Thursday, October 1, 2015
news usa cars
Today, there’s little adventure in most mid-range road trips. We’re talking about your standard Detroit-to-Chicago, New York-to-Boston, L.A.-to-Vegas drives, the 4–7 hour jaunts that are relatively easy on both the car and the driver. Modern motoring simply isn’t all that difficult; you can pick a spot on a map, fuel up your car (provided it’s not electric), and make it there without worry or concern. The car you’ll drive is likely crushingly devoid of character, charm, or quirk. The most exciting decision you’ll make will center around which fast-food joint to sample, and, thus, the swiftness and violence with which your next bathroom experience will occur.
-The antidote involves finding a route or a vehicle (or both) outside of the modern commuting norm, a car with compromise, something that will make the miles pass with a sense of occasion—and a route that will bear some impact on the experience. Neither needs to be particularly torturous, mind you, but a curvy road with a view never hurts.
-Now you’re getting back to the romantic notion of road-tripping, the memorable weekend jaunt that pleasures with whiffs of adventure. We were given the opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with this soft-focus image of the wheeled odyssey in the run-up to this year’s Pebble Beach festivities in Monterey.
-Our chariot would be the seemingly perfect tool for the roads on which we’d lay our breadcrumbs: the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. Compromises? Where do we start? There are just two seats, a smallish trunk, and no formal glove box. Perfect. The route, oh, the route would be envious, a rip up the California coast from Santa Barbara to the Monterey Peninsula with a minimum of freeway slogging and a maximum of Pacific Highway 1. Even better than all of that, we’d get to truly kick back and enjoy ourselves, something the hustle and bustle of reviewing a few hundred cars per year rarely allows. Well, besides this assignment. And ultimately covering the Pebble Beach festivities upon reaching our destination. But enough about that.
-Hugging the coast, Highway 1 would take us some 230 miles to Monterey in fine fashion—at least, so we figured. Stockholm Syndrome from Michigan’s typically straight, broken, and sad road situation meant even the thought of sinewy Highway 1 practically had us practicing our heel-toe technique in the airplane seat on the flight westward.
-Inevitably, perhaps, reality would fall somewhat short of our sky-high expectations, because the Pacific Coast highway by day is pretty much a moving traffic jam clogged by a seemingly endless number of motorhomes and rented Ford Mustang convertibles. Seriously, public, isn’t it possible to take in the landscape while moving semi-quickly?
-Undeterred, we let the rolling chicanes become fodder for a fun little challenge: taking advantage of Highway 1’s pathetically short passing zones using the Mazda’s nearly as weak 155 horsepower. The fourth-generation Miata is by no means the sort of car that can easily dispatch a triple pass in 50 yards of dotted yellow lines, but the new model’s low curb weight certainly gives it more pep than any Miata before. It is with this glass-half-full mentality that we began picking off slow-moving gawkers one and sometimes two at a time with screaming second- and third-gear passes.
-Those successful attempts bought us merciful five-minute blasts without traffic on a cliffside roller-coaster ride. The monotony of staring at the backs of campers for miles on end made these rare, road-to-ourselves jaunts all the sweeter. The Miata excels at this sort of back-road driving, its dainty body leaning dramatically even at a six- or seven-tenths pace, the peerless six-speed manual’s shift lever embracing gates like old friends, while the rev-happy 2.0-liter engine ricochets a raspy blat off the rock walls just inches away. A ribbon of blacktop seemingly tossed at the bluffs to see where it would stick, the good sections of Highway 1 mostly lack straightaways longer than a few hundred feet, and constantly sawing at the Miata’s three-spoke steering wheel never grew tiresome. Reality, however flickering, was finally lining up with the fantasy.
-Inevitably, we’d run into another camper and have to entertain ourselves with the strategic passing game. The stunning views and the cool sea breeze on a postcard-worthy sunny day were fallbacks, but ones that grew nearly as monotonous as the ass end of an RV. Indeed, a deeply rooted jealousy of Californians’ good life had us rolling our eyes. Rounding a yet another bend, yet another ocean view would fill the windshield and the biting hypothetical “oh, look, another achingly beautiful vista worthy of Monet’s brushes” would escape the corners of our smirk.
-Those simply aren’t words this author has even thought while traversing, say, I-94 between Ann Arbor and Chicago. But then no one in his or her right mind would look at that barren, truck-clogged East-West splinter of concrete and think of driving a small roadster topless across its length. With the right car, even an artery as odious as I-94 could be defibrillated. With our California vacation terminating in Monterey without a single breakdown or noteworthy setback beyond some sunburn, it was a singularly great experience, thanks to the right car and the right road. If our five-hour adventure had a takeaway, it’s that adhering to the romantic notion of road-tripping today demands more rigor be put into your selection of its context. We’re not saying the car needs to threaten to leave you stranded—we’re familiar with that sort of road trip, be it in a group of classic Lamborghinis, a grungy old French car, or a Tesla Model S—or the road needs to be so awful as to be ironically interesting, but an injection of compromise never hurts.
