Recent Comments:
Chicago Luxury Home Tour {Luxist}
Sep 4th 2008 5:36PM If there is anything more ridiculous than the idea of new luxury homes in Chicago, it would be building luxury homes in Afghanistan or in Iraq and expecting people to buy there. The single most valuable property in the area, Lansdowne, was offered for $ 25 million but sold for $ 10 million plus less than the asking price and the place is now going to be converted into some kind of luxury community with multiple homes where the grounds originally housed polo fields. And businesses and malls are closing by the day. Business journals have suggested that United Airlines, one of the city's biggest companies, should close down. Motorola are about to sell thier cell phone business to a Chinese company. Some of the big suburban malls at Randhurst, Lincolnwood and Harlem have more vacant spaces than they have shops. Historical stores like the downtown Carson Piriie Scott store have closed for good and businesses that have been a historical part of this region like Wickes Furniture and Linens N Things are shutting stores one by one. Where is anyone going to buy a luxury property in this dying city?
If it weren't such a sad tale of political fraud in a doomed city, I would be tempted to laugh at the idiocy in building luxury homes in this Detroit of the future.
Could U.S. become net exporter of gasoline? {Autoblog}
Aug 28th 2008 10:12PM Desi Auto is right - India does have some of the world's largest refineries but the last one at Jamnagar that he talks about was built not by KBR-Halliburton but by Bechtel with Larsen and Toubro of India as the subcontractor. There are several earlier refineries at Chenna, Kochi, Dwarka etc that were built by the USA during the 1950s and 60s when India and the USA were close and before things became difficult during India's socialist years. There are more refineries planned by some large Indian groups and they should be built soon. Even Saudi Aramco sends crude to India for refining. The Indians don;t need any fuel refined elsewhere.
As far as CHina is concerned, like Desi Auto, I have no idea.
Spy Shots: First-ever Jaguar hybrid on its way? {Autoblog Green}
Aug 27th 2008 12:22PM Jaguar need the new hybrid executive car and they need it NOW. The new DI engine with hybrid power in their lightweight cars should make them handle beautifully and also make them even more fuel efficient for the size.
Tata, don't wait too long to bring this to market.
REPORT: Chrysler may sell Dodge Viper rather than kill it {Autoblog}
Aug 27th 2008 12:18PM I hope Chrysler sell the Viper to MacLaren. After all, MacLaren did some work on souping the Viper up and they do have the technology to make a huge success of it in the future as well. A DI Viper which is lighter as well and with handling tuned by MacLaren. Wow!
Ford gives 88-MPG flex-fuel, plug-in Escape Hybrid to Department of Energy {Autoblog}
Jun 19th 2008 10:31PM Poe,
You make an excellent point. The Japanese are on the verge of making small hybrids with Honda planning a 5 door hatchback hybrid next year and Toyota planning a new Prius. If only Detroit were to do this, they would make a ton of money. As it is, Ford can't even be bothered with introducing the hybrid versions of the Fusion/Milan and they indulge in stunts like this.
If they ahd put a Flex Fuel plug in hybrid for sale on the market instead of giving one away to a government bureaucrat, I am sure they would not have to worry too much about losing sales, about selling off different divisions or closing plants down.
Well, at least they are doing something... Hopefully there will be some cars that people buy because of $ 4 plus gas prices from Ford in the coming months and years instead of deserting them for the Japanese...
REPORT: Tata and Mahindra interested in HUMMER {Autoblog}
Jun 6th 2008 4:03PM Tata's Land Rover buy was a good one because the Indian army is about to tender to replace its huge inventory of Jongas, Nissan Patrols and Mahindras shortly. Land Rover have some good military vehicles which would do well in that tender.
The Hummer request sounds like the Tatas trying to push the asking price up high and make it uneconomical for the Mahindras to buy so that they do not have much competition in the final bidding for the coming tender. Should be interesting to see how this pans out in the end for both companies concerned.
