A New Site for Car Lovers and Car Likers...

USA Today has opened a new website: http://www.openroad.usatoday.com. It's actually more of a blog than a website, but it's clean, clear and informative. The top article today refers to the possible production of this small and efficient automobile (pictured is the retro Fiat 500) by the prospective Fiat-Chrysler Corporation. Let's hope so.

This site also has a Blogroll which is similar to My Blog list and it includes a link to the very good Jalopnik site.

The only downside is that we won't be reading any more news about our favorite auto executive, Rick Wagoner.

Honestly, this is like beating a dead horse...

As you can see from these photos, the Big 3 auto executives are not exactly having a great time in D.C. And Ford and Chrysler say, hey, we're willing to talk merger again. You betcha!

It will be fun, fun, fun 'til daddy takes the T-Bird away. Oh, wait, they already took the T-bird away.... Sigh.

Cutting through the fog...

There seems to be a great deal of confusion over what exactly is ailing the Big 3 U.S. automobile companies, apart from a recession, poor leadership, a lack of focus on vehicles that get excellent gas mileage (which should be the real job one), new ideas and a proper vision of the future. A Sacramento-area car dealer, Scott Lasher of Lasher Auto Group, did a succinct job of clarifying matters in his comments to the Sacramento Bee on November 30, 2008. Lasher said that the number of dealers selling U.S.-brand cars will have to shrink. Four of his five major dealerships sell foreign cars.

Domestic automakers "built a business plan on owning 75 percent of the market... and they now have 45 percent of the market. The reality is, there are too many dealers, the domestic side more than the imports."