On this episode of The Six Pack, we hit up the biggest car show around, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Ads from GM's new agencies have, to use a baseball analogy, been mostly singles, doubles and triples. No home runs yet.
In all my travels around Michigan, New Jersey (my native state), greater Washington, D.C., (where I frequently travel) and California, I haven't bumped into a single person whom I can get interested in Buick. It usually goes like this: "Buick? Seriously? My Uncle Mort drove a Buick."
Boards are biased, too like-minded, made up of friends who are typically cronies uncomfortable with conflict. Worse still, in most of our leading corporations today, the positions of Chairman and CEO are held by the same person.
The way you drive affects your efficiency performance. With an efficiency gauge you experience this in real time. By watching the gauge, you learn how to drive more efficiently.
As green pundits bemoan our consumer society, the culture is quietly morphing to slow the amount we buy.
What Revenge of the Electric Car makes clear is that designing, engineering, building and marketing this transportation revolution isn't going to be easy. Making it affordable and keeping the enthusiasm alive inside the car companies is going to be challenging.
The lobbying group for car dealers wants to block new fuel efficiency standards that will save drivers $80 billion a year at the pump, saying clean car standards are a sign of "over regulation."
Rather than encourage the sustainable use of pesticides, too often agrochemical companies seek only to maximize short-term sales and profits.
The hands that Bob Lutz is gesturing with are the same hands that patted the hoods of thousands of cars he explains that in a world filled with wealth, success and fast cars, he must focus on the facets of life not addressed in a board room.
Opportunities for improving energy efficiency -- and saving real money -- are everywhere. The proverbial low-hanging fruit are actually, in the words of energy guru Amory Lovins, fruit on the ground.
In an era where the Federal Government has seen some of its lowest approval ratings in history, it has become all too easy for Americans to relegate blame to their elected officials. Our problem are more complex.
I know I'll be watching with great interest on Sunday night when so many auto brands write that new chapter in the narrative that is the relationship between people and their cars.
Government workers are the new group treated like parasites on the system; their jobs are illegitimate and disposable. Better to stick with the empty and symbolic than tackle the difficult.
Once our pride and joy, Detroit now reminds us of how far off track our economy has gone and how downtrodden the middle class is.
CES is a blur of tech, talks, gizmo's and software. Often, the best way to process is to take pictures, and sort them out in the light of day. Here's a highlights reel.