Ford Drive One 'Press Conference' Commercial Rips Auto Bailouts

At Hot Air, "Wow: Ford ad blasts bailouts — and perhaps more."

The statement that America is about taking risks and enduring failure rather than expecting government to bail everyone out sounds more like a big thumb in the eye of the Obama administration, whose latest jobs bill keeps extending unemployment benefits, and which continues to propose spending billions on subsidies for businesses that can’t succeed on their own — like Solyndra.

No doubt. It also backhands Obama on his dismissal of American exceptionalism.

Chevy Runs Deep

Via Althouse, "How did Chevrolet manage to make such an effective commercial?"



You pull on the heartstrings. We've all felt like this, with or without a Chevy pickup:

2011 Jeep Liberty 2x4

I took the Jeep in today to get it washed. We're over in Santa Ana at 17th and Main Street. A full car wash with interior vacuum is $10.99, and they do a fabulous job. Most places around town are at 15 bucks, so I tip the guy 3 bucks and call it a day. The Jeep homepage is here and click "models." It's a V-6 two-wheel drive with the satellite radio I mentioned previously. It's my wife's SUV but we trade off pretty often, and this is the first new American car we've bought as a couple. I'm going to consider a Jeep Wrangler for myself next time we're in the market, although that might not be for a while.

Don't Text and Drive

At Mashable, "AT&T Documentary Takes on Texting-While-Driving."

I don't text and drive. I hate that others do. Should the state prohibit it? Of course, but check with the anarcho-commies like JBW for the "nanny state" whining (and the stoned Reason-oids as well, unfortunately).

Comeback

The new ad from General Motors:

Looks like it's going over pretty well. Then again, in other news: "After GM Stock Sale, Taxpayers Lose, Unions Win." Actually, not everyone agrees on that: "Capitalists ‘Recover’ On Backs of Workers."

My Buddy's 1913 American Underslung Traveler Type 56A 7 Passenger Touring

My buddy and colleague Greg Joseph recently won the Charles A. Chayne Trophy at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance 2010. Here's a few pics of his car, an American Underslung Traveler, Type 56A 7 Passenger Touring, 1913. My youngest son and I visited Greg Saturday afternoon. He showed us his car, estimated at about $1.3 million, out in his garage in temporary storage. The American Underslung is here at Wikipedia. And there's a beautiful set of photos of Greg's car at Pebble Beach here. Greg's a Democrat, but he was flattered when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger walked up during the competition to congratulate him on the vehicle:

Cars and Freedom: Yeah, That's American!

Love it!

Apologies if this is down on Britain, LOL!

Saw something on this earlier, for the World Cup Go USA, I guess.

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

10 Reasons You Don't Need a Hybrid

At U.S. News:

They said it couldn't be done. Now they're proving themselves wrong.

For years, auto executives—especially those from Detroit—insisted it wasn't possible to build high-mileage cars at reasonable prices that Americans would want to drive. Thrifty drivers were stuck with weezy econoboxes like the Ford Escort or Chevy Cavalier, designed not to delight drivers but to raise the automakers' fleetwide fuel economy, assuage regulators, and compensate for gas-guzzling SUVs. Early hybrids from Toyota and Honda upped the ante, with mpg in the 40s and 50s, but their high mileage required tradeoffs that produced a mediocre driving experience, at best.

But over the last few years, automakers have kicked their engineering departments into high gear, and they're starting to turn out some truly fun cars that get eye-popping mileage. It's not happening by accident. New gas-mileage requirements passed by both the Bush and Obama administrations are forcing automakers to either downsize their cars or come up with technology that will dramatically boost mileage. The carmakers are doing both. Most of them now build hybrids, which J.D. Power estimates will comprise a sizeable 8.6 percent of the market by 2015. And many automakers will soon be rolling out electric vehicles that can be charged more cheaply from a receptacle at home. But other types of technology are pushing mileage higher for traditional gas-powered engines, with less complexity than a hybrid or electric, lower costs, and practically no driving tradeoffs. Here are some of the vehicles proving that cars can be cool and thrifty at the same time ...

RTWT.

Honda Accord makes the list (my wife and I both drive Hondas, but not this particular model).

