2012 NAIAS Detroit Auto Show: Part 3, Coda

Coda set up a booth at NAIAS, which was surprising to me.  See, Coda will only be for sale at first in California, and has an unknown timetable to sell in the rest of the country.  I asked one of the Coda reps why they were in Detroit, and they said simply to build awareness.

Coda, you have a lot of work to do. Your car does not look like it is worth $15,000, much less $40,000.



Coda's biggest problem, I think, is that their car looks like an old Toyota from about 2001.




Coda's second biggest problem is that this thing is put together about like a Chrysler from 2001, or worse. Look at the loose headliner fit. That's not me pulling on it, that's some guy who got into the front seat after I got into the back, and said, "hey, check this out!".


The interior can charitably be called functional. Hard plastics, wide gaps, and cheap feel abound.


The "high-tech" PRNDL knob. It feels about as cheesy as it looks.


The powertrain cutaway was interesting. Here is where most of the $40,000 is: in the wide, flat battery pack slung under the body.


The face of Coda. Notice the huge gap between the hood and the headlight/fascia. It screams "cheap".

I have no idea how Coda is going to make it.  With elegant and refined electric cars in the market such as the Leaf and Focus, as well as the half-gas Volt, Coda looks very weak.  They claim to have a 150 mile range, which would be world class.   But who will spend $40,000 on an ugly car, made mostly in China, with an unproven record and a minuscule dealer network?

2012 NAIAS Detroit Auto Show: Part 2, Tesla

First up, we visit Tesla.  Tesla's display was quite busy.  There was one car, the Model S, and some cut-away parts to look at.



Model S front suspension. Notice the extruded aluminum tubes and cast aluminum suspension arms. This is not a cheap high volume chassis.


Rear suspension and powertrain.


Charging port nicely hidden in rear tail lamp assembly.


Interior with huge LCD and touch screens. I wonder if they are protected against daylight glare?

Sadly, the car was too mobbed at the moment for me to get a clear picture of it. Here is someone elses.

2012 NAIAS Detroit Auto Show, Part 1

I went to the auto show.  I took a lot of photos. It has taken me a while to get to them.    Better late than never?









One of the more interesting design models at the Michelin design challenge display.



Michelin sponsored city of the future display, with 3 concept cars that weren't drawing much attention.

Coming soon, much much more...

California ZEV Mandate Rolls On as ACC

Continuing with its previous nonsensical policy, California's ARB (Air Resource Board) has published new regulations which require automakers to sell a certain percentage of vehicles which are BEV, PHEV, hydrogen, or otherwise not just gasoline powered.

This is bad pollicy because the mandate tells the producers what they must sell, without forcing anyone to actually buy the cars.

This puts automakers in a difficult spot.  If they can't make the vehicles attractive enough for consumers to buy, they have to dump them into the marketplace somehow.  They would have to sell these ZEVs at a substantial loss, and make up for the financial damage by raising prices on traditional vehicles.  The result is the same as a tax on gasoline vehicles, but done through a back-door which causes consumers to be angry with the automakers and not the regulators.

A better policy for California would be to encourage consumers to buy ZEVs, through more direct measures.   For example, fuel taxes could be used to large fund tax rebates, so that gasoline consumers would subsidize ZEV purchases.  Currently, CA offers a $2,500 rebate for a BEV vehicle, but this does not come close to offsetting the cost.  

The previous ZEV mandate was watered down significantly because it wasn't a feasible goal.  I don't expect this one to be feasible either, based on people's sensitivity to higher up front purchase costs.

Purpose for Choosing Chicago Professional Movers

We facilitate businesses and public move from Chicago to another state or from another state to Chicago. We are the professional Chicago movers who worth your time and belongings while moving. Our services are extremely reasonable whether you are a business person moving with your trade or a family moving from one house to the next. We are one of the most excellent Chicago storage services providers since we pack and unpack at a reasonable cost.

Our specialized team of Chicago mover will move toward with packing material as requested by customers and also big moving trucks that will fit all your business goods. We transport electronics, art, computers, and expensive things in corrugated boxes. Packing and unpacking is finished at a client's request and in the middle of the storage goods are as follows; small boxes, medium boxes, large picture boxes, dish pack boxes, wardrobe boxes for hire and buy. We make available for packing paper, packing tape and also reduce in size wraps at an affordable price.

