Fiat returns?

I am a three-time Fiat owner.

I almost said 'three-time loser", because that company's reputation was so bad after its various forays into North America, the last of which ended some time in the early 1980s.

But my 600 (my first car!), and subsequent 124 sedan (terrific car) and 128 sedan (not bad) were generally very respectable.

So I was among the happier people to learn that Fiat had inked the deal with Chrysler.

The marketing plan for which if any Fiats may come here hasn't been announced, but I have driven and been driven in several Fiats over the past few years in Europe, and they are outstanding.

The new 500 is a gem. A current on-line piece on Motor Trend's web site says it will be coming to the US but not to Canada due to some Transport Canada regulation on taillight lenses.

But my sources tell me that is hogwash; if it doesn't come here it will be because of a marketing decision, not a technical regulation.

Bring it on, sez I.

Reports from Chrysler's factories indicate that Fiat is already hard at work getting their production people up to speed on the Fiat way. Fiat was resurrected just a few years ago under the helm of Toronto-raised Sergio Marchionne, and if he can pull off at Chrysler what he did at Fiat, he'll be a genuine hero.

And just the other day, I spotted an old Fiat driving down Yonge Street in Willowdale. I think it was a 126, an early-'70s replacement for the beloved old Fiat 500.

If I had taken a photo of it you would have been all over me - and rightly so - for shooting while driving. So I have downloaded this from the 'Net.

The car looked to be in terrific shape, and had an Ontario plate, although this model was never to my knowledge imported here.

If anybody knows anything about this particular automobile, please let me know.

Meanwhile, check out this video of a drag race between a Fiat 126 versus a Porsche 911 turbo: Watch the video

OK, so maybe the Fiat wasn't completely stock.

There's none so blind as they who will not see, Part Deux

Lady Leadfoot made an interesting comment on the up-coming hand-held cell phone ban today (she'd have posted a comment but - well, let's not go into her computer skills).

She mentioned that this legislation implies that as long as you're doing it hands-free, you're safe, which we all know - well, the government doesn't appear to know - is just as dangerous.

So probably some people who might have refrained from using their phones while driving will go get a Bluetooth headset, strap it on ("Do you want fries with that?") and go terrorize our roads even more than currently.

Ah, that old law of unintended consequences...

There's none so blind as they who will not see

Ontario's Minister of Transportation Jim Bradley says the ban on hand-held cell phones and other electronic devices will go into effect this coming October, but that the police will initially be allowed some discretion in filing charges, as part of what Bradley calls an "education" period.

Moo Poo.

If Bradley's Ministry or the Solicitor-General's department which administers the police valued education at all, they would have learned from the all-too-evident academic and real-world research which proves that this entire initiative is next to worthless.

There is no doubt that such devices are major traffic hazards; the full extent of the danger they pose is only slowly becoming apparent.

But as we have stated time and again, it is not the loss of manual dexterity caused by manipulating the devices that makes callers and texters drive as badly as if they were drunk.

It is the loss of mental focus; the car may be in gear, but the driver's brain is in neutral.

What's more, the research indicates that you don't get sober the instant you hang up - the distraction can last for up to ten minutes.

This hand-held ban is therefore mere political window dressing - they should be ashamed of themselves. But they, being politicians, have a gigantic tolerance for shame, especially their own.

It is easy to say "We have to do something" or "This is better than nothing" or "It would be impossible to ban all use of such devices".

I say that anything that lets politicians off the hook, that absolves them of the responsibility of fixing the problems they were elected to fix is NOT "better than nothing".

It IS in fact "nothing".

And we don't elect these people - and pay them, very handsomely - to do "nothing".

As the Porsche World Turns...

The on-going saga of Porsche versus Volkswagen took a sharp turn with news that Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and his deputy Holger Haerter have agreed to resign their executive positions, and relinquish their seats on Porsche’s Board of Management, and on the Supervisory Boards of both Volkswagen and Audi.

Unless you’re better at reading German corporate tea leaves than I, it’s hard not to see this as a victory for Ferdinand Piech, the chairman of Volkswagen’s supervisory board. Piech, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche who founded the eponymous company, is also a major stockholder in the family business.

Wiedeking took over the reins of Porsche in 1992, and steered it from near-bankruptcy into the world’s most profitable car company, based at least partly on the success of the controversial Cayenne SUV.

Last fall, Wiedeking attempted an audacious, even more controversial, hyper-aggressive and ultimately fatal tail-wags-dog takeover of the much larger Volkswagen group, in league with Piech’s cousin, Wolfgang Porsche.

But Piech neither enjoys being beaten at corporate strategy (or, frankly, anything else), nor has a great deal of experience at being so beaten.

The sticking point seems to have been whether Porsche would own VW and its many brands, or if Porsche will BECOME another of those brands.

