Is MirraChrome The Next Big Bling?

By Marty Padgett June 11th, 2007

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We tend to be a fairly conservative lot, us British drivers. We don’t like to stick out from the crowd too much in case we’re thought of as crass or vulgar. The most popular color to buy a car in has long been silver, but one U.K. company is now offering a variation on that them. Chrome is the new silver, with shiny body panels apparently set to be the next big thing.

MirraChrome is claimed to be the world’s most realistic chrome-effect paint finish, with 98 percent of the reflectivity of true chrome-plating. It’s the stuff was used on a Lamborghini Murcielago in the recent video by rapper 50 Cent.

“There’s plenty of interest in chrome, candy colours and other custom finishes, what with the TV shows [such as Pimp My Ride] and general interest in radical Sixties and Seventies automotive paintwork,” said Ray Penny. He’s manager of the Autopaint centre in Birmingham, England that’s now offering the shiny finish for the first time.

I’m not sure how you’d define “plenty of interest” but I’m not holding my breath until I see a MirraChrome car.—Richard Yarrow

Posted in : 2007, Aftermarket/Tuning, Just for Fun, Shoppers

Trucks Keep Slipping – Is It For Good?

By Marty Padgett June 4th, 2007

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It didn’t take a trained eye to notice. Heading up to northern Michigan, on warm summer weekends, back in the late 1980s, it was hard to ignore the growing number of minivans, pickups and sport-utility vehicles shooting up I-75. Sure, there were always those who needed a pickup for work, a minivan for a big family, or an SUV to haul a boat. But a close inspection showed that more and more of those light trucks were simply replacing the traditional sedan.

By 1997, the scales officially tipped, and with the brief exception of 2002, trucks have consistently outsold traditional passenger cars. That is, until May, when sedans, coupes and sports cars narrowly nosed into the lead, with 778,651 sold, according to the tracking firm, Ward’s AutoInfoBank, compared with 777,296 light trucks.

That’s probably no surprise, considering the economics of $3-plus gasoline. As light truck critics have long argued, there are plenty of folks who simply don’t need to be running from business luncheon to afternoon meetings behind the wheel of a 12-mpg HUMMER.

One could argue that the balance has tipped even more in favor of cars, depending on your definition of the new crossover vehicles flooding the market. Products like the Toyota RAV4 and Saturn Vue may look like utes, but they ride on unibody platforms often shared with more conventional passenger cars. Under the skin, Ford’s recently renamed Taurus X is virtually identical to the Five Hundred sedan, which is about to be rebranded with the Taurus badge.

For the first time, last year, crossovers outsold conventional, truck-based SUVs, notes George Pipas, Ford’s chief sales analyst, and the trend will continue – at an increasingly rapid pace, many analysts believe, in the face of record gasoline prices.

Don’t write off the truck just yet, industry analysts are quick to caution. Detroit manufacturers, in particular, are maintaining SUV and pickup-heavy production schedules, notes a story in the New York Times. These gas guzzlers are simply too profitable – especially when compared with the fuel stingy econoboxes that Big Three makers have traditionally lost money on.

A revival of the moribund U.S. housing market will likely generate a jump in pickup sales, since a large percentage of these trucks are still sold for commercial applications. And there remain plenty of buyers who need pickups and large SUVs to haul boats, RVs and other trailers.

Meanwhile, facing the reality of high gasoline prices, the industry is looking for ways to counter the naysayers – and regulators – who’d like to drive light trucks off the road. I just experienced one example in the form of the Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI. This diesel-powered, three-row SUV gave me an average of nearly 30 mpg running around Los Angeles, over the course of a week, much of that in heavy traffic. Expect manufacturers to start adding a lot more oil burners to their powertrain line-ups, now that the technology exists to meet tough new diesel emissions standards.

But barring a collapse in fuel prices, there seems little likelihood conventional trucks will regain the momentum they had early this decade. Mounting social pressures only add to the impact of high gasoline prices. The truck boom is almost certainly at an end.

What do you think? Tell us below if trucks are on the downward spiral.

MAY SALES MOSTLY UP—TheCarConnection.com

Posted in : 2007, Crossover Vehicles, Shoppers, Sport-Utility Vehicles

What Happens Now to the Town Car?

By Marty Padgett May 31st, 2007

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Ford's Wixom plant ceased operations today after 50 years of building Lincolns. So while my '66 Thunderbird is now something of an orphan, I'm wondering more about the future of three very old vehicles that still bring in pretty good business for Ford.

We're talking about the Town Car, and its platform-sharing Ford Crown Vic and Mercury Grand Marquis. The Town Car, now that Wixom is out of business, is being moved to St. Thomas, Ontario - the plant where the latter two cars already are built. The problem is, Ford's still yet to announce what it will close in a final phase of its Way Forward - and St. Thomas is on that list of potential closures.

We know a little bit about the arguments within Ford to kill all three. They're fleet sellers, which means low profits, and designing a new platform only for the trio is financially out of the question. So if the circle of options only includes North America, it looks like the plan is for Ford to sell the current vehicles, update them as needed, and pull the plug when sales drip below a certain level.

There is an intriguing option we talked about earlier this year. Ford said its Australian operations would be a significant source of future products - rear-drive ones at that. Like GM, Ford is thought to be considering a new range of rear-drivers spun from an architecture developed by its Aussie arm. And as usual, when these rumors begin to float, the usual Aussie Falcon sedan has made an appearance at Dearborn HQ--likely for "evaluation purposes."

