This Car Podcast Will Transport You Even If Your Badge Is on the Wrong Side

What do fewer sales days do to the monthly sales numbers? The make them much lower. That's what happened with September auto sales, but really it just looks bad.



Mercedes-Benz got a big boost from it's new sub-$30,000 CLA, selling 2,300 in it's first week on the market.

Does your car have a name? 

While the Mercedes brand carries weight, it's not as hefty or valuable as Toyota, which is the most valuable auto brand.

Telsa's valuable brand may have taken a hit with news that one of the Model S sedans caught fire right down the road from David near Seattle. No one was injured.

If you don't want your pooch to get injured, there is only one option among dog safety belts on the market.

The government shutdown has put the auto regulators in the pits, but at least Hyundai is giving those folks a break on their car payments.

Some Honda vehicle assemblers may soon be out of work after the auto maker found a bunch of Odyssey minivans with their badges on the wrong side.

Kids these days don't care about cars. They want multi-modal transportation options.

Finally, if your car has a name, you should have celebrated on October 2 along with Mathew and Guy.

Like Tesla, This Podcast Brand Is Practically Fully Charged

In this episode of the GTSOTR podcast:

Fiat is rounding up finding to buy the rest of Chrysler it doesn't own, but we think they will keep all the brand names intact.

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Rear-facing seats in a Tesla

Subaru is doing such a great job designing and selling cars which Americans want that it's running out of them.

We look at three automotive brands that could disappear in the very near future.

Tesla is brand on the rise and with its new supercharging stations, it's getting more practical. But we didn't realize just how practical the Model S it is.

The NHTSA is publishing some new regulations with the hopes of bringing some order to the autonomous vehicle development.

The Recession Did Not Kill Car Interest or This Automotive Podcast

More tales from the automotive world:

Americans started curtailing their time on the road well before the economic collapse hit.

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Toyota is fulled recovered from its PR and safety debacle of a couple of years ago and is now the most valuable automotive brand.

Driving drops off 

Detroit's auto makers have closed the gap and are now creating more top quality vehicles in the U.S., according to a recent study.

The vehicle segment rebounding the strongest is pickups, with sales up 20% so far this year.

The skys above N.J. highways may have drones watching over them soon.

This Automotive Podcast Lost Its SmartKey at the In-Home Car Wash

The economy is coming back and car sales continue to hum along, with predictions for March sales looking good. One group of buyers, those between 24-34, are changing their preference from mostly Japanese brands to more Korean and American brands.

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Those young people are usually the most expensive to insure, and we look at the most and least expensive states for car insurance. One factor affecting insurance costs: lawyers. Insurance costs might be going up in Nevada, where some questionable folks are staging scam car crashes.

The government hoped to make electric cars safer for pedestrians, but car makers are saying the volume they want on the safety sound is too loud. In other electric and hybrid car news, the Mayo Clinic found they won't affect pacemakers.

Don't leave the car without it. via MSN

Someone on the Secret Service is probably having a heart attack after the wrong type of fuel led to a breakdown of President Obama's limousine.

Fuel savings is a big deal for big trucks and fleets, and now some are considering natural gas as a potential fuel, while others are working to make big rigs lighter and more efficient.

While this home car wash won't save much money, it is pretty cool. Audi's new super LED headlights are hot, so hot they are illegal in the U.S. Finally, keyless entry for cars is convenient, but also has the potential for other follies.

This Automotive Podcast Is Not Just a Cute Concept

It's time for the Detroit auto show where car makers unveil their next new models, inspiring designs and  radical concepts. We run through some of the most significant and sexy vehicles in the show, including the Chevrolet C7 Corvette, VW CrossBlue, Hyundai HCD-14, among many others.

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While Autoblog does a great job of obsessively covering the show, our old friend Joe White does a great job of asking Build It or Bag It?

Ford, which didn't have a bunch of big reveals at the show, is doing a great job of keeping its customers loyal to the brand.

There has been an increase in the debate about moving from a gas tax to a mileage tax and David makes an impassioned argument that it's too soon and there are too many infrastructure improvements and repairs needed to make that change.

Some day in the future there will be enough electric and alternative vehicles, especially if the prices drop like they did for the Nissan Leaf this year. But that day is probably still many years away.

Finally, a judge ruled that corporations aren't people enough to qualify for the HOV lane.

Even a Banana Dictator Would Like This Cadillac of Car Podcasts

If you know about something do you think it is of higher quality? Well, a new study links perception and quality for auto brands with Honda coming out on top and Smart coming out at the bottom.

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Consumer Reports confirmed that the fuel-savings options on some small cars might not be worth what they cost. Fuel prices are coming down and that is pulling down the prices of used small cars.

This list of the most dangerous cars has some questionable logic behind it, but the vehicles aren't surprising. 

Those vehicles would be hard to insure, and now State Farm is offering a deal for Ford Sync owners who are willing to share their mileage.

Meanwhile, states are looking to raise tolls to fund road improvements since gas taxes are off the table. We debate.

Then we debate the merits of high-speed lawnmowers.

Finally, the Seattle-Tacoma area is getting a new car museum. The LeMay museum opens this weekend and David hopes to visit soon. They may even have some vehicles that would have interested this list of dictators who were car crazy, as well as just plain crazy.

An Affordable, Dependable and Delightful Podcast About Cars

Even amid all the economic doom and gloom, it is more affordable to purchase a vehicle these days, according to a new study.