Wiedeking's resignation clearly shows that the odds are now in favour of the latter.

Technically, the Porsche company owns just over half of VW’s shares, but has had trouble in today’s impossible capital markets raising sufficient funds to pay for them.

Porsche recently announced that they had acquired a huge loan from a Qatari financial institution, which now stands to end up with a chunk of Volkswagen.

But as I said a few weeks ago, stay tuned…

Oh, and cry no tears for Wiedeking. Here’s how him telling his wife the news might have gone:

“Liebchen, I have lost my job!”

“Oh no; how will we get by?”

“Oh, they had a parting gift for me. 50 million euros…”

Poor guy.

He says he’s going to give a big chunk of it to charity.

Wonder if he’s ever heard of the Canadian Automobile Journalists’ Benevolent Society?

What's right with this picture?

Everything's right with this picture.

It's just that you don't see such disciplined parking in very many places.

This happens to be the parking lot out in front of the Hugo Boss head office in Downsview. Maybe the fact that it's a German company means they are more disciplined than most? Even if head man Les Minion is of Irish descent?

The other place you see parking like this - or at least used to; I haven't been out there for a while - is General Motors of Canada's head office in Oshawa. I was told once that this was because all GM employees had been through John Powell's Advanced Driver Training program (GM was his main corporate sponsor back in the day) and this was a technique he emphasized, as do most advanced driving trainers.

As I noted in my Pet Peeves column a couple of weeks ago (visit: www.wheels.ca/Specials/article/716100 ), backing in to your parking space is the best way to do it, because you can see as you drive by that there's nothing in the spot that can cause you trouble, and obviously, pulling out again means you're not backing into traffic which you cannot properly see.

I got some flak on this one. One reader said that on his residential street (ironically, about a block from where I grew up) it is almost impossible to back into his driveway because other traffic is too impatient. When he passes the entrance to his driveway other cars are on his butt immediately. Despite having his turn signal or four-ways on, he has been honked at, sworn at, even had cars drive up on the sidewalk to get around him.

Geez; how that neighbourhood must have deteriorated! The first person I ever knew who backed into his driveway was Big Jimmy's Dad (I was Little Jimmy on our block). I must admit I thought it was odd then - Mr. Bakes, in memoriam, I honour your foresight.

Brad Diamond, producer/host of our TSN's Motoring 2009 show, pulls in frontwards because he usually has to unload a bunch of TV gear - cameras, tripods, and the like - and if the back of the truck is up against a wall or a fence, it makes it awkward to unload.

OK, there can be exceptions to the rule. But when not unloading? Brad, you really ought to back in.

And so should you all.

Silly name, good concept

When Dodge replaced the big ol' Ram Van with a rebranded Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, I wondered who would ever buy an expensive, tall, Diesel-powered van that looked like an office building on wheels.

Everybody, as it turned out.

Huge interior room, terrific flexibility, amazing performance and economy from the turbocharged oil burner - it seems every commercial application in the world could be handled by this thing.

You could even outfit it as a family bus or a camper.

One drawback, other than the price - it was SO tall, it wouldn't fit in many parking garages.

I don't know if Ford had this in mind when they decided to import the Transit Connect, a smaller Turkey-built commercial van that has been a big hit in Europe since its launch a couple of years ago.

But here it is:

These two are parked outside a high-end picture framing shop in Beverly Hills California, among a series of urban locales Ford laid on to show the media just how the Transit Connect will fit into the North American cityscape.

The shop is owned and operated by brother and sister Nita Casar and John Pohle, who so far have been making do with Ms Casar's Honda minivan.

"We have to take the seats out to pick up or deliver the artwork," Ms Casar told me during a visit this past Thursday, "then put them back in for our weekend family outings. With this Transit Connect, we will have a dedicated vehicle for our business which is small enough to be economical and manoeuverable for our urban location".

Hansen's Cakes is literally a centuries-old family business - they were bakers in Scandinavia in the 1500s. The first North America location opened in the 1930s; they've been in Beverly Hills since 1952, baking cakes of all shapes and sizes - and I do mean ALL shapes and sizes; propriety and various legal limitations prevent me from showing you some of their wares.

Here, Suzi Finer, Hansen's marketing director, displays one I can show you, along with one of the virtually infinite permutations of racks and shelving customers can order for Transit Connect from aftermarket upfitters through their local Ford dealer.

Ms Finer says the Transit Connect will supplement their current fleet of minivans and one big Econoline. She'd love to have nothing but Transits some day, again the combination of big-on-the-inside / small-on-the-outside space and fuel economy being the big draws.

In Europe, the Transit is powered by a four cylinder Diesel engine. But when the thought crossed Ford's corporate mind to adapt it for North America, Diesel fuel was about a dollar US more per US gallon than gasoline, and future emissions standards gave them pause about trying to make it work over here.

