Tag: VehicleVoice

It’s technically the tail end of autumn here at VehicleVoice World Internet Headquarters and Haberdashery for Distinguished Gentlemen, but the weather’s all screwed up. The postman and the UPS guy have been wearing their natty uniform shorts all week, and the Canada geese down at the park are looking around saying, “Eh, it’s nice here. Screw flying south.”
Obviously, now is the time to talk about winterizing your car, because there is no way weather like this won’t be followed up by an ungodly snowstorm. It’s going to be like The Day After Tomorrow out there by next week. If you need protection from the weather, contact WeatherSolve to help you.

That’s it. I’m calling in sick.

VehicleVoice's Keagan Patrick compares his Toyota Tacoma to Nissan's latest Frontier.

Meet Nissan's 2009 Xterra and Frontier: New boss, same as the old boss.

AutoPacific, VehicleVoice’s parent company, just released its latest sales forecast numbers for the current year and beyond. We all know by now just how bad this year’s sales have been so far. It’s so bad, in fact, that the sales slump we saw earlier this year due to skyrocketing fuel prices almost seems like a happy memory compared to the much more dire and long term problems we are now facing. Indeed, it looks like the industry’s in for a long, hard road ahead.

It’s gonna take some time to clean up this mess!

We had the opportunity to drive the all new Toyota Venza in the Laurel Highlands of Western Pennsylvania at the height of the fall color change. The venue - the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, PA was an outstanding venue surrounded by fun to drive roads allowing a quick stop at Fallingwater a 1930s era home designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

If you’re reading this, then things have unfolded as I had feared and the zombie hordes have arisen. Even now, they could be shambling toward the gates of VehicleVoice World Internet Headquarters and House of Mystery. Of course, I am long gone, having fled to my ammo-packed wilderness compound and left this blog entry to be posted by my more dedicated, less survival-minded coworkers. They are no doubt fodder for the filthy undead, but there may still be hope for you. Read on if you value your life.

Oh crap.

It seems as though the further along we get into this project the faster things seem to go (thank goodness!). We’ve learned a lot about axles and we are beginning to learn a lot about leaf springs/suspension and driveshafts. For now, we will try and impart some of what we learned about solid axles with you…

A Sensible Recommendation? Yes, In Fact
At the close of the Audi Mileage Marathon we talked about last week, Audi of America’s Executive Vice President Johan de Nysschen took a moment between results announcements and meet-and-greets with a few Hollywood celebrities to make a plea to the political structure. Mr. de Nysschen called for a lowering of diesel tax. Good, lowering taxes I like, though for a racing fan like myself, I was more impressed with Audi American Le Mans Series and Le Mans drivers Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, and Dindo Capello than Mario Lopez or Brooke Burke. But that’s just me, and I digress.

de Nysschen with Burke and Lopez

Kristensen, McNish, and Capello

When you’re cruising down the highway, do you ever see a vehicle bearing bumper stickers that indicate the driver admires a political party/sports franchise/deity that you’re not especially crazy about? And then you have to struggle against the urge to make rude gestures or run them off the road, because how could they be so stupid as to support the Monster Raving Loonies/Gotham Gators/Flying Spaghetti Monster and then be so stupid as to tell everyone about it OMG can you believe these people?!
Me neither.

Time to cut back.

With two new and important full-size pickup trucks this fall, at a time of extreme economic uncertainty, what do we see happening to the market in general? And how does the F-150 stack up against the Ram? Since our correspondent Jim Hossack attended both Ford and Ram driving previews, we asked him for some comments. Here we go!

 

2009 Ford F-150 XLT
What’s happening in the Full-Size Light Duty Pickup market?
Contrary to mass media reports, the full-size light duty pickup market is not dead. In fact, after a few tough months, it is coming back – in terms of share of industry if not actual number of units sold.
The auto industry is down by around 4 million units compared with 2007CY. Full-size pickup share of industry fell from 15.2 percent in August 2007 to as low as 8.6 percent on May 2008, [...]