1958 DKW "Universal" Kombiwagen

What are the buttons under the radio? The numbered ones.

the paper in the window that describes the car descibe the car as having an optional Marine Band radio, is that what the numbered buttons are? Seems most likely

AutoBird Podcast – Esp15: “A Better Tomorrow?”

I had the pleasure last Sunday to be the first guest on the Autobird Podcast. The Podcast is hosted by automotive bloggers Colin Bird (@Auto_Bird) and Joel Feder (@joelfeder) both of whom I've got to know through Twitter and when they have visited Detroit for various automotive events. Autobird covers automotive industry news, car reviews, and this last weekend we even talked about marketing.

This week covered the following topics:

* Chevrolet Malibu is a great car but sales disappoint?
* American Top Gear still Lives?
* Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring may get new names?

We then proceed to the clip of the week segment. This week we featured the Super Bowl commercial from Dodge – Man’s Last Stand

Last but certainly not least, we discuss our main topics. This week those topics included the Chicago Auto Show and Toyota’s a better tomorrow.

One last comment: The show image was done by Colin. He gets some sort of sick pleasure inserting people into ridiculous scenes. If you find the Photoshopped Caravaggio painting disturbing, you're not alone. The only saving grace is that Colin didn't put me in Muppet outfit like he has done to his co-host Joel.

Please checkout Joel and Colin's blogs too. They bring their own unique perspectives to the industry that are definitely worth a read.

Autobird Blog

Accelerate Minneapolis

You can listen to the show (I had a horrible Skype connection that was eventually fixed at around 33 minutes):

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Toyota Saturates to Annoyance

Maybe it’s the use of 80’s song “Saved by Zero” by The Fixx? Or perhaps it’s just that no matter what program you watched, on whatever channel you had on, whatever station on your radio too, you were bound to catch Toyota’s national sales promotion to get 0% financing in one of the worst auto slumps and the first time Toyota recorded an operating loss.

Apparently you are not alone if you had enough of this ad. It even gathered some negative sentiment when a Facebook group started called "Stop Playing Toyota's 'Saved by Zero' Commercial" recruited almost 10,000 members.

It’s official now the WSJ and AdFreak.com voted it one of the worst ads of 2008.

Really? The worst? Sure it was lame and the link between 0% financing and “Saved by Zero” wasn’t the most ingenious connection ever. But is it the worst because of the song choice or the message? It was the relentless buying spree that Toyota went on to promote the offer. The problem was over saturation. Toyota could’ve handled this issue by coming up with a variety of ads for their 0% financing campaign. Rotating ads with different messages could’ve also appealed to different consumers.

I’m not sure “Saved by” is the right language too at this perilous time. The message implies Toyota is reaching out to help people by having them buy a new car with no financing charges. Good luck. The problem right now is too much debt and people are for the first time in years reducing their debt load.

It is a brutal time to sell cars. Unfortunately, the entire backlash around heavy consumer spending in prior years, macroeconomic stress, and most people concerned with just keeping what they already have, all caused Toyota a bit of negative press when they bought a ton of airtime promoting “Saved by Zero.” Unfortunately, they’ll be playing “Red Skies” at their upcoming shareholder meeting.

I Guess the Idea Sounded Better on a PowerPoint

Hilo Chevrolet, of Hawaii, decided to roll-over their Asian competitors Honda and Hyundai by throwing monster truck wheels on a Chevy Suburban as a way to crush the competition. Unfortunately, the demonstration backfired when the Suburban blew a hydraulic hose and leaked vital fluid while the Honda remained waiting for more.

This just a week after a Ford dealer in South Carolina insulted Asians with his rant about Japanese cars being "Rice Ready, Not Road Ready." I get the not road worthy part, but what the hell does "Rice Ready" mean? It's another example of a gregarious dealer trying to show his triumphant patriotism in an idiotic manner.

With all of the fear and worry mounting from a month of bad Big Three press and questions surrounding a Bailout (that thank heavens finally came through), it is of little surprise that local marketing departments have lost their minds. The problem is neither of these two examples help the U.S. auto cause and, at worse, backfire. American cars have a poor history that many of us remember who owned 1970s and 1980s models. Repairing the reputations has been a tough road, but the good news is that quality issues have lessened dramatically, high safety ratings are not exclusively denominated by any country, and style is improving.

I'm personally excited to see such cars as the Pontiac G8, the 2010 Ford Fusion, the new Mustang, and great little roadsters like the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice. These are all products I would love to have in my garage and are far more fun and interesting than a bland Toyota Camry or Honda Accord (though both are fine cars.)

It's just sad that some dealerships are losing their minds and making their brands look as bad as the all the complainers against them. What the U.S. auto manufacturers need is more myth busting around poor quality and less patriotic flag waving. People who do not work for a brand buy a car because it is the right choice for their needs and expanding some minds by showing American brands are worth looking at, because it's not 1985 anymore, is a good thing and good for a healthy competitive marketplace. So please park the monster truck and no more name calling.