Grant's Auto Rants

Im Memoriam -- Phill Hill

Born Phillip Toll Hill, Jr. on April 20^th, 1927 in Miami, FL. Phill Hill was raised in Santa Monica, CA where he would reside his entire life.  As the sole US-born race driver ever to win the coveted Formula One World Championship, Hill was able to achieve the ultimate success in a sport few other Americans have ever even had the luxury of competing in.

 

For many people, the Formula One automotive racing series is an oft misunderstood and out of reach sport. With the generally unknown personalities (at least stateside – though not Canada), mid-night TV coverage times (due to the worldwide locales) and the over-abundance of other attention-grabbing professional athletics, Formula One is somewhat relegated to the hardcore enthusiasts. This group typically includes race fans in the know who can’t get their fix with IndyCar, SCCA, DTM, etc. or heaven forbid, NASCAR.

 

As a matter of fact, many people in racing may refer to NASCAR as the anti-F1, which offers a subtle distinction and stereotype that somewhat transcends auto racing and characterizes generalities between the US and the rest of the world, particularly Europe. For Hill to venture out and succeed in a “foreign” place should speak volumes to his worldly personality. The closest comparisons to him are the Italian-born Hall of Fame racer Mario Andretti, who also won the F1 champion (as the only other “American” naturalized in 1964) and Dan Gurney who enjoyed success in the series, though never a championship

 

To further emphasize the anomaly of American F1 racing, look no farther than the brief, if not forgettable, campaign that was Scott Speed who has significant promise and pedigree as a driver but was not able to capture a single championship point over three seasons.

 

In addition to F1, Hill was a three-time winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans (1958, 1961, 1962), three-time winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring, and has the unique distinction as the first man ever to circle the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring in less than 9 minutes. After racing, Hill remained near the sport in car restoration, writing and judging (nearly 40 times a judge at Pebble Beach).

 

Phil Hill joins other racing legend and former rival, Paul Frère who passed away in February.

"Equillibriance"

The time value of money (i.e. that a dollar today is worth more than the promise of the same dollar at some point in the future) is one of the most important and fundamental principles of economics. As a society, however, North America has recently been re-introduced to TVM’s kissing cousin, depreciation, which has provided an even more painful lesson indeed.

Homeowners, renters, and squatters alike are, by this point, well aware of what it means to possess a depreciating asset. Should they have borrowed some of the money (financed) to pay for said asset, then the subsequent hardship that followed may have even been enough for them to explore the fine print surrounding the “total loss due to fire clause” of their subsequent insurance policies, but that is another story.

Like homes, automobiles are typically one of the largest purchases someone will make, meaning they often will be financed. Unlike a car, however, homes generally don’t lose 15% of their value the very first time you walk in the door and turn on the lights. And while it is theoretically possible to purchase a vehicle that actually increases in value over time, (think hyper-exotic, limited production collectibles, and/or those owned by Puff Daddy, Pete Rose or Richard Simmons – depending on what turns your wheels) the number of such vehicles is so small that it almost doesn’t warrant mention.

Whether you call it being “upside down,” “backwards,” or “under water,” owing more money on your trade than it is worth is such a terribly disappointing scenario, that Adam Smith himself would’ve, no doubt, called it buzz-kill. Like an IRS audit, foot faults, and acid reflux, this is one of those annoying consequences designed to both keep us honest and punish most those who get greedy, like those of us who just have to have a new ride every year or two.

And once the cycle starts, for many there is really is no end in sight. It isn’t as if you are simply “doubling-down” with some sort of shot at having things magically turnaround. With every trade, you get deeper in the hole and just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, the bottom drops out quicker than Eliot Spitzer’s career or a credit score in default.

I have a theory that ecommerce itself may be somewhat responsible for the reckless attitude where people feel like debt doesn’t matter any more than a criminal charge against a pop-star. When the payment on that new Subaru WRX is just another line item on your monthly bank statement and it all starts to feel like monopoly money, anyway, than you may already be in the fast lane headed for a sure “finaccident.”

My suggestion on putting some reference back into the equation is stop all that online banking and start using cash, for everything. Start by paying all your largest bills with $100s, and if this doesn’t do it, move down to $50’s and so on until you are regularly at your bank taking out wads of singles. My bet is that counting out all of this paper money, in physical form, will make you think twice about how much we tend to throw away on high interest rates and items we may not actually be able to afford.