Advances in Automobile Safety

Fascinating video, via Ruminating Out Loud:

Toyota Halts Sales on 8 Models as Recall Fallout Threatens Brand

At the Los Angeles Times, "Toyota Temporarily Stops Selling Eight Models Covered by Recall":

Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the unprecedented stop of halting sales and production of eight models, including the top-selling Camry and Corolla, because their accelerator pedals can stick and cause runaway acceleration.

Toyota sent an email to its roughly 1,200 U.S. dealers late Tuesday, asking them to immediately cease selling the vehicles. In addition, it told them to refrain from selling certain used versions of the same models.

At the same time, Toyota said it is halting production of the models in five assembly lines in the U.S. and Canada, effective Monday.

The news is the latest blow to Toyota's once-ironclad reputation for quality and safety, which has come under increasing fire in recent months amid rising complaints about of unintended acceleration and other defects.

The eight models affected by the news represented 57% of Toyota's sales in the U.S. last year, including the automaker's Lexus and Scion brands.

"This could be an extended issue. It is very serious," said Aaron Bragman, auto industry analyst at IHS Global Insight. He called the sales freeze, known in the industry as a stop sale, a "disaster," and pointed out that it came as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. all were improving their quality and mounting aggressive sales and marketing campaigns.

I've been following this case through the Times' coverage. See December's investigative report, "Toyota Found to Keep Tight Lid on Potential Safety Problems: A Times Investigation Shows the World's Largest Automaker Has Delayed Recalls and Attempted to Blame Human Error in Cases Where Owners Claimed Vehicle Defects."

And especiall, from October, "Toyota's Runaway-Car Worries May Not Stop at Floor Mats."

Toyota's Runaway-Car Recall

The Los Angeles Times has been following the story for a while now. Here's this from Thursday's paper, "Toyota to Fix 'Very Dangerous' Gas Pedal Defects," and "Recall Another Blow to Toyota's Reputation."

But here's this from October, "Toyota's Runaway-Car Worries May Not Stop at Floor Mats":

The 2009 Lexus ES 350 shot through suburban San Diego like a runaway missile, weaving at 120 miles an hour through rush hour freeway traffic as flames flashed from under the car.

At the wheel, veteran California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor desperately tried to control the 272-horsepower engine that was roaring at full throttle as his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law were gripped by fear."We’re in trouble .... There’s no brakes," Saylor's brother-in-law Chris Lastrella told a police dispatcher over a cellphone. Moments later, frantic shrieks filled the car as it slammed into another vehicle and then careened into a dirt embankment, killing all four aboard.

The tragedy Aug. 28 was at least the fifth fatal crash in the U.S. over the last two years involving runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles made by Toyota Motor Corp. It is also among hundreds of incidents of sudden acceleration involving the company's vehicles that have been reported to Toyota or the federal government, according to an examination of public records by The Times.

Toyota has blamed the incidents -- apart from those caused by driver error -- on its floor mats, asserting that if they are improperly installed they can jam open the accelerator pedal. A month after the Saylor crash, Toyota issued its biggest recall in company history, affecting 3.8 million vehicles in model years as far back as 2004. But auto safety experts believe there may be a bigger problem with Toyota vehicles than simply the floor mats.

The full story at the link. A dramatic YouTube audio of the Saylor's 911 call is here.

American Idols

Check out Dan Neil's piece at today Los Angeles Times, "When Cars Were America's Idols":

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

1960 Chevrolet Impala 4-Door Hardtop

If you were to walk up to a typical New York executive in the 1960s -- think Don Draper in AMC's "Mad Men" -- and tell him that General Motors Corp. would be in bankruptcy by 2009, he would have thought you were delusional, or perhaps a Communist. GM was more than just the world's largest and most admired corporation; it was the final vindication of the American Way, the perfected and even divinely inspired example of democratic capitalism that stood opposed to the airless atheism and nullity of the Soviet system.

Or imagine that you were somehow able to drag Nikita Khrushchev from the United Nations podium into the street to confront -- no, behold -- a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. Nearly 19 feet long from its Jayne Mansfield-like bumpers to its rocket-like tail lamps, a lyric in steel and mirrored chrome, as bright and beautiful as a ripe plum is sweet, and yet just ever so slightly obscene. Khrushchev would have dropped his shoe.

Surely a company, a country, that could produce such an object would last forever.

Read the full article, here. See the Times' photo gallery, here.

Retro Cars Photo Hat Tip: Libby Spencer.