Buick

1. The 200 is the wrong car. No one confused the old Sebring with luxury and this car is an upgrade, but not a completely-new model. The 300 is Chrysler’s big, stylish, pseudo-luxury car for the gangsta set. No way Eminem drives a 200. His bag man probably wouldn’t drive a 200. The 300 would have been a better choice.

2. We didn’t see enough of the car. The ad is expertly shot and brings to life the idea of a tough and resurgent Chrysler and Detroit. It shows a side to the human side to Motown that most outsiders don’t know, but it shows so little of the car that it’s tough to conclude that Detroit, or more specifically Chrysler, can do luxury.

3. To the rest of the nation watching the Super Bowl, Chrysler is struggling to make it back and Detroit as a city has been left for dead. Trying to raise the prospects of both in one ad is, shall we say, extremely ambitious.

4. Troubled American car brands need to get away from gritty Detroit imagery. No one needs reminding that Detroit is a city in serious trouble and that two of the Big Three would have disappeared if not for a government bailout. Domestic brands have to change the conversation for generations of Americans who abandoned them years ago and for young consumers who don’t know them. Ford has been plugging quality and technology like Sync. Chevrolet and Buick have been talking about fuel economy, Bluetooth and 40-gig hard drives in the dash. Both ideas are getting traction.

Chrysler can boast that the 2-minute ad, which is long for a Super Bowl commercial, got the new car some much-needed attention. Auto research website Edmunds.com said that after the ad aired, 1,619% more people (about 8,300 in total) went to the site to look at the 200 than typically search for it on a Sunday evening. The problem with the comparison is that few people were looking at the car to begin with. Edmunds says that 681 people on average were shopping the car before the ad aired. An average of 15,911 typically shopped for the competing Hyundai Sonata. Will these new visitors buy the car? That will be the real test. The Sebring sold fewer than 25,000 cars last year. For comparison, Ford sold 219,000 of the competing Fusion. Chrysler got some sizzle with the ad, but there may not be enough substance to generate sales.

Most significant: Honda showed off a new concept car that is, more or less, going to be the new 2012 Civic when it goes on sale this spring. You can tell by the aggressive curves in the car that Honda is trying to get its mojo back. Honda’s market share fell to 10.6% in 2010 from 11% the year before. The Civic is a perennial winner for the company and vital to its success. Styling has never been the Civic’s calling card. This one takes a bold step with a fast backward-sloping roofline and some curves in the side panels that reminded me a bit of a Hyundai Tiburon. More important for Hondaphiles, the car has the company’s vaunted i-VTEC engine and a hybrid option will be available. We’ll see if its bold new look will get any love from outside Honda’s loyal followers.

Biggest turnabout: You’ve heard the clichA(c) “as big as a Buick.” It comes from a description of a spider in Woody Allen’s film “annie Hall.” I doubt anyone will say “as small as a Buick” when the compact Verano goes on sale late this year, but the 2012 Verano compact tells us where carmakers think the market is headed. General Motors figures fuel will only get more expensive and that luxury buyers will want creature comforts without shelling out a fortune for gasoline. The car’s 177-horsepower engine will get 31 miles per gallon on the highway with the 2.4-liter engine. A 2-liter turbo model comes later. The Verano will be an interesting test. Can Buick, which grew 52% last year, sell small cars to younger luxury buyers? On the surface it’s a tough sell. But who would have thought a year ago that the Lacrosse sedan would be one of the hottest cars on the market?

Pick of the show: The Mini Paceman is my pick for the best design at the show. It’s Mini’s future crossover SUV and it probably it is dead one for the brand. It’s stylish, sporty, has a bit more space than a Mini Cooper but can go off-road. Stylistically, the two-door Paceman is an athletic version of the Countryman, Mini’s existing crossover suv. The two-door Paceman doesn’t look as upright as its more practical forebear. In the rear, it has haunches like it’s going to pounce. The concept had Mini’s 1.6-liter turbo engine used in the John Cooper Works performance cars and the ALL4 all-wheel drive system. That’s a strong hint that the Paceman will offer both as options. That will make it an off-roader with tire-burning potential. One bonus: They will probably ditch the Paceman name. Mini USA President Jim McDowell said in an interview that, onfortunately, consumers associate it with ’80s video-game sensation Pac Man.

The comeback kid: Beating up on Toyota is a favorite pastime these days, what with their quality woes, lost market share and fallen image. I’ll give the company some accolades. The Prius c concept takes a hybrid franchise known for its egg-shaped fuel sippers and takes it out on the edge. The car leans forward like it’s in motion. The headlights are pushed up the hood and closer to the windshield as if the car is barreling down the highway. The car has shoulders, which makes it look more muscular. This car will come to market in the first half of 2012. One word of caution: There is no telling how much of the concept car’s edgy design will make it to the showroom.

Ford gets in the game: Nissan and GM have a jump on Ford in the green-car game. Next year, Ford will make a big statement with the C-Max Energi, a five-passenger plug-in hybrid small SUV that the automaker says will get better fuel economy that the Chevy Volt. Untested fuel economy ratings are always suspect; the Volt gets 37 mpg if it runs the gas tank dry. GM may even upgrade the Volt before the C-Max Energi goes to market. But it still looks like a good package. It’s more spacious that the other EVs and hybrids on the market and can go 500 miles using a full battery charge and tank of gas.

Hyundai makes a bold statement: The Hyundai Veloster will go on sale in 2012 as a boldly-styled three-door coupe that promises to be a fun ride that gets 40 mpg on the highway. It doesn’t need a hybrid-electric system to do it, either. It mates a dual-clutch transmission with a direct-injection 1.6-liter engine to maximize fuel economy. The interior is inspired by sporty motorcycles. This could be a hit with younger buyers given the curvy styling and fuel economy. Hyundai has moved well beyond selling just on price.