It's a do or die moment for these products - but we want to hear your take. Should Ford keep the limo builders happy and keep the Town Car alive? Should a new rear-drive lineup along the lines of Ford's Interceptor take the place of the trio? Or is there room in the Ford portfolio for both?

Ford’s Wixom Plant is History - The Car Connection

Posted in : 2007, Ford, Lincoln

Cerberus/Chrysler Deal a Snow Job?

By Marty Padgett May 30th, 2007

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In "Chrysler at the Gates of Hell," on the Huffington Post blog, Automobile Magazine’s Jamie Kitman ventures to say that after Cerberus Capital LLC, the owners of the newly named Chrysler Holdings LLC, is through with Chrysler and the UAW, publicly traded companies — often maligned for having short-term returns in sight with long-term strategies left to suffer — will look benevolent in comparison. He also speculates that more predatory loan practices are just around the corner as Cerberus, which bought GMAC last year, now also has access to Chrysler Financial.

But more importantly, one tidbit that Kitman mentions, which has been a sin of omission for many news outlets in recent weeks, is that three ex-politicos, each fallen from grace in the political realm, are involved with Cerberus, with formerly much-ridiculed Vice President Dan Quayle helping steer the well-stocked ship. Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus’ Advisory Board, and has been heavily involved with the investment firm since 2000. Additionally, former Treasury Secretary John Snow and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are also involved in Cerberus.

In recent years the once much-ridiculed VP has served as the door-opener for Cerberus, helping to get the group into new markets that would be otherwise difficult and buying them direct access to high-ranking execs. In fact, Quayle helped the private firm establish an office in Germany in 2003 (in of all places Frankfurt), according to information in the former VP’s official bio.

Kitman remarks, “The man who forgot how to spell potato is chairman of Cerberus' global investments unit. Can you imagine corporate officers accountable to shareholders choosing him for an important job?”

UAW president Ron Gettelfinger has been widely criticized in recent weeks for accepting (and endorsing) the purchase of Chrysler by Cerberus before even meeting with the group. Cerberus had provided a written statement saying that there were no plans for additional job cuts directly connected to the sale, but in recent weeks there has been widespread speculation that the group is contemplating how to streamline, or possibly outsource, a significant portion of Chrysler’s production.—Bengt Halvorson

Chrysler At The Gates Of Hell—HuffingtonPost.com

Posted in : 2007, Chrysler, Shoppers

Mazda’s Rotary Turns 40

By Marty Padgett May 30th, 2007

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What is it about anniversaries that always draw our attention, well, mine, anyway? Considering all the news releases that cross TheCarConnection.com’s threshold each day, I might have ignored one from Mazda had it not noted that today marks the 40th anniversary of the Japanese automaker’s first production rotary vehicle. In the decades since, the automaker has continued rolling out the unusual, high-power alternative to the piston engine – nearly 2 million and counting – which is currently offered in the sporty RX-8 model, here in the U.S.

Now, to be more precise, one could date the so-called Wankel engine all the way back to 1919, when the then-17-year-old Felix Wankel first dreamed up the idea. And we mean dream. The idea came to him in the middle of the night, and the next day, he vaguely recalled telling friends in slumberland that, “my car has a new type of engine: a half-turbine half-reciprocated engine. I invented it!” Actually, it took the young engineer another 38 years to make his midnight vision a functional reality.

Unlike a conventional, internal combustion engine, the rotary has no reciprocating pistons. Inside the engine block, shaped a bit like a figure eight, is a triangular rotor. It operates much like a regular four-stroke engine, with the standard intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust functions – all while rotating, motion turned into amazingly smooth driving force.

When Wankel and the German company, NSU, produced the first effective prototype – in 1957, exactly a half-century ago, since we’re tracking anniversaries – almost 100 different companies lined up for licenses. That included manufacturers as diverse as the American automakers, General Motors and American Motors – which originally designed the bizarre Pacer to house a rotary. Unfortunately, the upcoming energy shocks effectively killed off those efforts, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Mazda was even more committed to the rotary concept, debuting the R16A, a mid-engine sports car concept, in 1965, and then launching production of the Cosmo Sport, with a 110-horsepower twin-rotor, on May 30, 1967. Within a short time, the maverick manufacturer was hoping, the Wankel would become its primary powerplant.

My own experience with rotary power dates back to 1973, when I convinced my family to cough up the down payment on a brand-new Mazda RX-2. It was distinctive looking and fast as I could hope for, a real alternative to the muscle cars most of my friends owned down the Jersey Shore. Only a college professor’s BMW 2002tii could give me a real run for the money.

Mazda might have made it big but for several issues. There was the first energy crisis which revealed that while phenomenally powerful, rotaries offered mediocre mileage, at best. Worse, my own RX-2 spent more time in the shop than it did running. Bad dealers didn’t help, but it turned out the early seals at the tips, or rotor corners, usually failed catastrophically. Intriguingly and inadvertently, that provided a platform for one of the great names in quality and customer satisfaction. The first to uncover the unexpected technical problem was the then-young J. David Power. He parlayed that research into the California-based research empire that still bears his name.

My own situation ended far less fortuitously. After repeated failures, I finally scrapped my RX-2 as a total loss. But I remained fascinated by the technology. After nearly going broke, a chastised Mazda discovered new and far more reliable seals, the ones used in the RX-8 today. Current rotary designs also make more power and deliver better mileage. And Mazda is even developing a version that could run on clean-burning hydrogen.

So, party on, rotary engine, and Happy Anniversary.

Celebrate with Mazda over at their rotary Web site

Posted in : 2007, Mazda, Technology