ON THE TABLE
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 02:01PM March 17, 2010
Toyota. On the one hand, the other auto manufacturers sympathize with Toyota's predicament because they understand all too well that it could mean trouble for the industry at large, in terms of more regulation, etc. They also know that it could just as easily have been them. But Toyota's "scorched earth" incentive barrage that they've unleashed on this market is infuriating everybody. Just when the incentives had become somewhat manageable, here comes Toyota blowing-up the market real good. And it threatens to kill profitability for everybody. Not Good.
Saab Cars North America Inc., Royal Oak. The Detroit News reports that a state economic development panel has unanimously approved a tax credit to help the Saab brand open its North American headquarters in suburban Royal Oak, Michigan. Saab gets a $1.2 million high-technology employment tax break over five years. The News also reports that the company intends to hire 60 employees with an average wage of about $88,000 a year and place them at an industrial building at 4327 Delemere Court between 14 Mile and Normandy, for a total investment of $2.4 million. Saab employees will move in by the end of the month. Every little bit helps around here, so this is a good move.
Publisher’s Note: My “quick take” this week is on the 2010 Audi R8 quattro Coupe super sports car. The R8 isn’t just any car for Audi - no, it’s the tip of the company’s technological spear in the marketplace and the most thoroughly-gifted of all Audis in terms of its relationship to its Le Mans-winning racing machines. The mid-engine 2-seater was stunning in its Phantom Black Pearl effect exterior. At once beautiful and purposeful, the design of the R8 is best experienced while coming at you on the road. It’s then that you become mesmerized by its unmistakable presence, and it’s with this machine that the distinctive Audi design language is most dramatically expressed.
But any thoughts of its elegantly drawn exterior are immediately eclipsed when you fire up its 4.2-liter, direct-injected, 420HP V8, because when you do that, it changes everything. All of a sudden it’s not about the numbers, or the image statement it’s making for the company. Instead you’ve woken a beast that’s now rattling the bars of its cage with its raucous V8 barking and taunting you to let it run. The gated shift lever – as mechanically perfect and elegant looking as any early Ferrari racing car – snicks easily into gear, and when you deign to put your foot in it, it’s as if your whole enthusiast world comes back into sharply defined focus right now.
If you’ve been lulled into thinking that 4- and 6-cylinders are perfectly acceptable in the course of demonstrating responsible enthusiast behavior – and for many of us, that’s true – you owe it to yourself to sit your ass down in one of these. There is nothing, I repeat nothing like the sound of an unruly V8 attached to your right foot threatening all kinds of bad behavior. And when one is placed in such a finely-executed piece as the Audi R8, it makes it all that much more impressive and satisfying.
Yes, the Audi R8 is an expensive car ($114,200.00 base price, paint: $650, Nav: $2200, Premium Package: $2100, gorgeous Tuscan brown leather: $2,000, Bang & olufsen sound system: $1800, piano black interior inlays: $1640, gas guzzler tax: $2100, destination charge: $1200), but take precision German engineering, add a badass All-American-sounding V8 in the back, finish it all off with exquisite design detailing inside and out, and you have one of the most intoxicating combinations of beauty, power and high-performance available today.
As much as I like the ZR1 Corvette – and it is a great car – I would strongly suggest that every last person involved in the next-gen C7 Corvette program study the R8 thoroughly, because ladies and gentlemen, this is simply how it is done.
As I said in this week’s Rant, Audi is relentlessly focused and confident in its mission, it is building great cars – beautiful machines that bristle with passion and engineering ingenuity – finished off with precision and executed flawlessly down to the last detail.
And the R8 is every bit that, and truly a magnificent machine by any measure. - PMD
WE'RE OPENING THE VAULT!
The AE wearables are back - and only in extremely limited quantities and sizes, we might add - and once they're gone, they're gone! We're starting with our most popular items, the classic AE Sweatshirt and AE Hat. Click on a PayPal button below to order yours now! (If you prefer to pay by check, please send us an email with AE STORE in the subject line, and we'll reserve your item.)
AE Sweatshirt - Crewneck, sturdy 80/20 cotton/poly, in black with throwback lettering - the original AE logo in our Chiller typeface shown above. Size XL only. 40 bucks, including shipping. US orders only.
AE Hat - Black with throwback lettering - the original AE logo in our Chiller typeface shown above. 25 bucks, including shipping. US orders only.
Publisher's Note: Check-out John McElroy's daily news show covering everything about the auto biz by clicking on the graphic below. Good stuff guaranteed. - PMD
See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links: Subscribe via iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311421319 http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/podcasts/feeds/afterhours-audio.xml
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