Daily Podcast: Warning!
An investment banker once told me business isn't risky. People are risky. One guy can take a dumb as toast business plan and make millions. Another guy can t…
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Daily Podcast: Go to Work on an Egg
Few people will recognize the name Salman Rushdie. Those who do will know know Rushdie as the Indian-born fiction writer whose novel The Satanic Verses inspired the Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a death sentence against its author. After attempting to read the work in question, I can tell you that it’s far more likely that the the fatwa was, in truth, an act of literary criticism, rather than a divinely-inspired retribution for Koranic blasphemy. Suffice it to say, the rest of Rushdie’s literary canon can be safely placed in that special category pretentious people call “challenging.” In fact, Rushdie’s greatest work was penned when he worked as advertising copywriter for Ogilvy & Mather. The headline above is one such Rushdie meisterwerk, written for the UK’s Egg Council. He also wrote “Naughty but Nice” for a cake maker. But just try and find a bio that gives proper credit for these bon mots, or explains the creative process they required. As Justin and I dissect ad slogans on this podcast, try to remember that it takes a blazing talent to find a few words that can carry a car brand into the hearts and minds of consumers. And a great company to recognize and embrace them.
Daily Podcast: Buy the Right Dog
Failing upwards is a very strange concept, one that I don't pretend to understand. For example, Mark Fields took the reins of Ford's doomed-from-birth Premie…
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Daily Podcast: Future Ghosts
I'm sure many of you share "the one that got away" syndrome. You know: the car you should have bought for peanuts and stashed away. My two four-wheeled pangs…
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Daily Podcast: Jeremy Clarkson Need Not Apply
I'd love to produce a TTAC TV program. Can you imagine? Now, try to imagine a network that accepts automotive advertising putting us on the air. It behooves…
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Daily Podcast: Where's Chrysler's Big Mac Attack?
Sorry; I went off on a major tangent. Let's try the on-message thing again. So… the podcast focused on Newsweek's list of eight vehicles Chrysler shou…
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Daily Podcast: The Dog Ate My Podcast
My career at CNN prepared me for this work. Like TTAC, Ted's 24-hour news channel was an insatiable maw that required constant feeding. Miss a deadline? Neve…
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Industry Alliance to Feds: Keep on Truckin'
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and National Automobile Dealers Association have launched a new website dividing the country into "car states" and "…
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Daily Podcast: The Brooklyn Dodgers
Over the weekend, I ate at little Rhody's most celebrated (i.e. expensive) death-by-meat-house. The experience was more-or-less as expected. As I left, the w…
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Daily Podcast: NOW I Remember…
"I just got a new wing mirror for my Skoda." "Sounds like a fair trade." And it's true: I remembered the joke; I didn't surf the web for it. Although these d…
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DiMora V16 Volcano Gets Closer to Erupting. Maybe.
Alfred J DiMora is one of the most "colorful" characters in the custom car world. In other words, the larger-than-life entrepreneur's ambitions have hit the…
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Daily Podcast: A to B
Back in the day, the descriptive phrase "living room on wheels" applied to an automobile was a compliment. That I never got. I simply couldn't understand why…
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Daily Podcast: Apologies to Holland
VW may be moving from Detroit to Washington, DC. So it's out of the frying pan, into the home of liars. Other than DC's proximity to the regulators who deter…
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Daily Podcast: Always There When You Need It
Sorry for the late post, Justin. My daughter's musical education demanded an emergency trip the Bundus to secure a larger violin from the only gray-haired ma…
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Daily Podcast: Hairshirt Today, What Tomorrow?
I really do wonder about the clash of ideologies inherent in the green movement. I'm just about old enough to remember America's transition from seemingly bo…
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Project 2000 Claims Toyota Cut Deal With GM to Deep Six Oldsmobile
I think it's safe to say to place this theory somewhere between Big Oil/Detroit's alleged conspiracy against the electric car and Erich von Daniken's Chariot…
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TTAC Launches Daily Podcast… And Here It Is
You may have noticed a few changes to the site over the last few days: disappearing and reappearing car reviews, some new functions, a flaming warning above…
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Lexus LS460L Review
My wife struggles with two automotive tasks: finding her destination and maneuvering the car into a parking space. (Locating a parking space is another issue…
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Pontiac Solstice GXP Review
I once drove off the road, screaming, at 80mph. Why? I was in love. When love turns blind, men do irrational things. As far as healthy, loving relationships…
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Chrysler Suicide Watch 8: Plan X From Outer Space
According to the Consumer Federation of America, most large insurance companies rely on computer programs like "Colossus" and "Claims Outcome Advisor." These…
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Fleet Sales Rx: Checker Redux?
