CAR and Building the Foundation

The Center for Automotive Research (www.cargroup.org) held its annual Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City last month (August 4-7). Prior to the actual event there was, undoubtedly, some concern among the folks who organize what has long been a must-attend event, concern that given the changing nature of the auto industry, the numbers of attendees would be way down.

The title of the event was “Today’s Turmoil: A Foundation for Success.” To be sure, we’ve all experienced the turmoil. And most of us are undoubtedly waiting to feel the success.

But note well that there is the word foundation. This means that there needs to be something established onto which something can be built. Without that foundation, then all is flux. And flux is what we need to move away from, whether we’re in the car business or the seminar business or something else. – Read More

2009 Audi A4 Sedan 2.0 T Quattro Manual

2009 Audi Q5 3.2 quattro Tiptronic

2009 Dodge Challenger R/T

2009 BMW Z4 sDrive35i

2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track

Driven Archives

No Drive-Thru Napping
A 27-year-old Corvallis, OR, man is facing DUI charges after he fell asleep in the drive-thru lane at a local McDonald’s.  Authorities say the young man, whose blood-alcohol content was 0.18, passed out after a night of partying.  Proof yet again that there’s no stopping a Big Mac attack…unless you’re too drunk to stay awake. – Read More

Would You Like Pepperoni With Your Petrol?
Papa John’s pizza founder John Schnatter has been on a car quest for the past couple of years, trying to find the 1971 Chevrolet Camaro he sold to help save his dad’s tavern and start his worldwide pizza empire. The persistent pizza man offered $250,000 to the owner and pleaded his case on national television. – Read More

Baring All to Save Jobs
Workers at a French boiler company are pulling out all the stops to save their jobs, even going as far as posing nude for a calendar, proceeds of which will be used to fund a trip to protest at their parent company. – Read More

Not (Necessarily) Funny
While you may have become familiar—to say nothing of comfortable—with going to this site, we’d like to encourage you to take a look at something that we’ve devised for your reading edification and pleasure, autofieldblog. We hope that it is something you’ll turn to on a regular basis. – Read More

Is the Lot Half Full or Half Empty?
Let’s face it: Cash for Clunkers notwithstanding, there is still a lot of inventory on dealer lots. However, should any U.S. car dealers be feeling blue, they ought to visit Central and Eastern Europe. In countries in that part of the world, the automotive downturn in the U.S. generally looks like an upswing.– Read More

Upcoming Industry Events:

PLM Road Map™ 2009
Sept 22-23

The IAA/Frankfurt Auto Show
Sept 17-27

CompositesWorld Expo
Sept 28-30

Pulling Buick’s Plug-In
GM set the auto world abuzz when it decided to quickly pull the plug on its Buick plug-in hybrid crossover--which was slated to launch in late 2010--after customers who saw the crossover panned it. The company had made the decision to kill the Buick—dubbed by some as the “Vuick” for its awkward styling and the fact that it is based on the Saturn VUE—just a few weeks
... Read More