AD #2205 – Wall Street Yawns at Ford’s Vision, Toyota Redesigns Top Luxury Car, Nissan Designer Creates Luxury Yacht
October 5th, 2017 at 12:06pm
Runtime: 8:05
0:33 AV Legislation Takes a Step Forward
1:24 Analysts Say Ford’s Future Plan Lacks Vision
1:55 Auto Leather Maker Blames Uber for Bankruptcy
2:28 Chevy Designs New Fabrics for 2018 Equinox
3:34 Toyota Redesigns the Century Luxury Car
4:19 Nissan & BMW Embrace Amazon Alexa
5:09 Honda Puts Wheel Attenuators on New Accord
6:11 U.S. Diesel Sales Strong
6:42 Alfonso Albaisa Designs a Yacht
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On today’s show… Ford takes its message to Wall Street and Wall Street yawns… Toyota completely redesigns its top luxury car that you’ve probably never seen before… and Nissan’s top designer takes some time off to design a yacht. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
AV LEGISLATION TAKES A STEP FORWARD
With so much conflict between Republicans and Democrats these days, it’s nice to see some bipartisan cooperation. The Detroit Free Press reports that the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee just unanimously approved legislation for self-driving cars. It authorizes automakers to sell up to 80,000 autonomous vehicles within three years, which are exempt from current safety standards. In order to avoid a patchwork of regulations, the bill prohibits states from setting their own rules. Safety advocates aren’t happy with the legislation. They say it’s not strict enough. The bill still needs full Senate approval and it differs from one the House of Representatives passed last month. So expect to see some changes before a final bill is sent to the President to sign into law.
WALL STREET SHRUGS AT FORD’S VISION
Yesterday, Ford’s new CEO Jim Hackett laid out his vision to Wall Street analysts of how he plans to take the company into the future. But the analysts could barely stifle their yawns. According to Bloomberg, analysts feel the presentation was skimpy on details. And they’re interpreting that to mean that Ford has not fully figured out what it’s going to do. Hackett also declined to provide any guidance on the company’s profits for next year and the analysts did not like that either.
GOING BANKRUPT? BLAME UBER
An automotive upholstery company is making a pretty bold claim for why it had to file for bankruptcy. Michigan-based GST AutoLeather says the rise of ride-sharing services, like Uber and Lyft have cut demand for new cars equipped with leather seats. But it seems like GST is making up excuses for why it went bankrupt. We checked out Wards Auto’s data base and it shows that demand for leather seats is strong and growing stronger. Roughly half of all new cars and trucks now come with leather seats.
CHEVY’S NEW SEAT COVERS
And speaking of seat covers, Chevrolet is working to make its fabrics more durable, maybe with an eye toward the future when ride-sharing is more common. While designing the interior for the 2018 Equinox Chevy turned to Instagram and other social media outlets to monitor color and fabric trends as well as common consumer problems. It came up with a denim-like material that wears better and is easier to clean. And it developed leather covers with a new treatment that resists staining and scuffing. They even developed new patterns that help to hide stains.
You’d think that the most luxurious car that Toyota makes would carry a Lexus badge. Coming up next we’ll tell you about the new Toyota Century.
STAND ASIDE, LEXUS
One of the coolest cars that Toyota makes is mainly sold in the Japanese market. Here’s the brand new Toyota Century, a car specifically designed for chauffeured heads of state, top corporate executives, or anyone else that wants to look rich and powerful. It was first introduced in 1967 and this is only the third generation of the car. Looking a lot like a Rolls-Royce with a toned-down grille, the newest Century is longer, with bigger rear door openings, and a flatter floor. It’s also a hybrid, with its 5-liter V-8 assisted by a 2-stage electric motor and a nickel-metal hydride battery pack. It’s priced at about $120,000.
