Make Mine a Jeep: P.J. O’Rourke’s Ode to the Wrangler – Feature – Auto Reviews – Car and Driver.

Life was good again until my friend Richard and his friend Gary met the Saab.  Their first statement to me was, “When did you become a communist.”  I’m not sure I even knew what a Communist was, but I knew I wasn’t one. Then the Birkenstock jokes followed and well it was not long before I sold the Saab to someone from Berkeley and got a real car:  1971 BMW 2002.  This car was Taiga Green and had been stuffed already in the back, but was a strong car and with multiple trips to BMW Salvage (also in Berkeley) I brought this car back to life.  Richard showed me how to adjust the valves on this thing and my friend Stu Krum, who also had a 2002, helped me make this thing run.  This car would stay with me until my Freshman year at UC Davis.  It was my first of (3) BMW 2002s, each being better than the last.  More on them next time.  Below is the best of the (3) – Colorado Orange.  Also pictured below is a Saab like the one I had except for the more cool Euro headlights.  I still like it.

Saab Story

Mine didn't even look this nice!

So I was already a car fanatic and then I met a friend of my parents who changed everything for me.  He brought the cars from the brochures and magazines to reality.  Don’t get me wrong, my Grandfather’s Rolls Royce and Jensen Interceptor were neat cars, but this was different and it would take me years to figure out why;  I just knew this guy was on to something.  I then stole him from my parents and made him my friend.  He continues to be one of my best friends today and is a star in the car biz.  Richard Griffith,  Thank you! I think! Richard is a Hudson collector and BMW enthusiast and because of Richard I gained an appreciation of vintage cars and highly modified, tuned BMWs.  Richard lived in Piedmont and had a beautiful home with a long driveway and a separate 3 car garage which for a car person was perfect.  There I watched him tinker on Hudsons and drive them in the local 4th of July Parades, restore Studebakers, and detail his Alpina BMW 2002s, a BMW M1, a Jaguar E-Type, a Hardy & Beck 323i Coupe, and later a Euro BMW M6.  Anytime my parents were visiting the Griffiths, I would go just for the chance to see the cars and maybe get a ride.  Going over to Richard’s was always a mystery as you never knew what car adventure would be possible.  One day his neighbor, who was under Richard’s car influence, took us for a ride through Piedmont in his new BMW 745i which was the original boxy 7 series with a hot turbocharged motor…I got out of that car with a smile that did not fade for hours.  Then there was the M1 ride through Piedmont that broke the basic speed law at least three times.  Or the ride in the Jaguar E-Type that left me wondering how the car could lean so much, yet not lose traction.  To a young kid this was pretty exciting stuff.

As a dad today, I recently took my 14 year old to drive on private property.  I pulled over without warning, asked her to get out.  She looked at me as if she had done something wrong.  I told her to get in the drivers seat and there it was again, a certain smile that only a car experience can bring.  She did a great job tooling around in the Jeep.  She even managed to cut a turn a little too sharp and get 2 wheels on a wall – not a big one, maybe just a 10″ ledge, but this garage queen of a 4×4 has never done anything fun like this before.

Many kids today don’t have the same interest and passion in cars that older generations did.  Maybe it’s because we parents don’t make them walk enough.  Or because many cars have lost their style or are too hard to work on or modify or too expensive.  My daughter, however is hooked already and wants an Audi or a Porsche Boxster.

I started with a 1971 or 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger that had a V8.  This was the car I hid around the corner as I had it pre-license.  Not good to drive up to the house underage.  Especially when the car is loud and your favorite thing to do is light up the neighborhood with a good burnout.

Richard, thank you for the car fever.  It is a passion of mine, a career and source of great enjoyment.

To my daughter, who is 15 tomorrow, just wait until you get the fun and freedom a car will provide you.  Oh yeah, Happy Birthday!

This car is largely responsible for BMWs success today.

Ahead of its time.

Very rare.

Customer:

1 : one that purchases a commodity or service

And, what is service?

Service:

1 a : the occupation or function of serving <in active service> b : employment as a servant <entered his service>
2 a : the work performed by one that serves <good service> b : help, use, benefit <glad to be of service> c : contribution to the welfare of others d : disposal for use <I’m entirely at your service>
4 : the act of serving: as a : a helpful act <did him a service> b : useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity —usually used in plural <charge for professional services> c : serve

Seems easy enough.  Customers are purchasers of  products or services and service means providing work of value and benefit.  Putting the two together, I come up with providing value in the sale of goods or products to customers.  Value means someone will give up or expend some of their resources to get something back that they feel is more valuable than what they gave up.

