Ram dropped on the motoring press. No sir, the big talk at Detroit was about Toyota's redesigned Avalon.

Of course, I'm funnin' with you. The Avalon, that old folks' mobile sofa, has been with us for years and with each passing redesign, it has become less relevant to an suv loving North American public. Not that the Avalon's sales would indicate anything like that fact, as in 2016 (a poor sales year for it), it sold just under fifty thousand copies. Now that is surprising, since seeing one is not an everyday occurrence.

The Avalon is a funny beast. Priced right up against and overlapping the luxury models from Audi, BMW and others, but with zero cache'. Never figured out why those buyers of this big Toyota didn't simply take the next step and get a Lexus. What have they been seeing that I haven't?

Back in 1994, Toyota dropped the Avalon on an unsuspecting public........

......starting an Avalon tradition, but retaining the Toyota tradition of boring cars. Big and nondescript, but a strong seller right out of the box. Following up this model with a variety of equally unassuming Avalons......

  

Nothing to email home about, but still reliably knocking off sales in the seventy and eighty thousand range each and every year. Sales that for a big sedan in a diminishing big sedan market were quite impressive. Hey, nothing like Camry's over four hundred thousand yearly numbers, but for a car that was simply a larger derivative of the Camry platform, a sure winner profit wise.

Which brings us to this year's Detroit show and the intro of a redesigned Avalon. I thought, "Are you kidding? Who needs it?", that is until I started to do a bit of research. Hand it to Toyota, they must know what fifty thousand people want. And finally, they have made the Avalon interesting looking (full disclosure - the front of the last one was also interesting in a strange and unpleasant way).

Following the new and quite drastically changed Camry, this new Avalon is quite a looker. It might even handle, but let's not get too carried away, as grampa ain't cruising the city streets looking to humble some Civic R driving young dude.

Before I get too verbose praising the look of this new BIG Toyota, let's not forget this company's love affair with the look of the Terminator, as they have embraced this ugly front end in all their new cars.......

Whew! Distastefully distinctive. But as the rest of this car is so good looking, let's give Toyota a pass on that weird shnooze.

Say what you want about Toyota, they seldom put a foot wrong and with this new Avalon, they are showing that they too can hire designers who take pride in what they put on paper or a CAD program and subsequently into metal.

So get your order in and show your Camry owning neighbour that you have outdone them once again.

Until next time......

January 16: One movie, one car, the Bullitt Mustang

You remember that classic movie from way back in 1968. The movie that was good, maybe not great, but a ten minute scene in the middle of this film made it the classic it has since become. The movie, of course, was Bullitt, but what defined it was the classic car chase between a new Charger and a new Mustang. This scene set the benchmark for car chases to this day and to this day, although there has been some very good on screen action since then, nothing has been quite as thrilling as this good guy verses bad guy chase thru the streets of San Francisco. Even watching it on the small screen can give your stomach flips, as these cars bound up and down those notorious hills. That big motored Charger chased by Lt Frank Bullitt's modified 390 Mustang GT is still talked about fifty years on.

One more thing about this chase, it made a hero out of one of the cars. As nice as that Charger R/T was, it was Bullitt's gently modified Mustang that set folks' hearts to racing. Something about that beautiful dark Highland Green car, with the Mustang emblem removed from the front grille and those iconic Torque Thrust rims made this average car a big screen winner, so much so that one of the most anticipated intros at this week's Detroit auto show was a new 2019 Bullitt Mustang.......

Funny how that one car from one movie made such an impact. Good thing the car buying public didn't feel quite the same way about the Family Truckster in Chevy Chase's vacation movie. I shudder at the thought.

Was it the way Steve McQueen's character drove his classic ride?

Or was it the fact that it came out the winner? Or was it simply because it was a Mustang and this was a great car chase? Whatever the reason, this car made its mark so deeply that Ford has released several Bullitt Mustangs over the past twenty years. All in Highland Green and all with those mods which made the original so cherished..........

 All were and are limited edition models (whatever that means) and all have had their exhaust sounds modified to mimic that manual shifted 390 from back in '68. Whatever the reason, the debut of yet another Bullitt Mustang special edition sets enthusiasts' hearts a flutter. Maybe they should had unveiled it in a cardiac ward?

For any number of reasons, this Mustang has been loved for fifty years. Imagine if the original was ever found or if it even still existed? Well folks, surprise, surprise, there are actually two original Bullitt Mustangs. One was for stunts and one was for "driving". Both still exist and here is the stunt car as it was found in a Mexican junkyard not long ago and validated..........

Once restored (and judging by its condition, this will be a project), watch the auction action on this icon.

A thought.........maybe the Charger didn't become the anointed one, since something was slightly off about it. Maybe it was because it lost FIVE hubcaps during the chase?

For those of you just coming out of long term hibernation, you can check out this chase online, but make sure you catch the whole thing, including the build up to the real action. Looks like McQueen is doing the driving and he started to, then relinquished the wheel to more experienced stuntmen.

Love nostalgia. Love the movie? Love the Mustang? Got a cheque book? If you checked off all those boxes, head down to your nearest Ford dealer and get your order in. Time's a wasting.