BMW, NISSAN EMBRACE ALEXA
People increasingly want their cars connected to all the other things they do and that’s why Nissan and BMW are making their vehicles compatible with Amazon Alexa. On the Nissan side, the feature will be available later this month to owners of certain 2016, 2017 and 2018 model year vehicles equipped with NissanConnect Services. It will be added to other models in the future as well. Owners will be able to perform simple tasks like, lock and unlock doors or remotely start the car with Alexa. BMW on the other hand will integrate Alexa into all of its vehicles, including MINI, starting in mid-2018. Customers living in the U.S., UK and Germany will be able to use Alexa while driving in the car.
HONDA USES WHEEL ATTENUATORS
We know a lot of Autoline Daily viewers are in product development and we’ve love showing you engineering details on new cars. And this item really caught our eye on the new Honda Accord. Check out this noise attenuator that Honda is attaching to the inside of the wheels. It’s made of plastic, is perforated with holes, and acts as a resonator to cancel out certain frequencies. Honda says it significantly cuts road noise, but it’s only available on higher trim lines, including the EX, EX-L and Touring. It’s a feature that first appeared on the Acura RLX.
Well look at this. Sales of diesel engines are going strong in the American market, and that’s coming up next.
U.S. DIESEL SALES STRONG
While sales of diesel engines are dropping in Europe, they’re going strong in the American market. Last month sales of vehicles with diesel engines were up more than 10%, growing much faster than the overall market. But it was all on the truck side of the market. Automakers sold over 48,000 pick-ups, SUVs and vans with diesel engines, but fewer than 1,000 passenger cars. The best selling car with a diesel is the Chevy Cruze, but only 260 were sold last month.
ALBAISA DESIGNS A YACHT
One of our favorite designers is Alfonso Albaisa, who heads up design at Nissan and Infiniti. His passion and his team’s attention to detail is what draws people in. Just check out our interview with him at this year’s Detroit auto show to see what I mean. But now Albaisa is spreading his design talents into the boating world. He came up with the look for the Motali, a 33-meter, 3-story luxury yacht. He said it was a big challenge, but describes the look as, “a bullet-like expression with romantic tapering at the stern that tumbles inwards, similar to the classic vessels of the 1950s… The rear view of this vessel should be like no other.” We’d say that pretty much nails it.
Don’t forget to join us for Autoline After Hours later this afternoon. We’ll be going live at 3PM eastern time with Robert Davis who will take us on a deep dive of how Mazda developed its SkyActiv technology.
And that wraps up today’s show. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (30)
October 5th, 2017 at 12:22 pm
Toyota Century: front lighting (Rolls-Royce), grill (Lincoln), side and some rear (Cadillac Seville) and taillights (Chevrolet), oh, and I almost forgot; circa 1980′ish. JMO
Looks like wheel attenuators could be cheaply put on all wheel (plastic); that would be a one-upmanship and catch-up for the rest of the crowd (if they truly work).
AV legislation is at least on the right track as the rules need to be homogenous throughout the U.S. (at least), but as stated, this is just a Senate bill so there may still be a long time to go (to get this done).
October 5th, 2017 at 12:40 pm
The new Ford plan sounds a lot like a previous one offered by former CEO named Nasser.
October 5th, 2017 at 12:46 pm
Ford’s strategic struggles will continue. When Mark Fields was named CEO I made my concerns publicly known, haven’t been invited to a Ford program since. These big car companies really can’t handle the truth. Fields wasn’t a leader, and the fact Ford basically just coasted along under his guidance isn’t a big surprise. Hackett’s big “plan” is to cut costs, not exactly a ground-breaking idea, or particularly visionary. This was the failed strategy of former United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek, and Toyota suffered catastrophic results with a similar cost-cutting strategy. Some of Hackett’s cost savings make a lot of sense, such as reduction in model combinations and parts sharing. These should have been done years ago (and for some reason, I recall being told there WERE being done years ago) but maybe that was just wish list stuff. But, reducing engineering costs by reducing prototypes and product-development time is risky, especially when you consider Ford’s quality with launches still suffers. Even older designs like the Escape, still suffer recalls, and transmission complaints. Also alarming is the plan for most of these saving to come from “reduced materials cost” I.E. beat up suppliers and chase the lowest price. I can see why investors are nervous.