The next thing to do is pledge to never again let the dealer bury your leftover debt into another car purchase.

That magical short-lived period, maybe even only a day, at the intersection of equity, equilibrium, and finance where you owe precisely the same amount as your trade is worth, should become your new nirvana. Any utility you can get out of the car after that, even if only to maintain four brown patches of grass in your side yard, should feel like pure gravy. And provided your last dealer didn’t convince you that a loan term stretching across two presidencies was a good idea, you might even be able to make it.

If they did, you might want to check out “total loss by natural disaster.”

Horse(power) Wars

By any measure, animals and roadways have never had a particularly good relationship. Aside from breaking up their natural habitats and delivering hordes of gun-toting hunters directly to their doorstep, the highway has become an outright death-trap to many a critter, both literally and figuratively.

While good records do not seem to exist, some studies have been completed in the past to try and gauge the extent of road kill carnage or “flat meat” as some people have dubbed it. For example, according to Wikipedia (for whatever that’s worth) an evaluation was completed in New England in 1993 that surveyed the remains of some 1,900 or so “incidents.”

Based solely on those results, data for the rest of the country was extrapolated (we can only hope that they took into account variables such as the fact that the Arizona desert does not in any way, shape, or form resemble the jagged granite mountains around parts of New Hampshire and that the population of different concrete-prone fauna may differ commensurately.)

In any case, the annual “breakdown” was as follows:
41 million squirrels
26 million cats 22 million rats
19 million opossums
15 million raccoons
6 million dogs
350,000 deer

All joking aside, these are horrific numbers and represent a very tragic flaw in our society’s freedom of mobility. Add to this the loss of human life and the economic impact and it is very apparent that we have not done a good job at all of managing the proverbial intersection of nature and vehicular activity.

Several incidents over the past week or so made this problem painfully apparent including the Turkish Grand Prix where a stray dog very unfortunately wandered out onto the circuit at the absolute worst of times. This is regrettably not an isolated scene as it has happened upon occasion throughout, not just F1, but all racing history.

With the exception of the couple few race weekends a year, Le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal is open to the public to use as they wish for picnicking, swimming, gambling and hiking/biking. Ask any of the people who frequent île Notre-Dame and they will tell you that the island has a large population of groundhogs and that the grounds crew must go through the herculean task of somehow isolating them from the track surface for the obvious safety of everyone involved come green flag.

2007 was a particularly difficult year as groundhogs made their presence known on more than one occasion, interrupting a Ralph Schumacher practice round as well as outright sabotaging Anthony Davidson’s race, who was running in third at the time, mind you. (This incident was particularly egregious as it sparked a bit of a controversy after Davidson’s team charged that the vermin in question had specifically targeted Anthony’s car and had the gall to masquerade as a beaver during the whole event.)

Another season that also happens to be currently underway is that of Thoroughbred Racing, which recently suffered a heartbreaking loss in the death of Kentucky Derby runner-up, Eight Belles. The horrific scene that unfolded with the collapsed Eight Belles being euthanized mere feet away from the celebration of winner Big Brown is a bad as the sport has ever seen and has put the whole sport under the microscope. This on the obviously fragile heels of 2006 derby winner, Barbaro.

One thing that at least the press seems to agree on is that pure greed powers the sport at this point and that horses have been super bred into a fragile state and pumped with all types of drugs, which is a practice that is illegal in all other countries.

To be fair, to read the headlines today, one would find stories about how UPS is throwing gobs of money at the Big Brown’s owners in an effort to be associated with him and that these same owners have turned away multiple offers of $60 million for the horse saying they are holding out for $100 mil.

Greed, drugs and abuse in horse racing aside, I couldn't help but think that I had heard the terms "horsepower," "high-strung," and "catastrophic failure" all in the same sentence at once.
Then it came to me.

The E46 BMW M3's engine was clearly a race-bred power plant repurposed for the street and even when combined with the newly introduced SMG-II transmission, was just begging for over-revving. Yes, BMW sorted out the issues by mid 2003 (post May '03 builds) if memory serves me right, but the parallels in philosophy driving a mechanical component and a racing-bred animal are palpable.   