Today, these basic ideas have gotten lost.  Too often we as consumers give up more than we get back.  Example one is healthcare, as practiced by insurance companies(which are nothing more than retail businesses hidden behind complex ideas).  I will tell you now, I can’t fix healthcare, but I can speak intelligently about it because it helps illustrate my ideas and notions about Customer Service.

Today’s healthcare industry issue is a bright beacon of what is wrong in corporate America.  Healthcare tries to serve two masters:  shareholders and its customers, the insureds.  At some point, corporate America decided to put the shareholder first and the insureds second.  To preserve the profits of the shareholders, service was reduced, adjusted, changed to the insureds on an ongoing basis and rarely did it get adjusted positively.  Fascinating only because without customers, there are no profits.  From a distance, clearly this is a design that will bring less customers unless every insurance company works the same way and consumers have no choice.  This happened and in brief, this is why healthcare is a mess.  The customers receive so little value and service that the healthcare system has for all intensive purposes collapsed.  A dollar in, gets you less than the value of a dollar out for most insured Americans.  If only this system placed the customer first and tried to grow a business based on happy, healthy customers and physicians, the profits would surely follow at a natural level, keeping those profits and administrative costs in check and balance.  The health of healthcare would and should depend on how satisfied the clients are.  Instead, this unhealthy system pays high executive salaries, high dividends and keeps too many employees and then lets the balance pay out meagerly to its customers.  The government is involved now only because there are no alternatives for the consumer to receive more value and for some any value at all.

Take this idea and move it to every day retail.  Ever tried to call an 800 number?  Do you really feel that the person on the other end of the phone at say AT&T, Verizon, Comcast really values you as a long term client?  Why do we feel happy when they simply fix the problem that probably should not have been a problem in the first place!  They are trying to lower our expectations.  You might say that one person does not represent the company, but they do!  Any time a company puts their employees in direct contact with you, their customers, they are giving you their best version of service.  The company that you give your resources ($) to has chosen and trained at great length the english as a second language person you are speaking to.  The message to you is that this is what you deserve!  Are you satisfied?  It is these interactions that shape future purchase and consumer attitudes.  We as consumers will in essence vote with our wallets and place our value or votes with the companies that give us the most return for the value we give them.

The auto industry is a very clear  and similar example.  If Honda sales go up, that means more consumers feel that they get more value from the Honda cars.  Conversely, if GM sales drop, GM is not offering enough value.  Manufacturers make the product and their franchised dealers sell the cars and service them.  The manufacturers want to make the cars.  They want high sales, but they don’t want to sell them.  They leave this work to the dealer body.  In the approximate 20,000 dealerships across America, dealers now seek out the most inexperienced, willing to accept low wage commission only people and put them in the showrooms to interact with the most important people to them:  their customers.  This system is faulty.  These low paid, paid only if they make a sale, undereducated, inexperienced people for the most part cannot offer enough value to efficiently sell the products so they lie, overpromise, underdeliver, overcharge and frustrate the consumer.  Why is it this way?  Haven’t we figured out that consumers do not like this process?  They do it for the same reason insurance companies pay the shareholders first.  So look at healthcare and look at the dealership closings.  No dealerships were closed that were performing well and offering overall value to their customers.

I compete not with dealerships, but with the salespeople who work for them.  In fact the dealers I select encourage my business and understand the limitations of their retail departments.  I will always advise my customer to use a dealer salesperson if they find a great salesperson that listens to their needs, tries to find them the best product in the right color with the right options and then offers it at a fair price, pays fairly for any trade in and offers financing or leasing at the right terms.  This happens very rarely.  Why?  Just like in the healthcare model, the dealer salesperson is trying to first make the dealership happy, then the customer.  The general principle for a dealership salesperson is to “close the customer on the spot with something in stock at the highest terms.”  By design, this offers that salesperson the most reward and the customer very little.  Even today, somewhere in America, a Sales Manager is instructing a Salesperson to make their prospect drive the car they don’t want and see if it makes them excited enough to purchase it today…to call a prospect over and over until they, “buy or die.”  …to suggest “If I could sell you the car for $1, would you buy it?   Yes, then I know you want the car, and while I can’t do it for $1, if you come back to the showroom today, I will do something special for you.”  Really?  This is customer service?

I use as many small businesses for my own personal purchases as I can.  By design, I know they need me and my referrals to grow and sustain themselves.  They recognize me as a valuable part of business and the referrals I can give to them if they earn them.  I don’t buy from people I don’t trust or like.  I know I have choices.  I want the best choice.

