All Entries in the "Auto News" Category
Studebaker Had The Tailgate Step Before Ford
Saturday Chris Baccus posted a link to an old Studebaker commercial on his Twitter account. This old commercial is corn-ball and ever-so-slightly offensive to women, but it also shows what might just be the very first tailgate step ever…installed on a station wagon.
Studebaker put a tailgate step on a station wagon a long, long time before anyone else.
This is just a still photo of the commercial – you can watch the commercial on YouTube here.
Sort of fascinating, isn’t it? Contrast it with some of Ford’s marketing literature.
Ford’s UAW Members Are As Suicidal As Ever – Should Obama Fix It?
UAW Denies Ford The Same Concessions They Granted to GM and Chrysler
In a move that should be considered shocking (but sadly seems like business-as-usual), UAW members at multiple Ford plants have voted against concessions that they granted to GM and Chrysler earlier this year.
According to news reports, many UAW members believe that “Ford is stronger financially than General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group and thus not entitled to concessions to close Ford
Consumer Reports Declares Tundra and Sequoia Most Reliable for 2009
While it’s true that Consumer Reports uses an awkward and fundamentally flawed metric (vehicle owner surveys + historical data) to determine their reliability scores, it’s always nice to see some good press for the Tundra…especially when all the recent talk has been about Tundra frame rust concerns.
Consumer Reports has said that the Tundra and the Sequoia are the most reliable vehicles in their respective classes. Of course, Consumer Reports’ acknowledgment of the Tundra comes with a caveat – they’re only recommending the V6 Tundra as most reliable…the 4×4 V8 Tundra is actually cited as the “least reliable Toyota model.”
Doesn’t it seem a little impossible for one version of the Tundra to be the most reliable pickup in it’s class when another version of the Tundra is Toyota’s least reliable model?
Survey – Can Toyota Build A Great Sports Car Again?
Remember when Toyota had a sports car? When I say “Toyota,” by the way, I don’t mean the entire company that encompasses Scion and Lexus. I mean Toyota – the company that used to offer the unbelievable Supra. Somehow in the last 4 years Toyota completely stopped making sports coupes. Now, they’re talking about bringing back the Celica.
Is this the next generation of the Toyota Celica?
However, with a long list of recent sports coupe failures, does Toyota still know how to make a sports car?
Wi-Fi Flowers For Prius and Eli Manning Buys A Toyota
Here are a couple of odd pieces of Toyota news:
1. WiFi Flowers. Toyota is sponsoring an art project that will place giant flowers in public spaces around the USA. The flowers look kind of cool, but what makes them really interesting is that they contain wireless routers for free public wi-fi and a handful of power outlets. Seems like a smart way to publicize the 2010 Prius on the cheap. Good idea.
