James Large: Chauffeur to the Stars

As a kid growing up, my next-door neighbor was one of the coolest people to me. Everyday, he'd pull into his driveway with another new car, some that weren't even out yet. Whether it was a yellow convertible or a big black sedan, he would always take the time to show me around and let me sit in the front seat.

Automoblog: Thanks so much for meeting with me today.

James Large: Yeah, it's my pleasure.

AB: Alright, so I know you get to drive lots of really cool cars, but what exactly do you do?

JL: Well, my name is James Large and I'm a promotional ambassador for Mercedes-Benz. My job is to drive all of our new and upcoming models around to clients so they can preview the car and put in an order. I also pick up clients and executives at the airport and bring them where they need to go in the company vehicles.

AB: So, pretty much you get paid to drive cars around.

JL: Yeah, that's most of it. I also need to impress the clients and make them feel welcome when they're considering the Mercedes. I need to be really nice and tell them all the great things about the car without sounding like a salesman. Usually they get the idea and they just take it for a spin. When I pick up executives, it's usually from the airport, and I bring them to the hotel, and back to headquarters, or to meeting somewhere in New York City.

AB: What car do you usually drive?

JL: It really depends on what I'm doing and where I go on that day, but it's usually a Mercedes S-Class when I'm picking up someone, or whatever's at the front of the fleet parking lot. If I'm doing a demo for a client, it's whatever we've just released. Right now, I have the new SLK convertible, the car hasn't been put into production yet, so I'm driving the preproduction model they're going to use for the crash test.

AB: Does that make you sad to know that in a few weeks it'll be destroyed?

JL: Yes and no. It's a beautiful car for sure, but I'm used to it by now, Most of our preproduction cars have to be scrapped legally anyway. I wish I could just keep it, I've volunteered before!

AB: What car has had the most impact on you?

JL: I would say it would be a jade green E-Class convertible about 10 years ago. I was new to the car so they usually give me a rundown of the features and everything by someone from the financing and marketing department. That's how I met Karen, my beautiful wife, and probably the reason I love my job the most.

AB: Awwwwww, very sweet. Has there been any car that you just didn't like for some reason?

JL: Oh yeah, definitely. Loads. The car I hate the most by far is that little Smart car. You cannot ever shift that thing right. It always jerks up and down, and the doors are so flimsy, I felt like I was driving a beer can. And then one time I had an SL convertible and the top got stuck halfway while it was closing ten feet in the air. To get back to work I had to go under a low bridge, and the car wouldn't fit with the top stuck, so Mercedes had to send engineers to come fix the top. They couldn't get the parts unjammed, so they got a Sawzall and just chopped the top off this beautiful car. I didn't get home until three o'clock in the morning that night.

AB: Definitely a bummer. Have you ever gotten into any accidents?

JL: Loads. Not any my fault, but there's always cabbies and people in the city cutting you off, and when you're demoing a really nice car everyone stops paying attention to the road to look at you and they do stupid things. A lady side-swiped me the first day I was driving the first GL SUV we had imported into the country. That truck was supposed to be sent to the auto show in Los Angeles, but it was so badly damaged that they couldn't fix it and they couldn't get another one in time, so they had to delay the launch. Another time I was driving the prototype for our BlueTec diesel hybrid, and the guy behind me was trying to get such a close look her rear-ended me and took out the back of our four million dollar concept car. Luckily, I think they like me at corporate.

AB: They clearly must if you get such a sweet job. Anything else cool?

JL: I got to ride around with Leonardo DiCaprio one day. He was in the city and Mercedes was sponsoring one of his movies, so I took him everywhere he needed to go that day. Such a nice guy, he bought me lunch and everything. Definitely a nice guy.

AB: Any way to hook a brother up?

JL: You gotta be 21 to drive the promos and have a commercial driver's license. Sorry buddy.

AB: I'll call you in a few years.

My First Car

Recently I took to the campus of FIT to interview students about their first cars, and their lack of any car.


I'll never forget the feeling of the keys in my pocket for the first time. It was December 2008, and it was beginning to snow outside of the Acura dealership. I had just taken delivery of my first car. A black 1999 1/2 Volkswagen Cabrio convertible. Black, with a black top, and black heated cloth seats. 147,000 miles. From the look on my face you'd think I was driving a Ferrari. It's given me some ups and downs, and flat tires, and oil leaks, and blown spark plugs, and so on. It's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything, but much like anything else, everyone has their own way of doing it, their own rules, and most importantly: their own budgets.

