Luxury cars are an odd market. Cadillac has been trying to out-BMW BMW by producing the fastest accelerating, best-handling, rear-wheel-drive-based luxury sedans. Mercedes-Benz also has been pushing performance and handling more than at any previous time in its storied history. A consensus has been emerging that the C63 AMG is the best among an increasingly large, increasingly capable crowd of… More →
Category: Brands
Brands
Chrysler abandons Mainstreet
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 →
Buick to eliminate CX, CXL, CXS trim levels in 2012 MY
Buick has announced that they’re going to eliminate the CX, CXL, and CXS trim levels with their 2012 models. Instead, they’ll offer a hierarchy of option packages. Why? To eliminate the impression that the base model is the “cheap one,” which is unbefitting a premium brand. Which is why premium brands generally don’t have trim levels. I’m all for this… More →
Chrysler’s mistake with the Dodge and Ram brands
Today Chrysler officially announced that they will be splitting the Ram pickup away from the Dodge brand, and making “Ram” a separate brand. Pickuptruck.com has posted 5 reasons why it’s wrong to divorce Ram trucks from the Dodge brand. And they’re good ones, chiefly that Ram truck owners think of their trucks as Dodges and are the brand most loyal… More →
Another lemming over the cliff: Hyundai goes alphanumeric
Now, Accent, Elantra, Sonata, and Azera are hardly stories names. But they are at least names. Word out of Geneva today via Autoblog is that Hyundai will be phasing them all out in favor of alphanumeric names. All of which will start with “i.” Why “i”? Apparently because it stands for Inspiration, Intelligence, Integrity, and Innovation. And, I suspect, because of Apple’s… More →
Chicago: Ford will offer “more products people want”
I’ve attended two presentations by Ford today. The big news at Ford: they’re going to offer “more products people want.” I must wonder how long it took them to develop this strategy.