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Isn't this meadow soothing? Let's pave a road through it! I'm James Riswick and these are my random thoughts published daily. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Thoughts from the CurbCar Reviews, News and Random Thoughts from Edmunds.com Automotive Editor James Riswick Nov 20, 2008 - The Rant: Are There Any Car Guys in Congress or the Media?
I am sick to death of hearing this argument from mass media journalists/pundits and members of Congress. "The Big Three have found themselves in this financial crisis because they failed to make fuel efficient cars, like hybrids, that people actually wanted to buy." Wrong. That may be an issue in the here and now, but the Big Three's problems started a long long time ago. It started when Americans started to realize that the Japanese and Germans were making better cars than the crap the American companies were expecting the American public to buy out of brand and national loyalty. Honda made an Accord while Chrysler made a Dodge Spirit. Toyota made the Corolla while Ford made the Tempo and GM made the Cavalier. Hell, go even further back and look at all the American crap from the '80s. I was in pre-school and I knew that stuff sucked. American automobile loyalty died because the people started to realize other companies were making better cars. I can see the change in my family alone. Sure, we're Canadians, but "domestic" brand loyalty ran just as fierce in the Toronto area, which is home to massive Ford and GM plants. Back in the '80s and early '90s, every extended family member (16 or 18) on both my mother and father's side owned an American car. Today, I can think of four who own American. That's where this mess began. That's the cause. Sure, producing a Chevy Prius 6 years ago would have been a good move, but they'd still be where they are now. While trucks buoyed them all in the late '90s and early '00s, the car offerings were left to further slip behind imports. New offerings from Ford and GM (not not not Chrysler) are indeed catching up or have caught up, but it may be too late in public perception. Now, back to the media and congress. Seriously, are there any car people out there who know anything about this topic? I keep hearing "they aren't making fuel efficient or safe cars people actually want to buy." Well, actually they are safe. And in fairness, Americans decided they wanted fuel efficiency two years ago. That's not enough time for an automaker to screech on the brakes and go down a different road. No, they're in trouble for past crimes that are finally catching up with them. I don't know how you fix that. Perhaps you give them the money and hope they've learned their lesson. Or perhaps you just let them die because they deserve it. I don't know, but I'm not in Congress. Given the level of car knowledge on display, though, perhaps I should be. -James Riswick
Nov 19, 2008 - 2010 Mazda 3: It Ain't Broke, So They Didn't Fix It
"They're replacing the Mazda 3? What for? It's still so good." That was the general concensus when I mentioned I was attending the all-new 2010 Mazda 3 press event. Even though the current 3 dates back to 2003, it's still holding up remarkably well -- we editor types are still throwing awards at it and its sales figures have consistently gone up. The 3 always drove like a junior sport sedan and its interior did much to back that up. I thought this new car looked good, but frankly, I was expecting the worst in terms of driving dynamics. Thankfully, the 2010 Mazda 3 takes all that was good about the outgoing 3 and makes it even better. As Ruben Archilla, Group Manager for Mazda R&D, said, "Our customers were happy. We didn't see the need to reinvent the wheel."
The many other changes and full driving impressions will be revealed in the future Inside Line first drive by Josh Jacquot, but here are a few of the latter based on my drive yesterday through the Santa Monica Mountains. I first drove the 148-horsepower 3 i Touring with the five-speed manual. Starting this 2.0-liter four-cylinder up no longer sounds like revving up a circular saw, while power delivery feels a little smoother and a tad punchier. Even in this more basic form, the 3 carved through Topanga Canyon like a champ. I later drove a 2.5-liter 3 s Grand Touring with five-speed automatic transmission. Obviously there's a bit more oomph available, although like the outgoing car, it feels faster off the line than it actually is, running out of steam as revs rise. The steering has actually gotten a bit weightier and feelyer for 2010 in the s -- fancy that in this age of electric steering being slapped onto everything. With its smartly designed and beautifully crafted interior, I couldn't help but feel like I was driving a small Acura. In fact, I'd much rather drive the 3 than the TSX, which costs about 10 grand more. After my experiences with this all-new 3, the king is definitely still the king. The 2010 Mazda 3 remains the car to buy in the compact hatch category, and in this weak economy, I'd even venture to say its worth a look for entry-level luxury shoppers -- it's that good. -James Riswick
