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What Vehicle Programs Should Carmakers Cancel? [Question Of The Day]

| суббота, 26 сентября 2009 г.

The Carpocalypsehas now claimed the Acura NSX program and possibly the G8 ST. More cuts unfortunately appear to be coming. Instead of cars like these, which vehicle programs should carmakers cancel?

We mostly like where GM product was going before they halted everything and Ford has some interesting vehicles in the pipeline for Detroit. As far as we can tell, Chrysler has no realistic new car development programs to cancel — although today's embargoed press event may prove otherwise (we highly doubt it). But, if there's one vehicle we see as both ill-timed and ill-conceived it is the Rolls Royce RR4 or "Baby Rolls" being produced by Rolls Royce/BMW.

Though the company is going to be saving some money by sharing parts with the current 7-series, the money could be better spent elsewhere. In this economy you do well either by trying to squeeze more money from the über rich customers who can still afford your existing product, a la Maserati, or reach out to the value-minded. With dwindling stock portfolios and plummeting home values, it seems more likely someone will trade down from a 7-series to a 5-series and not up from a 7-series up to a Rolls Royce. Rather than trying to create a larger footprint like Jaguar did with their X-type, BMW should be using its serious luxury brand to make it even more seriously luxurious.

(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)



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What's Your Favorite Non-German German Car? [Question Of The Day]

| вторник, 8 сентября 2009 г.

Yesterday, we used the reveal of the Volkswagen Scirocco Studie R to ask the question: "What's Your Favorite Non-Italian Italian Car?" We were pleased with the answers. So why not the inverse? What's your favorite non-German German car?

Once again, those enterprising Germans have made alliances with lots of foreign-to-them car companies. The most obvious recent example is the short-lived German-American Chrysler Crossfire. In Japan, thanks to Karmann, you have the Micra Cabrio. What about the Karmann-built AMC Javelin 79-K for the European market?

These are all fine examples, but does anything have the Super Bruce Potential of the AMG Galant? Before Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach became the in-house tuner for Mercedes, AMG did a bit of out-house work for Mitsubishi. While the car doesn't have a turbo, nor AWD, the FWD version gets new pistons, more aggressive camshafts, a high flow exhaust and some other engine tweaks to raise power to approximately 170 horsepower delivered through a revised 5-speed manual. Additionally, the AMG Galant gets a slick-looking body kit and wheels. And it's a freaking AMG Galant!

(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)

[More photos/info of the AMG Galant at Auto Speed]



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What Domestic Car Are You Going To Miss The Most? [Question Of The Day]

| воскресенье, 23 августа 2009 г.

Despite the pleas for the government (or rich spacemen) to Save GM and other domestic automakers, a federal bailout may not come soon enough, leaving many of these companies to fail. A world without GM, Ford and Chrysler would more than likely mean a world without Camaros, Mustangs, F-150s, Jeeps and Corvettes (well, until Tata buys up the model names at auction to plop on the next-gen Nano). Given the worst possible scenario, what domestic model are you going to miss the most?

You better believe we're going to miss the Pontiac G8 ST even though we've never actually driven it. The potential's there — what with the combination of the Pontiac G8 GT sedan, a vehicle that the General should have been building years ago, with a truck bed. After all of our Maximum El Camino love, how much would it suck to get so close to having a new El Camino and then having it ripped away from us? We'd wear black for a decade. Our new foreign overlords would spare the big truck technology and maintain cars they need, but the awesome truck-car niche vehicles will be the first out the window.

(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)



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What Car Would You Most Like To Thrash On The Track? [Question Of The Day]

| понедельник, 20 июля 2009 г.

Though most of our exotic car fantasies involve a track and bubbly alcohol in a novelty-sized bottle spraying into the air, we also have an alternative fantasy that ends with us hobbling into the pit, smoke spewing from the windows inside the remains of a thoroughly thrashed exotic car. If some cars can only truly be enjoyed at nine-tenths, then eleven-tenths must be that much better. We thought we might be alone with Eddie Griffin in this fantasy until we saw the photos of the wrecked $1 million Gemballa Mirage GT, driven by someone who clearly can afford this kind of track day destruction fantasy. Given the chance to indulge your dark side, what piece of exotic metal would you take to the track and meticulously rip apart in an act of gloriously wasteful destruction?

If we had just one opportunity to rip a car apart we'd take the Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermés, hands down. In addition to the car's cred as one of the fastest production vehicles available, the überluxurious Bugatti costs a cool $2.3 million. It also represents the more-status-than-brains world of car owners who want something exclusively because it is exclusive and could care less about performance. Destroying one by pushing it to the limits on the track would allow the car to briefly live before going out in a blaze of glory. A few hours with this, some forgiving barriers and grass and we could devalue this exotic faster than Lehman Brothers shares. All that would be left is a pile of two-tone bull calfskin and a few pieces of aluminum. It would look something like this. Assuming unlimited track access an unlimited budget and some kind of indestructible safety suit what would you thrash and how would you thrash it?

QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)



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