-Arriving in Monterey a little redder than when we left Santa Barbara but otherwise completely cogent, free of oil stains, and without having exerted too much effort, our voyage was far more stimulating and only slightly longer than it would have been had we taken, say, the soul-sucking 101 freeway. Now, had we taken the 101 but driven a Yugo . . .
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news usa cars
The biennial Tokyo auto show not only gives us a chance to see some seriously weird stuff, it also gives us the opportunity to check out the wildest creations from automakers that don’t sell cars in the U.S. Suzuki did sell cars here some time ago, and perhaps if those cars were as funky and standout as the Mighty Deck and Air Triser concept cars, it’d have stood a fighting chance. Of course, Suzuki still builds motorcycles and sells them stateside, which gives us hope that the retro-cool Hustler Scoot will reach our shores—if it reaches production.
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Suzuki Mighty Deck concept (top)
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Looking for all the world like a 1960s-era Mini-based Riley Elf wearing LED-lined sunglasses, and on cocaine, Suzuki’s Mighty Deck is so named for having, well, a mighty useful rear deck. Tucked beyond those thick C-pillars is an “open load deck” that can be “repositioned for diverse purposes.” Thinly vague, but mostly promising! The deck can be raised or lowered, which is mighty neat, and the canvas roof—which we presume can be removed—is mighty fun. Mighty!
-Suzuki Air Triser concept
-Google was thoroughly stumped when we searched the term “Triser,” but after some digging, we were able to find at least one alternate meaning. According to Google Translate, “Triser” is Norwegian for “Matrices.” So now you know that. We aren’t so sure what Suzuki means, then, by naming this small minivan concept “Air Matrices,” or whether it meant anything by it at all. Technically, a matrix is “an environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure,” at least if Google’s dictionary widget is to be trusted. Maybe Suzuki is on to something with the name, then, because the Air Triser features reconfigurable seats, which can be flipped to face each other or to form a U-shaped sofa. Millenials dig that sort of togetherness—at least, that’s what we read on the Internet.
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Suzuki Hustler Scoot concept
-Fancy concept cars are fun and all, but we really dig when manufacturers root their fantasies in reality. Take, for example, the oddly named Hustler Scoot concept—it really doesn’t look so far-fetched. In fact, it looks pretty much production-ready right now. We have a soft spot for basic, utilitarian transport, and the 50-cc Hustler Scoot has basic in spades. The boxy shape allows for plenty of storage cubbies, while a removable briefcase-sized thing can be mounted between the rider’s legs. Maybe that’s why it’s called the “Hustler,” because it’s ideal for hustlers. It checks all the boxes: Boxes for product storage, easy on gas, makes for quick getaways from tight spots. Suzuki hustles harder, people.
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news usa cars
Two 20-somethings walked into a car dealership . . .
-No, that really happened—this isn’t a setup for a joke. More than a quarter of the 16 million new-car purchases in the United States last year were made by that tech-savvy, marketing-averse group known as millennials, according to market-research firm J.D. Power. And virtually all those buyers ended up signing the paperwork and accepting the keys at an honest-to-goodness new-car dealership.
-How could that be, in an age of painless online shopping, when you can buy everything from shoes to home mortgages via keystrokes, no trial fittings or handshakes required? Why can’t you read the review of a new model on Car and Driver’s website, click the “Buy It Now” button at the end of the article, and walk out to the driveway to await delivery by (large-capacity) Amazon drone?
-Far From Useless
- -Despite a few experiments with direct sales that have generally not caught on, a notable exception being Tesla Motors’s factory sales model, franchised dealers still control the new-car pipeline in this country. Their reign is unlikely to end soon. “The internet has dramatically changed the car-buying experience, but not the role of the dealer,” Maryann Keller & Associates wrote in a 2014 study for the National Automobile Dealers Association, a group that undoubtedly liked what it heard.
-Long-established state franchise laws that largely prohibit direct sales by auto manufacturers are the biggest reasons dealers are mostly impervious to outside threats. The idea behind the franchise system is that third-party businesses can service customers better by fostering competition. A dealer who is independent of the automaker would, in theory, assure a broad inventory, provide competent repairs, and be an upstanding member of the local community, treating neighbors fairly and perhaps sponsoring beer-league softball or a kids’ soccer team. And customers can comparison-shop Chevy dealers easier than if they are taking on Chevrolet itself.
-Compared with most purchases, online and otherwise, buying a car is a costly, complicated affair, more akin to a real-estate transaction than buying a shirt. The dealer arranges financing, collects taxes, handles the state registration, and offers an opportunity to see and drive various models before making a decision. It will take your old car on trade and stands ready to provide factory-warranty service and handle recalls.
