Catching Up to Speed, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009

On the navi screen this week: cost overruns at Tesla, tracking down "The Stig" and some car shopping values courtesy of Kelley Blue Book.

Tesla admits huge losses
In an Edmunds.com story reported by ex-L.A. Times staff writer John O'Dell, Tesla admits that it miscalculated the cost to create its previously priced $92,000 roadsters, for which 400 customers have already put down $50,000 deposits. The difference is a whopping $48,000 per car. To recoup some costs, Tesla will add $6,000 to the original price and charge extra for what had been standard equipment, such as fancy wheels and a high-speed charging cord. Tesla claims that the price hike will make the company more profitable in the long run, as will obtaining the $350 million in federal loans it says is needed to finance its next car — a battery-electric sedan expected to retail at just under $60,000.

'The Stig' seemingly revealed — and covered up
The management of the BBC's popular car-culture TV show "Top Gear" is mum, but the blogosphere this week was buzzing about the alleged unmasking of "The Stig" — a stunt driver who performs feats of insanity while hidden behind a heavily tinted white helmet.

Ben Collins, noted race driver and "Quantum of Solace" stunt double, reportedly "outed" himself by commissioning an art work depicting his exploits as "The Stig." "Top Gear" management hasn't confirmed the reports, but it did come up with some silly explanations of its own, including that "The Stig" is computer-generated.

Kelley Blue Book's top five weekly deals
Need an extra push to get you into the showroom? Kelley Blue Book, the Irvine-based auto data tracker, has a new free service that could whet the appetite of bargain-hunters. Sign up online and the experts at kbb.com will send you a weekly e-mail listing what they consider to be the five best deals on new vehicles in your area. Here's their first installment — what do you think?

2009 Dodge Challenger
Zero-percent financing

2009 Ford Escape
Starting sticker price: $20,825. Sale price: $18,700

2009 Acura TL
Lease for $399 per month, $2,499 due at signing

2008 Saturn Vue XR V6
Sticker price: $25,425. Sale price: $21,675

2009 Jaguar XF Luxury
60-month, 0% financing

—Joni Gray

Photos: Tesla by Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg News; "Quantum of Solace" stunt by Susie Allnutt / Sony

Toyota thinks small

What to do when the car market gets smaller? Build smaller cars.

At least that’s what Toyota apparently has in mind as it tries to weather the global downturn in auto sales. According to the Associated Press, the Japanese automaker may bring its iQ ultra-compact car to the U.S. market, where it would vie for leadership in the fuel economy rankings and pose a challenge to Daimler’s Smart Fortwo two-seater.

“The Toyota iQ microcar being sold in Japan and Europe is another example of the world platform that we may want to adapt to the U.S. market,” Don Esmond, a senior VP at Toyota’s Torrance-based U.S. sales operation, told an industry conference in Detroit this week.

Esmond didn’t specify when the iQ, which went on sale in Japan and Europe last year, might be available in America.

Toyota refers to the two-door car, which the automaker says can seat three adults and a child, as an “urban commuter vehicle." At around 10 feet long, the iQ is about a foot longer than the Smart Fortwo, which is a shade under 9 feet in length, and it’s about 4 feet shorter than a Toyota Yaris.

But for MPG-conscious consumers, the most important number will be the one on the EPA sticker. Under Japanese standards, the car is rated at 54.1 miles per gallon. If it achieves similar results under the EPA's fuel economy standards, the iQ would get the best mileage of any car sold in America by a major manufacturer, including Toyota’s own Prius gasoline-electric hybrid. (The 2009 Smart Fortwo coupe has a combined city/highway EPA rating of 36 MPG.)

Daimler sold just under 25,000 Smart Fortwos in the U.S. last year, the first year it was widely available here. That was about the same number of Beetles sold by Volkswagen.

Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Global Insight, told AP that microcars appeal to some buyers but can be a tough sell to most American motorists.

“There’s a novelty aspect to these vehicles, and as long as the manufacturer understands that they’re going to get novelty car volumes, then fine,” she said.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: Crowds check out the new Toyota iQ ultra compact in Japan last year. Credit: Associated Press

Toyota rolls out hybrid CPO program

What’s better than a used hybrid? Toyota believes it’s a certified pre-owned (CPO) hybrid. It seems folks aren’t aware hybrid Toyotas are available as CPO cars, and Toyota would like to change that trend. “We’ve already sold 30,000 hybrids to date on this program, but we’ve found that consumers have low awareness that hybrids are included in our CPO cars,” explained Steve Gallagher, Toyota certified used vehicles marketing manager.

