Loyally Raising the Podcast Standards

Loyalty is vital to auto makers success and Hyundai, which as we have discussed, continues to roll, with the highest retention rate for its owners.

Owners have also been more loyal to their vehicles, driving up the average age of cars and trucks on the road to a record 10.8 years old.

Get away from Prius camper.

One reason that could be so high is that people are driving less due to the stumbling economy and perhaps higher gas prices.

But higher gas prices and and the increase in CAFE standards coming in 13 years will probably cost drivers more, at least initially, but could save money in the longer run. Dealers are very concerned. Are you?

Speaking of concerned, Detroit is a place where you need to be concerned about the safety of your car, but police aren't increasing the patrols, they are just banning parking on the street.

Finally, need to get away. How about a Prius camper? It's hideous.

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Bob Lutz Would Perfect This Podcast Since It's About Autos

Bob Lutz is the man. Really. He confirms this in a very long and interesting essay in WSJ recently, by saying that an autocratic style is the kind of leadership needed to be successful in the auto industry.

Note the license plate. Healthy car.

We wonder if Mr. Lutz takes care of his car better than he takes care of his health. Most men polled in a recent study take better care of their cars than themselves.

We've been seeing more Nissan Leafs on the road these days, and now a Seattle-area blogger has found that the auto maker's optional Carwings data service has a loophole that could allow someone to track a vehicle through an RSS feed.

Toyota is hard at work on the next version of the Prius. Coming in the next edition, the ability to turn on and off the all-electric operation.

Did you just get in an accident? Bad news. At least you can now use your smartphone to file the insurance claim.

Speaking of accidents, some vistors to David's neck of the woods followed their GPS right into a slough, which is the West-Coast word for swamp. I hope they grabbed their smartphones as they jumped out of the sinking Mercedes SUV.

Perhaps those drivers will buy a Hyundai to replace their waterlogged Mercedes. The Korean auto maker is ramping up production further as it seeks to top 600,000 in annual sales.

Finally, we discuss art cars, which are usually old, ugly quirky vehicles that have been tiled or painted or sequined for use in parades in kooky places like Seattle's Fremont Fair.

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It's the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl of Automotive Podcasts

While maybe not the Super Bowl of auto news, it was a big day for car sales, with the totals for 2010 coming in, plus December's strong monthly report. The big winners last year were GM and Hyundai, but as WSJ points out, the U.S. auto market is changing with feisty competition becoming the norm. The list of most popular car models was full of yawns.

The car market is a changing.

Toyota was the big loser for the year and in December as it lost share amid the recall scandals and failed to excite buyers with significant new models. Still, the company is betting big on the Prius brand becoming its anchor over the next decade.

Toyota is at CES this week and showed a rather uninspired infotainment device it will be rolling out over the next year called Entune.

GM is taking OnStar to Best Buy with a new mirror that can be installed as an aftermarket device on most vehicles but David thinks the hefty subscription fees will limit sales growth.

Finally, we share our PVIs from last week which included the ultimate failure by the luxobarge and a snOMG for the Tuscon.

GetThisShowOnTheRoad, Jan 5, 2011.mp3