Comparisons must stop there, as we are talking about a hunk of metal and a living, breathing, feeling being, but we can take at least take solace in the fact that Eight Belles was doing what it liked to do best when all things went wrong.

The constant push for bragging rights, even in the face of historically high fuel prices, road congestion, and broken roadways has clouded many a vision in automotive design. Unfortunately this same attitude extends well beyond cars and into things that actually matter including people and, yes, animals. When is enough, enough?

Who knows, but if horses are collapsing M3's are exploding and olympic hopefuls are ending up in asylums, is it possible we have passed that point?

People's Service for the People's Car

Volkswagen has recently announced that they will begin offering a free scheduled service program starting with their upcoming Tiguan model. The program is not limited to just their new pint-sized SUV however, and will apply to all of the 2009 models and beyond.

Sure we have seen this before from Audi, BMW and Land Rover, for example, but what is noteworthy about this development is that Volkswagen becomes the first non-luxury brand to offer service. Curiously, it is predominantly the German brands (luxury or otherwise) that have decided to go down the service-inclusive route.

Now, the VW program is slightly different in that it covers service through 3 years or 36K miles (vs. the luxury standard 4 years, 50K miles), which is the factory warranty term. More specifically, the program includes a check-up visit at 6,000 miles as well as regular service (oil changes really) at 10K, 20K, and 30K. With the upcoming VW/Chrysler Routan minivan, the service interval is every 6K miles through 36K. Whereas VW consents that service is no longer needed every 5K, apparently Chrysler isn't quite as confident in their product.

So, at the end of the day, it is a nice gesture, but when you consider that we are really only talking about some oil & filters and that many dealers (of all brands) even throw that in occasionally anyway, it loses a little luster. Having said that, VW is somewhat notorious for offering a less than pleasant experience in their service lane, so for these new owners specifically, the fact that they don't have to pay for the privilege of mediocre service is at least a step in the right direction.

Who will be the next non-luxury brand to follow?

Ding...You are now free to move about the cashier's office

For anyone who has experienced it, the new boarding process at Southwest airlines seems more like a bizarre study in sociology than the time-saving seat selection protocol it was no-doubt designed to be. What was likely perceived as a clever way to use an alphanumeric system to facilitate a quick turn-around, in practice has less structure than the letters & numbers found in the next bowl of alphabet soup, especially for those of you not organized enough to check-in the night before.

Picture the scenario, your heart sinks in the cab upon realization that you are merely an hour away from boarding though you don't yet possess the coveted "A" tagged pass, so you leap past competitors in the ticketing line in a last ditch effort to score a late "B," with hope fading fast. It isn't until your late "C" number is finally called and the last of the token "today's flight will be a completely full" announcement fades that you consider the gravity of your error in not checking that roller-bag, which incidentally just seemed to swell by ten pounds and a couple of inches.

The early pandemonium you encounter on the actual plane through the single digit seats and teens is not a good sign of things to come. With center seats already filled, latches on the bulging overhead bins hanging on for dear life and the once jovial flight attendants strategizing as they sharpen their elbows, you begin your walk down the plank into one of the most uncomfortable feelings in current consumer life.

A weak and muffled "Oh, shit" is all you can manage to muster.

Facing this very situation on a recent flight back to Midway from BWI recently, I began searching my mental archives for similar capitalist situations where I was both, a paying-customer and yet so hating life. Some truly horrific images flashed by, including a sun-drenched two hour line waiting to get onto the "It's a Small World" ride at Disney in mid-July, or counting the hours near the women's dressing rooms on the third floor of Bloomingdale's because you thought it would be "fun" to re-do your wife's entire wardrobe a week before Christmas in New York City. Ah, Good Times.

Shortly thereafter it popped in there. The question of where in the automotive world do you all at once, have a pocket fun of cash and find yourself staring down at the twitching trigger finger of an old-school gunslinger on the other side of the desk. This was an unwelcome reality not long ago after the battery in our beloved car went and gave up the ghost after close to five years of dependent service. After a short exchange with our local AAA crew, I was actually feeling good about something I spend $$ on every year, though never use. The meeting with service advisor at the local dealership a couple hours later would bring me right back to reality, however.

Now, I am not sure what type of reverse psychology he was going for, but he tried to gloss over and make me feel better about the fact that our particular vehicle used a battery that would cost over $200 to replace by explaining that they had "fortunately" turned up some other unforeseen issues during a routine check.

