Jalopnik: Emissions

How German oil companies stopped the U.S. from getting awesome European cars

Raphael Orlove — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EDT

We all know "euro-spec" BMWs, Volkswagens, Mercedes-Benzes, and Audis from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that came with more power than the imports that came to the States. Why didn't America get any of those awesome cars? It turns out, like always, it's the Germans' fault. More »

Ford Marketing Head: "Fuck GM"

Justin Hyde — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:50:00 EDT

Ford's chief marketer Jim Farley has overseen some of the company's most important successes of the past few years, ones that have made it the most profitable automaker in America. How does he get motivated? By vowing to "fuck GM." UPDATED More »

Why car ads don't care about cars

Justin Hyde — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:45:00 EST

Volkswagen's winning Super Bowl ad was just the tip of a massive marketing push to get Americans back in a fahrvergnügen mindset, part of its master plan to overtake Toyota as the world's largest automaker by 2018. Mike Sheldon, the head of ad agency Deutsche LA which created the spot summarized the approach above, adding: "Car ads cannot be about cars." More »

Joe Biden Sees A Future That's Already Here

Justin Hyde — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST

Vice President Joe Biden went to Indiana today to hawk President Barack Obama's plan for spooling up electric vehicles, including instant $7,500 rebates on EVs. Nobody told him electricity is already a cheaper source of energy than oil. More »

Fox Sports Chief: NASCAR Races "Far Too Long"

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:00:00 EST

Fox Sports Chairman David Hill thinks the often four-hour NASCAR races are a bit long considering people could do, you know, almost anything else. He also admits NASCAR probably won't do anything about it despite falling ratings and attendance. More »

California, EPA Agree To Single Mileage Standard

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EST

California's agreed to align with EPA fuel economy standards for 2017-25 cars. [USA Today] More »

Patton Oswalt Rewrites Toyota's Annoying Ads

Justin Hyde — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:30:00 EST

Comedian Patton Oswalt finally puts words to the feeling of many Americans, saying he hates "the materialistic little asshole" portrayed in Toyota Highlander ads, and offers a few rewrites via the Twitter hashtag "toyotahighlanderrewrite." KFC's on us, anytime. [Twitter] More »

Chrysler's French President Loves Eminem

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EST

The reveal of Chrysler's "new" products kicked off with Eminem's "Lose Yourself" and the company's French North American President Olivier Francois trying, semi-successfully to recite the lyrics. More »

GM's CEO Wouldn't Be "Caught Dead" In A Toyota Prius

Justin Hyde — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson has only been on his first auto industry job for a few months, but based on a speech in Washington today, he's a quick learner. Fight! Fight! Fight! Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty [Ken Thomas via Twitter] More »

Fiat Designer Doesn't Do Cupholders

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST

Lorenzo Ramaciotti, condescending head of design for Fiat, tells AutoWeek why Europeans don't have the obnoxious American cupholder requirements. But hey, you wanna cupholder in your Cinquecento, America? You gettin' two cupholders, you lovable fatasses. (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Massimo Pinca) More »

Motor Trend Smacks Rush Limbaugh

Justin Hyde — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:30:00 EST

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After Motor Trend named the Chevy Volt their Car Of The Year, radio show host and former GM pitchman Rush Limbaugh blasted the award, saying "that's the end of them. How in the world do they have any credibility?" More »

President Obama's Patriotic Gambling Advice

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:15:00 EST

Standing in the Kokomo, Indiana Chrysler plant, President Obama said the lesson of 2009's auto industry bailout is not to bet against Americans, who are experts at turning billions of dollars of loans into a modest profit. Full advice below. More »

Volvo CEO Promises The Most Volvoish Volvo Ever

Justin Hyde — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:45:00 EST

Stefan Jacoby, the former Volkswagen exec now running Chinese-owned Volvo, vowed to LA Auto Show reporters that Volvo will remain true to its image — even while using Chinese suppliers and, possibly, building cars in China. More »

Cher: Hybrids Are "Pretty Much All Bullshit"

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST

Cher bravely lashes out at the hype surrounding hybrid cars, while saying she'd buy a diesel car if they sold diesel near Malibu (they really don't). Maybe she's bitter because her ex-husband died hugging a tree. [FoxNews, Photo: Getty] More »

U.S. Transportation Secretary Hates Facebook, Twitter While Driving

Justin Hyde — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:00:00 EDT

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's fatwa against distracted driving could grow to include a ban on all in-car cellphone use and new tech automakers have already rolled out. Distracted driving is dumb; so are over-reaching regulations buffaloed into existence. More »

This Totally Explains The Lotus Paris Motor Show E-Gasm

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EDT

Lotus CEO Dany Bahar explains the onslaught of new models at Paris by pointing out that other people told him the world needed another bloated luxosportscar maker. Those "other people" must hate cars. (H/T to StreetSpirit!) [Autocar] More »

Steve Martin On Texting While Driving

Matt Hardigree — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Comedian, actor, playwright, banjoist Steve Martin does in a few words what Ray LaHood can't accomplish with an entire coordinated media campaign. [@SteveMartinToGo] More »

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Says Humans Shouldn't Be Trusted To Drive

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Eric Schmidt talks about his Utopian (our dystopian) belief people shouldn't be trusted driving cars at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt. We guess he prefers to let them crash under computer control. Just like Chrome. More »