Never mind that Chrysler and Mercedes made the Sprinter Diesel work.

So they stuffed the 2.0 litre four cylinder gasoline engine from the Focus into Transit. Fitted with a four-speed automatic transmission, it provides reasonable performance in urban use, and yields fuel consumption figures of 22 US per gallon City, and 25 Highway. Those convert approximately into 10.7 and 9.4 litres per 100 km respectively, although Ford lists the Transport Canada numbers at 9.5 and 7.9 respectively. The discrepancy is probably due to the US EPA revising their protocol and calculations last year to make the numbers reflect reality more closely. Transport Canada has yet to follow suit.

An electric version is scheduled for next year. Transit Connect is an addition, not a replacement, in Ford's truck line. The big E-Van continues.

A payload of up to 1600 pounds (725 kg), 135 cubic feet of volume, sliding doors on both sides, rear doors that open 180 degrees (or, optionally, 225 degrees) and a floor load height load of less than 60 cm (two feet) combine to give Transit vastly better utility than most available alternatives, such as converted minivans or Chevrolet's HHR.

It's another European idea, adapted for North America. Sort of Sprinter-Writ-Small.

Transit Connect (where did they come up with that moniker?) will also be available with what Ford calls their "Work Solutions" package, as seen in Ford's new F-Series pick-up.

It includes SatNav, and a fully-functional in-dash computer with Bluetooth keyboard and (optional) printer which enables connectivity to the head office computer. Not only can the driver find the job site, he can also print an invoice on the spot.

The SatNav can also track the location of all vehicles in the fleet.

The Tool Link feature developed in conjunction with the DEWALT power tool company, keeps track of various tools and inventory, to make sure nothing is left behind - or 'grows legs', as they say.

Transit Connect pricing starts at $26,799 for the cargo van in XLT trim, which includes air, cruise, power locks and windows, remote keyless entry, and ABS brakes. Rear window glass is another $500.

The XLT wagon model with a second row of seats starts at $28,299, and brings the desirable Electronic Stability Control system. Hard to understand why it isn't standard on the van too - it is an option.

(The US offers a stripper XL van which doesn't appear to be part of our program.)

Transit Connect is shown on Ford's website ( www.ford.ca/app/commercial/en/vehicles/transit_connect.do , and as soon as I can figure out or remember how to make that a hot link, I'll fix that...) and I'm told they are already on dealer lots.

While destined initially for commercial use only, it isn't hard to imagine a Transit Connect outfitted as a two-person RV either. Ford admits they have imagined it, so watch for that in about a year's time.

I apologize for the long letter...

...I didn't have time to write a short one.

Blogs are supposed to be timely, and short.

Sometimes it is hard to be both.

Well, it is always hard for me to be short.

As with the TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR subsidy the Ontario government is proposing for electric cars.

This is just so wrong from so many perspectives that it is impossible to deal with in the blogosphere.

So I encourage you to make a point of seeing next weekend's Carte Blanche, where I hope to be able to elucidate the full idiocy of this plan in a thousand words or fewer.

Even that is going to be tough, but I'll give it a shot.

Kwitcher whinin'

I still hear people complaining about the price of gasoline.

How soon we forget.

Exactly a year ago, it was hovering just under a buck-forty a litre.

Today, it's just over 90 cents a litre.

Cheap - and at almost half the price.

OK, closer to two-thirds.

Enjoy it while you can. It is still too cheap for our long-term good.

And in what most experts believe is the not-at-all-distant future, it's going to return to a buck-fifty, and probably beyond.

Some feel that more expensive petroleum will not only make us crankier, but possibly change the entire world economy in unexpected ways.

If fuel costs two or three times what it does now, what does that do to globalization? Maybe the lower labour costs in off-shore countries will not make up for the increase in the cost of shipping their products to our shores.

It could be a boost to our local economy.

When will gasoline get expensive again?

Who knows?

Next year?

We'll see.

But I hope you come back to this blog long before then!

Notes on the first Honda Indy Toronto

Well, I told you Corner One was gonna be fun.

And I told you Paul Tracy was gonna be fast.

Check and check respectively.

Tracy qualified fifteenth, although less than a second off the pole.

But he managed to avoid the regular-as-clockwork crash in Corner One Lap One, and was something like seventh after just that one lap.

For much of the middle part of the race, it was Canada one-two, as Alex Tagliani and Tracy battled for the lead.

After all the pit stops had been completed, Tracy was looking very good for at least a podium, if not an overall win.

He pulled his patented banzai outbraking manoeuvre at the end of the Lakeshore Boulevard straight, and was clearly inside Helio Castroneves for the Turn Three right-hander.

But the two cars touched, apparently damaging Castroneves' rear suspension. Because as he accelerated up the narrow chute into Four, his car snapped right and drove Tracy into the wall, ending the race for both of them.