By the Numbers May 2008: F-150 Falls Edition {Autoblog}
Jun 3rd 2008 4:32PM Right through a bad economy and sky-high fuel costs, Ford seem to want to blunder through with their trucks instead of concentrating on more fuel-efficient cars. There is no denying that Ford's trucks are among the best. At the same time, there is also no denying that when someone's bank balance takes a hit, they would be more likely to buy something that has them worrying less every week about filling up than a truck. Those who need trucks as an occupational neccessity would continue to buy them. Those who owned them because they happened to be fashionable would look at other options.
Ford need to put more of an effort into their cars than the half-hearted attempt at offering a facelifted Focus that they have come up with in recent months. With Honda and Toyota poised to offer new fuel efficient cars and especially hybrid versions of their small cars, the disparity in sales between the bestselling donosaurs from the $ 10 a barrel of crude era and smaller, fuel effieient cars in today's $ 135 a barrel era is likely to grow in the Japanese companies' favor if Ford don't get their act together, and fast. Selling Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo are only going to get them over temporary crises. If they are to achieve something of lasting benefit, they need to get their bread and butter line to be vastly better than it is at the moment. Sadly, they do not seem to be bothered in the least about doing anything about this.
Anyone know when the long-promised hybrid versions of the Fusion/Milan will be out? Yeah, yeah, I know that hybrids aren't that great and you have some extensive reports from Canada and the UK giving evidence about this. That hasn't stopped Toyota from selling every Prius and Lexus 600 HL they can make. Even on image-building, the domestic brands, and Ford in particular, seem to have failed.
Stupid is what you call a comany that has the technology and the ability to make great cars (Ford's reliability is equal to Toyota's by several independent assessments) but which chooses to let its clientele down by warming its cushions and doing nothing with all of these resources at hand. The sooner Ford realize that hard work never killed anyone and begin to use their brains somewhat, they will also do as well as their Japanese competition.
Jay Leno tells Detroit to make better cars {Autoblog}
May 24th 2008 9:57PM Jay Leno is right in what he says. I like Ford cars and have owned them in India and the USA. For two years now, while Ford have been talking about bringing out a Hybrid Fusion/Mercury Milan, there is still no official word on when these cars would be out. The dealer from whom I bought my last Ford does not know. And while gasoline costs close to $ 4.50 a gallon in Chicago, what do we see? Honda announce a new hybrid 5 door hatch in the making, Toyota announce a new Prius that is about to be launched, but silence from Ford and GM. Sure, GM has their "mild hybrid" in the Malibu and some of the Saturns, but if the Japanese could offer the full hybrid system on what are bread and butter cars, why can't Ford and GM?
I am sure that it is not impossible for American companies to compete. The USA has some of the best engineering schools in the world and it also has a tradition of engineering great products. It is just, as many say here, that it seems to have lost its will to compete. What Leno did not say while he let it through if you read between the lines is that the Big Two need to let their engineers do their job while reining in their MBAs and accountants a little. There is room enough for car manufacturers from every country to do well. The Americans just need to go out and butt heads technically with the Japanese and do well.
New 2010 Ford 4.4-liter diesel engine scooped! {Autoblog}
Apr 13th 2008 9:49AM Ford need to look at putting this engine into a large car as well. Hope they follow Audi's lead and do something sensible.
F1 engine ban reduced to 5 years, new formula expected within 2 {Autoblog}
Jan 13th 2008 9:13PM Why on earth can't there be displacement limits on the engines involved without any other idiotic restrictions? Even a five year freeze on engine design is a little too much. If F1 wants to be environmentally responsible, then there could be fuel quantity restrictions in addition to reducing the engine displacement.
As things stand, what Max Moseley seems to want to do is to put a freeze on the engineers' brains so that they are in parallel with his own severely limited intelligence. What a clown! The end of F1 is certainly nigh!
