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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. Oct 1, 2007 - The Ultimate Car Dream...Part DeuxA few weeks ago, I wrote about my dream of manufacturing cars. With this long-held dream and my work with and around automakers, I've become very skeptical whenever someone announces that they're going to introduce a new brand of cars or trucks. The first thing to do is poke holes in their plans with basic reasoning. I do not get my kicks out of deflating the dreams of others, especially when I share the same dream. I do, however, get some enjoyment out of deflating gas bags...people who talk a good bit but have little or nothing to back it up. As a fan of "orphans and oddballs" (see earlier blog on the subject), I want these guys to succeed. I would have loved to see Tucker or Bricklin or Delorean or any of a few DOZEN automakers make a second or third or fourth generation of their ideas. But it is a very difficult market. Delorean was the big success here with about 9,200 DMC-12s built. Bricklin produced 2,854 SV-1s by September 1975. And many people know about the 51 mostly hand-assembled Tucker 48s built before the plant was closed. The men behind all three of these cars, Preston Tucker, Malcolm Bricklin, and John Delorean, said they would build a successful car even after their first attempts ended in bankruptcy. Tucker and Delorean died before they could accomplish this goal but Bricklin is still trying. It's a tough dream to overcome. And to many, it seems like an attainable dream. I wish it were that easy. The latest in a long line of dreams is Carbon Motors. In the early days of the American automobile industry, there were companies that produced nothing but commercial cars. Companies like Yellow and Checker produced vehicles almost exclusively for the taxi industry. There have been brands of cars produced exclusively for rental fleets. But Carbon claims that they want to produce dedicated police cars. It's a great idea. The police forces in the US have been very limited in the vehicles they could operate. When Chrysler stopped making rear-wheel drive, V8-powered sedans in the late 1980s, the choice was down to the Chevrolet Caprice and the Ford Crown Victoria. And Ford was the last one when the Caprice ended production in late 1996. Dodge re-entered the field recently with a modern sedan but Ford's offering can trace its production back to the Jimmy Carter administration (and engineering work dates back to the Nixon era). When the most popular product in the field has seen three two-term presidents (and two one-term presidents), there's either a great product on the market or there's little-to-no money in the market. But still others see this as an opportunity. Enter Carbon Motors. The Carbon E7 looks like something created for a movie set. Angular lines and suicide doors along with integrated brush guards give this car the look of a futuristic prop from the movie "Demolition Man." It seems like the modern interpretation of what a police car should be. But then the skeptic in me wakes up. Who are these people behind Carbon Motors? What experience do they have and why would they attempt to launch a car company? It didn't take a full scan of the officers to get my answers. William Santana Li is the man in charge of Carbon Motors. He has experience at senior levels of Ford, which is a plus. But on the negative side was the mention of his previous venture, Build-To-Order (BTO). BTO planned to revamp the automotive industry. Vehicles would be...wait for it....built to order. These vehicles would be produced in such volume that prices would be in the near-luxury range. It seemed nice on the surface, but the business plan lacked any appeal to investors. Even BTO's claim that they would re-launch a famous American car brand, rumored to be Auburn, wasn't enough to light the investment community's fire. And BTO quietly faded into the scenery. So now from BTO's ashes rises the Phoenix of Carbon Motors. A few hundred million dollars invested in the E7 could get it on the road. And assuming that Carbon can get a 300hp turbodiesel certified in a mass produced sedan...and assuming that 50,000 are ordered by police forces across the country each year from a no-name company...then I'd bet they can be a success. But do you think that Carbon can do put all of this together and sell the cars for about $25,000 each and make over $1,000 per vehicle? I do not. I know that my opinion about a car that has yet to be produced has little bearing on your opinion. So I'll give you a few reasons why this car, as shown on the company's own website, will not go into production as is. First, there's the powertrain that has not been certified for light-duty use by any company so Carbon Motors must complete the certification,which is very expensive. Second, there's the suicide doors that BMW claims to have an exclusive waiver on for its Rolls-Royce. Third, the brush guards will not pass federal regulations for bumpers which require that the bumper withstand a 2.5 mph crash with no damage to the vehicle. And this is all assuming that the vehicle is based on the Chrysler LX platform (Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger) and can pass standard crash tests. Good luck to you, Carbon Motors. My money's betting on no cars being produced to the specs (or even close) outlined on the Carbon Motors press release. If only Las Vegas would take my bet...and give me odds. I've got to figure that even the bookmakers can see the ultimate fate of this venture. Can't you?