When Ford threatened to pull the plug on its Panther platformed rear wheel-drive cars, the livery and taxicab companies howled in protest and Ford backed dow…
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President Bush's State of The Union Address: Towing the Line?
In last night’s State of the Union address, President Bush cooked-up a cute little saying: “20 by 10.” That’s a 20% reduction in Amer…
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General Motors Death Watch 107: Volte Face?
It’s no secret that The Detroit News (DTN) likes to cheer for the home team. It’s also no surprise that the financially challenged paper imports…
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Suzuki XL7 Review
I’m 31, single and happy. So obviously my mother is constantly nagging me to get hitched and give her grandchildren. Even my sister’s impending m…
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Review: 2007 Suzuki SX4
What the Hell’s a Suzuki’s SX4? I know it’s my job to know about these things, but I swear the test car greeting me upon my return from Old…
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BMW M6 Review
I’ve had a thing for the BMW 6-Series ever since “Spenser: for Hire” shared the airways with Mötley Crüe. While Robert Urich had…
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Car Insurance Rates: Star Struck?
As much as I enjoy vigorous debate, I abhor pseudo-science. From The Bermuda Triangle to past life regression, I just can’t deal. If the subject matter…
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Ford Expedition EL Review
Whenever I show up at my weekly poker game, the boys (being boys) are always interested in what I'm driving. How much? How fast? Not this week. This week, al…
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Shelby GT500 Review – Counterpoint
A small bump in the road traversed at the slightest discernible angle on dry pavement at 50mph will send the Shelby GT500’s rear end sideways with enou…
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Hell is Other People's Cars
The sex industry has a motto: if you don't get it, it's not for you. Never mind all those activities involving non-reproductive bodily fluids, military fatig…
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Podcast: Lieberman's Cold Fusion?
Of all Ford's Bold Moves, the fact that the automaker continues to provide Jonny Lieberman with press cars is easily the most impressive. Despite Mr. Neundor…
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Podcast: What's an RS4?
I suppose it was only a matter of time before some video maven caught site of The Truth About Cars (TTAC) and thought, hmmm, that might make an interesting T…
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Podcast: Lieberman's Got Edge
So Jonny tells me that he's returned from a first class junket to The City by the Bay and by the way his new best bud ace auto scribe Dan Neil's coming over…
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Precast: Occam's Edge, Two-for-One Pagitude, Hoons R Us, Eleanor Rows So Svelte, OTT $$?
I'm of two minds on this whole hoonage business. One one hand, it's entirely possible to hoon about in a high speed car at significant velocities without end…
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Precast: Audis on Parade, VIP Vs. Bling
For many years, US President Abraham Lincoln thought that deporting slaves was the only workable solution to an intractable political issue. In 1861, a &ldqu…
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Precast: Ferrari Four Wheelin', I and I, Steering Clear of the M6, Bangle RIP?
A four wheel-drive Ferrari? On one hand, it sounds like a bald-faced betrayal of Ferrari's brand proposition: extreme rear wheel-drive performance cars prone…
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Precast: Do Mitsubishi's Dream of Electric Sheep?, Volvo's Manic Depressive Designer, AMG PC
My first car was a golf cart, courtesy of The Ocean Reef Club. Actually, props to the parental units. They handed me the key to the open-sided electric conve…
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Precast: Death Proof Digression, Video Games, Mercury Falling, Ring Ring
My first ever dream car was the Batmobile, and yes, I'm talking about George Barris' Lincoln Futura riff. Looking back, it's funny how I totally missed the T…
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Podcast: Maybach Jr., Aston's Alphanumerological Excess, Midas Muffler, Alpha Ferrari, DCT Uber Alles
It’s been a while since my description of the Subaru B9 Tribeca’s front end as a “flying vagina” got TTAC banned from… BMW&rsq…
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Precast: Paris Not Hilton, MINI and Diesel Redux, The Hannitization of GM
When I moved back to the US from the UK, I was delighted to discover right wing media commentators. After living in a country with a media dominated by anti-…
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The Speed Limits of Democracy
I like to drive fast. I don't think I'm breaking new rhetorical ground to suggest that anyone who likes to drive fast violates the speed limit from time to t…
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Lieberman Does Chrysler
It’s funny how some things stick in your head. I’ll never forget Hispanic actor Ricardo Montalban’s satisfaction with the 1976 Chrysler Cor…
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Lieberman Corrals the Stangs
Aside from the early, dainty-looking Mustangs and their Shelby siblings, I never really "got" the whole 'Stang cult. During my formative years, the mucho mac…
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Precast: Medusa S-Type, PAG Knock-offs, Hammond Better, DP
Jaguar is one heck of a brand. The company took the automotive world by storm, not once, but twice. The first revelation arrived just after WWII. England ent…
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Precast: Hammond Injured, Veracruz Taillight, Crossover and Out or Justin Time?