-“There has been a focus on outdated laws that protect dealers, but there is that consumer issue, and it is a real one,” says Aaron Jacoby, chair of the automotive industry practice group at Arent Fox, a Washington, D.C.–based law firm. “Laws are still geared toward protecting consumers, and there is interest in how they will get service for these major expensive things they are buying. How will recalls be handled? How will warranty work be handled?”
-While more than a third of customers say they would consider buying a car directly online, according to a study by McKinsey & Company, most want to try before they buy. More than 80 percent of buyers take test drives, underscoring the continued strategic importance of dealers.
-The number of dealers is declining, though, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many marginal operations succumbed to the recession, and manufacturers bought out others that were smaller or less professional. Consolidation has created a national network of some 18,000 dealers today, 18 percent fewer than the 22,000 in operation just 10 years ago. While mom-and-pop operations dwindle, the largest dealer groups—such as AutoNation, Penske, and Group 1 Automotive—continue to add locations, boosting profit margins and efficiency. Bigger can be better for customers as well. The dealer groups offer more choices, with AutoNation listing some 70,000 vehicles for sale nationwide, all searchable online. Once you find the exact model you’re looking for, the car can be shipped to your local store for delivery.
-Chasing Transparency
- -Buying a new car remains a bricks-and-mortar transaction, an actual physical exchange of paperwork for keys. The sales environment is changing, however, as dealerships face up to the internet’s new reality. Today’s customers, millennials in particular, demand transparency, simplicity, speed, and trust. “Customer expectations are being shaped by retail experiences largely online,” says Jeremy Anwyl, principal of Anwyl Partners and former vice chairman of Edmunds.com, an auto-shopping website.
-A tsunami of information is within easy reach of anyone with a laptop or a smartphone. Data-gathering websites detail exactly what dealers pay for cars, while independent companies compile full inventories of available vehicles, reveal what other buyers paid for the exact model under consideration, and connect shoppers to the dealer with the lowest price, often guaranteed in writing. Increasingly, buyers are striking virtual deals with salespeople they haven’t met, filling out forms and initiating the transaction from their living rooms. A study released this year by Autotrader.com, which included a survey of more than 4000 car shoppers, found that 56 percent wanted to start negotiating on their own terms, preferably online, and that nearly three-quarters wanted to complete the credit and financing paperwork that way as well.
-“You talk to consumers about what bothers them. One is a lack of feeling comfortable with the price, and another is a feeling that their time is being wasted,” reports Anwyl.
-So the goal for dealers today is to complete the deal and hand over the keys within an hour. Still, a complicated credit history can stretch the process toward, and beyond, the industry average of four hours.
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Another bottleneck in the process is the trade-in. “Why don’t people buy more new cars right now?” asks John Krafcik, president of TrueCar, an online pricing-and-information site that funnels buyers to dealers. “Probably because the thought of selling their current car is so horrible.”
-TrueCar attacks this problem with a smartphone app to expedite the trade-in process. You snap photos of your car, answer a few questions about its condition, and TrueCar will solicit bids from dealers in your area, then send you back the highest offer. Assuming that an inspection verifies the claimed condition, the dealer will cut you a check for the car or honor the stated value as a trade-in. By the time the TrueTrade process is fully implemented next year, TrueCar says you will be able to take your car to many of the 10,000 dealers in its network to receive the guaranteed price.
-Online pricing tools may have helped to reassure wary customers, but some parts of the transaction, such as lease calculations or payments from manufacturers to help cover dealer costs, remain inscrutable. “There is partial transparency,” Anwyl says, “but it is not complete.”
-Getting Satisfaction
- -To a public increasingly accustomed to online shopping, the dealer model may seem old-fashioned. But Jacoby, the lawyer, says that automakers and dealers “are slowly figuring out the dance toward how they themselves would dominate the internet.” He points to FordDirect.com as an example. That site—and similar efforts such as GM’s Shop-Click-Drive and Scion’s Pure Process—allows you to build a vehicle to your specification, gives you an “internet price,” and links you to a dealer for delivery. FordDirect claims to have helped dealers with more than 600,000 sales last year.
-Another factor in favor of dealers: Customers seem to like them better than ever before. Two of J.D. Power’s studies, the Sales Satisfaction Index and the Customer Service Index, have been on the upswing for years (except for a slight dip in 2015 for the service study), suggesting that dealers have been cleaning up their houses.
-“People are more satisfied with dealers today than they have been,” says John Humphrey, senior vice president for global automotive operations at J.D. Power. “It’s evident in trend numbers from our surveys. They’re more satisfied when they buy and when they go for service.”
-Adds Anwyl: “It is not inherent in the franchise system that customers can’t feel happy and have a great experience when they buy a vehicle. It does mean that manufacturers and dealers need to clarify their roles and responsibilities and work together.”
-So while there is still no simple way to buy a car, technology has leveled the playing field. That gives the customer more clout.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2015
New Sonos Speaker Costs $500 but New Smart Tuner Is Free
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