October 5th, 2017 at 12:48 pm
Leather – the wife and I aren’t huge fans of leather seats, cold in the winter and hot in the summer- especially the ever present black leather. My avalanche has heated and cooled leather which helps but I think it’s hard to beat a heated cloth seat but often you have no choice if you want some of the other options like a sunroof.
October 5th, 2017 at 12:59 pm
To me, cloth is the best material for car seats, but, for some reason, it is unfashionable. Even vinyl is more fashionable, and is used in $50K+ German cars. Today’s cloth lasts a very long time, probably longer than leather.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Ford has always seem to be the very conservative type of automaker. They are not leading the way in AV, EV or design. Also when great ideas are rolled out to place the company in a good strategic position, it falls short. Managements commitment to the costs associated with any change to the very large organization is halfhearted. Why care what analysis’s think if wall-street is going to penalize them anyway as you mentioned earlier this week?
The Toyota Century looked to me like a 1980′s Lincoln town car with a Chrysler 300 front end.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:13 pm
Shawn,
Are there any aftermarket suppliers for the wheel attenuators for other cars? Sounds (haha) like a good idea to me!
October 5th, 2017 at 1:19 pm
If Toyota sold the Century in the USA I would purchase one in a heartbeat as they have totally turned me off with their continuing to use that totally irritating spindle grill. It looks like a 1930′s railway train engine cow catcher.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Oh and the Cruze Diesel sales or lack there of. Ask yourself how many commercials or ads you have seen mentioning the Cruze Diesel? I think GM is trying to protect the Volt sales by not mentioning the combined EPA on the Volt is 42 while the Diesel Cruze is 52.
Humm guess is I wanted to push my EV probably wouldn’t want people knowing that they could get 10 mpg more for $8,000 less starting MSRP.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:25 pm
Regarding Lambo2015′s Ford comment. I agree and once read where Mark Fields had several industry leading designs approved for future products and the Board shot them all down.
I personally feel they did not give Mark a proper chance to advance the company.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:27 pm
Lambo2015 your right again with your Cruze comment.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
How about some high end breathable vinyl seats like the German leatherette of the early 70s
October 5th, 2017 at 1:31 pm
#5 – “…but for some reason, it is unfashionable” ??
Sorry Kit, but one good look at the interior of that Toyota Century tells everyone with eyes why cloth is not fashionable (in an upscale auto).
I mean, com’n Toyota. Are you trying to slip by with velour in a limo?!?
Sean, I’d love to know if those wheel attentuators (or some variant thereof) will be available on the aftermarket for anyone to have installed on their wheels at the tire shop. We all could use less road noise.
Not impressed with Albaisa’s yacht design. I’ll take a Heesen.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:41 pm
The Toyota “Century” is the “Ugliest”,however would sell Very well in the Soviet-Union.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:46 pm
13 Cloth doesn’t have to look bad. Some of the optional cloth in MINI, and other cars looks pretty good, and the cloth in some European market Benzes looks decent. No, 80′s style velour would look, well, unfashionable, even in a Mitsu Mirage.
October 5th, 2017 at 1:48 pm
#9 The combined EPA for the Cruze diesel is 37 mpg, both manual and automatic. The highway rating for the diesel manual is 52. Here are the ratings for all of the Cruze powertrains:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=37907&id=38553&id=37911&id=38554
October 5th, 2017 at 1:51 pm
The Century has a Rolls-Royce like shape, but the grill is sure generic looking. I’d think it might do well in China, but it may be built only with RHD.
October 5th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
@Barry Rector & MJB – I don’t think anyone offers an aftermarket wheel like what Honda/Acura are using.
October 5th, 2017 at 2:14 pm
#9, 11 Here are the EPA numbers for the Volt and Cruze diesel:
The Volt has a better “combined” rating on gas, even if it is never plugged in, and on cheaper fuel than the diesel, but they don’t give a highway number. The Cruze diesel would no doubt do much better than a Cruze in pure highway driving.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=37309&id=38553&id=38554
The Volt and Cruze don’t really compete, though. The Volt is for people who would do most of their driving on plug-in power, but would occasionally use it for longer trips.
