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About Me
My work has appeared in a number of major publications either as writer, photographer, or source. I enjoy talking about all things automotive. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Hudson's BlogAll around the car world there are stories and these are just a few of them. A new blog is posted every Monday. Sometimes more often. Feb 1, 2008 - Me and My MGsOne of my first Matchbox models was an MG 1100. There was something about that little green four-door MG model that made a connection between me and MG. I bought my first MG over twenty years ago, and I still own it. MGs were never known for their reliability or value. But they have always supplied the image of driving fun. It's that image that keeps me going with my car since it has not been licensed in the past 17 years. But I keep the plan alive to get it back on the road "by next summer." When Rover revived the MG brand in the early 1990s, I was so excited. "Perhaps MG could return to the US," I thought. Maybe I could work for MG USA when the factory initiated an import office! My brand had returned from the grave! The MG RV8 was a (nicely) warmed-over MGB, which itself had been out of production for 12 years. The body panels for the MGB had returned to production for use in restoration projects so it was relatively easy for Rover to build a "new" MGB. Power came from the fuel-injected aluminum-block V8 engine borrowed from the Land Rover brand; the V8 had seen use in the MGB but only in the GT coupes and only in limited production in the early 1970s. And the interior was brought into the 20th century as well. The RV8 was a nice transition from the old MG to a new, reborn MG brand. Rover's new mechanicals provided the basis for the new roadster. Since all production Rover cars were front-wheel drive and traditional sports cars were rear-wheel drive, Rover placed the drivetrain from its little cars in the rear of the new MG's platform. A Honda transmission put the power of Rover's updated (with variable camshaft timing) K-Series four-cylinder engine to the road. And the styling remained tracable to the MGB/C and Midget...the last of the "true" MG models. BMW took over Rover in the early 1990s and gave the company the money to continue living. With an Anglophile (Bernd Pischetsrieder) at the head of BMW, British car brands seemed to be due for a resurrection. As the century drew to a close, BMW was growing weary of the boat anchor that was Rover, so it was sold. A group of Brits took over the company for $14 (10 pounds), which included a $1 billion interest-free loan from BMW. What didn't come with the company was ownership of the name Rover, mainly because Land Rover was sold off separately. The new company prepared for a time when the Rover name would be unusable (the new owners had free use as long as they didn't produce an SUV under that brand) and named the new company MG Rover. MG versions of the Rover products were introduced, nearly doubling the lineup. Once again, my heart soared! MG's coming back! Perhaps they need help marketing the MG TF (an updated version of the MGF introduced almost a decade earlier) in the US! But my enthusiasm was, again, short-lived. MG Rover closed up shop in 2005. Assets of the company were transferred to Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) and Nanjing in China. The two companies argued over which one owned which parts while they both prepared to launch versions of the Rover 75 sedan. BMW sold the Rover name to Ford, owner of Land Rover, and since BMW already owned most of the traditional Rover brand names (including Mini, Austin, Triumph, and others), MG Rover only had the MG name within its rights. Nanjing claimed ownership of "MG" and badged its sedan as the MG7. SAIC needed to launch its own brand for its 750e sedan and christened it "Roewe" (sounding quite a bit like "wrong way"). Nanjing announced to the world that they would bring the MG brand back to the automotive market. Grand plans were shown including reopening the Longbridge plant in England and opening a new plant in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Nobody outside of Nanjing believed these plans and, late last year, Nanjing was absorbed by the much larger SAIC. While the Longbridge plant is still part of the deal, the "to-be-established" US plant was off the table. Now with all of the legal scuffling cleaned up, SAIC can relaunch the MG brand. Am I waiting to work for MG now? No. Am I waiting to put my name on the list to get a new MG? Not yet. Do I hope MG is successful? Yes, I do. I would like to see a return of a British-built MG...and especially one that can be purchased in the US. But I'm not placing bets as to when (or if) this will occur. Unlike my nature, I'm ever optimistic that it will happen...sometime.
Jan 21, 2008 - Car AuctionsIt's that week again. That week in January where I plop myself down in front of the tube with an A-Treat soda in one hand, pretzel sticks in the other, and both eyes glued to the Speed Channel for another 40 hours of auction coverage...the Barrett-Jackson auction from Scottsdale. Back in 1990, FNN (the Financial News Network...now CNBC) covered this auction for one Sunday afternoon and it was wonderful. Watching some of my dream cars like the Ford GT40 roll across the block and sell for, as I recall, right around a million dollars each; there were two that sold to the same person for a combined total of $1.9 million. And this was in the days before the Muscle Car boom. Now the true classics and exotics have been replaced by 1950s American classics and 1960s muscle cars. It's still an exciting event, especially now with SIX DAYS of coverage. But I wish the hosts were better at describing the vehicles (they sometimes don't know details that they should know before the car reaches the auction block like what engine's under the hood) and I wish the directors showed more cars instead of long boom shots of people parading in and out of the auction. And I wish the vehicles were more interesting. Sure, a Hemi Cuda is a great car just like a Yenko Nova or a Shelby Mustang. But on TV, it's just a Plymouth or Chevrolet or Ford. The occasional Packard or Kaiser Darrin or pre-War anything stands out above these modern vehicles that were basically everyday drivers with rare powertrains. But this weekend, I actually got up from my easy chair to see a live auction. Not too far from home, an auction featuring a variety of oddball and interesting vehicles was held. About 60 vehicles in all were there. And not one featured a 426cid Hemi V8. Actually some of them featured engines with substantially less than 60 cubic inches of displacement. I don't get up early for many things, but a good car event will make be part from my bed. And this one required that I get up around six...something I don't even do for work. The early start was required to see the auction items before the 9 o'clock sale. We arrived at the auction site only to find that the cars were at another site about a mile away. We checked out the parts and automobilia that was on sale which numbered in the thousands! There were pallets and crates of stuff...parts and tools and supplies collected over many decades. Steering wheels in various states and doors dating back to the 1920s and various parts that only a model specific expert would be able to identify. After quickly checking out the parts, we headed across town to where the vehicles were stored. The Hatfield Auto Museum had about 50 cars on display and ready for auction. Only two or three looked to be in a state to be driven away and the rest would have had to have been hauled. The relatively common vehicles were a late-1990s Ford Taurus SHO, 1970s-vintage Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and a 1960s Mercury Comet Caliente. Oh, and there were the two Volkswagen Beetles, two Volkswagen Buses, and one Volkswagen Vanagon, none of which could be driven in their current state. But the reason I was there was to see the oddball cars. And this place had them: four Isettas, two Bianchinas, a Saab Sonnet III, no fewer than seven "bugeye" Austin-Healey Sprites, a Mini Moke, a Goggomobil, and a Austin Bantam van, just to name a few. Oh, I was in heaven. Maybe it wasn't heaven since I would have bought one or ten in my heaven, but it was a fun Saturday afternoon. If you're a fan of odd little cars, check out my pictures from the auction. I'm trying to find out what some of these vehicles sold for but I'm not entirely sure if I want to know. What if I should have purchased one? The license plates at the auction site which ranged from Connecticut to Virginia and the fact that the auction was being offered on eBay as well makes me think that nothing went cheap.