Thank goodness we came to you!

The total of those general maintenance items, $984 and change. (Read: Thank you sir, may I have another.) For effect, they showed our car through the window on the hoist with a mountain of greasy parts littering the ground underneath. Second opinions an impossibility, and options dwindling, I begin to curse that damn battery that moments before was a savior.

Now, I consider myself a student of all things automotive and have an obvious affinity for fixed operations (who doesn't?), yet even after forcing them to go through the trash to physically show me the torn CV boot and all other line items on the bill, I didn't have a leg to stand on.

Of course, there may be instances on the sales side of the store that can also catch you off guard (as there are in a thousand other emporiums of corporate America in action) I couldn't help but find a significant similarity in the way I felt when I finally reached the back of the plane, sweaty, swearing with suitcase still in hand as I did in that garage holding what I thought looked, felt and smelled like a perfectly operable spark plug.

So, the lessons to be learned. Check-in early and if that isn't possible, suck it up and check your bag. And if you happen to find yourself squaring off with someone who sees dead batteries everyday for a living, tell them to skip the extra stuff because you have a plane to catch.    

    * The average Soutwest Boeing 737 has 40 "center" seats.          
    * The Company’s fleet has an average age of about 9 years.       
    * The average aircraft trip length is 633 miles with an average duration of one hour and 48 minutes.       
    * Southwest aircraft fly an average of seven flights per day, or 13 hours per day.       
    * Southwest was the launch customer for the Boeing 737-700 in 1997. Southwest was also a launch customer for the Boeing 737-500 and -300 series aircraft.       
    * Southwest has almost completed updating its traditional gold, red and orange paint scheme by adding canyon blue. All new aircraft will have the updated colors and interior. Existing aircraft are being retrofitted.       
    * Performance-enhancing Blended Winglets have been added to our fleet of 737-700s, and all new 737-700 aircraft arrive from Boeing with Blended Winglets installed. Additionally, Southwest began installation of Blended Winglets on some of our 737-300 aircraft in early 2007.       
    * Southwest received 284,827 resumes and hired 3,363 new Employees in 2006.       
    * In 2006 Southwest served 61.5 million cans of soda, juices, and water; 10.9 million alcoholic beverages; 5 million bags of pretzels; 93.8 million bags of peanuts; 16 million snackpacks; and 35.4 million other snacks.       
    * Southwest consumed 1.6 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2006.       
    * In 2006 Southwest moved 265 million pounds of cargo and mail.       
    * The shortest daily Southwest flight is between Ft. Myers (RSW) and Orlando (MCO) (133 miles). The longest daily Southwest flight is between Philadelphia (PHL) and Oakland (OAK) (2,510 miles).       
    * Southwest has 1,133 married couples. In other words, 2,266 Southwest Employees have spouses who also work for the Company.

Loud Pipes Save Lives?

This de facto motto that Harley-Davidson had adopted is more than just a tag line. In all likelihood, there is probably as much truth and substance to it as there was to that temporary campaign they once used specifically to target women, which simply stated, "it vibrates." Like it or not, the obnoxious levels of noise emanating from a loud bike (could also be crotch-rocket) makes them hard to miss, and presumably (importantly) more difficult to accidentally not miss, but hit.

Sure, there is probably a sizable number of bike owners out there that simply feel cool or stroke their egos by how loud they can be, but the safety by-product of that has no doubt saved a considerable number of lives.

The noise cars make gets plenty of attention to. The aftermarket has had to deal with all sorts of noise ordinance when it comes to exhaust systems as tuners and hot-rodders go well out of their way to create a custom sound. Even the import market caters to this craving with brands like Tubi and Borla servicing Ferrari, Porsche and other brands.

As far as road-going vehicles go, however, there probably aren't two single vehicles on the road today that are more dissimilar than your average Harley Fat Boy and say, the Toyota Prius. Yet it's the Prius that is at the center of debate in Maryland not for the noise it makes, but rather the noise it doesn't, which apparently is just as much a problem.

And we thought the Toyota Prius emissions issue in Georgia was a problem.