Until next time.......

January 12: Honda Insight: A Prius alternative?

Let's start off by checking out the hybrid competition. Back up just a minute, where is this hybrid stuff going? Ok, here's the scoop......Honda is bringing back the Insight. You may remember when they first used that name on a misbegotten little car.........

This strange two seater was one of the first hybrids (the first?). Apart from having a new form of motivation, this unusual little coupe also only sat two people. Great way to get acceptance. Market a sporty looking coupe to tree huggers, while most of the people who were looking for this sort of car wanted a VW GTI type of ride. Lesson learned, so the Insight had a short and unsuccessful life.

Meanwhile Toyota brought out the Prius........

A dumpy little compact car, that like the Insight only came one way, as a hybrid. But, and here is a big "but", it was a practical ride, seating four people as comfortably as any small car at the time. Kind of sold, but nothing spectacular as it wasn't really marketed.

Next step........

Now the Prius was hitting its stride. An unusual, but distinctive look, so everyone who saw it knew it was a hybrid. Toyota marketed this new car well, so over a short time, Prius became the "go to" car, if one wanted a hybrid and more importantly, when someone said hybrid, the buying public said Prius. The result? The Prius is so cemented in people's mind as THE hybrid, that all the other companies have introduced hybrids to mediocre success. When's the last time you saw an Accord, or an Altima or a Fusion hybrid? Sure, they are out there, but at no where near the volume that the Prius line (yes, now there are four distinct models) generates.

Back to the present day and Honda's big new announcement......they are bringing back the Insight to be revealed in the flesh at next week's Detroit auto show and this time, they think they have it right........

Billed as a 2019 and as an upscale compact, this Insight is geared to take the car world by storm (at least in Honda's eyes). Good looking and probably what the too busy Civic design should have been, but I believe to most folks this will be mistaken for a new Accord or Civic. Is this important? I wonder. I believe a lot of people get a Prius out of principle, saving the planet, etc and because of its design, everyone knows it.

So, in two years when someone says hybrid, will the answer be "maybe Honda" or will it be "definitely Prius"? Put my money on the latter. Any bets?

Until next time.......

January 9: The EV bandwagon

 Our future? Probably, based on on the development that is going on these days. Typical though, that this EV (electric vehicle) charging station is empty, but it shows that someone is being proactive. Could it be the government? That would be a surprise. Over a hundred years ago, when the car was in its infancy, it seemed that every day another company announced that they were entering the market with the best car solution. Jump on the bandwagon. Well, we all know how that worked out. Flash forward to today and it's almost the same thing. Companies saw the light (or Tesla) and figured they too, wanted a piece of the lucrative(?) EV market. Apart from the big car manufacturers, EV vehicle start ups are as common as The Donald's gaffes.

Let's look at a few.........

 The Faraday. A beautiful EV and like all the other candidates trying to win you over, this is one loaded with wonderful new technology and a high price tag. After much publicity and a 2018 production date, Faraday has fallen on the inevitable cash crunch problems and is unlikely to ever have Job 1 roll off the production line.

Next up........

Fisker. An old established name, but with baggage. The original and expensive Fisker failed and has been rejuvenated with, I believe, Chinese money. Not hearing much about its current sales, but Fisker is optimistic enough to show the next model in its future line. Please don't hold your breath.

And now a sportscar........

 The Rimal Concept. Sure, everyone needs more power than they know what to do with and electric power is unique. The Rimal Concept has a proposed 1088 HP motor, so with an EV's instantaneous torque, I think this one should compete with the acceleration of a top fueler. For those of you who don't know, that number is 0.2 seconds zero to sixty. Just saying, folks!

And now from Poland.......

The Varsovia. Ready to be customized to each client's peculiar tastes, such as the grille design being mimicked on the side of this preproduction example. Now before we dismiss these start ups out of hand, remember that there are many very small car companies around this blue planet, who get by making a very, very few bespoke cars each year. The Varsovia and the others, like the Rimal could be two more.

And another from China......

The Byton Concept. I love to see these new companies coming out of the Forbidden Kingdom, since they are usually well financed and have a better than a basement start up's chance to survive. And these days, the Chinese have caught up quickly with the best designs. No surprise there, as I've written in blogs over the past years. Scheduled for 2019 Chinese sales and then following up by coming to North America and Europe.

A contender from the USA.......

The Lucid Air. Lucid Motors appeared to be be further along than most and have proposed building a factory in Arizona. But guess what? They are short of cash. Surprise, surprise! Haven't any of these companies checked past history and know the huge amount of coin it takes to bring a car to production. Even an expensive and limited production car like the Lucid Air can't end up in showrooms for a paltry few hundred million dollar investment. Don't believe me? Call Elon Musk at 1-650-681-5000. He's having trouble with only a few billion dollars at his disposal.

History repeating itself? Yep, but thankfully hope springs eternal. Some or none of these cars may ever see the light of day, but undoubtedly some will sneak by. Better be quick though, since the billions needed to create a winner are held by the established brands and they don't want you in their market place.

Until next time......