The program, announced this morning, is called the Toyota Certified Used Hybrid (TCUH), an extension of the existing Toyota Certified Used Vehicles (TCUV), and it provides inspection points and extended warranty coverage on all certified used Toyota hybrids.

What’s the difference? Toyota tells us it’s 14 inspection points that affect the components running adjacent to the internal combustion system. These checkpoints include the multi-informational display, inverter coolant levels, electric motor assisted power steering and the hybrid vehicle battery.

The program has its own easy-to-navigate consumer website, where we found eight Pruises of varying years with prices ranging from the high-$14,000s to mid-$20,000s. After making several calls to the related dealerships, however, we found not one sales manager who knew the program existed. Gallagher explained this phenomenon: “We’ve just rolled out the program on the dealerships’ internal newsletter yesterday, and sometimes it takes a few days to get the word out.”

All this is understandable when you consider Toyota has over 1,200 dealerships in the U.S. alone, but when we asked how the current hybrid cars in the program could have been inspected for all 14 checkpoints without the dealers involved, Gallagher explained: “The checkpoints were already established as a part of our existing certified program.”

So, bottom line: Great new website, but in reality, it’s the same program you could have gotten yesterday. But now you’re more aware of it, right?

-- Joni Gray

Photo credit: Toyota

First T-Bird drives into sunset [UPDATED]

If you've been around the Southern California classic car scene for a while, you may have run across a 1955 Thunderbird with the license plate "001 BRD." It was the first T-Bird Ford made, and it was a common sight at local shows like Cars & Coffee in Irvine or the annual Fabulous Fords Forever at Knott's Berry Farm.

But you won't be seeing "001 BRD" on the streets anymore, apparently. The family of the late George Watts of Villa Park, who had showed it proudly since 1965, sold the sporty coupe to private collector Ron Pratte at the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., last week. Pratte, who is known for keeping his collection to himself, had the winning bid of $600,000.

"George's daughter and son-in-law were not going to be able to show the car properly, so they decided to put it in the hands of a true collector," said Allen Johncox, attorney and broker for the family.

(Photo above: The family and friends of George Watts bid farewell to his prize possession just before the auction.)

Ford Motor Co. has validated the car, with its vehicle identification number P5FH100005, as the first production Thunderbird. And if you're wondering how a car with a VIN ending in "005" can be the first, it's because the four other Thunderbirds numbered before it were prototypes of either sedans or station wagons.

Watts originally found the vehicle in very bad shape in 1965 at a body shop in Santa Ana. He paid $500 for it after noticing the low VIN. As he uncovered the history of the car, he found that it was originally sold new at Ted Robbins Ford in Newport Beach to a woman whose son-in-law got in a front-end crash and then couldn't make the payments.

Pratte, the new owner, lives in Chandler, Ariz. He also owns many other American milestone cars, including the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama concept car and Carroll Shelby's Supersnake Cobra which he purchased for $5 million.

Attorney Johncox said the Watts family offered Ford a chance to buy the car for its corporate collection, but the automaker declined.

"I guess Ford is not really interested in spending money right now," Johncox said. So, sadly for now, the Thunderbird's public life is in retirement.

-- Joni Gray

Updated, Wednesday, 12:15 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to the new owner as Ron Platte, not Pratte.   

Photos: Phil Skinner, Kelley Blue Book

Hummers tops in 'ticketability'

If you like getting tickets, consider a Hummer SUV or Scion tC coupe when making your next vehicle purchase.

Quality Planning, a San Francisco firm that validates policyholder information for auto insurers, studied moving violations given to drivers of various vehicle models in the United States between August 2007 and September 2008. The firm ranked models based on how far above or below they were to the national average in terms of violations. (The average across all models was 0.23 violations per 100,000 miles driven.)

According to the study, drivers of the Hummer H2 and H3, with 1.07 tickets per 100,000 miles, were 4.63 times more likely to get a ticket than the average driver. The sporty tC came in a close second at 4.60 times the average.

Based on the study, “ticketability” appears to be related mainly to one or more of these factors: size, speed and driver age.

For instance, take the high-riding Hummer, one of the biggest “light” vehicles on the road.

“The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of violations they incur,” Quality Planning President Raj Bhat said. “Or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians and other drivers.”

Also making the top 10 were two of the more powerful production cars on the road: the Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG and CLS63 AMG, both of which produce in the neighborhood of 500 horsepower. Four youth-oriented cars from Toyota — the aforementioned Scion tC, the Scion xA and xB and the Matrix, were all in the top of the rankings. Less obviously, the Audi A4, a sleek but hardly super-powered upscale sedan, and the Subaru Outback station wagon also made the top 10.

