B-Class Cars?

Besides the Flex, the other vehicles that inerest me are the Chevrolet small-car triplet Beat/Trax/Groove. These are fresh and practical looking small cars, which would have as good a chance as any of being a success, if Americans would be willing to buy small cars. (Image courtesy of AutoBlog. Cutie not included)

Which they aren't.

Despite the current meme that Americans are dumping SUVs for cars (only partly true), there is not a groundswell of demand for very small cars. Americans don't want small, fuel efficient cars, they really want cheap gas. Absent cheap gas, they want large cars and mid-size SUVs to replace their large SUVs.

There are some small cars which do well because they fill a specific niche. The Mini, for example, or the upcoming Smart. Others, like the Yaris (son of the abominable Echo) only really appeal to people who can't afford something better, or rental car fleets. Smart, by the way, has not been profitable since its inception in its home market.

On the regulatory side, the new CAFE calculations, which use a vehicle's footprint to calculate fuel economy targets rather than an arbitrary number, should give manufacturers the flexibility to avoid b-cars and concentrate on improving the efficiency of their larger vehicles.

The Ford Flex in NY

One of the more interesting vehicles to come out of the New York Auto Show is the production intent version of the Ford Fairlane concept "people mover", renamed to Flex. I like it, but I do have the requisite "buts".

Likes:

• Distinct, clean, modern design. Cues from Land Rover, classic station wagons of old, and the "427" theme. I like the white roof. Nice wheel proportions.
  
• Long wheelbase, lots of room for 2nd row passengers.
• Decent interior design.
  
• User programmable color lighting.
  
• Standard electronic stability control and side curtain airbags
• Capless fuel filler, which uses a rotating valve instead of a screw-off cap
• Lock keypad hidden in black b-pillar, with backlit buttons. Slick.
• Sync driver interface with a hard drive for storing MP3s onboard.
• The new aluminum 3.5L V6, 260HP

Buts:

• The name. "Flex" doesn't strike me as very elegant. It may also confuse some people that the Flex is not a FFV (Flexible Fuel Vehicle). On the other hand, Ford could make a Funk Master Flex edition of the Flex.
  
• The (predicted) price. Ford hasn't announced a price, but I doubt they will sell this for much less than the mid-range Edge or the Freestyle/Taurus X. I'm betting this will start at just below $30k and will probably option out north of $35,000. Not the most affordable people mover, compared to the basic minivans of yesteryear.
  
• The optional refrigerator. The cooler is located in the 2nd row, and if purchased will remove the middle seat of the 2nd row. The driver can't reach the cooler in that location. I like Chrysler's cooled glovebox design better.
• The 7th passenger (if the cooler is not installed) appears to sit on a very narrow bench seat, probably only suitable for a kid. This is not true three-across seating, like in a minivan, but more like 2-and-a-half across.
• Suicide doors, like on the concept, would have been neat.
• The center stack design looks rather plain.
• Is this vehicle sufficiently different from a Taurus X (F.K.A. Freestyle)? Will Ford have two very similar vehicles competing for the same buyers?
  

Beware Of Birds

Birds and high performance cars don't mix much better than birds and planes. The windshield did a good job staying solid!

Al Gore: KWh Bandit

An enterprising Tennessee organization called the Tennessee Center for Policy Research did a little bit of digging into Al Gore's personal energy consumption. According to the utility bills, Gore's McMansion uses 20 times the energy of the average American house.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year.

And, do you know where most of that energy is coming from? Coal. Heh.

66 Mustang Limo

A waste of a perfectly good old Mustang? Perhaps. But it does have a strange charm to it. For sale on eBay.

Why Buy Chrysler?

Speculation is rampant about who may buy the Chrysler group from DCX. The Detroit News reports one rumor that GM is considering buying out Chrysler.

I'm not seeing it.

Where is GM strong? SUVs (Hummer, GMC, etc), crossovers, trucks, high end luxury cars, large family cars, sports cars (Corvette, coming Camaro) and economy cars (Aveo, Cobalt). Where is Chrysler strong? SUVs (Jeep), minivans, trucks (Ram), large family cars (300 family), sports cars (Viper, upcoming Challenger?), economy cars (Caliber family).

Both companies are weak on near-luxury (Buick) and moderately priced mid-sized cars.

Where would the "synergy" be, to use the management buzzword of the decade? GM needs viable mid-sized cars, not more trucks. The only Chrysler properties that would make sense for GM to buy would be Jeep, because of the obvious Hummer/Jeep tie-in and a corner on the hard-core off-road market, and maybe the minivan lines.

In addition, Chrysler brings bloated inventories, cranky UAW locals, debt, too many dealers, pension and healthcare obligations--in other words, more of the same problems GM already has.

If Chrysler is spun off from DCX, I would expect that it would be bought by an overseas company which wants a larger presence in SUVs and trucks (Hyundai), or a private investment group.

MI AG, Mike Cox, Rocks!

Michigan's attorney general, Mike Cox, has issued a ruling effectively banning automated red-light ticket cameras in MI.

Cox's legal opinion rekindled the debate over the growing number of red-light cameras, which are used in 22 states and 200-plus communities nationwide. They can't be installed in Michigan because state law only lets police cite motorists after personally seeing a violation, with an exception for cameras at railroad crossings, Cox said.

I thought his tussle with big-dog trial attorney and Democrat loudmouth Jeffrey Feiger was odd and distasteful, but I love how Cox walks the conservative walk.