ON THE TABLE

October 5, 2011

Honda. The once-cool Japanese car company insists that its Ridgeline truck will stay despite piss-poor sales. Why?

"Green" cars. In this case pure electric vehicles are falling short of consumer expectations in recent studies. Consumers want something that technology can't provide, like charging in two hours, long range, etc., etc. Pure electrics will remain exactly where they were meant to be all along, as limited-use, niche vehicles.

Pickup Trucks. So what are consumers buying in droves since the pure electric "green" fervor is going to be miniscule and barely noticed? Pickup trucks. Light trucks accounted for 53.8 percent of the market last month.

 Football. BMW becomes the “Official Luxury Car of the Houston Texans” as part of a four-year partnership, continuing through July 2015, and Mercedes-Benz USA will sponsor the Louisiana Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints, through a 10-year agreement that provides official naming rights among other sponsorship benefits including being named the Official and Exclusive vehicle of the NFL’s Saints. During that 10-year period the "Mercedes-Benz Superdome" plays host to the 2012 Men's Final Four and BCS Championship Game and the 2013 Super Bowl. The luxury automakers are betting big on being visible in college and pro football as they try to attract younger buyers. Will it work? It can't hurt.

Editor-in-Chief's Note:  Our AE west coast correspondent, Tom Pease, filed this report about the AltCarExpo that recently took place out in L.A. - PMD

October 5, 2011

It's The Future, for those who can afford it.

By Tom Pease

Beverly Hills. This past Friday was the AltCarExpo in greener-than-thou Santa Monica, and I had to attend.

First off, they needed some serious producer-types helping this event out.  I arrived when it opened and they seemed completely unprepared to actually have people there.  The sign-in table was unmarked and the kids staffing it didn't call me over.  So I was all the way over by the Nissan course before I was told that I had to check in.  Several of the vendors hadn't shown up yet: Coda and the Smart look-alike?  Whatever. But Mercedes?  Really?

Okay after sorting that out I was ready to drive.  I first went to the Leaf, which I had driven before.  I was and still am impressed by it.  It drives like a car, is zippy and even fun as long as you don't put it in EV mode when it becomes an automotive taffy-pull.  It would be a perfect second car for someone whose commute fits in the range.

Mercedes showed up with the F-Cell.  It's based on one of their small cars that isn't sold here.  It was also fairly dreadful.  You had to mash the accelerator to get any forward motion and the regenerative braking was so aggressive that I needed to keep on the go-pedal almost until the stoplight lest I coast to a stop three feet from the crosswalk.

The smart electric drive was there and isn't as dire as I thought it would be having read some of the reviews. There's zero low end on this thing- a good three (heart-stopping) beats before the power comes on, and then it scoots with some alacrity.  It reminded me a bit of an 80's Chrysler 2.2 turbo with its lag.  Since it only has one forward gear, it eliminates the gas-powered cars Achilles heel, the god-awful transmission.  The lease prices are outrageous, but I was assured by the young Mercedes guy that that there was a new model coming with new, Mercedes batteries that will help.  He also showed me a spec sheet that there will be a cabrio version.  I don't know who would buy this, really, as opposed to a Leaf. But there you are.

There was also the Honda Clarity, which the Mercedes people should immediately take for a spin to see how it's done.  The interior is a little to "gee whiz" for me, but the driving experience is wonderful.  The car is peppy, comfortable, stylish and has enough luxury touches that I would buy in a heartbeat.  That is, if there was a place that refueled it.  Actually, it would be nice if people at Honda took a second or third look at it, shoved a supercharged 4 in and added "Accord" badges.

The Prius plug-in was there.  What can I say?  It's a Prius, and you plug it in.  It drives like a Prius.  You get in it and it takes you from where you are to where you want to go.  It does it perfectly and if I had one I know it would perform with drone-like efficiency until something went wrong and it had to be serviced, which wouldn't be often. It would also be as rewarding to drive as as a fiber pill is to eat.  If you're a Prius owner with room for a charger who lives in California, this is your baby since you will qualify to use the carpool lane with one of those stickers.

Ford had the Fusion hybrid, which is easily the most seamless and stealth model of the bunch.  It looks like a bog-standard Fusion to me with a couple of very discrete badges.There's seemingly nothing different in the driving experience either.  So much so that I would choose this over the V-6 (which I confess I have not driven).  For $2K more you get a credible near-luxury car that gets mileage that should only be gotten from one of those penalty-box econocars in a stylish, comfortable and completely acceptable everyday car.

The loneliest man at the even was the guy by the Chevy Cruze.  This might have been the fact that the Volt to this crowd was the sexier draw.  It also might be the fact that the tester was a stick.  They might have put up a sign that this was the Cruze Eco that gets 40 on the highway, mind you.  I've driven the Cruze before and there's a reason that it's a bright spot in Chevy's balance sheet; it's a lot of bang for the buck and it was nice to take the Eco for a spin.  I will write that the Cruze's manual wasn't as flickable as my Civic's, but it was a lot closer than the 500 I drove recently.  Since nobody was much asking to drive it the nice young man let me take it rather further than the limited course.  Not as much as I'd like to, since I was ready to hit PCH and maybe Mulholland.  Chevy needs to make a coupe out of this.  Now, please.

Finally the Volt.  I really like this car.  It brings to the table the benefits of the Leaf with the security of a gas engine.  As the nice young lady pointed out, you can't plan an emergency.  I'm not a parent, but I've had emergency calls to pick up the godchild and I don't think I'd like to have had to leave her cooling her heels at LAX or LACHSA while I charge up.  It also manages to surf a line between all of its competitors. The gas engine takes the "range anxiety" of the Leaf out of the equation.  It has just enough style and luxury to keep it from being the hairshirt that the Prius can seem, doesn't fall into the trap of having controls that are too Star Trek and yet still retains enough individual identity to be known as a Volt.  Because when you're saving the world you don't really want to do it unnoticed.  Caveat?  Why would anyone pay extra for Viridan Joule when it's practically indistinguishable from silver?

Caveat about the whole event?  The morning presentation by Nissan explaining that the battery pack in the Leaf will last less than 100k miles before replacing.  They're expecting that of course there will be breakthroughs in technology that will allow stronger, faster, better ones to replace the old ones.  Or that the old tech will be that much cheaper.  How much cheaper needs to be codified before these cars can be actually be considered eco-friendly.  Because a Leaf (or Volt) that costs $40K and needs a new battery pack ten years down the road seems a lot less viable than a Cruze Eco that costs less and might only need a tune up.

It's the future, for those who can afford it.  How long it will take to trickle down to the rest of us remains to be seen...

(Hyundai)

Hyundai has teamed up with ARK Performance to transform Veloster into a pumped-up rally car. The ARK Performance Veloster will be unveiled at the 2011 SEMA Show to showcase mechanical, interior and exterior modifications including an "open wheel" concept with aggressive fenders and Nitto tires. ARK will also develop Veloster specific parts to showcase the tunability of the engine and vehicle exterior. In other words, bring money.