Saturday Car Thread - [Niedermeyer's Dead Horse]

Welcome back, once again, to the girl-version of Car Talk where you'll find lots of links and pretty pictures without any of that axle grease ickiness.

Union news:

Say goodbye to UAW-free foreign car manufacturing in the South as VW Chattanooga and the UAW push for a "German-style" works council. Of significance; In Germany, unionization by IG Metall allows for negotiation of both blue-collar AND white-collar workers. I hope the workers think better of it.

American engineering:

The Cadillac Volt can be yours for a meager $76k, a little less than the Tesla Model S. Talk about burning through money...

Cutting out the middle-man:

Car sales through vending machines. Yes. Vending machines.

Consider the poor auto salesperson: the source of much mistrust, the butt of countless jokes. Most of us tend to keep anyone who works on commission at arm's length, but car salespeople are flat-out loathed. In fact, a recent study showed that car salespeople are the least trusted profession in America ranking even below members of Congress. Ouch. How can that perception be changed? Dealerships could do away with commissions and bonuses, for starters. Or they could follow the lead of a company called Carvana and get rid of salespeople altogether.

Top Gear:

They consider the dilemma of the old folk and set out to create the Jitterbug of cars. You must tune in for Parts 2 & 3 as well.

This week in elbows:

Keeping it clean.

And, for the moronettes:

McDreamy and his need for speed.

Another mellow cruising tune:

Sing it, Glen.

Send your tips for the car thread to me at teh twitter.

posted by Open Blogger at 04:20 PM

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