The National Federation for the Blind has recently dug into the lack of noise associated with hybrid vehicles relative to the safety of pedestrians, sightless and otherwise, to see if there is a negative effect to not having any audible clues. This is perceived as a particular risk in urban environments where blind people rely on such clues to safely navigate roadways and their intersections. This is the same environment where hybrids are typically running at their quietest under electric power.

The argument is that a lack of sound from the vehicle puts the onus completely on the driver and less on the pedestrian to keep the two apart. These are the same drivers that are using cell phones, blackberries, food, coffee, hairdryers, books, newspapers, computers, navigation systems, and complex in-car entertainment systems to keep them occupied during the wasted time between traffic lights.

Personally, I don' think it will take a long, formal investigation into the matter to decide whether or not an issue exists. As more hybrids flood the roads, the number of instances where they creep up on people (never mind if they can see or not) is going to increase and the number of unfortunate collisions will as well. The trickier question is what type of standard noise will OEMs adopt that will create a safe atmosphere around their vehicles. You know the thought has crossed their minds and they probably have tested some sounds, but they should take a proactive stance on this or else an industry-adopted "noise" will be forced on them, and you can bet it won't be the whirling turbo effect or V8 rumble they had in mind, but likely a super annoying beeping reminiscent of a reversing cargo van.

You could probably make the argument that they only need the noise when operating under electric power as the combustion engines will produce at least something.

Who knows, maybe there is an opportunity hear. Maybe as long as the noise is of a certain level (volume), then you free to customize it how ever you want. There is huge money in allowing people to download ringtones for the phones, how far off can exhaust notes be?

So what would you have your hybrid sound like, a 1960's Ferrari? a landing 747? or how about a Harley? Or maybe you don't want something mechanical at all, like a roaring lion.

Come to think of it, that might set off a whole new set of issues, especially for those who can't see.

Things that make you say "hmm" - NAIAS 2008

All of us have at one time or another slid on a pair of our favorite jeans only to find an errant sock or pair of underwear balled up in a pant leg completely throwing off an otherwise comfy fit and possibly sending us into a brief tizzy where we wonder if an animal or something has crawled in there. Only after we have identified the culprit as wayward article of clothing and not some rabid rodent do we relax and attempt to restore order (that oh-so familiar feel) by tugging it out the bottom. Ahh, the relief.

Such is a prime example of how some things at sometime, just don’t fit. Just as that bulge around your thigh feels more out of place than Michael Vick in a pet store, some of the exhibitions at this year’s NAIAS seem blatantly, well, out of character. These are the items that at one time would make us stop, scratch our melon and think “hmm.” In today’s hyper attention-deficit society where we don’t have either the time or inclination to fully pronounce words and sentences, however, we have come up with a nice acronym to describe the phenomenon: WTF!?

Now, this is not meant to be an outright criticism as there is plenty of that to go around at any auto show. On the contrary, the cars were again the focus this year in Detroit, (not really sure what they were doing those other years) many designs (concept & production) of which were very well received. So everyone gets an “A” for effort. OK, well maybe not everyone, but several brands anyway. The real point here is to highlight those concepts that are uncharacteristic at this time/place for their marque.

The first vehicle that comes to mind is the Cadillac CTS. Well, vehicle(s) really, with both the CTS-V and Coupe Concept, which incidentally won the EyesOn Design Awards for best production and concept car respectively. Why the surprise, you ask? For starters, Cadillac (and the CTS specifically) hasn’t been awarded with top honors at the Detroit Show since, well, last year.

That’s right, an unlikely yet very significant, repeat. The CTS was awarded best production vehicle just a short 12 months ago on this same stage signally in many a playbook that Caddy is “in it to win it.”

As if the 6.3L, 550 horsepower Super-charged V8 wasn’t indication enough.

The next entry in my book also comes from the cast of EyesOn winners, though this one is a bit more subjective. BMW introduced their new X6 and with it an all-together new acronym, the SAC or “sports activity coupe”. My somewhat reluctant indictment here is that this type of vehicle (never mind that it may be available as a diesel) flies in direct opposition to the general eco-trending of the industry and allows the luxury brands to talk out of both sides of their mouths.

As well executed as the X6 appears, to me it says, “here are all of the negative virtues (admittedly few) of the X5 and now we are going to take away the marginal space that made its heft and lack of fuel economy even remotely excusable.” Again, this is not an issue with BMW per se, but rather a misunderstanding of how you can have a auto show with forever more an underlying theme around green technologies and fuel-economy and still have OEMs churning out sports-oriented (read: fast, well-handling and thirsty) SUVs.

