Automotive Reporter Biz News for Wk of 10-5-15

As if the exciting previews of the new 007 movie aren’t enough brand placement for Aston Martin, the automaker is also capitalizing on the final flight of an iconic Cold War-era British bomber later this month.   

The Avro Vulcan XH558, a delta-wing  long-range bomber built in the ‘50’s, is being reunited with its modern day namesake, the Aston Martin Vulcan, an 800-hp, all-carbon fiber supercar. There are only 24 models of the racecar in existence. 

The company staged a flyby of the Vulcan bomber over the Vulcan race car at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire. The final flight of the Vulcan will be this weekend (10/10-11).

The charity that owns and operates the XH558, the Vulcan to the Sky Trust, has concluded it is no longer safe to fly the aircraft, as technical support for the bombers Rolls Royce jet engines and other systems are being discontinued by various vendors and providers. The Vulcan has already exceeded the maximum flight hours experienced by other Vulcans by more than ten percent, and it is the studied opinion of her operators that identifying and diagnosing future problems and maintenance issues with the aircraft would be increasingly difficult. Without such support, the British Civil Aviation Authority is effectively grounding the aircraft. The bomber will be on permanent static display in England at the Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster.
I have no idea where that is.

Aston Martin says the first deliveries of the track-only Aston Martin Vulcan to customers worldwide will take place before the end of the year. This week Aston Martin also announced the appointment of Laura Schwab as President for Aston Martin The Americas, effective later this month.

The recent backlash over cellphone use in public places has created some interesting social solutions. There is an emerging trend to stack smartphones in the center of the table for the duration of a meal, and the first person to grab theirs has to pay for the group’s tab.

Chevrolet takes that notion one step further, while capitalizing on the need for personal connectivity in a new series of TV commercials you’ll be seeing this week. The point is memorably made.

“Focus Groups” are brought into a room with a big round table, and a big red wood chipper. They are told to surrender their devices for reasons of intellectual security, at which point the moderator calmly walks over to the wood chipper, and feeds the phones into the machine. The reactions of the group members are pretty priceless, albeit rather sedate compared to what my personal response might be in the same situation. The point of the exercise keys in on our perceived need for total connectivity at all times, which Chevrolet says it can deliver in the new Cruse Lite 4G Wifi automobile.

Has Toyota created a flying car? While the new Toyota Mirai Hyrdogen Fuel Cell electric car cannot literally fly, Toyota says it is flying off the virtual shelf!

Nearly 1,900 people have reserved their Miraii, exceeding the expected initial production run of 1,000 vehicles, and pushing the grammatical envelope on how to properly describe what is the plural of Mirai.
Mirai's? Miraii? What?  

Toyota’s order request portal now directs customers to a wait list until production can catch up with demand.  Toyota says existing order requests are being reviewed, and automaker will begin placing the first customers in the driver’s seat of their new Mirai later this month.   

A fellow Mazda MX-5 Miata owner pulled up in front of my house on Friday evening in his early-edition NB and turned off the engine. He sat in the car at the curb for a very long time, tapping on his smartphone, before walking up to my door. His clutch slave cylinder had failed, and he couldn’t shift the manual transmission. 

I repressed my urge to discuss with him the art of engine-rev clutchless shifting, and instead commiserated about the extent to which owners go to keep our MX-5’s running at peak performance, regardless of the vintage. The car remains parked in front of my house this morning, as I compose this column. I don’t know who his insurance company is, but my towing service would’ve been on scene within the hour.

As a public service to him, and to you, I am passing on Mazda’s just-released pricing points for its new Global Mazda MX-5 Cup cars. The version is Mazda Motorsports first-ever ready-to-race production MX-5 Miata, checking in at only $53k. It is an entry-level  racing car, and is Mazda’s contribution to growing the sport by encouraging new drivers to affordably enter the competition. What do you get for that price?

Long Road Racing, Inc. takes a street version of the MX-5 and strips it down to replace several OEM items with high-performance components, including a high-capacity radiator, limited slip differential, a racing cage, cooling lines, performance brakes, and racing fluids for the transmission and crankcase. 

Each Miata Cup car is built identically so that their performance on the track is altered only by the skill of who’s behind the wheel. You can order yours online at www.MazdaMotorsports.com.
You’re welcome.

Ford Motor Company’s newest advertising campaign for Ford service is themed, “The Specialists at Ford,” and will feature big-screen action hero, producer and business entrepreneur Dwayne Johnson.
Yes, The Rock drives a Ford—several, in fact. His favorite: The Ford F-150.

