Good News - Really

Nowadays, whenever it comes to a development in the auto industry, the subject is about as pleasant as dental surgery. There is an unrelenting spate of bad news followed only by worse. Occasionally there seems to be a glimmer of something good, but that often tends to be an accidental reflection from some accountant's visor, as he further marks down the valuation of one OEM or supplier or another.

So it is with great satisfaction that I am able to report something good and notable in the auto industry. Last week (on March 10, to be specific) Ford built its 100,000th hybrid SUV at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, MO. Ford has been building the Ford Escape Hybrid there since 2004, and it was joined shortly thereafter by the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. The Escape Hybrid was the world's first hybrid SUV-that's right, Ford, not Toyota, produced the first hybrid SUV. And another first is that it was the first hybrid used as a taxi, which occurred in San Francisco in 2005. (Probably replacing a Crown Vic.)  ...Read More

2009 Ford Focus Coupe SES

2009 Hyundai Genesis V-6

2009 Nissan Maxima

2009 Acura TL SH-AWD

2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid

Driven Archives

Smile, and the whole world ...
How do you turn Michigan’s economic frown – pulled taut by two of the Big Three with billions in government IOUs and the country’s highest unemployment rate– upside down? Easy, just say: “200 mph, hydrogen-powered mag-lev train.” – Read More

Mars Attacks?
The same primary subcontractor to Boeing for the Apollo lunar rover was General Motors, the same company that is trying to get rid of its Hummer brand.  The rover weighed 460 lb.  In a forthcoming experiment on the impact of man on mars, they'll be rolling in a 15,000 lb. armored Humvee. – Read More

Did We Mention Innovation?
Although BMW board chairman Norbert Reithofer was loathe to predict 2009 sales during a recent presentation (“2009 will be a transitional year for which we cannot yet make any reliable forecasts.”) it seems that the people doing the press releases for the vehicle manufacturer are certain that BMW is nothing if not innovative and a builder of innovative products. – Read More

Cockpit Seat Driver
One rule of thumb for self-appointed driving instructors: avoid runways.  A man attempting to teach his girlfriend how (not) to drive crossed the runway at the Legazpi airport in central Philippines, just as a Cebu Pacific airlines plane carrying 80 passengers was about to land.
– Read More

Nightmare Cruise
Just when Detroit thought it had been dissed enough, comes word that the Woodward Dream Cruise, the annual summer event that pays homage to the carburetor, gasoline and muscle cars via a parade of gas-guzzlers up and downed the famed Avenue, will not actually travel into Motown. – Read More

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The Craziness Here
I ran into a man I know who works for one of the car companies the other day; I hadn’t seen him for years.  He’s been assigned to work in Australia.  I asked him how the economy is doing there.  He replied that it, too, is feeling the effects of the global economic spiral.  “But it’s nothing like the craziness here,” he continued, explaining that there  ...Read More