Jan 14, 2008 - The Downside of Putting the World on WheelsAs countries develop, they all seem to go through similar stages. These stages may take progress quicker or slower, depending on the country and/or culture, but they all tend to follow a similar pattern. And part of this development encompasses their automotive industry. Car companies are a sign of an economy's arrival. The US, France, Germany, and the UK all developed their automotive industries beginning in the late 1800s and other regional countries followed. As each economy develops around these car-related businesses, specific automotive needs are found and met. Trucks and buses and luxury cars are among the first. Later comes the car for the masses. The US developed their first "people's car" as the 1901 Olds but it was the 1908 Ford Model T that really set the global standard for such a vehicle. It was simple and rugged and could carry a family (or livestock) as needed. And it was inexpensive..a key component for a "people's car." France had their Citroen. England had the Austin Seven. Italy had the Fiat Topolino. Germany had the Volkswagen. Each developing nation brought their idea of the basic car to the market. In the early 1980s, India started to bloom and basic transportation was needed there. Suzuki of Japan came to India and worked with the local firm Maruti Udyog to produce a knock-off of the Japanese market small car. Maruti's little car was wildly successful in India and 20 years later, about 7 out of 1,000 people in India had a car. While 0.7% of over a billion people is still a large number, a large untapped market still remained. The global conglomerate made up of Renault and Nissan developed a little car through their Romanian subsidiary just a few years ago. The Dacia Logan introduced basic, reliable, and modern transportation to Eastern Europe in the early part of the 21st century. So well suited to the modern developing world was the Logan that it became an overnight success wherever it was introduced, including India. But the Logan was still priced high for the poorest of markets since the car was designed to be the €5,000 car; quite a bit of money in the Indian economy. Indian truck market Tata entered the car field in the 1990s with a compact car called the Indica. It was a luxury car compared to the basic Logan, but Tata had other plans. And after years of planning, Tata finally showed the fruits of their labors last week when the Tata Nano was shown to the public. And throngs of reporters rushed the stage at the car's introduction. Why would such an extremely basic car with average looks engender such a reaction? Mainly because the Nano was designed to break the Rs 1,000,000 barrier...the equivalent of $2,500! Nobody expects this little car to take over the world with its 33hp two-cylinder engine and lack of nearly every feature expected in the West. But it is the right car to take over the streets of India. For good and bad. Global oil supplies are being tapped by all of these emerging automotive markets. China is experiencing amazing growth in car production and sales. India's growth may be slower, but it's still growing at an alarming rate. And adding a basic car, albeit one that gets 50mpg, will put added pressure on the global supply of oil. It doesn't help that Americans are taxing the world's oil supply with (relatively) gas guzzling six- and eight-cylinder engines while much of the rest of the world is using four-cylinder gas and diesel engines as its primary source of power. It doesn't help when the American people see affordable gas prices as their RIGHT no matter how much they use. And it doesn't help that nobody is really doing anything to stop this demand for oil. Sure, the next generation of the automotive industry will bring about alternative fuels, but we've been waiting for that to be "right around the corner" since the early 1970s. Car companies have been working on fuel cell vehicles since the 1960s and electric vehicles since before 1900, but we're not going to see these (or any other alternative fueled vehicles) anytime soon. Between necessary infrastructure change for fueling these vehicles that nobody's funding to a significant lack of desire by car and oil companies and government agencies to push these new technologies, we'll be lucky to see any of these new vehicles hitting mass market prices before oil prices reach $200 a barrel...or more. I want to remove myself from the problem, but I can't afford to. My best move reduce my intake of oil as radically as possible. I hope to have my 100mpg moped available for my daily commute by spring time. On bad weather days and when the seasons change, I'll be back to my 25mpg sedan. Part of me wants the people of India to enjoy the thrill of driving their own car. Part of me wants Tata to drop the whole Nano project right now to limit the number of potential drivers further eating away at the finite petroleum resources available. I'm torn. But there are thousands of Indians, right now, anxious to get their hands on their first new car. Many of them ready to bring cash to a Tata dealer for a car that won't be availble until the fall. I'm happy for them...but sad for every car owner (and potential car owner) around the world.
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