"Stick to dancing!" screamed the crowd amidst a chorus of boos for the genial Castroneves.

"They should have jailed you on that tax evasion charge!" yelled someone else.

"That's racing," said Castroneves, approximately.

It obviously wasn't deliberate (although I must say it looked that way on the video monitor) because it certainly did Castroneves no good to lose out on what was bound to be a high-championship-points finish.

"He's the last guy I'd want to take out of the race here in front of his home-town fans," he added. The two had had other confrontations in their past, but were seen chatting amicably after the incident.

So Tracy more than did his job, giving the fans a lot to cheer about, and providing much of the excitement in what was actually a very interesting race.

The first-corner brouhaha involved a couple of the front runners, including Ryan Briscoe and Will Power.

("Mr. and Mrs. Power, you've had a healthy baby boy! What are you going to call him?"

"William."

"Will Power? Are you quite sure?"

I guess it beats Apple Paltrow and Moon Unit Zappa.

I digress…)

This put several of the top cars out of sequence with respect to pit stops, which made it difficult for the fans to see who really was in the running.

For the team managers as well, who were trying to balance fuel loads and tire wear versus their competitors.

Often with Indy Car races it comes down to the luck of the draw. Ideally you'd like to pit during a full-course yellow so the field isn’t going as fast when you're stopped, and you don't lose as much track position.

But of course, you never know when the yellows are going to strike.

Scotland-born Dario Franchitti's strategy came up aces when he pulled in to the pits just as a yellow was coming out.

Tagliani wasn't so lucky - the pits are closed for the first few laps after a crash, a safety measure designed to avoid too much crowding which would happen if everyone came in at once. By the time he got in, it had gone green and he was out of contention. He subsequently also came to grief when he hit Tomas Scheckter's car (Tomas was not impressed) but did manage to finish.

It always sounds weird to hear a guy named Dario Franchitti speak with a stronger Scottish accent than Robbie Burns. Franchitti's father apparently emigrated from Italy to Scotland to open an ice cream stand.

His son has done pretty well for himself; following a reasonably successful Formula One career, he came to North America where he has done very well indeed in Indy Car and now IRL.

And, he married Ashley Judd. How hard must it be for him to come home at night after work?

Although Franchitti qualified on the pole and won the race, it was hardly a Formula One-style flag-to-flag snoozefest.

In fact, I'd say there was probably more passing and more tension in this race than in two decades of the former Molson Indy.

So, the first Honda Indy Toronto was certainly an artistic success.

Financially?

Hard to say. Andretti Green Promotions which acquired the rights to the race doesn't publish attendance figures. Many of the grandstands which were erected for the old Roar by the Lakeshore were not in place this year, the promoters presumably preferring not to broadcast TV images of thousands of spectators dressed up as empty seats.

But a venue as big as Exhibition Place can swallow up a lot of people without looking very crowded. And if the crowd might have been 30,000 - 40,000, name me any other sporting event in the city whose organizers wouldn't do handsprings down Yonge Street with a crowd like that.

And without question, the atmosphere was much friendlier than ever before. Not only the perfect weather (thank you, Weather Goddess) but the marshals, crowd-control people, even the parking lot attendants, were all smiling and cheerful.

Kudos also to Honda Canada, not only for stepping up to sponsor the event, but for helping put Paul Tracy in a competitive car.

This is the first of a minimum three-year commitment to the race by Honda Canada, and they say it will last a lot longer than that.

They're off to a decent start.

Better than last year, in any event.

***

And a tip of the old Bell helmet to my buddy Alain Lauziere who won his class in the Castrol Touring Car Championship preliminary race in the bright orange Mini Cooper S JCW I raced at Mosport last summer. Alain had resigned hmself to a second place finish when apparently the class leader tried a "We Did It!" wave to his pit crew on the very last corner of the very last lap, only to lose control and smack the wall hard, allowing Alain to breeze past.

Paul Tracy at Indy, Part Deux

Well, Paul Tracy didn't make the top five in qualifying for the Honda Indy Toronto race Sunday afternoon as he had hoped.

But when you look at the qualifying times you realize just how close this racing is.

Tracy is fifteenth on the grid, but his qualifying lap time is less than a second slower than pole sitter Dario Franchitti.

Now, the times were set at different times of the day, as the IRL uses a Formula One-like shootout format. Two sets of twelve cars go out. The fastest six from each group go out for Round Two. Then the Fast Six from that set do a third round. Track conditions can change, especially with the variable weather this afternoon.

Tracy is ahead of such notables as Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti, and Dan Wheldon, all front-runners in this series but none of whom to my knowledge has ever raced here before. Home Field Advantage then to Tracy.

Turn One is going to be even more fun than usual.