On the road to the White House

Now that the presidential fight card is set, we at Up to Speed decided to check out the candidates' transportation choices.

The tale of the tape:

Barack Obama (D): Drove a Chrysler 300 with a V-8 engine (18 mpg) until last summer, when he switched to a Ford Escape hybrid (30 mpg) after getting bad press about driving a gas guzzler.

John McCain (R): Cadillac CTS sedan (19 mpg). Reportedly, his first car was a 1958 Corvette (no mpg rating — it predated the rating system — but probably not too great).

Joe Biden (D): Although his main vehicle of choice is the Amtrak Acela from D.C. to Delaware, he is known to drive a 1967 Corvette (again, no mpg rating).

Sarah Palin (R): As governor, she drives a Chevrolet Suburban (16 mpg) owned by the state of Alaska. In July, she was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on the way to work. The SUV sustained several thousand dollars in damage. She also has been known to drive her husband's snowmobiles.

These are going to be a hard-fought couple of months. But there's clearly one thing both tickets can agree upon: If you want to run for high elected office in the U.S. of A., you'd better drive an American car. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) drives a Toyota Prius, so we know why McCain passed him over.

Then again, with Secret Service escorts, none of the candidates will be doing any driving anytime soon.

—Ken Bensinger

Photo: Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter Piper with Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy.

Credit: Stephan Savoia / Associated Press

Labor Day weekend: Classic car shows abound

Whether you're a serious collector or simply enjoy observing the hobby from the sidelines, Labor Day weekend is a great time to check out some sweet rides at car shows and gatherings throughout Southern California.

Two events this weekend are annual car shows:

The Great Labor Day Cruise — Costa Mesa
Three days of hot rods, classics and custom cars. Thousands of cars from 1972 and earlier. A designated cruise route runs throughout the fairgrounds and there are also live bands, drawings, and a car give-away.

Where:  Orange County Fairgrounds, Costa Mesa
When: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Aug. 30 - Sept. 1
Admission: Adults $12, children under 12 free

Primer Nationals Hot Rod and Motorcycle Show — Ventura
Who can resist checking out 1965 and older American-made cars, trucks and motorcycles under the palms, near the beach in Ventura, with judging categories that include "Best Bobber" and "Best Low Rider." There's also a prize for "Girl Owner" (Is that best girl owner or best car she owns? You'll have to go and find out).

Where:  Ventura County Fairgrounds, Ventura
When: Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 30-31
Admission: Adults $10, children under 12 free, military with ID $5

Plug-in hybrid, electric car on Toyota agenda

Toyota is getting back in the electric vehicle game.

The Japanese automaker said this week it intends to develop a small all-electric car for sale early in the next decade. The announcement by President Katsuaki Watanabe is the first indication that Toyota plans to revisit an area of automotive technology that it dabbled in a few years back in the Golden State.

During California’s abortive effort to encourage development of electric cars, Toyota leased electric versions of its RAV-4 sport utility vehicle. Some of those are still on the road, and some electric-vehicle advocates have been grousing that Toyota, the industry leader in sales of fuel-efficient gas-electric hybrids, should resurrect its earlier electric-only efforts.

Other big automakers, such as Nissan and Mitsubishi, have also announced plans for electric vehicles.  And several smaller companies, such as Bay Area-based Tesla Motors, are also developing electric cars or light trucks.

Toyota didn’t release any details of what its proposed electric car will look like or how much it will cost. But spokesman John Hanson said they will be sold to the general public.

That is decidedly not the case with Toyota’s highly anticipated plug-in hybrid, which operates like a gas-electric hybrid but also has a short electric-only range and more powerful batteries that can be recharged overnight through a household outlet.

Volkswagen passes Ford in world sales

Last year, Ford Motor Co. for the first time ceded second place in U.S. auto sales to Toyota, a historic blow for the giant from Dearborn, Mich.

Now it appears it may lose another title: world's third-largest automaker.

Volkswagen AG said today that for the first six months of the year, it had surpassed Ford in global sales by selling 3.31 million vehicles, about 220,000 more than Ford. VW did that by increasing sales by 7.2% for the period, while Ford sales declined 3.4%, to 3.09 million vehicles.

That puts VW behind only Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. in the race for planetary car emperor.

Toyota surpassed longtime ruler GM for the first half lead.