At a time when the answer to the SUV: 0 – 60 time question should be “yes” or “no,” we are hearing: 4.9 sec. (Porsche Cayenne GTS)  Throw in an award and it’s definitely worthy of a WTF!?

My last vehicle is the VW Passat CC.

The B5 generation was admittedly a very fine car from Volkswagen even though it represented a departure from the company’s tradition of providing everyman’s transportation. Apparently these just happen to be the everymen that got a promotion and became managers rather than line workers as well. Fine.

The lesson should have been learned, however, that VW not only established where the line in the brand-sand had been drawn, but smashed through it like one of Oahu’s pipeline waves with the 300 hp, W8. If they were looking for some type of early indicator to the acceptance or forbiddance of the VW brand in the luxury segment, well, I’m pretty sure that was it. To march ahead with the Touareg and Phaeton, is reckless at best, and at worst reinventing the 4 wheels you already have built in Audi. So, are we to assume that the Passat CC (and even higher priced follower as promised) is a slower push into the upper segments and that maybe no one will notice? Definite WTF!?

To reiterate, I fully admit that these are all fine automobiles, personal design preferences aside. After all, once you remove that dirty pair of underwear you are still left with your favorite jeans. And who knows, maybe the combination of diesel power and permanent flood waters from melting ice-caps will deem the X6 the most useful SAC out there. Walking through Cobo Hall today, though, in today’s environment it is hard to look at these cars and think, “yeah, that makes sense.”

Conversely, if I had to pick a design or concept that not only represented a significant progression consistent with the industry’s current conditions and one whose character was still commensurate with its brand heritage, it would be the BMW 335d. In my opinion, this is a vehicle that has the potential to highlight diesel power in the consumer market the way the Audi R10 has in racing. (Something VW and Mercedes-Benz have not been able to do.)

What was your major head-scratcher this year?

New Year's Resolution

If you traveled at all this past holiday season, it is an unfortunate certainty that you likely ran into some delays or other transportation-related problems somewhere along the way. To be fair, the holidays are an extreme and will burden even the most well-prepared infrastructure, but alas, our current system is anything but well-prepared.

The frustrating part is that you don't even need to specify what type of transport you employed to know there were issues as it really doesn't matter. You flew, ok, so you braved the hordes at the airport, experienced the ever-so-graceful security congo line, and then sat on the tarmac for four hours while you waited for traffic to lighten up heading into O'Hare. Or in our case, for traffic to lighten up heading into O'Hare and the crew to first diagnose and subsequently fix one of the brakes on our brand-new Embraer Jet.

Didn't fly? Ok, so you decided to take your chances on the roads. First cram all those W-Mart and Best Buy goodies in and around your suitcase in the trunk, strategize your route in the hopes of minimizing your wait in traffic, and don't forget to stop at the petrol station and pay $3.50 gallon for fuel. Bah-humbug.

Normally this is where I would start touting the many virtues of rail travel and talk about how cool Europe is with the old-school stations, punctual schedules and 200-mph TGV. It is very easy to sell features and comforts like service to anywhere, anytime, beautiful city-center stations, and comfort to get out of your first-class size seat to take a stroll up to the bar car for a beverage. Unfortunately, this is not Europe, but rather Amtrak.

In actuality, that Amtrak can provide any service at all with is chronic underfunding and the deliberate negligence by this (and other) administrations is quite remarkable. We should not be at all surprised when we see that two of their trains have managed to navigate the same stretch of track, simultaneously, but rather unfortunately, in opposite directions.

So as you can see, we have exactly three major methods of transportation in this country, each with ample opportunity to put a hurting on your day. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those of you that have to transfer somewhere and use two or more of them in combination, or those who are riding the bus in which case are obviously traveling in protest.

Rather than remain the pessimist, I would like to suggest a new year's resolution for everyone who gets behind the wheel, rides the train, or takes to the air in 2008. We know that the system is broken and that arriving at your scheduled arrival time is only possible if it is actually on the day following the one you were supposed to arrive on. As such, let's try to have some fun with it and not get all bent out of shape when we get stuck overnight in Milwaukee. All of our huffing and puffing isn't going to make a difference anyway, so why bother stressing out over it.

