A two-seat convertible like the 911 Turbo Cabrio that accelerates to 60 miles per hour in four seconds and carries a sticker price of $154,050 would seem like an irrelevance in these days of $4 gasoline and difficult economic times.
Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet
It is – except to two important constituencies: Porsche and its customers. Against all logic, the 911 line of rear-engine sports cars continue to be the most popular Porsches, outselling the less-expensive Boxster two-to-one. As the most expensive 911, the Turbo Cabrio thus becomes the flagship of the Porsche brand and an aspirational target for its buyers. If you are dying to have a Porsche, you might as well pop for the top of the line.
The “arctic silver metallic” car I drove recently effortlessly satisfield both parties. It is one of the most strikingly handsome cars on the road, with a tailored front-end, bulging rear flanks, and tasteful spoiler far more refined than [...]
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2009 Lincoln MKS
Dating exactly when Lincoln fell out of the luxury-car category is difficult – but fun.
You could start with the 1977 Versailles, a version of the Ford Grenada that was started up with a vinyl roof and bumper-mounted spare tire. Or maybe it was those short-lived pickup trucks, the Blackwood and the Mark LT, that staggered under the Lincoln star and excessive sticker prices.
My personal answer to the question ‘”What killed Lincoln?” is the corporate reorganization in the 1990s under CEO Jac Nasser that led to the Premier Automotive Group. A slug of money was allotted to Lincoln so that it could develop an exclusive large sedan, known internally as “The Flagship,” to relaunch the brand. But a recession arrived before “The Flagshp” did, and Lincoln was reduced to marketing knockoffs of Ford (F) division models like the Fusion and Edge. Their heritage was little disguised by Lincoln’s decision to adopt [...]
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As Ford Motor burns its deck chairs so that it can stay afloat, Jaguar, along with its British stable mate Land Rover, has been sold off to India’s Tata Motors. But Jaguars continue to be built in Coventry, its ancestral home. So the special qualities infusing Jaguars that the come from the air, water, and heritage of the English Midlands continue to be integral to the Jaguar experience.
Jolly good, I say. None of the late 20th century Jaguar sedans were particularly appealing, inasmuch as they appeared to be a combination of backward-looking design and insufficiently forward-looking ergonomics and packaging. Not so the XK coupe and roadster that went into production in 1996 and continues on to this day. Whatever they may have lacked in benchmark engineering, they more than made up for in presence and panache.
The highest and best expression of those qualities can be found in the 2009 XKR convertible in [...]
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From an objective point of view, Saab has no reason to exist any longer. The Swedish manufacturer “born from jets” has been controlled by General Motors (GM) for nearly two decades and has been in steady decline for just about the entire time.
This year, Saab ranks only 36th among the most popular brands in the U.S. – behind Smart! - and its sales have shrunk by one-third in the past 12 months. Lesser known but equally disheartening is the Saab quality story. This year, Saab finished 31st among 36 brands surveyed by J.D. Power for initial quality, reflecting problems reported by owners after they have driven the car for 90 days.
To add injury to insult, Saab’s aren’t even Swedish any more. The 9-3 convertible I drove recently was assembled in Austria with an engine from Australia, a transmission from Japan, and other parts that are 33% German in origin. Sweden [...]
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Americans fell in love with the Volkswagen Beetle in the 1960s, but VW did almost everything it could to alienate their affections, from erratic product quality to the absence of cupholders. And did anybody mention the ill-starred $70,000 Phaeton?
Now, after 40 years of starts, stops and incompletes, VW, the largest auto producer in Europe, is finally getting serious about the U.S. market again. It is starting to pay attention to the wants and needs of American customers; it’s building an assembly plant in Tennessee to protect itself from currency fluctuations; and it is reworking its product line with American tastes in mind. The results of its efforts are showing up in the monthly sales reports. While overall U.S. sales fell 15.5% in August, VW’s were up a fraction of a point.
One of the reasons for the increase is the 2009 VW Tiguan, a compact crossover sport utility that went on sale [...]