Biggest snoozer: And last, the new Volkswagen Passat is the German carmaker’s attempt to offer more value and become a big-volume seller in the U.S. market. The company only has 2.2% of the market, so it is dropping the price of the Passat by some $7,000 to get close to $20,000. The cabin looks like a VW, with well-crafted appointments and a certain German precision to the construction. On the outside? There isn’t much to it. The sides of the car are pretty flat. The back end reminds me of a Saab. Overall, the Passat is undistinctive. The selling point is affordable German engineering with options like a 2-liter diesel engine that is expected to get 43 mpg on the highway. That will have to win buyers because the design won’t turn many heads.

The mood in Detroit is considerably better at this year’s North American International Auto Show than it was a year ago when General Motors was hunting momentum and Chrysler’s very survival was in question. I’ll get into the new models and concept cars as they roll out. In the meantime, here are a few notable comments from the auto executives I tracked down at the show.

Chrysler going public
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said he wants to take Chrysler public in the second half of this year. Fiat won’t sell any of its Chrysler stock. The sellers will be the United Auto Workers retiree healthcare trust, and possibly the U.S. Treasury Department and Canadian government.

The Italian automaker owns 25% of Chrysler. The UAW owns 63.5% of Chrysler. The U.S. Treasury holds 9.2%, while Canadian municipalities have a 2.3% stake. Marchionne told reporters that he wants to pay back $7.5 billion in debt to the U.S. and Canadian governments in 2011 and then go public. Following GM’s successful IPO, Marchionne says Chrysler can launch its IPO following a couple quarters of profitability. “I’d love to do it in the second half of this year.”

IPO yes, but electric cars… maybe not
Marchionne bucked the trend among auto executives by casting some doubt on the potential of electric cars. Fiat plans to sell an electric version of its tiny 500 hatchback, he said. But that’s not where the market will be. If carmakers want to meet fuel economy regulations and boost efficiency, they’re better off just wringing more mileage out of gasoline engines, he said. “I’m reluctant to embrace full electrics as a solution,” Marchionne said. “The dollars spent for reduction in fuel use is not there. We have to be careful not to chase a rainbow.”

BMW’s U.S. boss throws down the gauntlet
BMW and Audi have gone toe to toe with their advertising efforts, taking shots at each other in the past. Audi had a billboard featuring the A4 that read, “Your move, BMW.” In response, BMW put up its own billboard for the 3-series saying, “Checkmate.” Audi has been gunning for its German rivals with its own brand of German engineering and sporty luxury cars. Jim O’Donnell, CEO of BMW US, took a shot at his rivals. With 220,000 cars sold in the U.S., BMW more than doubled Audi’s take in the market. Audi is “too worried about having a go at Mercedes and BMW,” O’Donnell said. “They have to learn to swing first. I think their whole communications strategy is wrong.”

GM tries to make money on small cars
For Detroit’s carmakers, small-car profits have been almost as elusive as a playoff appearance by the Detroit Lions. GM-North America President Mark Reuss said in an interview that GM should be able to make money on cars like the Chevy Cruze compact and Sonic subcompact, which are built in the U.S. with union labor. The company’s break-even point has fallen drastically since bankruptcy wiped away billions in debt and healthcare obligations. GM is wagering that cars like the Cruze and Sonic will offer a sportier ride and more creature comforts, so they should get a better price. The Buick Verano, which also had its debut at the show, will be built with many of the same parts as the Cruze. Its higher price should help the entire small-car program make money, he said.

The gamble is that cars like the Sonic–which have traditionally been cheap, entry-level transportation–can fetch a higher price by offering more horsepower, better ride and handling and features like MyChevrolet, a phone app that allows drivers to unlock doors, start the engine and check the vehicle’s diagnostics remotely. Ford is making the same bet with its Fiesta, which can sell for more than $20,000. Chevy has not priced the Sonic, but GM won’t set a ridiculously low price on the model, Reuss said. “If we’re going to make the cheapest, silliest car in the U.S. and try to make money on it, that isn’t going to work,” he says.

Free financing is often the best discount you can get on a new car or truck.

Interest.com

The world would be considerably less entertaining if we could all predict the future. Even so, the classic car gurus at Hagerty Insurance have cast a few chicken bones in an attempt to figure out which vehicles produced today might eventually turn collectible.

The company restricted entrants to hardware with a price tag of less than $100,000, so the list isn’t populated with too many wild exotics. While vehicles like the Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Porsche 911 are low-hanging fruit, the list also featured a few surprises.

For starters, it begins with none other than the mighty Buick Regal GS. Hagerty says the vehicle is a win because it’s the first Buick with a manual transmission since the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. The Fiat 500 Abarth also makes an appearance alongside an even hotter hatch, the Volkswagen Golf R. Of course, we’re simply thrilled to see the sinister Audi TT RS make a showing. Hit the jump for the full list or view each vehicle in our gallery above.

Continue reading Hagerty predicts this year’s future classics

Hagerty predicts this year’s future classics originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

(PRWeb February 16, 2012)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9200469.htm

J.D. Power and Associates, considered the Cadillac of dependability surveys when it comes to finding out whether owners are still satisfied with their rides several years after driving of the lot, is out with its 2012 most dependable vehicles list.

The company surveyed original owners of 2009 models and measured problems experienced during the past 12 months. J.D. Power found that, overall, vehicle dependability was up 13 percent from last yearas results, and problems were at their lowest level since the company started tracking them in 1990.

J.D. Power said 25 of 32 brands have improved in dependability from 2011. Six have declined and one has remained stable.

The highest-ranked nameplates (in order) are Lexus, Porsche,