While This May Not Be a Golden Age for Cars, This Podcast Is High Quality

The latest new-car quality report from J.D. Power is out and while it's good news for most auto makers, including GMC and Porsche, it also sparked a discussion about whether this is a Golden Age for cars.

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A review of the BMW 2002 from the 1960s highlighted how diverse the market was.

But since we are griping over the quality of infotainment systems instead of quality or performance, maybe Apple will be able to sneak into the cockpit as auto makers look to develop competitive offerings.

One company that is on the rise is Telsa, and they had to issue their first recall, but they did with class and style.

A golden version of a BMW 2002 from the Golden Age of cars

This Car Podcast Is Blowing Up Like Airbag Recalls

On the podcast this week, we look at:

A surprising rise in highway accident deaths after years of declines.

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Airbags are proliferating and this year, so are the airbag recalls.

Parents are distracted all the time, even behind the wheel, but not necessarily by their kids.

Six rules of the road you don't know and aren't following.

Advertising is distracting but that might not stop GM from allowing AT&T to serve them up in cars, in exchange for cash.

Distraction can lead to speeding, and that leads to get people in trouble with the law. But women and men try different excuses.

Airbag recalls are blowing up.

This Automotive Podcast Registers With Brand Loyal Drivers

Loyalty is a quality that auto makers love because it makes it easier and cheaper to sell you a car. But what do they do to inspire loyalty.

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But when it comes to that initial purchase fuel economy is number one consideration for shoppers, followed closely by styling

Dodge is having a surprisingly hard time selling the new Dart, but a clever new purchasing registry might help drive some demand.

Don't you want me?

Perhaps the Dart will become a classic and end up getting sold at auction to a collector.

Auto racing has lost some momentum in recent years and now IndyCar and Nascar are taking steps to make the racing better and more watchable on television.

Two disturbing trends for U.S. drivers: More cars were recalled last year than we sold new and fatter people are more likely to be injured or die in a car crash.

Finally, Peugeot has developed a hybrid gasoline-air drivetrain that we don't understand.

This Podcast Is Extremely Close and Incredibly Unsafe

Television advertising is expecting a boom this year thanks to a boom in auto sales, which look to be even stronger in March.

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Crazy wagon seating. (Via WSJ)

But times are still tight, so we take a look at the cheapest cars to own over 5 years.

Cheap is not what you think of with BMWs but some bad battery covers have led to a huge recall of 1.3 million of the German cars.

CarRush in the U.K. is billing itself as the Groupon for cars, but we question that business model.

CNet did a great job looking at the new regulations around driver distraction, and moving maps could be deemed illegal.

Would Cadillac's new vibrating safety seat be deemed distracting? Probably, and Chapel Hill would deem it illegal.

The lottery numbers are reaching epic heights and that got us dreaming about cars, because we are men.
We look at some new models that might be classics one day, some older wagons that are suddenly getting cool with collectors and an old Pontiac that Keith Richards once owned.

Podcasting by the Seat of Our Pants

Welcome to our 2011 end of year car sales extravaganza. We talk about:

• December U.S. auto sales
• 2011 full-year sales
• Top selling by category
• Top selling vehicles
• Chevrolet Volt vs. Nissan Leaf

Other than sales, we also look at the decrease in recalls during 2011.

Ford Concept

Next week is both CES and the Detroit auto show and in addition to interesting vehicles from Ford, Chrysler and others, vehicular gadgets will be on display, including a slew of new apps for Ford's SYNC.

One piece of technology that might be too wacky even for CES is a system that uses people's behinds to identify them.

Perhaps HiGear could use that system to prevent the vehicle thefts that is leading the peer-to-peer auto rental to shut down.

Speaking of criminals, Jimmy Hoffa is apparently buried under GM's headquarters in Detroit. Not Giants stadium.

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