Cheap, dependable and delightful.

This podcast is all about studies and another found that Toyota and its brands remain among the most dependable vehicles.

Another study found that Hyundai, Honda and Ford made the most delightful vehicles, well from a brand point of view.

Good fuel economy is something that more buyers are finding delightful, and it shows in the average MPG of sales in January compared with last year.

That might ease the pain of higher gas prices, which are hitting now, much earlier than usual.

Smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles aren't typically the least expensive to insure, while larger rides are cheaper.

The government thinks it might lose less money than expected on it's investments in emerging and green vehicle technologies. That might help ease the cost of the electric vehicle tax break the Obama administration is considering.

GM employees aren't getting many breaks these days and now the auto maker is killing it's pension plan.

Finally, one thing that might be a more fun investment than a 401k is an amphibious truck thing from Gibbs.

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We Hope This Podcast Has Better Brand Perception Than Saab

Sales are down but profits are up for car makers and car dealers. We discuss why that could be happening because it doesn't make much sense.

Dealers are so desperate for low mileage cars that some are offering drivers who come in for service a deal for their ride. But Mathew thinks that is just crass.

Do you care what kind of car your going to buy next? Well, more people don't see much difference between the big brands, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.

Does Kansas hate electric cars. No, but they are unhappy they can't collect gas taxes for them and may find a way to change that.

Cellcontrol offers an even more powerful way to prevent drivers -- probably young ones -- from using their phone to talk to text while driving. But it's still limited.

We have a deep discussion of the recent Supreme Court ruling around the use of GPS devices by the police to track people. Unfortunately, the media botched their reporting and the ruling actually meant something else. Read more about it on the Scotus Blog. 

VW gets us excited for the Super Bowl ads

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We Obsessively Podcast the Obsessive Coverage of the Detroit Auto Show

It takes a little time to get Mathew excited about the Detroit Auto Show, but I persevere. We talk about all the exciting -- and realistic -- production and concept vehicles that auto makers showed off. And the new gadgets and infotainment systems that are drawing buyers. We also go through Autoblog's list of concepts and pick out which ones are likely to reach the market.

The two concepts from Chevrolet -- the Tru 140s and the Code 130R -- are designed to appeal to young people. But as the WSJ reports and we've discussed lately -- young people don't care about new cars or driving much.

Smart was one of those brands that was to designed for young people, but has seen sales slip. Now the company is hoping a new concept and a focus on new markets can turn things around.

A Segway-like enclosed scooter called the C-1 from Lit Motors could be the kind of thing that does draw young buys. And it never tips over.

Finally, sharing cars, sharing rides, now comes sharing parking spaces. Yet another market is being created for personal spaces thanks to digital communication and smartphones.

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Seattle Auto Show: Big Branding Edition, With Logos

My son and I checked out the Seattle Auto Show this week to see some of the new cars on the market. I'm going to do a series of posts with photos to capture some interesting trends, cool stuff or amusing decisions.

Our second episode is dedicated to the efforts that auto makers are going to make sure you know what kind of car you are driving or seeing.

There was lots of branding on this Ford Mustang Boss 302

It's a Ferrari. Really. I've got the logo
on the wheel, the name on the brake caliper
and a giant logo on the fender.

And if you get to drive it,
the Ferrari prancing horse logo
will rub against the back of your head.

Dealing With Speedy "i"s

Dealers are rebounding after their numbers were slashed by the auto companies. Fewer dealers means more profits for those still around. But Ford continues its roll and now has more dealers than GM's Chevrolet brand for the first time in a long time.

GMC's Granite concept has suicide doors

Do you speed? Well, CNBC has a list of the top 10 cities for speed traps, so don't move to these places, most of which are in Texas. But if you do, and get nabbed, one enterprising tech geek has a story of how he thwarted a ticket using a GPS app that records the details of his travels.

That was smart, and several cities in Spain are hoping to make their parking spaces just as smart so that drivers can be alerted to available spaces.

BMW is planning a smarter, more eco-friendly brand, and rolled out the "i" for the name. Toyota added an "i" to Prius to create Prii, the plural of its popular hybrid brand.

Finally, GMC is planning to make its funky Granite compact city vehicle, complete with rear-hinged doors.

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Perhaps Mr. Goodwrench Can Join Our Podcast in His Retirement

The reigning fuel-economy champion Toyota Prius will keep its spot atop the ranking for 2011 - for now. The electric cars from GM and Nissan aren't on the list.

GM has returned to the skies in private jets. This time with approval from the government -- of course it stands to benefit. Also, GM is considering retiring the Goodwrench brand. Was it still working? The General may revive its performance brand but can it back it up with some products?

Morgan's Three Wheeler

Chrysler posted a smaller loss, only $82 million, but raised its outlook. As it works to redesign its lineup, things are looking better for the Italian-American brand. The Chrysler 200 is set to hit the streets as the first of these new-ish models.

Morgan, the venerable British maker of modern vehicular antiques, is bring back a storied three-wheeled design that is more than 50 years old and dates back to 1909. Is it cool?

Car racing season is wrapping up with just a couple more races left in Nascar and F1.

Finally, bringing back up a painful discussion from last week, a new red-light camera has the potential to violate your privacy in even more ways. And give you a ticket.

GetThisShowOnTheRoad, November 9, 2010.mp3