Thursday, 11 of March of 2010
Love cars? Love travel? Then you're in the right place
Submit your cruise and car show calendar information to laviolette.autoscribe
E-mail a couple of pictures of your car along with some information about it to laviolette.autoscribe
Twitter: michiganwllzDETROIT — Add David Cole to the list of automotive experts who think a modern amphibious car is going to be a tough sell.
Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, said he’s not sure the market for amphibious cars that Gibbs Technologies is counting on is going to be very big.
Date: October 23, 2009
Categories: Amphibious cars, Amphibious vehicles, Automotive trends, CAR (Center for Automotive Research), Uncategorized
DETROIT — A continuing topic of conversation at The Business of Plugging In electric vehicle conference has been fuel cost certainty. Without it, automakers who are investing precious resources into new electric vehicles may have a tough time selling them.
Gov. Granholm wants electric vehicle companies to locate in Michigan
Date: October 21, 2009
Categories: Electric vehicles, General Motors, Technology, Uncategorized, Volt, green
DETROIT — While speakers all across The Business of Plugging in conference are obsessed with fuel economy and reduced emissions and how to get there, John Waraniak just wants to talk about how cars will continue to be fun.
Date: October 21, 2009
Categories: Connected vehicle, Electric vehicles, Technology, Uncategorized, green
Expect smaller Hummers such as the HX concept introduced at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit once Chinese heavy equipment maker Tengzhong completes its purchase of Hummer from GM.
At least Hummer didn’t end up with the same fate as Saturn. And isn’t that funny: The brand known for big, lumbering in-your-face SUVs lives on — with Chinese ownership — while the brand that was supposed to revolutionize American small cars is out. Funny how things work out.
The current version of the Gibbs Aquada is capable of pulling waterskiers in the water, but becomes a road-going car on land at the flip of a switch. Gibbs officials say the production version will look different than this one.
<strong>By Bryan Laviolette</strong>
<strong>AUBURN HILLS</strong> — <a href=”http://www.gibbstech.com/index.php”>Gibbs Technologies’</a> amphibious car project is in limbo as the company continues to work with federal regulators.
<blockquote>Visit Amphibious wllz all week for more from this exclusive interview with Gibbs Chairman Neil Jenkins including news about plans for the company’s Quadski all-terrain vehicle and first-responder vehicles.</blockquote>
Buying a new car can be daunting experience for someone who doesn’t live, eat and breathe this stuff.
Where do you start? There are so many different types of vehicles that even deciding the body style you are seeking can be difficult. Then there are questions about trim levels, engines, transmission choices, not to mention options. Despite all that, some buyers just want to make sure it’s the right color.
Want some input on your next car purchase? E-mail me at laviolette.autoscribe@yahoo.com
My friend, Mark Mayes and his wife, Holly, recently called and asked my opinion about what they should buy to replace Mark’s Ford Mustang, a remnant of his bachelor days.
With two kids, the Mustang isn’t very practical. They need a new vehicle, but what to buy?
Organizers of the annual Woodward Dream Cruise are fond of saying that the event is the world’s largest single-day automotive event. Don’t tell the Dream Cruise folks about this, but there’s just one problem with that statement.
Because their enthusiasm cannot be contained to a single day, many cruisers actually turn Woodward into a rolling classic car show for most of the week leading up to the big day. Cruise officials say that the actual cruise draws as many as 40,000 cruisers and their cars, plus 1.5 million spectators who line Woodward, hooting and hollering as their favorite classic cars trundle by.
By Bryan Laviolette
editor
Michigan wllz
COUNTERPOINT
Earlier this year when Bob Lutz announced his retirement from General Motors, I wondered if his eight years there was long enough to profoundly change the culture of the company or if would it just backslide to where it was before when bean counters seemed to rule.
So, when the 77-year-old Lutz announced that he would stay on at GM — this time in charge of marketing instead of product development as he had done before — I was thought it was a good move.
To read the piece my old friend Scott Anderson wrote for Automotive Production and Design, you’d think GM just brought back the much-maligned Roger Smith, GM CEO from the 1980s.
TRAVERSE CITY — Future vehicles will be connected in ways some people never thought possible, but it’s a treacherous road those in the industry are traveling.
Panelists speaking at the Center for Automotive Research’s annual Management Briefing Seminars autos conference agreed that liability and driver distraction issues need to be resolved as the technology moves forward.
But there are no concrete answers now, said Tim Johnson, who works on in-vehicle connectivity and telematics for Sprint Nextel.
“It’s an enormously important question right now,” Johnson said. “We need to find a way that (information) can be ingested sensibly and safely inside the vehicle.”
A 1939 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by Figoni & Falaschi, left, and a 1934 Packard V-12 Sport Sedan won Best of Show honors at Meadow Brook Concours. Photo by Greg Migliore
The Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by Figoni & Falaschi won in the European category, while the Packard V-12 Sport Sedan by Dietrich, a ghost of Detroit’s luxury car-making past, returned to grab top honors among the American products.
The Delahaye, a drop-dead gorgeous maroon showpiece dripping in chrome and set off with yellow headlights, also won the People’s Choice award. It’s from the Peter Mullin Automotive Foundation. Delahaye was a French luxury-car company that disappeared after World War II.
The stately Packard had 160 hp and was from the collection of Ray Scherr. It was an encore victory for him, as his 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Spider Touring also won best of show in the European class in 2007.
A 1938 Brough Superior SS-100 owned by Jack Wells won best of show in the motorcycle field.
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090802/CARNEWS/908029994#ixzz0N8J5dPIj