October 5th, 2017 at 2:18 pm
Ford is saving some money by discontinuing the V6 in the Mustang. They will lose some sales to Camaro, though, because some people would just rather not have the complexity of a turbocharger, but don’t want the V8.
October 5th, 2017 at 2:53 pm
So, Wall Street beats up Ford for not having a more aggressive EV plan. Hmmm, weren’t we just saying everyone loses over $10k on each EV?!?!?!
Seems to me the best strategy is to have EV capability and competency, so as to be prepared when market forces change.
That is, wading in the EV waters is much more financially responsible than diving head-first into its presently shallow waters.
October 5th, 2017 at 3:44 pm
@ Drew: It seems like a “damned if you do,damned if you don’t” with wall street and ev’s true costs/losses.
What I don’t understand is how they expect to convert over to electric,(either plugin or fuel cell) with little to no infrastructure.
And with plugin’s,it takes a while to charge the batts,so for convenience and time,fuel cells would make more sense,imho.
October 5th, 2017 at 3:51 pm
Kit I’m not sure Ford will lose sales to Camaro by dropping the V6. Us older guys lived the early surge in turbo’s from the 80 and that left a bad taste in many peoples mouths. They have come a long way in the cooling and lubrication of todays turbo’s and increased their reliability. Plus with “Fast and Furious” movies attracting the younger generation to small turbo engines its more widely accepted. Either way if you don’t own a V8 the resale of those cars is negatively impacted about the same.
October 5th, 2017 at 3:52 pm
In many ways, I like an EV future as it should stem the flow of dollars to areas of the world that hate us. And it should stabilize the price of gasoline for classic car enthusiasts. BUT, we need leadership to upgrade the reliability of the present electric grid AND to source clean yet cheap electricity.
October 5th, 2017 at 4:18 pm
Interior material – We all have our own preferences for various reasons. I personally moved to leather 25 years ago or so, & find it comfortable & easy to clean. Heated seats help in the winter. Having said that, friends that work in seating advise we are actually sitting on the chemicals that the leather is treated with. 2004 Volvo V70R has Atacama leather which is very soft & substantially less chemical treatment than most automotive leathers. While I like the Atacama leather I would not get it if we had young children.
October 5th, 2017 at 4:47 pm
I never understood why GM didn’t put a diesel in the Volt. What better motor than a diesel to run a constant speed generator. High torque low fuel consumption and probably could have been a 2 or 3 cyl to achieve the power needed to match the 4cyl gas that’s being used.
October 5th, 2017 at 4:59 pm
I have cloth, vinyl, and leatber seats, and overall, I like cloth the best. It’s neither hot nor cold to sit on, is non-slippery, and holds up well. That said, I doubt that cloth seats, at their best, would look right in a Corvette, like a turbo 4 would not be a proper engine for a Corvette.
October 5th, 2017 at 5:20 pm
There was a time when leather was an option on luxury vehicles with cloth being standard. Non-luxury had vinyl or cloth choices.
Today, vinyl has crept into luxury vehicles (very shameful IMHO). And leather is offered on nearly all non-luxury… often as a series differentiator for the upper most orvsportiest trim levels. But I don’t understand at least one OEM’s (logo is oval-shaped) practice of forcing leather on mid/lower trim levels in order to get other content (navy and safety/ADAS).
October 5th, 2017 at 5:40 pm
This seat material discussion brings up something interesting. I was in the Navy in Scotland in 1970-71, and even basic British cars from 1960′s, like a Hillman Mynx I rented, had leather. It must have been a British thing. Very few, and only expensive American cars had leather at the time.
October 5th, 2017 at 5:53 pm
I must say, Kit, I too prefer the tactile characteristics of a good cloth (heat and cold resistance, hold you tight in your bucket seat when cornering). You just can’t beat those advantages.
But by the same token I honestly couldn’t wait to ‘graduate’ from cloth when I left behind my 4-banger hatchback and got my first Lexus (SC400). Did it have the grip of cloth? Nope. But it sure did feel premium!