A business person will discover out that we are the best professional Chicago movers at the same time moving the whole business section into a different place in Chicago or a different state. We will exchange a few words directly to your facilities manager, relocation manager or office manager left in charge of moving the trade to a different place. We pay attention to clients and what their requirements are relating to moving the following profitable facilities; administration offices, hospital tools, lodge installations, internal design companies, learning institutions, trade stores, and others.

Chicago moving can be ready affordable for you and your family since we will give all the essential events to make sure that your move is to happy and also secure. It is forever hard to change to a new place but we facilitate in making the move easier by watchfully packing for you and also unpacking. Between our services, we offer the best Chicago storage services such as cautiously packing your belongings into boxes and transporting them with care. Our teams of skilled Chicago movers know how to stock up each and every expensive item since some items are very delicate and we put all these into thought. Chicago moving requires fresh trucks packed with suitable moving pads which are at your examine. Uniformed Chicago movers will help out all the essential behavior for a successful move. We plan the transport for our customer's handiness and we are also enthusiastic to build reasonable stops at the same time as moving for our customer to choose up new objects earlier than the final destination.

Hybrids Losing To Efficient IC Engines

In today's Detroit News is a well written piece about the struggles of hybrids in the marketplace.  Bottom line: most people would rather pay a lot less money for somewhat less efficiency.  

A fascinating insight comes from Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, the largest multi-brand car retailer.

Mike Jackson, chief executive of the retail chain AutoNation Inc., said that 75 percent of customers come into his showrooms and want to talk about hybrids. Only about 2.5 percent of AutoNation sales are hybrids.
"What happens from the 75 percent consideration to the 2.5 percent commitment?" Jackson said.
"They look at the price premium for the technology, which is already subsidized and discounted, and say, 'The payback period is too long; not for me.'"

At the point of purchase decision, people notice that the payback time for the hybrid-electric powertrain is on the order of 5 or more years, and the practicality of the vehicle is reduced because of the packaging of the batteries.  They also notice that one of the more efficient non-hybrid vehicles, while not as efficient as a hybrid, is pushing 40mpg on the highway.  

As a result, hybrid sales are not growing very quickly, even though gasoline prices in the U.S. remain stubbornly near $3.50/gal.    

Hybrid sales slowed last year to 2.2 percent of U.S. sales, from 2.4 percent in 2010, according to researcher LMC Automotive.

Without widespread adoption, there is less hope for economies of scale in battery production.

For hybrids to really compete, the cost of batteries, and their energy density, must improve dramatically, or the price of fuel must go so high that the payback time will approach a few years--like $5/gal.  

Fiat agreed to provide 1 lakh diesel engines to Maruti Suzuki

Italian carmaker Fiat and Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation have signed an contract to provide one lakh diesel engines to Maruti Suzuki India, which will assist the country's largest car maker to manufacture more engines.

Then the two auto giants contracted to supply Fiat's 1.3 litre-multijet engine - approved by Fiat India Automobile, which is a joint venture between Fiat and Tata Motors - to Suzuki's Indian arm, Maruti Suzuki India.

The JV Company will deliver up to 100,000 engines yearly to Maruti beginning January this year for a time of three years. The production of multijet 1.3 litre engines for Maruti Suzuki will commence in the fourth week of January at Fiat India Auto's Ranjangaon plant in Pune, and supplies will start again at the earliest. The supply of these engines got stuck on pricing issues.

This development will give a relief to Maruti, which has over 1,10,000 consumers waiting in the queue to get delivery of its largest selling car, Swift. The company is gearing up to raise production at the Manesar plant to deliver more diesel cars.

A senior Maruti Suzuki offical told ET, "Swift will absolutely get favored treatment, and we are confident of crossing 20,000 units of Swift in a month. And with the new Swift Dzire in the pipeline, extra deliver of engines would be of huge help to make our customers sooner."