Volkswagen only holds 1.4% of the U.S. market. Throwing in its Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini units, that creeps up to 2%. Yet, ironically, that could be part of its key to success this year, as exposure to the slumping U.S. market has been painful for most automakers. Even Toyota has blamed decreasing profits on the U.S. market's woes and today said it would scale back its forecast for 2009 sales, in big part because of further expected weakness in the U.S.

Smart Cars get L.A. ink

Yep, it’s a Smart Fortwo with tattoos. This car has just been unveiled in Las Vegas by a Los Angeles company. The inking was created by French fashion designer Christian Audigier, the man behind the Ed Hardy brand. Called Project Tattoo, it has seven layers of exterior paint, piano black interior accents, leather seats with a hand-stitched tattoo theme, plus a full complement of high-end, high-wattage sound and navigation equipment.

Only 100 examples will be made, available in black or white, with each one numbered and signed by Audigier. The coupe model goes for $37,000 and the convertible version sells for $40,000. But any interested parties should move fast, Project Tattoo is almost sold out (click here for the website and contact details). And it would fit so well in Venice Beach.

-- Colin Ryan

Photo: Ed Hardy

Visualize a virtual Porsche in your driveway

OK, let’s admit it -- we’ve all read a self-help book or two on our paths to becoming better people. One thing most of these books have in common is the technique of creative visualization, a kind of ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach. Thanks to the modern wonders of the Internet and the imagination of Porsche, owning one of Stuttgart’s finest is now a step closer.

Using the tagline: I can, Porsche has created a mini-site where you are able to insert an image of your desired vehicle (Cayman, Cayenne, 911 or Boxster) into a picture of your driveway. Since I live in an apartment block, I don’t have a driveway, but here’s what a 911 would look like in my parking spot. I’m thinking of using it as the wallpaper on my computer.

Having a 911 would make me a better person; I’ll no longer covet my neighbor’s Porsche. If the power of the mind is anything like the power of this car, I’ll be an enlightened soul in no time. Maybe I could speed up the process by chanting too. Here we go: nam myoho renge Porsche, nam myoho renge Porsche...

-- Colin Ryan

Photo: Porsche/Colin Ryan

GM’s Pebble Beach Motorama, and a Big Red Bus

GM's Motorama exhibit at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance included 19 of
the company's historic show cars and one "Parade of Progress" Futurliner
(background), one of the big red buses that carried GM's science and technology
shows to small-town America in the 1950s. In the foreground is the 1954
Firebird I, a turbine-powered airplane-with-wheels "Dream Car." An earlier
version of this car nearly killed GM development engineer Charles McCuen
in a high-speed crash.

Some of them went off to junkyards to rust quietly for decades before being rescued. Some were spirited off into the night by GM employees who didn’t have the heart to send them to the crusher. Some slumbered nearly forgotten under tarps in GM warehouses. It wasn’t until the mid-’80s that General Motors realized it needed to move fast to locate, preserve and restore the surviving Dream Cars from its Motorama era.

The truth is, no one really knows how many Dream Cars GM built in the 1950s -- the record-keeping was lousy back then -– so it’s hard to know the actual losses. But it’s remarkable that so many pristine examples found their way to the lawn at Pebble Beach for GM’s Motorama display, part of its centennial celebration at the recent Concours d’Elegance.

(Click for Motorama: GM's 1950s' Dream Cars photo gallery)

Among the cars were GM design czar Harley Earl’s personal car, the Buick Y-Job, which is still the best concept car the company ever made (though, strictly speaking, not a Motorama car). Others on display included Chuck Jordan’s first car, the bubble-top Buick Centurion (with rear-view camera); Pontiac’s riff on the early Corvette, the Bonneville Special; and the three Firebird cars. With technical innovations such as turbine engines, intelligent highway guidance, air brakes, titanium construction, air-oil suspension, joystick operation and magnetic keys, the Firebirds –- though a bit silly in their aping of rocket-era styling –- were real laboratories for future technology, some still out of our practical reach.

A few years ago, at a high-bank track in France, I had a chance to drive the Cadillac Le Mans Motorama car. It was great to see it again at Pebble Beach, to be reminded of just how enormous the two-seat car is (196 inches). It had Cadillac’s first wraparound windshield. Words fail to convey how cool this car is.

Lording over all was GM’s big red bus, a beautifully restored Futurliner, one of 12 built by the company to move its Parade of Progress exhibits as they barnstormed across America. This bus, restored and owned by the National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States, is the most correct and accurate of the 10 remaining Futurliners.

