Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login

Auto Loud - December 2008

Big Brother is watching!

December 30th 2008 14:21


According to a report from The Commission for Integrated Transport and the Motorists' Forum in the UK. Speed-limiting devices should be fitted to motor cars on the basis that they would decrease the road toll and may have a small benefit in reducing CO2 emissions on UK roads.

These speed-limiting devices would be fitted on a voluntary basis (Yeh right!) and would, thanks to a system of satellites, automatically slow your car down to within the limit for the road on which it is being driven. Mmm, why don’t we just all drive Toyota Camry’s; they always seem to do 20kmh under the speed limit anyway!


Seriously though, the whole thing about this concept that it is simply Orwellian in execution. Big Brother (Not the crap TV show!) is not only watching but he is driving your bloody car as well!

Now AUTOLOUD does not and never has condoned speeding as a sport for public roads, drivers who excessively speed are idiots! The rest of us can fall foul as it is easy to do. A moments distraction and boom, booked! Let me throw something at you. Everyone agrees it is up to the individual on how they drive, I may sound a little cynical here but if you speed, then the revenue raisers (sorry, Police Camera and radar units) will book you and empty your wallet. What suddenly happens to that revenue stream when these cars no longer speed and therefore do not break the law? Common sense tells you that any Government will surely find other ways of getting our hard earned money into their pockets.


This could be the kind of stuff that violates our personal freedom, 1984 has well and truly gone but Big Brother is still with us!
42
Vote
   


Holden’s saviour?

Wishful thinking!

The announcement last week that Holden will assemble the Delta series Chevrolet /Daewoo, Opel / Holden Cruze in Australia and this was greeted with general enthusiasm. An aside, AUTOLOUD noticed that Channel 7 ran a story on this and the vehicle image displayed was in fact the Lancia Delta. LMAO!

Look closely at the images and you see a shrunken version of the Opel / Holden Vectra. No prizes for guessing it will look different by 2011. What they have told us is: they may offer alternate powertrains including diesel, E85 and possibly even a hybrid powered version.



The stuff they have not told us include what vehicles do they expect to sell it against, although those magic words “Corolla buster” has been bravely mentioned! They won’t tell us the price (yet!) but they would already have a target retail price point pencilled in and lastly just how many of these do they expect to sell?

Should Holden pitch the car against Tiida, Corolla and other hatchbacks they will be have to be sharp in their pricing for obvious reasons. The other thing that will have happened by 2011 is the arrival of Chinese passenger cars on the Australian market. People are happy enough to buy a badge but if they can buy a brand new shiny Chinese car for the same price as a 60,000kms Corolla, what would you buy!

What really throws AUTOLOUD is just how much has the Australian government contributed? Will the car be assembled for export? Probably not as that makes no sense. From a business case point of view, GM could build the same car in Korea, courtesy of the Daewoo factory, change the badges and import the car. The volume would be larger therefore reducing costs and the selling price would still be cheaper than its main competition.

Maybe GM hope that the “Made in Australia” tag will get the average Aussie car buyer all warm and fuzzy again.

Good luck with that!
44
Vote
   


Okay AUTOLOUD has finally found a Bentley I dont like and it is all thanks to one Paris Hilton!
(Funny but I thought that was a hotel in the French capital!)

Anyway Ms Hilton decided that the Continental GT was not individual enough for her and has had one customised by West Coast Customs and once again it proves that even Grandads money does not buy taste!



Mmm, told you! Now the kinder amongst you might compare these automotive fairy floss with the pink Rolls Royce from the sixties TV show, Thunderbirds. Lets face it, Ms Hilton is about as wooden as Lady Penelope was, maybe more so!



Worse thing is, it does not stop there! She had to give it a pink inside too! Less said about that the better! She also had the Bentley badges replaced by Swarkovski badges with her initials picked out in pink!

Somewhere in the world tonight a Ken doll got very excited!
41
Vote
   


GM and Chrysler are the recipients of some government funds with a vague reference to being made accountable on how they spend it. Folks I have to tell you, if Bush is going to throw this much of your tax dollars around I would want to know where every last cent went!

Ford for some inexplicable reason decided not to partake in this hand out, maybe they are too scared to jump in as they know they may have to pay it back


[ Click here to read more ]
80
Vote
   


Swedish model seeks sugar daddy!

December 17th 2008 14:47
First the good news from Volvo! They show us the sexy new S60, it is a prototype and of course the real one will be a little less exciting. If only the S60 looked like the P1800 (sigh!)


[ Click here to read more ]
38
Vote
   


Mayday, Mayday!!

December 13th 2008 11:11
Detroit continues to nose dive like a stricken airplane, the masks are down, every one is braced for a crash landing, some people have even kissed their asses goodbye and the really bad news is, there is not enough parachutes to go around. You just know it will end in tears!


[ Click here to read more ]
41
Vote
   


A Dog of a car! Sorry, a dog in a car!

December 8th 2008 13:27
The observant amongst you will have noticed that most people are either a cat person or a dog person. AUTOLOUD is a dog person! Why do I bring this up? Well it concerns me that I have witnessed an increasing amount of vehicles fitted with what seems to be the latest in navigation devices.


[ Click here to read more ]
43
Vote
   


TATA and Christmas cheer

December 2nd 2008 12:30


Ebenezer Scrooge would love this! Talk about the spirit of Christmas


[ Click here to read more ]
53
Vote
   


More Posts
2 Posts
2 Posts
1 Posts
141 Posts dating from October 2007
Email Subscription
Receive e-mail notifications of new posts on this blog:

Patrick's Blogs

I have no other blogs :(
Moderated by Patrick
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]