“The Specialists at Ford” are an elite crew of Ford technicians led by Johnson. This dedicated team has all of the training, diagnostic tools and Motorcraft parts that make servicing your vehicle at your local Ford dealership the right decision.

I wonder if he’ll glare into the camera and snarl, “Can you smell what The Rock is fixing?”

Listen to the Automotive Reporter Radio Show every weekend on Stitcher.com, or from our webpage.  

Automotive Reporter/Biz News for Wk of 7-27-15

Last week we shared with you a tale of woe from Jacksonville, Florida, where the proud owner of a new 2016 Mazda MX-5 found himself with the unenviable title of “first to crash a new Miata” among owners of the new Limited Edition ND cars.

I am happy to report Mazda North America Operations and Tom Bush Mazda went above and beyond the call of duty and good business practices. The manufacturer slotted a new car for the owner in the midst of the production run. The replacement MX-5 drops in the US August 15th. Mazda is taking back the wrecked model for forensic analysis.

This may tread into the realm of wonkishness, but the numbers are pretty impressive.
J. D. Power and LMC Automotive are estimating U.S. new vehicle retail sales for July—this is the Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Selling Rate, or SAAR—will reach 14.0-Million units. That’s the highest level for the month since 2005.

July’s SAAR figures are nearly a half-million more than July 2014, and the strongest sales in a decade. What was going on in July 2005? SAAR reached 16.7-million units sold when automakers offered alleged “employee pricing” for everyone and his dog.

Autosales forecasters are predicting July sales will finish at 1,260,200-units. For a minute, I thought they’d confused their job with weather forecasters, because in Texas this week it’s been about a million-degrees.

“The average new-vehicle retail transaction price so far in July is $29,673,” says John D. Humphrey, Senior VP of the global automotive practice at J.D. Power. The record average transaction price for July was set last year, at $29,428.

My first, brand new car was a 1976 Honda CVCC Civic.
It was a 5-speed manual, and I paid extra for the A/C.
I subsequently owned four more Honda's over the next decade and a half. They’re fine automobiles.

Honda’s latest claim to fame is the 2016 Accord which will feature both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in addition to a plethora of techie features. Honda says it’s the most high-tech Accord ever.

"Customers want their vehicles to be more intelligently integrated with their smartphone-powered lives, and we are committed to delivering that experience starting with Accord,” says John Mendel, Executive VP, Automobile Division, American Honda Motor Co.

The new Accord will be offered with two advanced Honda engines: a direct-injected (DI) 2.4-liter inline i-VTEC 4-cylinder, and a 3.5-liter VTEC V-6 that is the most powerful engine offered in a Honda sedan to date.

Until now, wheelchair-bound drivers’ choices for personal transportation were limited to larger minivans or full-sized vans, specially fitted with wheelchair accessible lifts. Ford Motor Company is marking the 25^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by rolling out the first wheelchair accessible SUV, based on the Ford Explorer. It's a doozy.

BraunAbility is working with Ford to “change the face of an industry, and bring creater mobility to people in wheelchairs.” The BraunAbility MXV is the company’s first-ever volume production SUV offering. 

The company has promised the first production model to wounded Marine veteran Mike Delancey, who was paralyzed by a sniper’s bullet while serving in Iraq in 2006.

The BraunAbility MXV features sliding-door technology, removable driver and passenger seats, and a powered, lighted in-floor ramp. With Explorer’s middle-row seat removed, the BraunAbility MXV provides interior space to fit the most common power wheelchair models, and its 56-inch cabin height provides a spacious interior for a comfortable ride.

If you’re a first-adopter, you’re going to want to get on the list for Toyota’s new hydrogen fuel cell electric, the Mirai. The company’s order request portal is up and running.

The Mirai combines hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity on-board, while emitting nothing but water vapor.  It has the highest EPA estimated driving range rating of any zero emission electric vehicle on the market, at 312 miles, and offers an EPA estimated 67 mpge city/highway/combined.

Toyota says production of the Mirai will be limited, and the vehicles will be placed with select, eligible customers.  After placing a request, potential Mirai drivers will be contacted directly by a Toyota representative to discuss ownership and next steps.  If you want one, you’ll have to drive to California to pick it up. Toyota is authorizing eight dealers between northern and southern Cali to handle the cars. MSRP will be $57,500 plus an $835 destination fee.

The Mirai ownership experience will include three years’ worth of complimentary fuel, three years’ complimentary Safety Connect and Entune, including a hydrogen station finder app. That feature may be worth its weight in gold…or hydrogen...because there are only a dozen hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S.—ten of them in California.

 Listen to the Automotive Reporter Radio Show every weekend on Stitcher.com, or from our webpage.