What to drive if you’re down to the last couple of points on your license? If you can afford one, the Jaguar XJ topped Quality Planning’s list of the “best-behaved” vehicles. Drivers of the upscale British sedan were only one-tenth as likely to get a ticket as the average driver.

Vehicles that appeal to older drivers, such as the Buick Park Avenue, were also among the least-ticketed vehicles, as were family-oriented rides such as the Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan and the Chevy Suburban and Tahoe SUVs.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: 2008 Hummer H2. Credit: General Motors

A pricey Obama memento on wheels

If you are swept up in the presidential moment and have a lot of spare cash lying around, you could soon be the proud owner of a car once owned by Barack Obama. A 2005 Chrysler 300C that gets a whopping 18 mpg is the last car Obama drove before running for president. The eBay listing is for preapproved bidders only and at the time of this blog post is at $210,300. The bidding ends Tuesday at 11:15 (and 50-seconds) p.m., Pacific Standard Time, just after the inauguration festivities wrap up.

So, at a time when car sales are at an all-time low, what would compel a person to pay more than $200,000 for a car that is currently worth $16,985 (according to the Kelley Blue Book Used Car Guide)? “In the mind of a collector, it’s all about timing,” says Phil Skinner, the collector car guide editor for Kelley Blue Book. “Many times, wealthy celebrities or car collectors who see investment potential will jump on a vehicle because of who owned it -– but only when the timing is right.”

 

The timing seems right, with Obama's inauguration corresponding to the closing of the eBay auction. Obama fervor could not be at a higher intensity. “In this type of auction, the popularity around the owner must be at the iconic level,” Skinner said. “An old Cadillac can gain hundreds of thousands of dollars if it can be proven that it was owned by Elvis because the collector thinks, 'It’s an Elvis car.' ” There seems to be a limit to the celebrity status of collector cars, however. “There was a Ferrari floating around that was said to have been owned by Rod Stewart. The car got what any other Ferrari like it was worth,” Skinner said.

According to Associated Press, Obama leased the car from Park Plaza Dodge in Lake Forest, Ill., in 2004 and kept it until 2007, when his campaign advisors suggested he swap it for a more fuel-efficient vehicle. He traded in the leased Chrysler for a Ford Escape Hybrid. Perhaps not realizing the potential value of the car, the dealership resold the car to the eBay seller, Tim O'Boyle, a restaurant manager in Hillside, Ill. His original eBay sale was set up for open bidding (no pre-approvals needed) with a “Buy it Now” price of $1,000,000. He has since closed the buying to pre-approved bidders with no ceiling. O'Boyle told AP that he's willing to walk away from the deal if he doesn't get the amount he wants. "I've got a number in my head, and I'm not going to tell you what it is."

What price will he get when all is said and done remains to be seen. Skinner says that the seller was wise to do a worldwide auction on eBay. However, he did just miss an opportunity to sell the car at one of the largest auto auctions in the U.S. –- Barrett Jackson’s yearly event in Arizona. “I think that if he would have taken the car to Barrett Jackson last week, people would have traveled there just to see the car. My guess is that he would have gotten perhaps $250,000 to $300,000 since it was timed just before the inauguration.”

-- Joni Gray

Photos: Photo of Barack Obama by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images; eBay

Top 10 car colors: white continues its reign

What is your mood right now? If it were a color, what would it be? Global automotive color giant DuPont takes more than an academic interest in these questions, and its 2008 Automotive Color Popularity Report paints a picture of how consumers’ car color choices reflect a people's mind-set.

In the report, white reigns at No.1 for the second year in a row after a seven-year run by silver for North America. The experts at DuPont say the color white is a sort of palette cleanser.

“White is a transitional color that signals a pause after a long- running trend and in advance of a new trend.” So says Karen Surcina, color-marketing manager of DuPont Performance coatings. 

According to Surcina, the data show the increasing influence of color as a deciding factor in purchase decisions. “This year’s research showed an emerging trend of more people –- nearly 40% -- who are willing to change their choice of vehicle based on the available colors of the car."

The graphic shows how the data stacked up in 2008. Trends that go beyond color are what DuPont calls “conservative differentiation.” That is, taking neutral colors like white, black and silver and tinting, coating or otherwise making them shimmer and shine through color processes. The study includes data for aftermarket customization as well as new car sales.

So, what color is your car and what does it mean? Check out our color gallery to find out more about color choices.