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For as long as I can remember, Mazda has been threatening to break into the top tier of Japanese brands (Toyota, Honda, Nissan) but never quite making the grade. Despite the enduring success of the MX-5 Miata sports car, and clever new crossovers like the CX-9, Mazda has been a perpetual also-ran, more frequently ranked with Subaru than the industry leaders. While the others were collecting medals, Mazda has had to be content with an honorable mention.
What’s been holding Mazda back has been a weak dealer body, indifferent quality, and the lack of a strong midsize vehicle like the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord or Nissan Altima. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Mazda sold the 626 here beginning in 1979, and then replaced it with the Mazda6 in 2002.
The Japanese automaker takes another crack at upgrading itself this fall with the launch of the all-new Mazda6. To give the 6 a proper sendoff, Mazda [...]
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A famous Fortune magazine cover from 1983 shows a birds-eye view of a Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick parked side by side. With identical hoods, trunks, and greenhouses, the all-but-indistinguishable sedans make a mockery of Alfred P. Sloan’s famous brand ladder, in which customers would start with a Chevy and work their way through the GM lineup to a Cadillac. Many people use that cover, which was reprinted in Automotive News as recently as last week, to date the beginning of the downfall for GM’s autonomous divisions. Why do you need four separate brands if they are attached to what is, essentially, the same car?
I had the same thought when I compared the specifications of the 2009 Nissan Maxima (pictured above) I drove recently against the 2009 Nissan Altima. Nissan freely admits the two cars are built off the same platform, but I was unprepared for the degree of similarity between them:
– Length: At 190.6 inches, the Maxima is just [...]
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Model-line quality data compiled by JD Power and Associates finds its way into the media only rarely because the California survey firm guards it to avoid embarrassing clients.
So when Power’s 2008 Initial Quality numbers for midsize cars leaked recently, they warranted some further scrutiny. And parsing the numbers reveals some surprising developments
First, some background: For years, Power has been measuring the quality of cars after 90 days of ownership by surveying their owners. Everything counts the same: A malfunctioning ashtray is tabulated with the same weight as a seized engine. In the last couple of years, Power has been subdividing the complaints into design problems and defects/malfunctions but the totals remain comparable with previous years – and carries enormous bragging rights.
As long as I can remember, Japanese manufacturers have been regarded as the gold standard in quality. No more. This year’s IQS winner in the midsize segment, by a healthy [...]
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As auto sales have cratered, some manufacturers and models have suffered more than others. Exhibit one is the Ford Flex. A brave attempt at rethinking the concept of the people-mover, the Flex has stalled at the starting gate. Its failure could cause some serious rethinking at Ford about its design and marketing, as well as at its competitors who are introducing similar vehicles. Did somebody say “Chevy Traverse?”
Production of the Flex began in early June and television advertising popped shortly thereafter. Rather than focus on the vehicle’s soccer-mom attributes or its novel, flat-roofed, channeled-side design. Ford went a different direction. Really different. Recent Ford models have come off as a bit stodgy, so marketers decided to position the Flex as kind of a dance club on wheels. It was photographed against an inky nighttime background and shown from the front so its extreme length (it has three rows of seats) was [...]
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Whenever she came down with a case of the mean reds, Holly Golightly ran down to Tiffany’s for breakfast. Car dealers should be so lucky. If they haven’t fallen into catatonic shock this week, they aren’t paying attention. October sales are running a stunning 40% below a year ago, and GMAC announced that it would no longer provide credit to less than the best customers – thereby removing one quarter of the potential owners from the market.
A shortage of buyers is not likely to be a problem for the Honda Fit, one of the smallest, most stylish – and yet most utilitarian cars on the market. Sales have been rising steadily since the Fit arrived here from Japan in 2006. Through September, Honda had sold 63,638 Fits, up from 41, 085 in 2007, and even at that, demand was limited by supply. Expect about 85,000 Fits to find homes in [...]
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