Alizium Auto Blogs: сентября 2009

Toyota is now selling on eBay! Sort of

I wrote yesterday about my desire to buy a car directly from the manufacturer, and skip the entire dealer fiasco.

ebay_motors I won’t repeat my argument for that here, but instead point out a very interesting fact I recently learned: Toyota is selling cars on eBay. So are GM and Chrysler.

You might ask yourself, “How can this be? I thought there were laws outlawing the practice of an automaker selling directly to the public!” Well, you’re right. Don’t get too excited just yet.

An article here says:

Toyota will be listing its pre-owned inventory on eBay, in a move that will put it on the famous auction site with rivals such as General Motors and Chrysler.

On first read, one might assume that Toyota is listing and selling these cars, which is exciting!

Upon further review, though, I found this blog that goes into a little more detail, basically saying that Toyota’s inventory of cars is searchable, but still must be purchased through a dealer.

At the very least Toyota, GM and Chrysler seem to understand the importance of offering their inventory for sale online. But on a quick search of eBay, all I found were ads by dealers begging for a test drive.

So my high hopes of simplifying the car-buying process are dashed and I’ve decided that by posting on eBay, automakers are just trying to generate more leads for struggling dealers. I should’ve known.

Do you think the car buying process should be simplified? Leave us your comments!

-tgriffith

What Would You Write On The World's Dirtiest BMW M6? [Novelties]

Whether or not you count yourself among the literally dozens of fans of BMW flame surfacing, we're pretty sure everyone can agree leaving an oh-so-speedy, V10-powered BMW M6 out in the Dubai sun until it gets this crusty is an affront to automobile ownership. We share the dust taggers sentiments wondering if the owner may be dead, and wishing our significant other was equally dirty. The situation begs the question: What pithy, snide, witty, mean, snarky or otherwise clever comment would you feel inclined to inscribe upon the dirtiest BMW M6 we've ever seen.

[via MadWhips]

Fifth Gear 16×06 Out Now

You can find today’s Fifth Gear right here.

Common Negotiating Tricks the Dealers Use

Dealer tricks If you plan on purchasing a new, or even a used car from a dealer in the near future, there are some tricks that you should be well aware of when you’re about to go out there, and purchase your car. Some people think dealers are shady, while others seem rather comfortable with them. I’ll let you decide on what you think.

“It’s time to make a deal”

Never let the car salesman know that you’re extremely interested in a car. If they see your eyes light up, they are going to pressure you into the sale. If you don’t want to be bothered with the sales crew, I would recommend that you do your research online, and visit the lots when they are closed.

“I need to get my manager”

If you’re the type that loves to make a deal, that’s great! Most of the times though, you’re going to find that the level one sales guy isn’t going to be able to authorize the purchase. Instead of paying full price, you may get double teamed, and that’s okay. Stand your ground, and never be afraid to walk away.

“What else do we need?”

The dealership doesn’t want you to just leave with all the basics. Instead, they want to add all those little goodies in such as the floor mats, alloy rims, and more. If you don’t need them, I wouldn’t recommend that you go out, and add them.

“This deal won’t last”

This is a trick used by many that isn’t even true. In order to get a sale that day, they are going to tell you that it may not last for long. Instead of biting the bullet, and buying that day, you’ll want to wait, because I can almost guarantee you that the same deal will be there at the end of the week.

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Ford, PML Flightlink Hauling Plug-in Hybrid F-150 Pickup To SEMA [Sema]

PML and Ford have been palling around for a while now, most recently to develop the Volvo Recharge C30 concept. Now they've gone in on an in-wheel electric drive plug-in hybrid Ford F-150 concept coming to SEMA. The in-wheel motors are a clever brushed pancake design that act as a part of the wheel and not just another add-in part. We've often thought hybrid tech would be best developed in the pickup market, where high torque matters and light weight and great driving dynamics don't. Don't be surprised if we go poking around this truck when we hit the show floor in Vegas. [Pickuptrucks.com]

The Cars That Ate Paris! [Movies]

So there's this Australian fella, Peter Weir, and he directed movies like Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show, and it's nice that he made a few bucks doing that stuff. But before he hit it big in Hollywood, he made a movie about an Australian town in which the inhabitants cause car crashes in order to loot the wreckage: The Cars That Ate Paris! We haven't seen this one yet, but the trailer (jump to watch it) sure looks promising; check out the blade-festooned armored Beetle! Thanks to Rex for the tip.

AEV HEMI-Powered Jeep Wrangler: First Drive [Jalopnik Reviews]

The new Jeep Wrangler is a damn fine off-road vehicle straight from the factory, but a 202 HP V6 just doesn't quite fit the bill for the folks at American Expedition Vehicles. Remember, this is the same group of guys who built the Hemi-powered SR-392 Roadster and the amazing Brute conversion kit that'll let you turn your Wrangler into an honest-to-goodness Jeep truck. This year at SEMA AEV'll be showing their latest and greatest new toy — the custom shop's dropped a 5.7-liter HEMI V8 into the evergreen off-roader...and then tosses us the keys for an exclusive first drive. That's right, they let us loose in this monster of an off-roader — outfitted with their complete HEMI conversion kit, a Flowmaster exhaust, an Nth Degree three-inch suspension lift, 35-inch BFG Mud Terrain KM2s on a set of their own wheels, 4.88 rear gears, their all-steel heat-extractor hood and a beefy front winch bumper of their own design. The result: A seriously badass Wrangler.