GM Replacing 25,800 Hybrid Battery Packs...When It Gets Enough

Justin Hyde — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:15:00 EDT

General Motors has to replace the battery packs in every Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Aura and Saturn Vue hybrid sold since 2007, some 25,800 U.S. vehicles. The problem? It doesn't have enough packs to fix what's broken. UPDATE below. More »

GM CEO: OnStar Is Not LifeAlert For Cars

Justin Hyde — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EDT

Dan Akerson, the new General Motors CEO, in his first Detroit interviews, explains OnStar's new direction in terms Buick owners understand. Photo Credit: Ann Baldwin / Shutterstock More »

Jon Hamm Vents His Anti-Motorcycle Bias

Matt Hardigree — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:15:00 EDT

The opening line from Detail magazine's typically homoerotic feature on Jon Hamm, who was behind the wheel of a loaned Mercedes SLS AMG doing 140 MPH on the PCH. More »

— Tom Brady

Justin Hyde — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EDT

The New England Patriots quarterback on the benefits of last week's crashing of a borrowed 2010 Audi S8. Photo Credit: AP More »

— Ruben Xaus

Matt Hardigree — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EDT

Crash-prone Superbike World Champion racer Ruben Xaus explains why he xaused again in qualifying for the FIM Superbike World Championship at the Nürburgring. [Hell for Leather] More »

New GM CEO Criticizes Obama, Brags About Voting Republican

Justin Hyde — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EDT

General Motors' new CEO Dan Akerson told GM employees today that the automaker will go into "attack mentality" and made a small attack of his own against the Obama administration's economic policies, noting "I vote Republican." More »

Rahm Emanuel: "Fuck the UAW"

Justin Hyde — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:01 EDT

Rahm Emanuel, former Democratic congressman and President Obama's chief of staff, gave the UAW the Gettelfinger during the GM and Chrysler rescue debate, according to former auto czar Steve Rattner's new book. This could get messy. Especially because there's more. More »

— Max Mosley

Justin Hyde — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:45:00 EDT

Former Formula One overseer Max Mosley, who knows from pleasure and punishments, says Ferarri should face some unpleasantness for team orders that let Fernando Alonso win the German Grand Prix. Spankings all around. [Welt Online via Autocar] More »

— Chad Ochocinco

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco apologizes after being fined $25K — the equivalent of two Bugatti Veyron payments — for tweeting during a game. Why not get a ZR1 and tweet all you want? More »

— Vice President Joe Biden

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

The Vice President unintentionally gives Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne the executive branch's kiss of death during a visit to the Toledo Jeep plant. Or was it intentional? Impossible to know with VP Biden. Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. More »

— Bill Ford

Matt Hardigree — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:45:00 EDT

Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford tacitly admitting no one could love a Mercury Mystique moments before attempting to solve Miami's sexiest crimes. [via @NAIASDetroit] (Photo Credit: Scott Olsen/Getty Images) More »

— Dr. Frank Ryan

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:30:00 EDT

Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan's last tweet. He was allegedly tweeting-while-driving, which caused him to drive off a cliff in his Jeep and die. The dog survived. (H/T to Clearwater) [Twitter] More »

— Nick Bunkley

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

New York Times reporter Nick Bunkley on the pace of today's news and the impending GM IPO. For what it's worth, the Justin Bieber story is still the most popular. (Photo Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images) [@NickBunkley] More »

— Juan Pablo Montoya

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Racer Juan Pablo Montoya expressing his displeasure with his Ferrari 360 to our own Ben Wojdyla shortly after thrashing a Corvette ZR1. More on that later. Photo Credit: Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images More »

— Jeremy Piven

Matt Hardigree — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Actor Jeremy Piven, who proudly tweeted about driving a Cadillac CTS-V hours earlier, complains about getting a ticket for 12 mph over the speed limit. Yep, 556 hp will do that. [@JeremyPiven] More »

— Donald Glover

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Comedian and actor Donald Glover explains why you're better off in his car if you're a big juicy burger and not, say, Abed. [@MrDonaldGlover] Photo Credit: WWNY More »

— Sergio Marchionne

Justin Hyde — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne explaining how a quarterly loss can be read as a sign of progress. He declined to name which of his two Detroit competitors deserved the title. [via @nickbunkley] More »

— Ed Whitacre

Matt Hardigree — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

GM CEO Ed Whitacre reassures everyone he knows less about cars than Ford CEO Alan Mulally when responding to a question about GM selling a minivan during yesterday's Center For Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminar. [@DavidShepardson] More »

— President Barack Obama

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT

President Barack Obama, noted Jeep Grand Cherokee afficionado, responding to an interview question today about kicking the SUV habit. He's right. SUV sales are up 19% year-to-date 2010. Americans do like their cars big... like their men. [via @DavidShepardson] More »

— Dan Neil

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EDT

Pulitzer-winning autojourno Dan Neil dings the Porsche Boxster Spyder and anyone who chooses a row-your-own six-speed over Porsche's PDK automagical tranny, claiming it's faster. Basically it's the same argument for ditching violins for electric guitars in orchestras because they're louder. More »

— Bob Lutz

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:30:00 EDT

Former GM Product/Quote-Producing Czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz. Lutz takes a stereotypical view of Silicon Valley in criticizing Tesla for having a stereotypical view of Detroit on the eve of Tesla's IPO. We miss you, Bob. [Reuters] More »

Charlie LeDuff —

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:30:00 EDT

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and current Detroit News reporter Charlie LeDuff remarks on the not uncommon mix of cheap booze, automotive fascination, and homosexuality found in Detroit. Especially in the suburbs. Especially where Ben lives. Photo Credit: Miskan More »