Starting January, Suzuki Powertrain - a subsidiary of Maruti Suzuki - will begin producing 5,000 more units a month, and the extra 8,000 engines from Fiat's Ranjangaon plant would mean, there will be extra 13,000 more diesel engines at the removal of Maruti Suzuki, which would help the carmaker clear some of its backlog.

Tornado Helmets!

Safety Research Strategies (Sean Kane's outfit), the one that has been pushing the claim that unintended acceleration on the part of Toyota was not caused by pedal misapplication, but rather by un-identified electronic gremlins, now brings us this sage advice: if you are in a tornado prone area, you should keep some helmets around to avoid head injuries should the tornado actually hit your house.

I'm not kidding.  They are serious.

Really!  A whistling monster of a twister is bearing down on your house, and you are expected to remember to don your headgear?

I think a much more sensible (though expensive) approach would be to keep a safe room in the house, a hardened room in the interior of the house which is by design isolated from the rest of the house structurally.  FEMA has a page on tornado safe rooms.

Mercedes: Be Like Che

Mercedes uses a huge photo of Che Guevara and a joke about revolution during a presentation in Las Vegas at CES.  

Silly Mercedes.  Perhaps you should use revolutionaries from your own cultural background, you know, like this guy.

In seriousness, Che Guevara was a murderer, and should not be glorified.  

MP’s demand to reduce the car cover cost

Hard-pressed motorists enforced to handle rising insurance premiums may soon get some good news. In MPs' committee this week challenged the insurance industry to decrease charges. The committee said car cover prices have spun out of control because of rising claims for whiplash injuries. And it accused insurers and lawyers of cashing in on crash victims by taking fat fees for passing their names on to claims companies. Louise Ellman Mp of the Transport committee said that Insurers, solictitors and claims management companies have themselves to driven up the cost. She demanded more transparency about the charges and those consumers be given clear information on referral fees and who earns money from them. That prompted finger-pointing between the insurance and legal industries, with both trying to blame the other for rising charges. Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society told that the insurance industry itself is fuelling the costs of accidents and passing them back to motorists. The fact that it sells accident details to third parties certainly fuels the number of claims. Some firms have a record of seeking to pay off the victim of an accident whether or not that victim has been injured." John Spencer, director of Spencers Solicitors, said that Insurers should make offers without requiring any medical evidence. Their hope is to buy off a claim before the injured person seeks independent legal advice and is properly represented. The committee demands that referral fees need to be banned across the board. However lawyers' fixed costs also need to be reduced. At last the Transport Committee said that the Government should set up a cross-departmental ministerial committee to look at reducing the cost of motor insurance.

Obama Campaigns On Insourcing

Oh, the irony.

President Barack Obama held up Ford Motor Co. as an example of companies that are contributing to the economy by bringing jobs back into the U.S. — and that should be rewarded for their efforts.

"You've heard of outsourcing. Well, these companies are insourcing," Obama said Wednesday in a speech, surrounded by business executives, state and local officials and union leaders.

See, the reason that there is an inflow of jobs into the U.S., and particularly Michigan, is that we are now a low-cost producer.  Partly by devaluing the dollar, and partly by forcing unions to take big concessions, it is now more affordable to do business here. 

The union leadership is going to pound Romney on his Bain capital experience, but they are going to give Obama a pass, even though his Car Czar rammed a no-strike clause down the UAW's throat.  

Advantages of Hiring Chicago Movers while Relocating

People switch from one house to another for primary factors like their switch techniques at their locations of work, search for better living circumstances and better community for their increasing kids. Some do not just modify locations but they even modify nations around the world. Is essential going can be very boring if you have to have all your items yourself or if you have too many items. Selecting Chicago movers can help you have the complete going procedure in the best possible way.

Moving in Chicago with the help of expert Chicago movers will save you a lot of time and hassle. Moving procedure is no little business because you need to package and shut off the items in containers before searching for them to the new position. This can take a lot of effective duration of yours. USA Moving and Storage organization will do all the necessary work that is relevant to a smooth moving. They have the right products and work to package all your products in the given time-frame. They know their job well and invest you the time-frame necessary and will make sure that they follow it. Only you need to do a shut guidance to make sure that things are managing well as per your wish.

