The guys over at the Detroit News are just gushing about the Porsche 911 Carrera S. Yes, This is an amazing machine and what an impression it has left on Scott Burgess. Can’t wait to drive one myself.

The Porsche 911 Carrera S is almost mythical.

Spotting one on the open road in Michigan is like trying to lasso a unicorn.

But they are out there and when you see one bolt past, you have to wonder what it’s like to drive one.

Allow me to explain: It’s better.

The 911 S is a mechanical dream, watch-like precision in a car. There’s a reason German engineering comes with such a glorified reputation and the 911 S proves this at every turn.

When I sat inside the cabin for the first time, I was in awe — it didn’t even matter that I was driving the 2009 model of the 911 S when the 2010 version with a few updates was starting to roll into dealerships. (There have been some additions to the 2010 model year, but most are minor and the 2009 is a good representation.)

Read the full article here.

Back to the future for Ford and electric cars. Cool piece on the history and uncertain future of electric rides!

From the DetroitBureau.com:

Everything old is new again, goes the old refrain, and nowhere is that more true than in the auto industry. Though they may seem high-tech, primitive navigation systems first appeared in the earliest days of the 20th Century, and fuel-saving CVT transmissions date back even further.

Then there’s the electric vehicle, which has suddenly became the hot topic on this year’s auto show circuit. But if you’d been around for the first big U.S. car show, a century ago in New York, you’d have discovered there were as many battery-powered vehicles as those running on gasoline. Even Henry Ford got into the act, producing an electric flivver for his wife Clara, and asking old buddy Thomas Edison to try to come up with a longer-range battery.

Read the full article here.

The jury is still out on the Chevy Volt but news like this will help it’s case. AutoGuide.com is reporting that once the electric charge is used up the Volt will achieve 50mpg with the gas powered engine powering the vehicle. That is very impressive and will be a big selling point for those traveling over 40+ miles per charge.

Remember all that nonsense about the Chevy Volt getting 230-mpg? Well, after the EPA denied coming up with the number and Chevy admitted there was no standardized way to compare the fuel consumption of a range-extended electric vehicle like the Volt with a conventional gasoline vehicle, the whole business died down for a while – or at least it did after Nissan claimed its fully electric Leaf gets 367 mpg.

Read the full article here.

Notice how Ford actually connects with customers with their new marketing campaigns? Well we know Alan Mulally gets a ton of credit but Jim Farkey is the true architect behind this new found smarts in advertising at Ford. In this piece Farley talks about how the recession made Ford and other companies rethink all of their marketing and the opportunities it created in digital.

If Farley keeps performing at this level he will be one of the names thrown around to replace Mulally when the time comes or he’ll get scooped up and nabbed by another automaker for CEO.

From AutoNews.com:

NEW YORK — Ford marketing boss Jim Farley says the economic downturn in recent years created new opportunities for digital marketing.

“Everything has to work in this economy,” Farley said here Wednesday at Advertising Age’s Digital Conference. “If the economy hadn’t dropped the way it did, we would have been on auto pilot and not experimented the way we did. Our production quality online is better than our broadcast.”

Advertising Age is an affiliate of Automotive News. That experimentation is led by what Farley calls the democratization of marketing.

Read the entire article here.

With auto sales starting to come back it feels like the auto bailouts happened some time ago even though it’s only been about a year. Well, According to a recent poll many Americans clearly want the government out of the auto business. The poll states that 48% feel the government has a “conflict of interest”. That should be short term once the government exit’s from their current equity stakes.

From theTruthAboutAutoCars.com:

According to the latest Rasmussen telephone polling [via The Financial], 48 percent of Americans believe that the government’s ownership stake in GM and Chrysler means it has a conflict of interest in regulating competing automakers. 25 percent disagree, saying that the government’s bailout doesn’t affect regulation, and another 26 percent aren’t sure. When it comes to recent criticism of Toyota by administration officials like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, only 25 percent believe the criticism stems from a desire to help GM, while 38 percent disagree and 37 percent aren’t sure. But the polls most interesting results have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with perception:

Read the full story here.

Do you like the new XJ ? Jaguar sure hopes so as they are gunning for a 50% increase is sales. This is a sharp and elegant vehicle but competition is tight so the 2011 Jaguar XJ better make’m smile!

From AutoGuide.com:

From the very first moment we laid eyes on the new 2011 Jaguar XJ it was obvious was the British automaker was planning – to take on “mainstream” competitors like Lexus and Mercedes with a more forward-thinking luxury saloon. Why would Jaguar want to build a luxury sedan to rival those other two? Simple: sales.

Until the debut of the 2010 model, it was hard to tell a 10 year old XJ apart from a brand new one – which is as much of an insult as it is a credit to the timelessness of the car’s design. But now the XJ looks like something younger buyers would want, with an appeal that speaks to more than just the old-money type.

According to a report by Automotive News, Jaguar will launch the new XJ next month and is hoping the car will drive up XJ sales by as much as 50 percent. With broader appeal and a fresh new design that shouldn’t be too hard. Jaguar should also be helped out by the improving economic forecast and that fact that last year’s sales were down 21 percent compared to the year before (which is a better representation of normal Jaguar sales). In total, last year Jag moved just 51,885 and the automaker is looking for closer to 75,000 units moving forward.

Read the full article here.

Ford is on the move and in the middle of a major comeback and a major partnership does not look to be part of the plan. After unloading the failed Premier Automotive Group that sucked the life out of that company for the past 15 years or so you can see why Bill Ford is skeptical. I say keep rebuilding the Ford brand globally and if they succeed at home it will most likely put them in a position to keep growing and making money elsewhere.

From AutoNews.com:

LAGUNA NIGUEL, California (Reuters) — Ford Motor Co is open to partnerships in green car technology but will be cautious in committing to any alliance, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said.

Ford is treading carefully on tie-ups after global rivals Renault, Nissan and Daimler announced a deal last week that will see them swap stakes and on electric cars, passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

“We are always open to it but I think we will be careful before we jump,” Bill Ford said in an interview Monday on the sidelines of Fortune Brainstorm Green conference.

“You always go into the joint venture with the premise that you will save money and save manpower, and our experience often has been that it does neither.”

Read the full article here.

We’ve all driven some bad (like really bad) cars through the years and now MSN has put together “The Worst Cars Ever”. There are some obvious ones on the list and a few surprises. Yes, You have the Ford Pinto and Yugo but the Pontiac Fiero?? Check it out and let us know what you think!

Quality is in serious question these days. A rash of recent recalls, most notably the uproar over Toyota’s failure to recognize problems with faulty accelerators and brakes in multiple models, has rocked the public’s confidence in the auto industry’s ability to build quality transportation. In their defense, automakers are building better machines today than they have at any other time in history. However, there are still problems, calling to mind a time when car manufacturing wasn’t so good — a time when engines exploded, rust was rampant and cars might simply split in half. To celebrate the best of the worst, we’ve compiled a list of the most hideous looking, poorly designed, horrendously built and, in some cases, most dangerous cars of the past 50 years. It’s a train wreck of riches.

Read the full article here.