Something that surprised me while doing this assignment was the sheer lack of people who owned cars. In the city, this is more than understandable, but students living in areas such as suburban Long Island, Wayne, New Jersey, and Irving, Texas, all said they had not yet experienced car ownership. Why? "It's just too damn expensive, and if I can't pay for the insurance, how can I have a car?" Anne Wagoner, a freshman studying fashion design summed it up best. It's true. Gone are the days when it was a right of passage to have a car in your teenage years. Without a steady income pulled in from my personal job, I definitely couldn't afford my ride. Even then, it took a few gifts from relatives to actually be able to put my name on the title. "I just never went and got my license. I felt like I didn't need it because I don't have a car, and I live here now anyway," said Meg Wilbur, an illustration major completing her Bachelor's this spring. "It's just not worth it because I have friends with cars, so I'll chip in some gas money once in a while."

I met Gary Gamble on the steps of Alumni Hall, flipping through a recent issue of Motor Trend. He attends Morris County College in New Jersey, and is completely smitten with is choice of wheels. "I drive a '02 Mustang. It's my baby." He stated that he bought the car outright from a neighbor, with the help of his parents, and he splits the insurance payment. "I needed a car for school, so it was either have my own or just keep borrowing my mom's." When asked about his plans for his own children and their eventual first cars, he mentioned helping them out in the same way. "I don't know what the economy and things will be like then, but hopefully I can afford to have a few cars." A true point, a decent used car suitable for a teenager can run close to $5,000, and with insurance rates at close to $200 a month, many families are priced out of the car-buying game.

"I got my Camry from my mom when she got a new car. It rocks." Stephanie Denier, a second-semester visual exhibition raved. "It's so much fun and all my friends can come hang out with me."Hand-me-down cars are another popular and cost-effective way to get keys into the hands of teenagers. As a bonus, the car's previous history is known, and more often, the teen is familiar with driving it.

Some students had slightly less orthodox methods of getting behind the wheel. "I drive a 2010 Hyundai Elantra. I have to turn it back in this summer though, so it sucks." Lexi Boecker, a fashion merchandising student, leased her car. "My parents pay the 89 dollars a month for two years. It was really nice to have a new car but soon I just won't have a car at all." When asked about how she plans on getting her own children driving, she said she hopes to pay for the car, but wants them to do the work on it. "I'm definitely not leasing one again because it's lame, but I don't mind getting my kids cars if they're ready."

Out of everyone interviewed, all of the first cars had airbags, and some had side airbags as well. Nearly nobody had a new car, and everyone received some sort of help in paying from their parents, or their parents paid outright. It seems this former right of passage has now been reduced to another economic toll on the middle class, a remnant a years gone by, as we face harder economic times and issues with global oil supply. Owning a car as a teen may one day seem as ridiculous as owning a house at that age.

Automotive State of Affairs: In the Red.

My recent trip to the New York Auto Show was a good commentary on economic issues. Few expensive, high tech concept cars were around, and press releases went on with little fanfare. Promotional materials were limited to flyers and plastic bags. It's quite obvious the auto industry is hurting.

Is Bigger Really Better?

Cue the 1990s. After years of focus groups, surveys, and listening to their customer base, Ford unveils the Explorer, and the truck is an instant success. More room than a sedan, 4x4 go anywhere performance, and aggressive bulldog looks. Other brands soon follow, and by the end of the decade Americans are fleeing their Geos and jumping into the loving embrace of the SUV craze. Rather than blazing trails, the SUVs were found in slightly more pedestrian places, parking lots at shopping malls and drive-thrus. Considered safer and more convenient, your SUV could swallow a whole load of groceries from Costco and still have room for the little-league team. Drunk driver in the oncoming lane? Keep on truckin' and run right over their puny little hatchback! Sure, pit-stops at the gas station were frequent, but a full tank of dino-juice could be had for twenty bucks. Life was good.

Fast forward to the 2008 gas crisis. Five dollars for a gallon was only the beginning of the end, newspapers told us. No longer was the Grand SuburbanExcursion en vogue. The market was in a panic and people couldn't abandon their trusty SUVs fast enough. Used car lots were piled high with studded tires and running boards as customers exchanged for hybrid gas-electric cars, promising upwards of 60 miles per gallon. Driving a Geo was socially acceptable again. However, as prices at the pump momentarily shrunk, consumers began to get fed up with their vehicles. Hybrids don't have 17 cup-holders and room for a spare set of tires. And the fracas begins again.

Worldwide the phenomenon is evident, but most blatantly in the United States: We're obsessed with big. Big everything. Big hair, big sodas, big TVs. Our motto is "bigger is better." Even when we don't realize it, we want bigger. Every time a car is redesigned, one of the first points made by the talking heads is "XX% more legroom than last year's model!" Nobody ever stops to think, however, that last year's model had a perfectly acceptable amount of legroom. And if last year's model had such minuscule dimensions, how did anyone even manage to fit into the one from five years ago? Clearly they must have been living in the dark ages. To put into perspective our super sizing habits, cars have grown up entire size classes; the Honda Civic, America's most popular "compact"car, is now larger than the Accord, Honda's full-size family sedan, was fifteen years ago.