Before we even talk about how the thing drives, it's worth noting the almost ridiculous level of build quality on this conversion. If you didn't know better, you'd think the HEMI was original equipment; in fact, thanks to AEV's connections to Chrysler, it's built using a lot of the same suppliers Chrysler uses. The wiring harness comes pre-tested and everything plugs up to the point that if you patch in a technician's scanner, it'll read as a Wrangler with a HEMI. It's literally as good as if it came from the factory.

But what the HEMI Wrangler is all about is performance, and let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: The price of admission for the AEV conversion kit is worth the exhaust note alone. Firing up that big V8 fills the little cabin with intoxicating levels of awesomeness. Out on the asphalt, the big bad JT actually rides really well for what is in essence a purpose-built rock crawler. That's not to say anyone will mistake it for a sports car, but it certainly will get you where you're going quickly. Since this is Michigan and not Moab, the most off-roading we could do in our short test drive involved some back-country dirt roads — the kind that would swallow a passenger car into its ruts and holes, but only rough enough to test the assembly quality of a rock hopper and not much more.

Up against this measly test, the Wrangler didn't even flinch, providing an almost disturbingly smooth ride. Even with the huge tires, the excellent turning radius found on a stock Wrangler is unaffected. Ride and drive, exhaust note, nice leather seats — that stuff is all well and good, but you know what's really fun? Four-wheel dirt burnouts. Not that we did any of those, or dirt road brake stands. We'd never do stuff like that. But if we did, we would probably report AEV's HEMI V8 conversion turns a stock Wrangler Rubicon, which is pretty good on it's own, into a fire-breathing, mud-spitting, swaggering, snorting, off-road superstar.

It's Time to Go "Back to the Future" the DeLorean is Being Produced Again

The famous time machine car from the three "Back to the Future" movies is going to be produced again after a 25 year hiatus. The DeLorean company was re-established in 1995 and has been refurbishing the cars since then. Next year up to two DeLoreans will be produced per month in Humble, Texas.

Will you buy directly from Ford someday?

I’d like to be able to buy a Fusion from Ford like I buy an iPod from Apple.

Of course, no one can order a new car direct from the manufacturer. Unlike the electronics industry, a myriad of state laws prevent auto manufacturers from selling directly to the public.

These laws, enacted in all 50 states, are designed to protect dealers and ensure they are the only avenue for consumers to purchase new cars. In fact, state laws even prevent auto manufacturers from getting rid of brands without paying an extraordinary amount of money to the dealers selling that brand.

olds For example, when GM dumped Oldsmobile in 2004, it cost them about a billion dollars to pay off Oldsmobile dealers because GM had effectively broken their agreement. (Apparently an automaker is bound to keep a brand forever just because a dealer network exists.) It’s tantamount to state-sanctioned organized crime and needs to end.

I would sure be happy if state laws protected the consumer rather than the dealership… but dealers are strong political groups and have heavy influence in state governments. As a result, they’re guaranteed to be the exclusive channel of distribution for new cars AND are protected against corporate brand reduction.

The only thing that can change them is for people to stop buying cars (unless there’s a law against that somewhere too).

I posted a blog here recently discussing the closure of thousands of dealers across the country as a result of just that. Vehicle sales are so far down that dealers are falling left and right, so now is a prime opportunity for the business to finally evolve. Next we need individual states to step up and revise their dealership franchise laws, allowing a consumer to order a vehicle directly from the company that makes it.

As unlikely as that is, if it did ever happen, dealers would exist for the consumers who want a vehicle immediately and don’t mind choosing from in-stock inventory. But the option to order a new Fusion online directly from Ford, in the perfect combination of color, options and accessories, would be there. All while avoiding the dreaded dealer markup.

Automakers would win because they wouldn’t be bound to a bloated, inefficient network of dealers. Consumers would win because they’d have the freedom of choice. And believe it or not, dealers would win because over time their business would become respected, legitimate and honest.

We want to know: Would you rather buy a car from a dealer or directly from the carmaker? Leave your comments!

-tgriffith

Top Gear Russia 01×08

The team got a boost from a very good translator, Captain Soviet. Thanks to him and the usual team for our subbed version of Top Gear Russia.

Enjoy the episode and discuss it here.

Season 1 is now over and the show returns (hopefully) in autumn.

Four-Links – Checkers, Cityrama, Clutch, collection (of Nissans)

Checkers in Times Square, 1943

* Old street scene photos tell us a lot about the way things used to be, and Shorpy, the old photo blog, is always good for a vintage street scene, such as this 1943 shot of a rainy day in Times Square by John Vachon. We immediately noticed the Checkers with their funky art deco grilles and landaulet bodies lined up along the street. Only one such example of that style of Checker remains in existence today.