Many people are cautious to seek the solutions of Chicago Mover presuming that, selecting a mover would be very costly. But, this is not the case. When you switch by yourself, you need to carry the expenditures of providing your things, hiring a moving truck, loading the vehicle, petrol and foods on the way and unloading the things. You can prevent these expenditures by our Chicago moving companies. If you do a little bit of analysis, then you can find good Chicago movers that really offer cost-effective solutions that will fit within your budget.

2013 Nissan Pathfinder: Unibody!

The demise of the old-school body-on-frame SUV continues.  One of the older models on the market, the Nissan Pathfinder, is following in the footsteps of Chrysler, Ford, and GM and going to the lighter, safer (to cars), and better handling unibody architecture.

Will it handle the Rubicon trail?  No, but most people won't ever need to do anything nearly so demanding.  

More here.

Ford Introduces New midsize Car to Challenge Japan

A new Fusion, with a new well-developed design, will be introduced at the Detroit auto show. It’s infrequent for an auto company to undertake a total revolution of one of its best-selling models, from the styling to the seats to the choice of engines.
Ford Motor Company did with its new Fusion sedan, to be introduced Monday at the yearly Detroit auto show.
The current Fusion ranked third in sales among all cars in the United States last year. Everything was changed on latest version that goes on sale. In this “blue oval” Ford badge was embedded into the hood of the car.
That attention to detail amazed even William Clay Ford Jr., the company’s executive chairman. “At earliest, I thought the blue elliptical was center.” Mr. Ford said in an interview. “But it’s really pretty beautiful.”
The new look is just one aspect of Ford’s all-out bid to gain share in the competitive midsize car segment dominated in recent decades by the Japanese automakers. To further differentiate the Fusion, the company will offer four engine options, including a plug-in hybrid it promotes as the most fuel-efficient car sedan in the world.
The revamped Fusion underscores just how hard Detroit’s automakers are approaching to freeze their turnarounds with enhanced passenger cars. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler accounted for 60 percent of trucks and S.U.V.’s sold in the United States in 2011 and makes most of their income from larger vehicles. But they still remain in one-third of the car market.
That will change, if their Detroit show models attract new customers. Besides Ford’s Fusion, G.M. will reveal a new small Cadillac, as well as its own contender in the midsize market, the
Mr. Farley said that the family sedan is still remains in the heart and soul of the American garage. The plan is so suggestive that it invites customers to seem beyond the surface to our quality and our fuel wealth.

Review: Mexican Coke

The other day I saw glass bottles of Coke for sale at the local upscale supermarket, for the princely sum or $1/each.  I had heard that some Coke lovers swear that Mexican Coke is better than American Coke because it is made with real sugar, not corn syrup.  I have also heard this claim regarding Passover Coke.

So I bought a couple of bottles to try.

I'm not a trained taster, and I didn't do a scientific grade double blind study.  But to my taste, the Mexican coke tasted sweeter, and felt stickier, than what I was used to.  I wouldn't pay extra for it.

However, the glass bottles were a revelation.  They feel wonderful in the hand, hefty and cold and perfectly curved and balanced.   I wouldn't pay more for Mexican Coke, but I would pay more for American Coke in these retro glass bottles!

BMW introduces 2012’s new mini cargo

BMW plans to introduce a new version of the Mini cargo called Clubman in March at the Geneva Motor Show. The small van based on the 3.96 meter long and Clubman will have only two seats. Instead of sitting in the rear bench is there a long load floor. The rear side windows are replaced by a sheet metal roof. The car will appeal especially delivery services in the city who need an agile car.

Creating the Mini Cargo sounds similar to a easy adequate method. Auto Motor und Sport reports that the work-ready shipper will be based on the clubman with the back bench seat removed in support of a long cargo floor. The rear area windows will be abandoned for sheet metal.

We're interested to observe what additional alterations will be prepared to the Clubman in its conversion to a proper panel van. Will the passenger side rear hinged door be left alone, or removed?. Will the rear suspension be strengthened to contain for heavy carrying? we'll have to stay until March to see.