Some recent severe weather while I was driving Mazda’s RX-8 sports car made me reflect on how the waning of rear-wheel drive in modestly priced cars has affected our very driving abilities. We have all come to rely on the car so much to save us from our own mistakes, we’ve lost our own self-reliance—even our hard-won car control skills. When I was a newly minted driver in 1985, many—if not the majority—of my friends’ first cars where rear wheel drive. And we grew up in rural New England, on curvy back roads that where covered in ice and snow for much of the winter months. Yet I don’t remember our parents freaking out every time the white stuff fell, and none of my friends perished in the carnage of a car wreck, despite our raging hormones, angst and anger, and lack of experience. As someone who has taught racing and high performance driving, I firmly believe much of the credit for this goes to the basic car control we learned piloting cars whose back wheels provided propulsion. We learned how to steer ‘into the skid’, tame oversteer, and correct skids. But as front wheel drive took ...

Chrysler Corp builds some good vehicles: the Ram trucks, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the 300/Charger/Challenger lineup. But many of their efforts have been half-hearted; combined with the economic downturn, these cynically cheap cars made the company’s business case untenable, resulting in bankruptcy. We’re on the eve of the New (New) Chrysler’s resurrection, taking place under the firm guidance of Fiat’s hardass genius, Sergio Marcchione. Such bottom feeders as the Jeep Compass and Dodge Caliber are destined for radical redoes or oblivion. Others, such as the midsize Chrysler Sebring and Jeep Liberty, are set to undergo thorough makeovers. While the Jeep may keep its name, the Chrysler is already been renamed 200, with new front and rear styling and new mechanicals and a new interior. Initial reports suggest it is a huge leap over the current model. That’s a great thing, as I’ve just finished a week with a Sebring convertible, and recently had a Liberty, and neither was competitive. But what each had was a big piece of retractable cloth overhead, and that made a substantial difference to the driving experience. Which got me thinking: can a soft top save a bad car? There ...

A new client, referred by some happy customers, called me yesterday for help in finding a used vehicle. I asked him what he was looking for, but before he answered, he launched into a five minute diatribe about how he just ‘couldn’t believe’ that with the economy in such bad shape, used car and truck prices were so high. He went on to say that everything he thought was ‘fairly priced’ was junky; vehicles in nice condition appeared to be selling over bluebook prices. I tried not to chuckle; ironically I had just read another article from industry bible Automotive News that broke down exactly the factors causing this very situation—and which concluded that it will only get worse! Indeed, the biggest challenge for brokers such as myself right now is finding the cars, trucks, and SUVs our clients want. I can’t come close right now to meeting the needs of the folk I’m working with, such is the sorry state of used car inventories. The reason is pretty simple: supply and demand. Though new cars sales are way down (10.8-11.5 million is the projection for this year), used car numbers aren’t. But there are substantially smaller numbers ...

Sales of used, certified cars, trucks, and SUVs has been on a long-term rise. CPO vehicles seem to make sense: avoid the sharp drop that most new cars suffer when they drive off the lot, yet have the peace of mind that comes with a thorough inspection and long term warranty, backed by the manufacturer. Yet a couple of recent transactions have made me investigate things further. A few weeks ago, I had a client switch from the new 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan he had been planning, to a used, certified one. There was nothing wrong with that: it was an exceptionally clean 2008 Limited model with only 12,000 miles on it. But when we investigated what was covered by Toyota over the long term, we were both disappointed. While Toyota offers a comprehensive, 3-month, 3,000 warranty, this minivan’s remaining 3/36 bumper-to-bumper coverage made it redundant. And while the 7yr/100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty that comes on Toyota CPOs is decent, it left the owner exposed to so many potential issues, like failures of the Sienna’s power sliding doors, DVD, or navigation, that he asked me if going the CPO route was indeed the best option. So we ...

Yesterday the Obama administration signed new regulations targeting the fuel efficiency of the cars, trucks, and SUVs we drive. Most of the details of the new deal were announced last September, but it’s worth revisiting them, and what they’ll mean to all of us. 2016 model cars will have to average 37.8mpg; pickups, SUVs, and minivans 28.8mpg. The weighted ‘fleet average’ for all vehicles will be 35.5mpg (according to the EPA, other agencies rank things differently, adding to the confusion and cost). That’s up from today’s 27.3mpg. Progress doesn’t come free, of course. Most of the ‘low hanging fruit’ has already been plucked to get us to where we are. Now, we’ll see more expensive engineering solutions to make new cars roughly 30% more efficient. Things like direct injection, 6-speed and twin-clutch gearboxes, active aerodynamics, hybrid and diesel engines, and more use of aluminum and other lightweight materials all have dollar values. The federal government says the average car will cost consumers $926 more; environmental groups concur. Most everyone in the car business and at independent consulting firms disputes this; their estimates range from $2000 to $8000 more depending on the vehicle, with an average of ...