For a quick history of Futurliners, click here. Well worth it.

-- Dan Neil

[Photos: General Motors]

Ford Redraws the Racehorse

Holy of holies, they're messin' with the Pony!

Ford Motor Co. said today that its much-anticipated 2010 Mustang will have a redesigned badge. In most circles, this falls somewhere in the yawner category, about on par with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures recalibrating the meter.

Yet Mustang lovers are a special clan, avid enough to support at least six monthly Mustang-themed magazines, roughly 100 U.S.-based owner clubs and thousands of niche websites, including the Icelandic Mustang Club and the Mustang Mafia. By comparison, another legendary fan car, the Chevrolet Corvette, has only four magazines.

So there is little doubt that what Ford describes as its "more defined, more angular" Mustang badge will make tsunami-size waves in the 'Stang world.

UPDATE: Ford has produced a video on the new steed's logo job, for all you die-hards.

Mercedes-Benz SL -- the enduring classic

The 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL isn’t strictly a new generation, but it has received a comprehensive reworking -- not just in its styling but also in the driving experience. Keeping the same 2003 body style, the re-worked 2009 SL is a driver’s car again. Not necessarily an all-or-nothing, tightly focused terror on the tarmac, but it can lope along an interstate or attack a canyon road with the same high degree of finesse.

The suspension has been tuned for the better, blending comfort with control and poise. A new seven-speed automatic gearbox handles shifting duties with extreme efficiency and the engines -- in keeping with the times -- manage to perform the trick of developing more power yet returning better fuel consumption and fewer emissions.

"Six Generations of Mercedes-Benz SL" here>>

As an entry-level model starting at $95,900, the SL 550 is perfectly fine with a 5.5-liter V-8 and 382 horsepower. Then again, the SL63 AMG (6.2 liters, 525 hp), with an even more driver-focused chassis, does sound tempting, as long as the check for $132,000 isn’t an issue. If that isn’t enough, the SL 600 (5.5-liter V-12, 510 hp) goes for $136,000. Or the SL65 AMG (6.0-liter V-12, 604 hp) won’t leave the showroom for less than $190,700. But if this current generation performs like SLs of the past, each model should retain much of its value and, one day, may even sell for way more than its original price. Check out the SL gallery to see why this car has always been special.

-- Colin Ryan

Photo: Mercedes-Benz

Advertising for the Hyundai Genesis attempts to kick past the luxury barrier

Hyundai has earmarked a cool $80 million to advertise its new luxury car, the Hyundai Genesis. This is above and beyond the 5 million bucks spent on two 30-second Super Bowl spots teasing the product earlier this year. That’s a bunch of money, but according to Hyundai’s marketing director, Chris Perry, launching an entirely new brand under the Hyundai banner would have cost nearly three times as much.

The Genesis, which prices out (in some cases) at tens of thousands less than comparable luxury sedans, does carry the Hyundai badge as well as the possibly perceived baggage of a low-end consumer perception. Hyundai hopes this car and its related ad campaign will change all that. Copy points in the ads don't shy away from the competition. The message includes direct comparisons to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus and Porsche. Hyundai adds its own voice tagging the end of the ad with the ominous "The barrier to luxury has just been officially been kicked in." Hyundai's Perry believes the timing for this bold value proposition is perfect. “It’s all about legitimizing the brand -- the Hyundai name has had a five- to 10-year-old perception that is no longer true.”

So, rather than trying to sell you on Hyundai as a luxury brand, the advertising pros at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners have come up with a new strategy -- to pummel you with logic. They would like people to judge Hyundai based on the car’s own merit. The campaign asks you to put aside all of that “snob appeal” that true luxury cars evoke and get the same car at a much lower price and with better gas mileage (18 city/27 highway mpg on the V-6 version).

Bold reality checks have been an advertising tradition since the dawn of Madison Avenue, and Hyundai’s claims aren’t that far from reality. The Genesis has been praised by the automotive press for its design refinements inside and out, new rear-wheel drive trains, its performance and handling, just to name a few plus sides. All this makes the Hyundai advertising message an even more interesting (if not expensive) marketing experiment. Will American car buyers accept and buy a lower-priced luxury car sans the snob appeal of the luxury brand reputation? In cars, as in love and war, all is fair.

-- Joni Gray

Photo and video courtesy of Hyundai Motor America