While the ongoing oil crisis is draining the economy of precious money, and we're using all of our resources to maximize efficiency, the buying public is being brainwashed into thinking they need all this extra space. Wake up! We don't! Every extra inch added to a vehicle increases its weight by approximately one hundred pounds. By shrinking our cars back to 'just right' sizes, mileage could easily be improved. Added bonuses also include: lower costs and more room on streets for parking and maneuvering.

A phenomenon seen today that's confounding marketing teams is "nameplate grow-up."As cars traditionally seen as compact mature in size and price, a new crop of legitimate compact cars must replace them. For example, slotting below the Civic now is the Honda Fit. The Civic is now the size of the prior Accord, and the Accord has grown even larger. In ten years, another new car must debut to replace the Fit, which will undoubtedly grow in size, and the whole chain will move up again.

Reducing our emissions and becoming more eco-friendly does not lie in new technologies or refraining from using our vehicles, it is in reassessing our needs and buying accordingly. A commuter in snowy climates would do fine in an all-wheel-drive sedan or using snow tires. Mothers will find more minivans more comfortable to drive. Insecure men would probably get more enjoyment out of a sports car.

Gas prices should not regulate buying preferences. Likewise, unchecked growth in the industry is bad for resources and not necessary to appease consumers. Next time a car is introduced, it would be nice to hear "Legroom has decreased to an amount suited for normal people."

And besides, I hear Honda is running out of names.

Sedan, Coupe? Nagare, Flame Surfacing?

Cars today are obviously much different than the slab-sided Chevys of yesteryear. Just as important as mileage, space, and performance, styling is one of the key factors when it comes to buying a car. In today's high-stakes market, makers are pulling out all the stops to make sure that their lineups not only are plenty attractive, but also work together in a way to form a brand identity. A successful brand identity can allow a car to go whizzing by, and an admirer to exclaim "Wow! look at that Ford!" without ever even having a moment to glance at the badge. To achieve this type of reaction, certain styling elements must be repeated on every vehicle an automaker produces, to create a uniform look throughout.

The double square grilles of a BMW. Seven slats in the front of a Jeep. Squared-off edges of a Volvo. Done right, a consumer can pick an SUV, a sports car, and a minivan out of a parking lot and say they belong together. Done wrong, and you have 'the same sausage in different sizes' - cars that look too similar to the point of being indistinguishable. To express the particular cues used to tie a brand together, stylists have come up with the term design language. Different brands each have their own language, one that is crafted to be inspiring and look good on a range of sizes and proportions. To add to the confusion, each design language is often given a name. Ford abides by what they call "Kinetic Design." Hyundai uses "Fluidic Sculpture." Mazda has the Japanese-inspired "Nagare," and BMW believes in "Flame Surfacing" their cars. Elements are often previewed months or even years ahead in futuristic concept cars unveiled at trade shows that will never see production. Used to showcase design and technology, these models, often non-funtional, create buzz and excitement in an automaker's future offerings.

Unfortunately, too often today can one see design gone wrong. The influx of eco-friendly design trends, retro throwbacks, and wanna-be sports car mentality can result in a less-than-stellar final product, leaving the ultimate consumers in the showroom scratching their heads, asking "What were they thinking?" Case in point: The two most notable recent offenders, The Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Volkswagen Beetle.

The PT was the first of the "new cars that look old" trend, arriving sometime in 1998. The car was an instant success, becoming a household name across the country. The first five years went swimmingly, with sales through the roof. Fittingly, Chrysler was also the first to hit the proverbial brick wall, and the biggest dilemma of retro cars- what's next? The car completely bucked modern-day styling trends, and there was no way to redesign something so clearly stuck in the past. Struggling, the company tried new paint colors and a different dash layout, but the overall design never changed for over a decade. Finally, in 2010, amid languid sales, Chrysler had no choice but to kill off the model, ending a chapter in automotive history. Following a trend too closely will never work out, as the company found. It's important for trends like retro looks to inspire, but not dictate a design. Ford picked a better formula for the 2005 Mustang, aping the iconic 60's design, but with a modern twist. The car has aged beautifully and is easily updated.

Like the PT Cruiser, the fate of the VW Beetle was not much better. New for the 1999 model year, potential customers flocked to dealerships to see the car, only to turn away after sitting in it. Volkswagen was so committed to keeping the original shape and dimensional packaging of the original car that ergonomic faults greatly interfered with driving. The steering wheel was four feet away from the windshield. The trunk opening was pathetically small. Headroom in the backseat was nonexistent. The engine compartment wasn't large enough for a sufficient engine, so the Beetle was underpowered for its entire eleven year lifespan, which is about ninety seven in car-years. The problems were remedied in the newly-unvieled model, which take a more liberal approach to the classic.