Camrys, ES350s, and Prii are deathtraps. Going on a trip in one is like vacationing in Kandahar. Innocents are being abused by a big bad company, whose goal is to lower the resale value of the cars, trucks, and SUVs they bought—so they’re suing Toyota. Sounds a bit absurd, when you put it that way, no? Though not all the evidence is in, it appears that, yes indeed, driver error may be behind many of the crashes—or at least could have contributed in a major way. Even in severe cases, like that of an off-duty CHP officer, who was killed when (apparently) the floor mat in his Lexus jammed the accelerator down. Though officer Saylor had the presence of mind to call 911, he didn’t think to put the Lexus’ transmission into neutral. Under the terrifying circumstances, that misallocation of mental resources is perhaps understandable, though fatal. More damning to the cause of those out for blood, the case of James Sike’s runaway Prius in San Diego appears to be fraudulent, after investigation by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Wall Street Journal report on that investigation says that its brakes “weren’t applied at ...

As the general media’s coverage of Toyota’s recent travails became more and more absurd (constant rehashing of quotes from so-called ‘Experts’ who only wanted the chance to rant, yet had no substantial science to back up their claims of electronic interference or the like), and our elected representatives grandstanded for the cameras and microphones, trying to deflect attention from their record-low approval ratings by castigating the Japanese giant’s execs, I realized that I really wanted to just drive some of Toyota’s cars and trucks. This isn’t a manufacturer like Honda, whose entire lineup is comprised of only a few sedans and crossovers, and a unibody pickup. Toyota is a monster, whose portfolio has expanded to almost match the amazing breadth and depth of offerings from competitors like GM, with sixteen basic lines alone for the Toyota brand. Add to that the Scion ‘youth’ brand, and Lexus, who retained its crown as the number one mover of luxury metal Stateside last year, and you get a sense of the company’s size and the diversity of its product portfolio. No doubt this is part of what led to engineering and quality lapses over the past several years. We’re talking a massive ...

Since 1982, one organization has stood as American drivers’ only real line of defense against the egregious perversions of road ‘justice’ perpetrated on us by politicians and bureaucrats, and the insurance lobby that backs them: the National Motorists Association. They’ve fought the good fight, keeping the joyless foes of freedom from saddling us with other witless legislation, such as the 1970’s 55mph National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL). But their small voice of rationalism is often lost in the cacophony of the ‘Speed Kills!’ rants that help support so much money-grubbing lobbying. What helps keep them going is that the facts are firmly on the NMA’s side. Rational road laws designed by traffic engineers—not political apparatchiks or lobbyists—increase safety and decrease accidents. The ‘Safety Nazis’ and the people who benefit from their actions just took another body blow to their hyperbole, when reports came out about the effects of a speed limit increase to 80mph on certain sections of Interstate-15 in Utah. Despite the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments expected when the roads ran red with blood (I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but have you ever heard Joan Claybrook or others ...

In the 1980s Audi was almost bankrupted by media frenzy about ‘sudden acceleration’. By the time 60 Minutes and other news outlets sheepishly admitted the truth—that the condition didn’t actually exist and that the fault was with the drivers, not the cars—it was almost too late. It took two decades for Audi’s sales to recover to pre-fiasco levels. Is history repeating? The current uproar really got started when an off-duty police officer, driving a loaned Lexus ES350, crashed, killing himself and the other three people on board. Minutes before this tragic event, someone in the car called 911, saying that the “accelerator is stuck…there’s no brake.” This struck me as very odd: there aren’t any production cars that have engines so powerful they can overcome standing on the brakes—especially a V6 sedan with 268hp. So when I got the new issue of Car and Driver I read with interest their take. They tested three different vehicles, including the ES350’s twin, the Camry, and found that, from 70mph, with the accelerator pinned, stopping distances increased 16 feet (which is still shorter than many other cars, trucks, or SUVs under normal conditions. They also confirmed that you ...

At the turn of the century the ‘Big 3’ were riding high: huge sales and even grosser profits drove Chrysler, Ford, and GM to think they could do no wrong—or that whatever sins they did commit would be washed away in a flood of black ink. Americans were in love with SUVs and trucks, and drunk on the cheap gasoline that propelled them. No one steering these corporate behemoths seemed to see the rocks ahead. Now referred to as the Detroit 3, they’ve watched their market share erode to only 44% of a much smaller market; foreign firms gobbled up an astonishing 21% over those years. Automotive News says the domestics sold 6.8 million fewer vehicles in 2009 than they did in 2000. The pain (and ineptitude) look even more obvious when you realize that the drop in the overall new car market between those two years was about 7 million vehicles, meaning that, basically, import brands stayed flat in a market down 40% while Detroit crashed and burned. I’ve seen this reflected in the brokering I do; there was a time when the inventory we stocked, or trades we kept, were split about 50/50 domestic to import. Now, ...