You may have noticed that I haven't posted a precast in a couple of days. Truth to tell, TTAC contributor and former Car and Driver editor Stephan Wilkinson…
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Precast: Limo Love, Gord, Toyota Brands Earth, Miatamino, Endo
Limos blow. They're unsightly, often comical beasts that exchange comfort for size (well, length) and offer all the tactile pleasure of a mid-market motel (p…
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Postcast: Killer B, Karmann Resurrected, Sports Customs, Nanny This, Racing Line
The American automotive media is just as obsessed with the thrill of the new as the industry itself. Even though websites like this one (OK, not exactly like…
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Precast: Bugatti Puh-lease, Cellular Mitosis, Breath a Lie Sir, China Uber Alles, Forever Ford?
Yes, yes, the next installment of the Ford Death Watch is coming. Who'd a thunk I'd write 90 episodes of the GM Death Watch only to watch Billy's Blue Oval B…
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Precast: Maybach's Pearl Jam, Alfa Redux Redux, Porsche Mule
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, the Maybach brand gives me the heebie-jeebies. Which is kind of strange. I've got no beef with Mercedes, a brand whose pr…
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Precast: Wiesmann, CL63 AMG, HEMI Slowdown?
Whatever you can (or cannot) say about BMW, the company makes some damn fine engines. Jay Shoemaker's review of the 335i hailed their direct injected twin tu…
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Precast: Hydrogen Hype (Still), Panda Laid Bare, I Sing the Auto Electric
As you will hear in today's precast, my first forray into Ferrari ownership brought me face-to-face with the studied indifference that is England's erstwhile…
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Precast: V12 Diesel Audi, Hornet No VeeDub, Baby Junketeers
I suppose I should get myself into a lather about the fact that GM has lured collegiate journalists to Las Vegas for some major junket action. As listeners t…
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Safe Speed
According to French philosopher Emile Chartier, “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.” Chartier died in 1951,…
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Precast: Hydrogen-Powered 7-Series, Drop-Top 300C, New G35, Fiero Redux?
So, BMW develops a flex fuel gas/hydrogen powered vehicle and we're supposed to give them tree-hugging props? I don't think so. I give them far more credit f…
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The Truth About GM's New Powertrain Warranty
It's clear that GM's new powertrain warranty– 5 years, 100k miles– has set TTAC tongues wagging. To get on top of the story, I phoned Philip Reed…
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Precast: Super TT, Paris DUI, RS60 Replica, GM Warranty, CLS Wagon, Renault Show Car
It’s one of those happy, clappy news days when pistonheads have a surfeit of stories to investigate from the privacy of their cubicle. I sometimes wonder what creates this compulsive fascination with four-wheeled transportation. The standard take on the subject is that the automobile represents freedom. Supposedly, congestion, high gas prices and environmental responsibility have destroyed this traditional romantic association between the car and the proverbial “open road.” (Personally, I think National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation had a lot to do with it.) But this perceived wisdom fail to realize that the car isn’t just about going towards something new and exciting, it’s about moving away from stuff that drives you nuts: Mom, Dad, the Boss, Wife/Husband, kids, etc. A large part of TTAC’s mission is to help aid this process of escape– if only for ten minutes and three seconds. If you haven’t tried this precast thing, go for it. The only thing you have to lose is the stress of not being behind the wheel.
Mercedes SL550 Review
You may have noticed this website tends to celebrate performance automobiles. While this predilection for dynamic distraction places us within the media main…
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Precast: Nissan Qashqai, Mulally Doolally?
Car names are a happy hunting ground for motoscribes and headline writers. Nissan Armada? Please. Versa? Vice springs immediately to mind (and not because of…
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