As FIAT started to take over Chrysler, the executives assigned to the American company cast about for ways to reverse its declining sales. New products often help but, having just traveled through bankruptcy, they had nothing new to offer. But they could pretend to have something new by putting new labels on the old bottles. So, part way through the… More →
Month: September 2011
Whither 8-way seat adjustments?
One of my favorite things about the Mazda Protege5 I own is the 8-way manual driver seat adjustments. In addition to the ubiquitous fore-aft and recline, both the front and rear seat height are separately adjustable. So you can vary the seat’s tilt independently of its height. The Mazda3 that replaced the Protege eliminated the separate height adjustments. Hyundai did… More →
Cost of high-tech features keeps coming down
Electronics built into a car have always cost much more than those purchased from aftermarket suppliers. I’m old enough to remember when GM charged $500 for its top head unit back in the 1980s. This money, at least $1,000 in today’s dollars, got you a “graphic equalizer” and an auto-reverse tape deck with Dolby noise suppression. More recently nav systems… More →