I offer this higher level of service t0 my clients.  A happy, satisfied customer is the best way to stay in business and grow that business.  I don’t rush my clients.  I don’t care what car or color or lease or loan, I just want to help my customer make a better decision than they can on their own and get better terms than if they haggled on a showroom floor.  I try to figure out what is best for them, not what generates the quickest easiest profit for my company.  I present options, pros and cons and have the integrity to suggest a client wait for the market terms to change, or take the deal a dealer has offered if indeed they are getting good terms.  I only source cars from dealers that offer higher value to its patrons.  Referrals have kept my doors open as we do next to no marketing.  I recognize that without customers, I would have no business at all.  My customers come first.  Period.

I invite your customer service stories, rantings, ravings and triumphs as they are of particular interest.  I suggest you all remember that you vote with your wallet daily, whether it be for a cup of coffee, fine dining, cell phone service or even the car you buy and how you purchase it.

My dad, born in ’42 as I recall had a VW Bug and around when I was born a white Toyota Corolla and then later a 1970′s Volvo Sedan in dark blue.  My mom had a dark red metallic/rust 1966ish Ford Mustang Coupe and by the time we moved to Piedmont, a matching light blue Volvo Wagon to go with dad’s sedan.

My grandfather had a late 1960s Mercedes SL in white, a silver Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and a ruby red Jensen Interceptor Coupe.  I was always excited to go for a ride with him.  Each one of these cars was great in its own right.  The Jensen had this great leather smell and loud motor.  The Rolls had this complicated procedure for starting and a weird key position and these huge to me then seats that were better than any sofa.  The SL never had a soft top, just a hard top or open air.

I was hooked, no doubt about it.

Happy New Year!

to be continued…

2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

On one hand, it may seem like an odd time for Mercedes to be jumping back into the ultra-premium end of the car market, particularly in light of its recent less-than-standouts efforts (think: McLaren SLR and the salesproof Maybach). But this isn’t the case with the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. In fact, this isn’t really a Gottlieb and Karl joint at all – at least not by any traditional definition.

The SLS is actually an Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach project. Huh? It’s AMG’s first bumper-to-bumper, start-to-finish project – and having just torn around the California countryside and hot-lapped around Laguna Seca, we’re left wondering only one thing: Why did it take more than 40 years for this to happen? Well, perhaps we should cut Mercedes some slack, as it has only owned the high-performance arm since 1999, so perhaps the appropriate thing is to look at the SLS’ 2009 rollout as something of a tenth anniversary present to itself. In that light, the folks from Stuttgart know how to throw one hell of a party.

2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic

2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic Interior

PRESS RELEASE:

The 911 Sport Classic – Exclusive for 250 Fans of the 911

Stuttgart. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, has refined the DNA of the 911 to what must be the most supreme standard of class and style in the 911 Sport Classic available to a strictly limited number of very special 911 enthusiasts. Creating this unique model, Porsche is bringing back the tradition of exclusive small series built in very small numbers. The 911 Sport Classic will be presented at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and is limited in production to just 250 cars.

This very special 911 from Porsche Exclusive has been developed over a project period of about three years, with lots of love for detail, catering especially for the most demanding group of genuine aficionados. Porsche Exclusive is Porsche’s Specialist Department for the most outstanding customised versions of Porsche cars going beyond even the highest standard of the Company’s regular production models.

The unique character of this very special 911 comes out at very first sight in the newly developed double-dome roof. A further highlight of this sports car based on the rear-wheel-drive Carrera S is the wider rear body up by 44 millimetres or 1.73″ and the wider track on the rear axle. The striking SportDesign front apron with its unique spoiler lip and the rear spoiler fixed in position like the legendary ducktail on the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7 round off the unmistakable look of the 911 Sport Classic. Power comes from Porsche’s 3.8-litre with Direct Fuel Injection, increased in this case, also through the introduction of a newly developed resonance intake manifold with six vacuum-controlled switching flaps, by 23 bhp to 408 horsepower for even more outstanding performance.

The 911 Sport Classic comes exclusively with a six-speed manual gearbox. PCCB Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes ideally reflecting the sporting character of this exclusive 911, PASM sports suspension lowering the entire car by 20 mm or 0.79″, as well as the mechanical rear axle differential and custom-made 19-inch wheels with their rim star painted black all come together to offer a perfect match for the character of this most exclusive car.

The very special, highly sophisticated interior of the 911 Sport Classic bears powerful testimony to one of the core competences of Porsche Exclusive and is characterised by new materials never used before even by Porsche. One example is woven leather made up of smooth leather strips and woven yarn featured on the seat centrepieces of the newly designed adaptive sports seats complete with light-grey piping and on the door panels.

