Archive for the ‘Automotive’ tag
Google gives BMW.de the “death penalty”
According to this article in Google Blogoscoped, BMW’s German site, BMW.de, got banned from Google’s search index because the webmasters of the site apparently tried to fool Google’s crawler, GoogleBot, into assigning it better relevancy than it deserves for several terms. In other words, their site detects if the visitor is GoogleBot (I’m assuming by just checking the User-Agent request header) and if it is returns a page packed with tons of keywords. If it’s a human visitor, then the normal homepage is returned.
The bottom line is, BMW.de tried to cheat, got caught, and now they pay the price: “A search for BMW Germany, which only days ago yielded BMW.de as a top result, now doesn’t show any sign of BMW.de at all.”
You can bet that some BMW IT guys over in Deustcheland are looking for a new job. =)
I found this story interesting because it was the first time I’ve heard of a major, A-list site getting the boot from Google for using shady SEO techniques.
Food for thought: Google penalizing sites that try to game it’s system does help to ensure relevant search results for users. However, by Google removing BMW.de (and other legitimate, useful sites) from their search results, does the user really win? In this example, a Googler looking for BMW’s German site will be at a loss. Ideally, Google needs to use a penalty which hurts only the website, not the user.
$4 million for a symbol of American greatness
In the 1930’s-50’s, GM sponsored the Parade of Progress, which was an exhibition that travelled across the country. As described in a 1953 parade booklet, the purpose of the Parade of Progress was “to show how science and industry combine to contribute to the high American standard of living” and “inspire young people everywhere to work toward an even better America for through them will come the perfection of methods, processes and discoveries still to be made”. Each year that the exhibition toured, millions of Americans, from the big cities to the smallest towns, attended. It gave people much needed hope and joy during the depression-ridden 1930’s and celebrated the prominence and world-leadership of America in the years following WWII.
One of the greatest symbols of the Parade of Progress was the GM Futurliner. The Futurliner was essentially a humongous bus of which several were built to serve as exhibit-on-wheels. Just the sight of these mammoth vehicles brought excitement whenever they arrived in a new town. 12 were built in total but only 3 remain today. 1 of these 3 was sold today for $4 million (+ 8% buyer’s commission) at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, AZ. To read more about the remarkable story of the GM Futurliner and the auction, click here. The Futurliner, and the Parade of Progress it was built for, is a truly great expression of American optimism and industry. I would love to see a Futurliner in person one day and also would enjoy talking to someone who attended a Parade of Progress several decades ago.
My top 10 news bits from the 2006 NAIAS
Unfortunately, I was not able to make it out to Detroit again this year for the auto show. This year’s show had several key unveilings of both production-ready models and concepts. Here’s my top 10 news items from the show:
10) 2007 Toyota Camry
About once a month someone is asking me what my pick is for a $20-25k family sedan. I’ve recommended the Accord, Mazda6, Passat, and Altima… never the Camry? Why? Well, the reason is because between the two obvious Maytag-like choices, those being the Camry and Accord, I always recommend the Accord because of it’s better aesthetics and better driving feel. Well, it looks like Toyota has come back swinging with its latest generation. Genuinely nice styling in and out, optional class-leading 268hp V6 mated to a 6spd automatic (impressive 22/31 mpg to boot) and well-equipped (moonroof and premium 6cd in-dash stereo standard on the volume leader LE). Unfortunately, the SE variant is still all show. There’s also a Camry Hybrid coming but I’m pretty much anti-Hybrid so I could care less.
9) Honda Fit
Finally Honda brings the Jazz/Fit stateside. I would have liked to see Honda work some of it’s magic to pull off 40mpg instead of the somewhat unimpressive 33/38mpg that it gets from it’s 1.5L inline4. I thought I had read Honda was going to use a CVT which would have boosted fuel economy and performance but I guess not. Without a doubt, it’s boxy mini-wagon shape hurts freeway efficiency. Anyways, the Fit is going to sell well. You get a cheap, reliable, good-looking car with a lot of utility. And it’s less quirky than the Scion’s of the world. It’ll be interesting to see how this car competes with the impressive, new Toyota Yaris.
Chevrolet Camaro Concept
At last year’s show, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the C6 Z06 that debuted. This year I can’t take my eyes off the Camaro Concept. Chevy show-stoppers two years in a row? Who would have thunk it? The news is this concept will go into production in 2009. I’m just hoping that Chevy will actually build something that’s close to the concept. They need to. Unfortunately, for Chevy (and GM), 2009 is a long long way off and with the way things are for GM, they may not have enough money to build a great production Camaro even if they want to. I’ve got a bad feeling that when this car hits showrooms 3 years from now, it’s gonna have Chevy’s typical rental-car feel as standard equipment.
