Editorials
How I Almost Drove a Tesla Roadster – But Didn’t
The Tesla Roadster, now ramping up its production, isn't quite as hard for journalists to get a test drive in as it had been a year ago, but it's still a pretty good...
CVTs are Like a Disease
By Chris Haak 04.28.2009 As David Wright pointed out yesterday in his piece on the Honda Fit vs. the Honda Civic, we do not commute to work or run errands on paper - we do so in...
Is the smart fortwo Doomed in the US?
By Chris Haak 04.16.2009 Daimler AG's minicar subsidiary, smart, has been selling its minuscule two-seat vehicles to style-conscious, city-dwelling Americans for a couple of...
Is Hyundai’s Formula the Recipe for US Sales Success?
By Chris Haak 4.16.2009 The CarGurus Blog proposed this week that if you want to succeed in the auto industry, you should do try copying Hyundai. Their post is focused mainly...
No Niche Left Untouched: Are High-Performance SUVs Brand Killers?
By Chris Haak 04.07.2009 This week, BMW is displaying its X5 M and X6 M hot-rod sport-utility vehicles at the 2009 New York International Auto Show; while this is the first time...
Check Your Mirrors
TOYOTA's board of directors has changed its mind and replaced President-in-waiting Akio Toyoda with the newly available Rick Wagoner, formerly of General Motors. Reached for...
Who’s the Renegade PR Person at Chrysler?
By Chris Haak 03.31.2009 Perhaps lost among yesterday's flurry of GM- and Chrysler-related announcements and news releases from each company, the President's Task Force on...
What’s the Point of a Lifted Truck?
I've been on an interesting streak this past week. Literally every day either on my way into the office or on my way home, I have encountered the same white Ford F-250 traveling...
Dealership CSI Scores Are a Customer Irritant
By Chris Haak 03.21.2009 Although I already wrote about the furor that has been growing over dealership CSI scores a year and a half ago, this week I was reminded by just how...
Study Says Buyers Cross Struggling GM, Chrysler Off Their Shopping Lists
By Chris Haak 03.20.2009 Although as a rule I always take any research conducted by CNW Marketing Research with a grain of salt (after their Swiss cheese-porous argument that a...