Sep 17, 2007 - The Demise of...MercuryBack in the mid 1990s, anyone who followed the automotive market could see the winds of change. There were brands that were heading for the door, but nobody would say anything official. It had to be that way so that the companies wouldn't lose additional sales and the dealers wouldn't sue. But everyone knew it. First was AMC. When Chrysler purchased American Motors in 1987, it was obvious that Jeep was the target but that the AMC brand and hundreds of dealers would be redundant. AMC became Eagle immediately to redefine the weak brand as a competitor with the European and Japanese brands. Rebadged Renaults (Eagle Premier and Medallion) and co-developed Mitsubishis (Eagle Summit and Talon) couldn't establish the brand properly since neither of the supplying companies were doing particularly well in the US. And so Jeep-Eagle dealers slowly merged with Chrysler-Plymouth dealers. The final straw was when the replacement for the Eagle Vision sedan was rebadged as teh Chrysler 300M leaving only the sporty Eagle Talon coupe. Eagle died with barely a notice. When Chrysler introduced the Plymouth Prowler and Plymouth Pronto concept cars in the mid 1990s, it seemed that the Plymouth brand was ready for a resurgence. It was about that time that Plymouth was oddly missed when the Chrysler and Dodge brands replaced their mid-sized models with all-new vehicles. Plymouth got the Breeze a year later, but it was lacking many options that its siblings had including the popular V6 engine. Sales lagged. Even so, the Prowler was put into production in 1997 to bring attention to the overlooked brand. Aside from the low production roadster, Plymouth's lineup included the compact Neon, the mid-sized Breeze, and the Voyager minivan. Once Chrysler Corporation's highest volume brand, Plymouth had fallen behind even the pseudo-luxury brand of Chrysler in sales. The fact that updated 2001 Voyager lacked "Plymouth" badging was the first tangible sign that the end was near. And so it went that the 2002 Voyager and Prowler became Chrysler models while the Breeze and Neon simply died in 2001. Throughout the 1990s, General Motors tried to re-establish the Oldsmobile brand. First it was "Not Your Father's" car and later became an entry-level luxury import fighter. Neither direction took with buyers and sales continued to slide. Even the introduction of a minivan and sport-ute could help Oldsmobile's slide. In January 2001, the end was announced but legal disputes with dealers kept Oldsmobile alive into the 2004 model year. Even today, not all of the legal issues have been solved but Oldsmobile's story has been basically written into the history books. A sad end for what was America's oldest car brand. Ford is not immune to these kinds of troubles. Everyone knows about the Edsel that was launched just in time for a national recession. Ford's medium-priced brand only lasted three model years before dying in late 1959. But Ford has since lagged behind its Big3 brethern in the number of brands offered. In the 1990s, General Motors had seven American car and light truck brands while smaller Chrysler had five. Ford held onto its namesake brand at the low end, Mercury in the middle, and Lincoln at the top. But Mercury was always being squeezed. Since it was created in 1939, Mercury has been "the other" brand at Ford. Almost all Mercury models were based on Ford-brand products. With rare exceptions, Mercurys were "gussied up" Ford. It helped Ford Motor Company compete with GM's Oldsmobile, Buick and Pontiac brands. It has had some significant products over the years. The 1961 Comet, 1967 Cougar, and 1978 Zephyr were big hits for the brand. But even its hits such as the 1986 Sable were over shadowed by the bigger hits over at Ford. In recent years, Mercury's only products not shared with Ford products (1990 Capri convertible, 1993 Villager minivan, 1999 Cougar coupe) have not been overwhelming successes, leaving Ford and Lincoln to carry the weight of the company. With all of these dark clouds, it's obvious that Mercury has been on the chopping block of every prognosticator for twenty years. Recent articles in Automotive News and other publications have brought this back up by pointing to Mercury's empty product pipeline as proof. But Mercury's pipeline has been quite dry for quite some time. Why is now special? Limited lineup? Mercury has three sedans (mid-sized Milan, full-sized Sable, and extra large Grand Marquis) and two trucks (compact Mariner and mid-sized Mountaineer). That alone doesn't mean much...compared to Buick or Pontiac, that's a full lineup. Dry pipeline? Milan is just a couple of years old. Sable and Mariner are new for 2008. Mountaineer's a few years old and the Grand Marquis is ancient. Sounds like the same problems that Ford has. So what is it? I say it's the new head of Ford, Alan Mullally. He's not a car guy, he's an airplane guy. He has no sense of automotive history, which is a bad thing if you're a car fan but a good thing if you're an investor (I'm the former, not the latter). Mullally needs to cut costs and Mercury is nothing but costs.
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