7) Mazda Kabura Concept
I love this concept. It’s like the Miata and RX-8 had a baby. If Mazda builds this with the RENESIS motor this would be one brilliant, affordable sports car.
6) Dodge Challenger
This car is going to give the Mustang a run for its money. The Challenger looks mean just sitting there. My gripe: Based on all estimates I’ve seen, the Challenger is a 4000lb car. A 2-ton sports car? Ugh. Sure, with wide enough rubber, big brakes, and gobs of torque, it’s a capable car. But sometimes I wish the Big 3 wouldn’t just be complacent with the brute force approach. Unfortunately, most Americans (read: NASCAR fans) seem to prefer improving power-to-weight ratio by adding power rather than reducing weight.
What makes this car so noteworthy is its technology tour-de-force powertrain. TPH stands for Turbo Parallel Hybrid. “the TPH drivetrain consists of a 10kW electric motor sandwiched between the transmission and turbocharged boxer engine. ” The electric motor eliminates turbo lag. The engine incorporates a Miller-cycle engine (anyone remember the Mazda Millenia S?). To top it all off, the Hybrid system even incorporates Lithium Ion batteries.
This car gets my #3 vote (#1 Camaro Concept, #2 Lamborghini Miura Concept)for best looking car of the show. It’s vehicles like this (rumor is this concept is actually very close to what the next-gen G coupe will be) that confirm my belief since the release of the current generation G35 in 2002 that Nissan is serious about turning Infiniti into a world-class luxury brand. This concept is a beautiful evolution of the current generation car and assuming the rest of the specs hit the mark, it’s bound to be a hit for Infiniti. Amid super stiff competiton in the near-luxury segement, it’s absolutely critical that Infiniti continue the momentum they’ve got going right now.
3) Mercedes E320 BLUETEC
I’m a big supporter of diesel. For those that don’t know, diesel technology has come a long, long way in the past several years. Diesel engines are 20-40% more efficient than an equivalent gasoline engine. In Europe where gas is $$$, half of all new cars sold in 2005 were diesel-powered. Unfortunately, because of higher-sulfur content diesel fuel and tighter emission regulations here in the US, there’s not many diesel cars on the market. Well, Mercedes has developed a new diesel technology called BLUETEC which significantly reduces emissions. The E320 will be the first model here in the US to sport BLUETEC but DC is going to be building BLUETEC-powered Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep models as well. This is a BIG step forward for diesel in the US. Diesel makes sense. Hybrid does not. Up until now VW with their TDI-powered models has really been the only one serious about selling diesel in the US. With DCX getting serious about it too, diesel momentum should build.
2) Honda sweeps both the North American Car and Truck awards
This is Honda’s first time winning either award but most importantly it’s the first time in history that a single manufacturer has captured both awards. What an achievement! Both the Civic and Ridgeline are great examples of Honda’s phenomenal execution. I can’t think of another company that has such a high rate of winners over such a long period of time.
The Geely 7151 CK may make a Kia feel like a Lexus, but what’s so historic about it is Geely is the first Chinese automobile manufacturer to to appear at the NAIAS. Chinese manufacturers certainly have their work cut out for them. Not only do they need to build competitive cars for the US market but also they need to build their own brand identity while fighting generally negative perception of a Chinese made car. It’s been 15 years since Hyundai debuted here in the US and they are still fighting an uphill battle (although Hyundai and Kia have been on somewhat of a roll of late). Ultimately, American consumers will benefit from increased competition so I welcome Geely and other Chinese companies with open arms.
There’s a good chance I’ll be attending the NYC show in April this year. Hopefully I’ll get to see all all the new model/concept debuts in person.
Hydrogen cars = more gas consumption???
Last month, Patrick Bedard of Car & Driver (my favorite automotive publication) wrote a great article in which he crunched some numbers on what our country’s energy consumption would be if we all drove hydrogen-powered cars. The underlying problem is producing hydrogen. Because pure hydrogen does not exist naturally, it requires an input of energy to seperate hydrogen from a hydrogen-containing molecule (most often this molecule is water and the process is electrolysis). So where does this energy input come from?
Coal – Producing Hydrogen using coal is 12% efficient. If all cars in the US were hydrogen powered, we would consume twice as much coal than we currently are with gasoline power. We would also produce 2.7x carbon emissions.
Natural Gas – The popular process for creating Hydrogen from natural gas is called “steam reforming” and is 30% efficient. If all cars in the US ran on hydrogen created from natural gas, our gas consumption would actually increase 66% over current levels.
As depressing as it may be, the article offers clear evidence that hydrogen power cars are far from mainstream reality. Until scientists can come up with a very efficient way to produce hydrogen, this technology just does not make sense.