Nov 17, 2008 - The Rant: For GM, One Answer is Obvious
I don't pretend to understand the business side of the car business. I'm a writer mostly because my father's business talk when I was a kid made me go cross-eyed with confusion. I barely got a B- in high school macroeconomics. The stock market makes less sense to me than the popularity of "High School Musical." Having said that, I don't completely understand the myriad creeks of excrement General Motors presently finds itself paddling up with a rotted oar. But whether they end up in backruptsy or bailed out by the government, one answer is abundant to me: GM must cut brands immediately, and focus instead on Chevrolet and Cadillac. This is not a new idea, I admit, but Pontiac, Buick and GMC are all redundant brands. Almost every car they make has a Chevrolet twin (or at least kissing cousin), while any unique products would either not be missed, or could easily be transformed into Chevy products. There's no reason to buy a G6 instead of the superior Malibu, nor a G5 instead of the identical Cobalt. As much as we like the Enclave and Acadia, the Chevrolet Traverse satisfies the needs of most buyers in this segment and it could be pumped up with more equipment. The rumor of the next generation Escalade being a Lambda would satisfy the need for a luxury version. The Pontiac G8 is excellent, but its already sold as the Chevrolet Caprice/Lumina in the Middle East, so that would be an easy change-over. The biggest problem with cutting brands (as I see it) is the dealers and the many problems experienced by GM when Oldsmobile closed shop. But it still needs to be done, and the fact that so many Pontiac, Buick and GMC dealers are packaged together, the toll would be significantly less. Hummer also obviously needs to be jettisoned, and Saturn should probably die as well. The idea of it being the European-ish division was ultimately stupid (even though I initially thought it was cool) -- it's hard for people to think of Saturn as anything other than a weird and inexpensive car belonging to co-eds or senior citizens. If car development between GM USA and GM Europe is to be more closely shared (which like Ford, it must), it should be Chevy that sees the fruit of Opel's engineering efforts. GM is in critical condition and immediately needs multiple amputations. It doesn't take an economics major to see that maintaining brands because of traditions, dealers or simply to build cars to keep workers employed isn't a very sound business model. - James Riswick
Nov 17, 2008 - Scenes from the Curb: Ugly Cars in Korea
I'm back from my Alias-like journey from L.A. to Korea to L.A. to Cancun and back to L.A. With the Los Angeles Auto Show media days on Wednesday and Thursday, plus the 2010 Mazda 3 event I'm going to tomorrow, there's going to be plenty of news and thoughts coming in the next few days. So before that happens, I thought I'd share some of the pics I took in Korea. Most of my thoughts can be found in my blog from there, but as I mentioned in my 2010 Kia Soul first drive, Korea is mostly a sea of grey and black ho-hum, non-descript cars. However, some of their lesser known brands like Ssangyong have the knack of making some truly hideous vehicles. Case in point these two barf bags: the Ssangyong Actyon and the Ssangyong Rodius. Since R&T's Mike Monticello and I ditched the chaparone car, we got into the Gwangju airport early enough to spend a good 10 minutes snapping pictures of these hideous things. Fun times.
The first drew the small press pool's attention for its passing resemblance to the BMW X6 from the rear. After I assured them that the Actyon actually came before the X6, BMW's weirdo coupeish SUV thing suddenly lost even more stock. I noted that it boosted its logo from Starfleet.
And then there's the Rodius, which I believe was voted ugliest car in the world by CAR readers a few years back. This thing looks awful from every direction, with terrible bloated proportions. It doesn't get much worse than this. - James Riswick
Nov 14, 2008 - Safety First?(photo by these guys at CafePress.)