-- Joni Gray

Graphic: Dupont Automotive Systems

Volkswagen to Bring the Polo to the U.S.

About a year and a half ago, the green-car set wrung its hands and tore at its hair because yet another great, awesome and altogether amazing vehicle would not be coming to the U.S. This car, a Volkswagen Polo, was small, efficient, simple and, in one test, got 70 miles per gallon. It was particularly frustrating because rumors of the car coming here had been rampant since 2005.

As recently as August, VW folks were cold on the likelihood of the car coming, pointing to unfavorable exchange rates as a barrier to entry.

Today, all that has changed, as the people's carmaker has told Automotive News that it will indeed bring the Polo stateside. This is a big win for VW fans and for fuel-economy freaks because the Polo, a tiny little hood ornament of a subcompact, is a true gas-sipper.

VW hasn't confirmed when it would bring the vehicle, but it did indicate it would build the Polo at the company's plant in Puebla, Mexico, where the original Beetle was made until a few years ago. That, presumably, will help it with the exchange-rate problems.

The Wolfsburg, Germany, company is concerned about its relatively small footprint in the U.S....

Chrysler won't spike the 300

Yesterday we reported the sad news that Chrysler was offing the PT Cruiser later this year, after nine years on the market without a redesign. For many, it seemed like another sign that the troubled automaker might be running out of gas on the product front.

Not so, sources at Chrysler say. The company showed what was arguably the best concept car of the entire North American International Auto Show this week, the 200C, as well as a new electric concept Jeep Patriot. Also at the show, Chrysler chief executive Bob Nardelli made a bold promise: The company will launch 24 products over the next two years, including the Dodge Hornet, a small car to be made by Nissan for Chrysler.

Now Chrysler has confirmed to Up to Speed that the company is working on a redesign for the 300 sedan, first released as a 2005 model year car, and has already shown a prototype  to a few lucky souls. No release date yet, although it definitely won't be a 2009 model year car and probably won't be a 2010 model year, either. 

This comes as a breath of fresh air to Mopar fans worried that Chrysler had fallen into a pattern of designing hit new products, milking them to death and then giving up on them altogether -- a la the PT Cruiser. When it came out, the 300 was a smash hit. It won the 2005 Motor Trend Car of the Year award, as well as the North American Car of the Year award. (It also caught the eye of a lot of other designers. Just take a look at the new 2010 Ford Taurus, and you'll see what we mean.)

None of this changes the fact that Chrysler has no significant new products coming to dealerships this year, or that its U.S. sales were down 30% last year, when it introduced the new Ram pickup, or that the sales of the 300 were down 48% compared to 2007. But at least there's hope.

-- Ken Bensinger

Photo, top: A 2007 Chrysler 300. Credit: Chrysler.

Photo, bottom: A 2010 Ford Taurus. Credit: Ford.

GM, Ford and Chrysler say sayonara, Tokyo

There were some notable absences at this year's Detroit auto show, including Nissan, Suzuki and Ferrari. Now comes word that all three major U.S. automakers are pulling out of the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.

It's the latest sign that a bad economy and crashing sales are disrupting the industry on an international scale. Word of the three U.S. car companies’ withdrawal from Tokyo prompted speculation that the show might be canceled. But a spokesman for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. told reporters Wednesday that the show would continue.

The biannual gathering, scheduled for October, is one of the auto world’s premiere events, where cutting-edge vehicle designs are showcased for a technology-savvy crowd. By pulling out, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler are making a dramatic statement about the kinds of expenditures that are possible in the current climate.

Last month, the federal government agreed to extend $17.4 billion in loan guarantees to GM and Chrysler and may lend them more after March. Ford did not take government loans but left open the possibility of doing so if the economy and sales do not improve.

Rick Brown, president of GM’s Asia Pacific division, said that rather than exhibit in Tokyo, the company would focus on sales. “The money which would have gone into the show will have been better spent on local marketing,” he said.

Chrysler spokesman Rick Deneau also confirmed his company’s pullout. He said Chrysler had made the decision some time ago, but did not say when. Ford spokesman Mark Truby said Ford was pulling out too.

Chrysler’s Deneau said the company would still participate in next month’s Chicago Auto Show, the Geneva Motor Show in March, April’s New York International Auto Show and the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. GM confirmed participation in those shows as well.

“The shame of losing Tokyo is that it was an international show,” Deneau said. “But certainly, it’s not a small expense.”

-- Ken Bensinger

Photo: A model poses with a Toyota concept car at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in October 2007. Credit: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News