Sure, easier said than done. But if you are willing to adopt a relative perspective, then you might just do OK. If you planned your ticket for Monday, assume you will get there Tuesday. Heck, when you finally do get there somewhere in the middle of the night between the two, you still come out ahead, er, "early."

Happy New Year and safe travels.

Customer service with a side of 5 Series.

Every so often you come across a product that is a real game-changer. These are the items that are executed so well that competitors can actually thrive just by emulating them and offering an inferior copy.

It seems that just about every industry has one. It may not be the most popular, and certainly won’t always be the cheapest, but they set the standard or benchmark that everyone else focuses their Monday morning strategy meetings around.

In the grocery business you have Wegmen’s.

In the wood-burning stove business you have Vermont Castings.

In the computer business you have Apple.

In the pen business you have Waterman.

In the boat shoe business you have A.S. Rigger.

In the mixer business you have KitchenAid.

All of these brand names conjure images of specific products, but it isn’t the products themselves that make these brands stand out. Senior management at each one of these companies will collectively claim that they are primarily in the business of customer satisfaction and just happen to sell

Hinckley

yachts, Hunter Douglas blinds or Scots Turf Builder grass seed.

Of course, these brands all face stiff competition in their respective categories, and one can always argue in favor of a competitor, but customer service also happens to be what consumers are buying, even if they show up in the market for a thermos. Revenue in this model is invariably a secondary consideration.

When you consider the auto industry specifically, you have a unique juxtaposition of factors that make it very difficult to clearly differentiate your brand. The combination of high volumes with the fact that the product is a complicated, large ticket item makes the question even more subjective. A as matter of fact, the auto industry is one case where even the very criteria for greatness can be easily questioned.

If you had to single out one brand that executes the best, for the most, which would it be?

Sure, let’s look at Lexus for a moment, as they are highly regarded as one of the most desirable, best built vehicles with some of the best customer service in the business. Does this make them the best? Well, it is obviously relative. If the criteria are strictly mass volume, reliability, and painless service, then maybe they are. But for many people a more performance-minded execution may be more important in which case BMW may be the clear winner.

Drill down into different price points, and the game changes all over again. Is it

Toyota

or is it Honda?, etc…and so the story goes in the auto business. The industry has been über segmented into dozens of niche (not “nitch”) categories with everyone scrambling for some arbitrary award that labels them the “best” at something. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as consumers have plenty of choices (too many?), but it seems to represent a model where more (sales) are better than fewer, which definitely is driven by revenue and for the most part at odds with customer service.

Year end clearance...

Well, the holiday season is officially upon us. This is the time of year when people are thinking about travel plans, trendy gifts and dropping temperatures. One thing noticeably off that list is the purchase of a new (or used) vehicle, even with all of the fanfare for end of year and holiday sales events. There is just too much else going on to think about dealing with the typical automotive purchase, which inevitably brings to close a year that a sports team might consider a “rebuilding” one. That’s just the way it is.

A quick scan of daily industry news turns up several items that really shouldn’t shock anyone and serve as a fairly appropriate snapshot of the entire year. Ford is recalling 1.2 million vehicles, and trucks no less, a diesel from VW is running circles around the Prius and the House of Representatives has approved an energy bill destined not for the president’s desk, but rather the oval bin underneath it.

So what’s new?

Rather than just dwell on the low sales volumes or other negatives, we should be looking at the bright spots in the industry, no matter how difficult they may seem to find. After all, this was a pretty incredible year one way or another. Each of the domestics had their own victories in a successful divorce (Chrysler), and major about face (Ford, which lost $12.6 billion in 2006 and has earned +$90 million so far this year) and GM, that has been receiving pretty good reviews on new vehicles. Never mind that pesky $39 billion dollar 3rd quarter tax charge, the company has signed a new labor agreement as well, which really could pave the way to a brighter future.

Across the pond, Porsche has clubbed its date (VW/Audi) over the head and is dragging her back to the cave, while BMW has raised the bar once again with the industry best new 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz is quickly climbing back up the reliability ratings. Similar things can be said with most of the other brands, meaning pretty much wherever you look, there is a silver lining.

And even though we have seen enormous change, some things just tend to stay the same.

MotorTrend car of the Year: Toyota Camry

Bring on 2008!