Stability control is mandatory on all cars as of 2012. Mandatory computer interference on all cars--think about it. Stability Control goes by many names DSC, VSC, VDC, stabilitrak but they're all essentially the same: They detect your steering angle, wheel speed, and some figure out your slip angle and gauge what you're doing to fix it, then it jabs the brakes in a controlled manner to keep you on track, facing forward and facing right-side-up. It sounds great until it bites you....try accelerating from a stop while turning right. Traction control hates steering imput, on good systems you'll just get a slap on the wrist for turning, bad systems will cut throttle. Real fun if you're attempting to merge into traffic. I remember the first really fast car I drove. It was a 4th gen trans-am and it was also the first car that I'd ever driven. The owner (a distant relative) told me to floor it. It'd be fun, he said. I crammed my foot into the carpet and the car pivoted on its central axis as a concrete wall whirred past my windshield. I lived and the car was fine. But I learned something that day that kept me going through the snowey winters and rainy, leaf-strewn fall: cars are dangerous and the throttle pedal needs to be respected lest you really want to be tossed about in circles. I learned, as did every other driver previous to today, how to modulate the throttle to control wheelspin, even using it as an aid to reduce lag-- or have some fun. But why learn when a computer can do it for you? Let's do away with math class while we're at it. We've got calculators. History? Screw that, we've got wikipedia. And as far as the basics, do we really need to walk anymore? Really? The upside to mandatory traction control is fewer stupid accidents. (I know it's saved me at least once.) The downside is more people who won't learn their lessons at low speeds but when the limits of traction control have been eclipsed and not even a super computer could save their bacon. Thanks, but no thanks. Let's bring the art, and the fear, of driving back. If the government wants to make stability control mandatory, they should put a bit of reasonable fear back in people and make seatbelts illegal. ...well, maybe that last bit's going a bit far.... -mike magrath
Nov 13, 2008 - Where's the skill?Where's the pride in driving? It seems that there's only a few of us left who regard driving as a persuit worthy of perfecting. It's not about clipping apexes or maintaining a dramatic slip angle; it's about care and dedication and, to a certain extent, ego. How many times in the last week have you seen something stupid on the road? Either a botched lane-change, rash indecision or a paniced and needless brake application. My guess is so frequently that you've lost count. I know I have. It's rare these days to see a confident paralell parking job. A smooth acceleration. A decisive lane-change. Things that require thought, skill and execution. It's rarer still to see any of these things come from a driver who isn't obviously one of us. Sure, there's nothing to be gained from driving well. And even your passengers may not notice that you've perfected downshifting and braking to a level where the water won't spill from a full cup sitting on the dash. But we'll notice, and most importantly you'll notice, and you'll know that you've done something because anything worth doing is worth doing well. -mike magrath
Nov 12, 2008 - Riz would've wanted it this way
With James too busy in Mexico being a layabout, the onus falls on me to pimp his story. See, a while ago JR headed off to Korea where, after a million-hour flight, dehydrated and confused by location and time shifts (he was some 5-hours in the future), Kia could assault his weary senses with the new Kia Soul. Read the full review over on inside line. My opinion: It's ugly, and that's probably what Kia needs. Something, anything, to get people talking. The Rio's a fun little car. The Rondo's a trooper that never disappoints, but always fails to inspire. They've got the rational side nailed down, now they just need to tug at peoples emotions and get them wanting a kia, not just settling for one. -Mike Magrath
Nov 10, 2008 - Scenes from the Curb: When times get tough...
The current economic situation has got everyone looking a little closer at their finances, and we're no exception. I've converted my stove to run off of burning Starbucks cups. James Riswick has decided to pinch-pennies where personal grooming is concerned and has adopted the Magnum moustache full-time. Even Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton (pictured) is not immune having recently laid-off his full-time umbrella girl. -Mike Magrath
Nov 6, 2008 - I'm in Mexico, Leave Me Alone
I'm theoretically back from South Korea now. I say theoretically because I wrote this last Sunday and I suppose there's a possibility I was captured by North Korean forces or ate some bad Kimchi or something. Any way, after a brief day back in Los Angeles, I'm off again tomorrow, this time for a week-long vacation in Mexico. So instead of writing a bunch of stale blogs two weeks in advance, I'm turning Thoughts from the Curb over to my good friend and colleague Mike Magrath, Vice Lieutenant of Vehicle Testing. He'll no doubt have lots of interesting insights on the car biz; insights no doubt more inflamatory than mine, but almost certainly more coherant. So adios and enjoy. I took the above picture of Senor Magrath driving the Fiesta motor home for our Two Guys, a Truck and a 31-foot Fleetwood story. Good times. -James Riswick
Nov 6, 2008 - Behind the Scenes: Annyeang from Korea
Annyeang and hello from Seoul. It's getting late here and I'm tired after a very full day of traveling -- by airplane for an hour to Gwangju in the south, several bus rides and a two-hour drive route in the 2010 Kia Soul (pictured). This was my first trip to Korea, first trip to Asia and therefore my first driving experience in both. It was surprisingly not as difficult as I was afraid of. At least in Gwangju, it was very orderly driving all around. In fact, I was quite proud that myself and Road & Track's Mike Monticello were the only driving team to pass the chaparone lead car and try our best with the map and directions. Doing so allowed us to go faster but we also ran the risk of ending up in the middle of nowhere...in Korea...without a full map...completely incapable of speaking Korean...or reading Korean. We got to visit the Soul's plant in Gwangju, which also builds the Kia Rondo (aka Rondooooooh!). It was my first trip to a car plant, and if a local car plant ever offers tours of the facility, I suggest you do it. It was one of the most facinating things I've ever seen -- it was all such a beautiful dance between man, machine and the computers that coordinate them all. I'll have more stuff from my trip here two weeks from now when I get back from vacation (special guest blogger next week). Look for a Scenes from the Curb featuring hideous Korean market cars and a further thoughts about the Kia Soul (my Inside Line story will beat it to the Web). -James Riswick
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