The dashboard including a wide range of inserts and add-on components is finished in Espresso Nature natural leather, providing a distinctive contrast to the exclusive body paint in Sport Classic Grey.

Marking the introduction of this special limited edition model, Porsche Design Driver´s Selection is likewise introducing a range of new andThe 911 Sport Classic – Exclusive for 250 Fans of the 911

Stuttgart. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, has refined the DNA of the 911 to what must be the most supreme standard of class and style in the 911 Sport Classic available to a strictly limited number of very special 911 enthusiasts. Creating this unique model, Porsche is bringing back the tradition of exclusive small series built in very small numbers. The 911 Sport Classic will be presented at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and is limited in production to just 250 cars.

This very special 911 from Porsche Exclusive has been developed over a project period of about three years, with lots of love for detail, catering especially for the most demanding group of genuine aficionados. Porsche Exclusive is Porsche’s Specialist Department for the most outstanding customised versions of Porsche cars going beyond even the highest standard of the Company’s regular production models.

The unique character of this very special 911 comes out at very first sight in the newly developed double-dome roof. A further highlight of this sports car based on the rear-wheel-drive Carrera S is the wider rear body up by 44 millimetres or 1.73″ and the wider track on the rear axle. The striking SportDesign front apron with its unique spoiler lip and the rear spoiler fixed in position like the legendary ducktail on the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7 round off the unmistakable look of the 911 Sport Classic. Power comes from Porsche’s 3.8-litre with Direct Fuel Injection, increased in this case, also through the introduction of a newly developed resonance intake manifold with six vacuum-controlled switching flaps, by 23 bhp to 408 horsepower for even more outstanding performance.

The 911 Sport Classic comes exclusively with a six-speed manual gearbox. PCCB Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes ideally reflecting the sporting character of this exclusive 911, PASM sports suspension lowering the entire car by 20 mm or 0.79″, as well as the mechanical rear axle differential and custom-made 19-inch wheels with their rim star painted black all come together to offer a perfect match for the character of this most exclusive car.

The very special, highly sophisticated interior of the 911 Sport Classic bears powerful testimony to one of the core competences of Porsche Exclusive and is characterised by new materials never used before even by Porsche. One example is woven leather made up of smooth leather strips and woven yarn featured on the seat centrepieces of the newly designed adaptive sports seats complete with light-grey piping and on the door panels.

The dashboard including a wide range of inserts and add-on components is finished in Espresso Nature natural leather, providing a distinctive contrast to the exclusive body paint in Sport Classic Grey.

Marking the introduction of this special limited edition model, Porsche Design Driver´s Selection is likewise introducing a range of new and very special products at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The limited edition AluFrame Trolley as well as a polo-shirt, a cap and a personalised lanyard take up the colour concept of the 911 Sport Classic, and in good time for the introduction of the new car a top-quality 1:43 model will also be available.

Sales of the Porsche 911 Sport Classic are starting in January 2010. The Euro base price of the car without value-added tax and national specifications is Euro 169,300.-.


The retail price and market launch date vary by region or country. Please contact the Porsche PR Manager of your country in order to receive country-specific information. very special products at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The limited edition AluFrame Trolley as well as a polo-shirt, a cap and a personalised lanyard take up the colour concept of the 911 Sport Classic, and in good time for the introduction of the new car a top-quality 1:43 model will also be available.

Sales of the Porsche 911 Sport Classic are starting in January 2010. The Euro base price of the car without value-added tax and national specifications is Euro 169,300.-.


The retail price and market launch date vary by region or country.

2010 Ford F-150 Raptor

According to our friends at PickupTrucks.com, Ford has a hit on its hands in the form of the new and immensely capable 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor. Ford’s Special Vehicle Team spokesperson Patrick Hespen reports that the Blue Oval has already taken over 1,500 orders for its long-travel off-road capable pickup, which puts the Dearborn Truck Plant at maximum capacity.

So far, all those orders are for the standard truck, which at $38,995 includes Ford’s well-known 5.4-liter V8 engine with 310 horsepower and 365 lb-ft of torque. Come winter, an uprated 400-horsepower 6.2-liter V8 engine will be made available for another few thousand dollars.

Not surprisingly, 94-percent of Raptor purchasers are males (the other six percent are women we’re dying to meet), and the median age is 39. Ford reports that Molten Orange Metallic and Tuxedo Black are the two most popular colors, accounting for 80-percent of all Raptor orders so far. No info on how many of those were sold to the U.S. Border Patrol.