In today's world, it no longer seems like a car just look good. It must match the line, have some type of arduous marketing-speak, and take into consideration what's on the news at night. It might be time to return to the simplicity of the 1957 Chevrolet hardtops- where the only design language was English.

Driven: Fiat 500

        
    Just a year ago, if you were interested in a mid-priced European car, your options were limited to the Volkswagen lineup, with prices slowly climbing into the stratosphere, while reliability still rested somewhere near the center of the Earth, or Scandinavia's entry-level all-wheel-drive snowbunnies from the likes of Volvo and Saab. If you had about two years to kill, you could sign the bottom of the waiting list for a MINI. Fiat, with some help from the newly restructured Chrysler, is looking to fill this gap by ending their twenty-seven year absence on American soil. First up from the Italianate automaker is the new-to-us 500, or Cinquecento, as it's called back in the old country. This itty-bitty hatch makes a good first impression, but how does it fit in here in the big-ol' US of A?


Approaching the car for the first time, a serious concern is just fitting into it. Pictures just don't do justice to the tiny footprint of the 500. Weighing in at 2434 pounds in the fun-sounding Pop trim with the 6-speed automatic transmission, the car is two hundred pounds lighter and over a foot shorter than the other iconic adult go-kart, the esteemed MINI Cooper. This waifish, 5' 10" guy had no difficulty with ingress/egress, but headroom is definitely tight on models equipped with the optional panoramic sunroof. While the 500 does have a backseat, it's best reserved for grocery bags or amputees; legroom is nil. Lift the hatch around back, and one is greeted with 9.5 cubic feet of space, a decent amount of cargo room for a subcompact; Should one buy a few more cases of gelato and olive oil than expected, the rear seats fold down to 'kinda-flat' in a pinch, opening up 30 cubes of space, about that of the decidedly less-trendy Ford Escape.

Cozying into the tightly-bolstered front seat lends the driver a view of the quirky, two-tone retro dashboard. A large expanse of color-keyed material brings the outside paint in, and chrome details surround the high-quality switchgear. Window controls are on the center console, something to get used to in the drive-thru line if this layout is unfamiliar. The meaty steering wheel and heavily-dampened glovebox give the car a BMW feel, but the plastics on the dash and door panels scream Fisher-Price. Should the unthinkable happen and the 500 is turned into a pancake, seven different airbags are available to cocoon you and your passengers from imminent doom. With a five-star rating on both the US NHTSA and the EURO-NCAP crash test, it has proven safer than many larger cars on the market. With 10 different interior options available, in both fabric and leather upholstery, the 500 is sure to have something for everyone. The mint green accents worked quite fittingly with the cream fabric on the tester vehicle.

On the outside, the Fiat 500's look is enough to incite awe and 'Awwws' in passer-by. Although the car has been on sale in Europe since 2007, its huggable demeanor is brand new in The Land of the Free. Up front, a stubby hood is home to two large round headlamps, and two smaller, dimple-like units. A chrome moustache takes the place of a grille, and is echoed in chrome mirrors, door handles, and tailgate trim. The minuscule 15 inch wheels do not look out of place on a car this size, nor do the jewel-like taillights. Outward visibility is quite good, with no huge blind-spots. To aid even more, the side mirrors feature indents to further expand field of view.

The 1.4L Multiair engine is good for 101 horsepower and 98 lb-ft of torque, leading to a 0-60 time of around nine seconds. It's no Ferrari, but the 500 is fun to drive, and the high-revving engine keeps up on the highway. The cushy suspension takes bumps and imperfections in the road like a champ, but the steering is about as direct as a pile of wet spaghetti. Seats sit up high to give the impression of a larger car, and help with predicting the road ahead. Hit the 'Sport' button on the dash and the car really comes alive, with a much firmer driving experience sure to put anyone in a better mood. That mood will last all the way to the gas station as well. Fiat has engineered the car to be as efficient as possible, paying off with a 30/38 mileage rating.

Starting at $15,500, the Fiat 500 is one gigantic bargain. During my tests, the car held up well in day-to-day driving, and its expected to be a hit in major cities where space is at a premium. Fiat is still in the process of rolling out its dealer network, so it may be a while before there's one on every corner. The 500 goes through the motions with a larger than life presence that works just as well on American roads as it does back home in Florence.

MINI Cooper? Fuggedaboutit!

Intro

Ken Guerriero
AC141-201
Professor Johnson
Spring 2011