Automotive Perfect Storm?

134.2, 135.3, 133.9. Are these numbers I picked out of a hat?  NO. These are the prices we are seeing at the pumps.

How are we coping? According to Bill Visnic, analyst and senior editor at Edmunds' autoobserver.com there has been a spike in drivers trying to unload their gas-guzzling SUVs and a ripple effect in the small used car market. Visnic notes that in addition to the gas situation, the shortage of parts in Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami have added to pressure on car prices. In addition, the fact that the economy is improving is sending all used car prices higher, not just for small cars.

Also, in wake of production stoppages in Japan incentives from Japanese brands have evaporated and price increases are being seen even of rival models that would be the closest substitutes for these Japanese brands.

According to Edmunds' proprietary measure of car prices, a three-year-old Honda Accord has soared in value by 24 percent since last September. A similarly aged Hyundai Sonata is up 22 percent, the Honda Civic is up 13 percent and the Nissan Sentra has risen 12 percent.

"Particularly the Civic and Sentra are the standard bearers in the fuel efficient category," Visnic says.

Sounds like the brewings of the 2008 Automotive Crisis all over again only the economic picture looks a little better now then it did back then. Are we going to witness what we did then? GM & Chrysler slipped into bankruptcy in a perfect storm of gas prices, the credit crunch and lack of consumer confidence. Will we see Japanese manufacturers like Toyota, Honda and Nissan file for bankruptcy too? Maybe I'm jumping the gun or does it have all the ingredients to whip up the storm:

• Parts Shortage
• Japanese Automobile Shortage
• High Gas Prices 
• Prices of used cars Increasing

(Should I add Toyota's "100-millionth" recall that it just announced after a whistleblower in Vietnam leaked information about the Toyota Sienna?)

Too soon to tell? What's your opinion?

Sources: msnbc; automonster 

BMW: Return your Iphone for a Blackberry

So my BMW Rep comes to see me to talk over what we have in the pipeline (meaning: status of ordered vehicles for my clients) only to ask me what phone I use. I tell him I'm going to be upgrading - probably an Iphone. "Oh, no" he says. Blackberry all the way - but it has to have OS-6 (operating system). He goes on to tell me the QMS system (?) in the BMWs is now a powered by RIM. RIM swooped in to get the Bimmer biz and now all 2011 BMWs (with the technology package) have awesome integration. So, whether you want some no-emotion "bot" to read out your texts or the navigation to take the address out of your client's v-card and map it for you, you'll be loving every minute of it. Oh, did I mention multi-tasking to the max: Email via Bluetooth!! Get your emails on the screen or send them via Bluetooth. 


This is your boss's answer to paid slavery and now you have literally no excuse that you couldn't respond. Poor you - but hey, you did get the boss to lease you a 2011 BMW right? Small victory right? or hours of torture to repay his/or her kindness?

Imagine this said "Don't come in - You're Fired". Think it would cause an accident?

So, I'm sold on the feature - Am I trading in my car for a new BMW?  Hell, no! GM what's taking you so long? Pick up the phone, call up RIM, ask them if they would like to be in 5% of the 592,545 units you sold in the last quarter in the US alone. Start pulling rank! I want this option in 2012 Cadillacs and I won't be telling anyone that I have it!


Video Demo:

GM sales number source

Seriously: Am I the only one?

Ok, so I watched a re-watched some of Transformers: The Movie because it was on TV. Am I the only one who watches car chases/highway scenes and tries to identify everything (make-wise) that's on the road? Or am I the only one who complains when they use older year models in a movie that is supposed to be present-day, come on!! Stop being cheap! I'm sure GM wanted to give up some cars so you could destroy them! Maybe Toyota? They had a lot of cars sitting on the lots last year (tongue in cheek!). Let's destroy a Highlander, no? Or please, destroy the Prius - I'd pay the see that!

“So it’s not beautiful, it’s not fast, it’s not particularly economical, not desperately safe, and now it turns out it isn’t even bulletproof.”
taken from: http://angryjanitor.com/

Waiting to see that redesigned Camaro on a huge theatre screen - worth every penny. But say, a movie like, From Paris with Love? You put old Escalades, old Euro trash on the road, come on. It detroyed the highway scene if you ask me. You think that's why it tanked at the box-office? Hmmm, maybe! (Or so, I'd like to think it's the reason).



Not a bad movie but they could've spent more money to make it better



Come to think of it: I may be the only one. Sad.

(P.S Check the "what is a prius good for?" Video --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvp69lnZbA)