Just noticed this evening, Chevy has renamed their lowest end car from Avio to Sonic. Note to Mary Barra. Sonic is a Hedgehog. Any kid knows that. It's as bad as when Chevy named a car Beretta years ago. Everyone knows Beretta is an Italian handgun.
Picking a car name is an important part of marketing it. So far Chevy has been screwing it up. Volt is a unit of electricity, not a hybrid car. Cruze is a height challenged movie star.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Blood will get them gun control
NHPR was doing a piece on last year's Newtown massacre this morning. Just what I never wanted to hear. It certainly isn't news, everybody on earth heard about it. They interviewed a couple whose daughter had been killed. I didn't need this, I know all I want to know about the misery and suffering that comes from the loss of a child. So does any parent. I'm sure the interview didn't help the bereaved couple either.
So why do they run a piece that conveys no information and makes listeners feel sick to their stomachs?
Is it to drum up political support for gun control measures?
If so, shame on them.
So why do they run a piece that conveys no information and makes listeners feel sick to their stomachs?
Is it to drum up political support for gun control measures?
If so, shame on them.
Would you see either of these movies?
Oscar nominations are piling up for "12 years a Slave" and "American Hustle". The Oscar people may like them, but I cannot imagine myself paying admission, or even Netflixing, either of these movies.
Cannon gets some snow.
We got four inches, biggest snowfall this winter, yesterday and last night. Nice light fluffy powder, the best kind. And no wind to speak of, so it will stay on the trails and not get blown into the woods. It's a good start, four inches of natural snow is as good as days of snow blowing, so we ought to have a few more trails open.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
GM gets a lady CEO
This was all over the news. Mary Barra is a old time GMer. She started with GM 30 years ago and is still there. She is an engineer and comes up thru manufacturing, which is closer to the core of GM than the bean counters who preceded her. I figure any woman who lasts 30 years in place like GM has gotta be pretty competent, or she would not have survived. Of course, I never heard of her before now, but then I don't follow Detroit news much.
The real question for the survival of Govt Motors, is she a car person? Can she bring to market cars that sell? Can she champion new cars that sell the way that Iacocca's Mustang, Arkus Dutov's Corvette, and Bunkie Knudsen's GTO did? Cars that make enough of a dent in popular culture to be the subject of pop songs. As opposed to GM's current lineup that is so bland that only renta-car companies like them?
For GM's sake let's hope. A lot of this is perceived value. Back in the good old days, Chevy had more perceived value than Ford. Used Chevys sold for more money than used Fords. This was due to good styling, that successfully steered a middle course between too radical and too stogy. Chevy engines were less troublesome and more powerful than Ford engines. Chevy 409's dominated NHRA drag racing. A generation of block head GM management has pretty much destroyed this legacy. At this time, Toyota commands more respect than anything from GM.
Ms Barra first needs to understand that GM is a huge company, which means it has to compete for the center of the car market. Which is the low cost four door four passenger sedan, the commute to work car and the go to the store car. GM needs to gain share in this market. This is Chevy Cruze and Impala turf. GM needs a well styled, competitively priced car in this market segment. Real volume. About 12 million new cars a year are sold in North America. Of this, a quarter, say 4 million cars, are plain four passenger sedans. That's enough volume to keep GM going.
Contrast that with Corvette. There simply ain't enough guys with Corvette money to keep GM alive. It's a great car, but you need a bread and butter seller to keep a behemoth fed.
How to proceed? Simple stuff like reliability and ruggedness is a good place to start. Some favorable mentions in Consumer Reports. Some top of the charts gas mileage. For instance Cruz is only doing 30+ mpg, whereas you need to hit 40 mpg before anyone cares much. Cruz has a good deal more horsepower than it needs. You can trade off power for gas mileage. A 40 mpg 60 hp car is a better seller in that market segment than the current 28 mpg 138 hp car. The old VW Beetle was perfectly driveable with only 36 hp. The Dodge Caravan's were driveable with 80 hp and a lot more weight and airdrag.
Better styling. The current Cruz is nose heavy and bland. The silhouette is round, slopes up the front, slopes down the back, boring, and so many others have it too.
Anyhow,. Mary Barra has her work cut out for her. She has to get decent sellers designed, and then force them thru all the institutional resistance and NIH, get them on sale, and promote them properly.