Cityrama bus

* Spotted on Jesse’s blog, we had to find out more about the Citroën U55 Currus Cityrama from the film Zazie dans le métro. It seems Citroën built multiples of these stacked buses for sightseers and tourists in paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s, who didn’t mind being ushered about in such a typically post-war French vehicle.

Clutch, the movie

* Looking like a homebrew version of the Fast and the Furious with more muscle cars, Clutch the movie (as opposed to Clutch the band, from which the movie producers seem to have nabbed their logo) seems to be in post production and headed for a release this summer. We’ll try to get our hands on a copy to see if it’s any good. (via)

Nissan Heritage Collection

* I need to brush up on my Japanese (okay, I need to actually learn a bit of Japanese) because the Nissan Heritage Collection just put up a new website. (via)

Citrogarage in Italy

* And finally, not to subject you to too many Citroën-related links this week, but Garage Journal member lucajack2cv posted some incredible shots of the rebuild of his Citroën-housing garage, which is located in northern Italy, and the photos are worth seeing, if only to inspire dreams of your own old Europe-inspired garage.

Coker Tire Challenge: Part 1

I dig Tennessee. And I think the reason I enjoy the area so much is that it reminds me of Austin. The folks are hospitable, timing isn’t all the important, and there’s just a general laid back vibe all around. You gotta dig pretty deep to find anything too pretentious around these parts and frankly, I’m never around long enough to even catch a glimpse of anything less than novel. All in all, it’s a pretty damn good setting for a bunch of old farts in old cars.

I arrived in Chattanooga just last night. Jess Hoodenpyle picked me up at the airport, took me out for some fine BBQ, and then dropped me off at the hotel in order to get ready for the big day today. Having never been to or driven in a “Rally” of any kind, I had no idea what I was in store for. All I knew was that I was to meet my navigator (Jeff) and that he would help me tune my speedometer and show me the ropes.

All morning, I walked around asking folks for Jeff.

“You mean Jeff Stumb? He’s your navigator and you’re a rookie? Boy, he’s competitive. I hope you have your wits about you.”

As I continued my trek around the Coker campus looking for Jeff, I began to take notice of certain peculiarities. For one, this is an older crowd – I’d guess the average age of the competitors to be well over 50. Secondly, their cars featured subtle (and some not so subtle) differences from what I’m typically around. The seemingly avid competitor drives a 30’s era Ford although there are some odd ball makes, models and years around such as 70’s era porsches and even a later model Blazer. It seems to me, most of the diehards and event favorites drive “crazy old” speedsters that look like very early Indy cars and feature the appropriate power plants to boot – flathead fords, 4-bangers, straight sixes of various manufacture, etc…

Most of the cars are covered in decals from past rally events and none of the competitors flinched as tech inspectors added even more for this event. NASCAR would be proud.

Tech inspections continued and I had yet to find my nav man, so I kept walking, exploring, and meeting folks. It seemed like every ten minutes or so that I would meet a 60 to 70 year old man and hear about the story of him and his wife driving their 1917 “so-and-so” from coast to coast multiple times. Most had won what sounded like an important rally in the process. Of course, the conversation would inevitably end with, “Ohhh… You are Jeff’s partner? Hope you’re ready!”

And then, finally… I found Jeff. He wasted no time in getting me acquainted with the car that I was to drive during the event – Corky and Honest Mike’s ‘32 roadster powered by a blown flathead. Within minutes of our meeting, he had me installing what looked like a seriously sophisticated speedometer in the car and buttoning up any lose ends. Half an hour later and we were on the highway calibrating that speedometer.

“Hold it at 50 mph for the next 5 miles. Not 51, not 49… But 50 mph!”

It sounds easy enough, but you try to do it… Especially if you are driving a seriously hopped up flathead that is just begging to go twice that speed. I managed, but just barely.

The question, however, remains… Will I be able to keep hold of these reigns during an entire day of rally racing tomorrow or will I give into my hot rodding heritage and let it rip? And if it’s the later, what are the chances of Jeff strangling me with a piece of bailing wire liberated from my speedo install?

Only time will tell gentlemen. Tune in on Monday to read for yourself.

Note: No idea if I’ll have the time or not, but I might be updating my “from the road” blog here as I rally my ass off.

Rambler Love: Hemmings is full of it

This past Sunday, the Wally Parks NHRA Museum at Pomona was host to the 3rd annual Socal AMC gathering, a show so big that we haven’t seen its like since there were still AMC dealerships (speak for yourself – DS). The bulk of the interest was around the AMX and Javelin models, but there were still Ramblers, Gremlins, a Concord, a Pacer, and the most gorgeous restored Hudson pickup we’ve ever seen. As a bonus, if you were part of the show and entered a car there, you got to go poke around the museum for free. Sweet!

1954 Nash-Healey

As regular blog readers recall, after finding the AMX/3 pushmobile, Tom Delaney envisioned creating replicas, and here he displayed his efforts along that path: a fiberglass replica body and a chassis to go underneath the body.

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