The real question for the survival of Govt Motors, is she a car person? Can she bring to market cars that sell? Can she champion new cars that sell the way that Iacocca's Mustang, Arkus Dutov's Corvette, and Bunkie Knudsen's GTO did? Cars that make enough of a dent in popular culture to be the subject of pop songs. As opposed to GM's current lineup that is so bland that only renta-car companies like them?
For GM's sake let's hope. A lot of this is perceived value. Back in the good old days, Chevy had more perceived value than Ford. Used Chevys sold for more money than used Fords. This was due to good styling, that successfully steered a middle course between too radical and too stogy. Chevy engines were less troublesome and more powerful than Ford engines. Chevy 409's dominated NHRA drag racing. A generation of block head GM management has pretty much destroyed this legacy. At this time, Toyota commands more respect than anything from GM.
Ms Barra first needs to understand that GM is a huge company, which means it has to compete for the center of the car market. Which is the low cost four door four passenger sedan, the commute to work car and the go to the store car. GM needs to gain share in this market. This is Chevy Cruze and Impala turf. GM needs a well styled, competitively priced car in this market segment. Real volume. About 12 million new cars a year are sold in North America. Of this, a quarter, say 4 million cars, are plain four passenger sedans. That's enough volume to keep GM going.
Contrast that with Corvette. There simply ain't enough guys with Corvette money to keep GM alive. It's a great car, but you need a bread and butter seller to keep a behemoth fed.
How to proceed? Simple stuff like reliability and ruggedness is a good place to start. Some favorable mentions in Consumer Reports. Some top of the charts gas mileage. For instance Cruz is only doing 30+ mpg, whereas you need to hit 40 mpg before anyone cares much. Cruz has a good deal more horsepower than it needs. You can trade off power for gas mileage. A 40 mpg 60 hp car is a better seller in that market segment than the current 28 mpg 138 hp car. The old VW Beetle was perfectly driveable with only 36 hp. The Dodge Caravan's were driveable with 80 hp and a lot more weight and airdrag.
Better styling. The current Cruz is nose heavy and bland. The silhouette is round, slopes up the front, slopes down the back, boring, and so many others have it too.
Anyhow,. Mary Barra has her work cut out for her. She has to get decent sellers designed, and then force them thru all the institutional resistance and NIH, get them on sale, and promote them properly.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
FAA sniffs at Amazon's package delivery drone
After an avalanche of good press from Amazon's video clip of a small whirry helicopter type drone landing a package at a customer's doorstep, FAA has announced that it doesn't like the idea and will cause trouble for it. FAA announced in Aviation Week the drones would be limited to 55 pounds total takeoff weight, line of sight operation, daylight only, and altitude not to exceed 400 feet.
Line of sight is the killer restriction. I mean how many customer abodes are within eyeshot of the Amazon warehouse[s]? Even using binoculars? Darn few.
We will pass over the technological challanges of beyond line of sight operation. Even after the drone has found the delivery address using GPS, it still has to locate the door, or the mail box, sort out apartment numbers, distinguish between walks and driveways, and other stuff that mailmen have no trouble with, but robots will find challenging.
Anyhow, Amazon created a lot of good publicity for itself, and FAA managed to look like the Grinch.
Line of sight is the killer restriction. I mean how many customer abodes are within eyeshot of the Amazon warehouse[s]? Even using binoculars? Darn few.
We will pass over the technological challanges of beyond line of sight operation. Even after the drone has found the delivery address using GPS, it still has to locate the door, or the mail box, sort out apartment numbers, distinguish between walks and driveways, and other stuff that mailmen have no trouble with, but robots will find challenging.
Anyhow, Amazon created a lot of good publicity for itself, and FAA managed to look like the Grinch.
Winter Storm Watch
Well, we got one yesterday. The TV was babbling on and on about snow and ice and flight cancellations and ugly weather.
Well, it didn't make it up here much. I got a light dusting of snow, fraction of an inch against a TV forecast of 2 to 5 inches. Lotta wind yesterday, but not much precip.
Well, it didn't make it up here much. I got a light dusting of snow, fraction of an inch against a TV forecast of 2 to 5 inches. Lotta wind yesterday, but not much precip.
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