EasyAutoSales Blog

With the plethora of new cars scheduled for release and currently on the market, it begs the question, what car would you actually spend your hard-earned money on? Sure, the economy is making it rough for people to purchase new cars with the severely reduced liquidity, but with the savings these cars could potentially produce each month, these cars might just be in the cards for some of you, assuming they meet production schedules. The options vary from entry level hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius (starting at $22,000) to the ultra chic Fisker Karma luxury sedan ($80,000). Let’s give a quick run-down of the cars before you vote (we want informed voters after-all):

1. Toyota Prius: It was the first mass produced hybrid on the market and thusly it’s become the defacto standard. It’s certainly reasonably priced, but does its boring looks and appliance-like feel turn off the average American driver (a very emotional group about what they drive) and push it towards one of it’s more conteporary compeditors? In the end, a solid and reliable car that’s moving on to it’s 3rd generation in 2010 which should drive sales further. The Japanese are known for their reliablilty and improvements to batteries and production should drive the cost down and the mileage up.

City: 48, Highway: 45, MSRP: $22,000 base price

2. Honda Clarity FCX: Shortly after Toyota released it’s Prius, Honda moved forward with it’s Insight project, released in 2000 and has been in production until 2006. At that time, Honda moved their fuel cell technology along enough to power Accord and Civics. However, some believe that though gas-electric hybrids are all good and well, the true future of electric cars is with the use of Hydrogen and electrolysis to create a purely electric car with ZERO emissions. Sure, Hydrogen fuel stations are few and far between, but by the picture, you can tell the Clarity FCX is aiming at a higher eschelon individual. Mass produced FCXes could be ready as soon as 2012, but right now you can lease if you live in California (where Hydrogen stations are available). This is the car for the true eco-heads with it’s complete lack of any greenhouse gasses, something not even the Prius can claim.

City/Highway: 68 MPG (equivalent), 280 Mile Range, $600 per month lease

3. Chevrolet Volt: Marketed as the next big thing in commuter cars, the Volt’s goal is to create a combination plug-in hybrid that should be able to take you to work and back home on a single charge and not needing to use any gas at all. With an expected range of 40 miles, should you go beyond that, there’s a small gasoline generator to power the car until you get to your destination. GM has put a lot of money into marketing the Volt as the next big thing and utilizing it for a push to create special tax credits for cars that get 100MPG+. While the concept cars GM has shown are certainly edgy, a full production version (scheduled for a possible release in 2010), we’ll see what the actual Volt turns out looking like.

City/Highway: 50MPG (no battery), 150MPG (with battery), 100MPG (average equivalent), MRSP: $30,000+

4. Tesla Roadster: Based on the Lotus Elise, the Tesla is the first electric car “Car Guys” wanted. Promising of a usable range (over 245 miles), awesome acceleration (less than 4 seconds to 60MPH) and a super sexy chassis based on 15+ years of development on the street and race track, the Tesla makes owning a electric car bearable. Though the small roadster isn’t the most practical car here, it’s certainly the one that involves the most user input to drive. It’s the one you’ll want to take to the local track or autocross. It’s the first car to break the stigma associated with driving a “green” car and for that, it’s made our list. Will it top yours?

City/Highway: 105MPG (equivalent), MSRP: $98,000

5. Fisker Karma: Built by the world renound car designer, Henrik Fisker, designer of the Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage and BMW Z8, the Fisker Karma is the car you buy as the President of your eco-friendly business. You’ll need 4-doors to fit your clients in, but you’ll need to not waste gas to protect your image. The Karma is another plug-in hybrid that utilizes solar cells on the roof as well as a tiny gas generator to keep your car going past the 50 mile electric only range (similar to the Volt). However, whereas most other makers design their cars to sell to the average consumer, the Fisker is for a more refined taste. It’s long, sleek body, premium interior and fully featured healm make this car the Mercedes S-Class of hybrid cars (though Mercedes is working on their hybrid S currently). With a Fisker Karma, you’re not only saving the environment, you’re looking like a million bucks doing so.

City/Highway: 150MPG (equivalent), MSRP: $80,000

6. None of the Above: Though the cars above come with various amounts of cache, none of them offer the sound, the thrill and the experience of a good old petrol engine with 8, 10, or 12 cylinders of octane combusting power. Be it the newest California from Ferrari, 10-cylinders of high-revving fun from a BMW M5 or the glory of a 12-cylinder AMG engine, there’s nothing that can compare to the goose-bumps you get when dropping the transmission down to 3rd gear and flooring it through a tunnel or letting loose at your local track or autocross. The petrol engines offers so much to us both in utility and emotional support. With new developments in fuel efficiency, even our supercars are getting over 25MPG on the highway (look at the new Corvette Z06). Celulosic ethanol promises cheaper, reproducable energy sources that are cleaner than ever before. Maybe during the week I’ll drive my Volt to and from work. However, on the weekend I just want to press the loud pedal and go for a ride down my country roads.

So, which is it for you?

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Eric Miltsch from WhyBuyUsedCars.com conducted an interview with our CEO Wei Yang.  Wei provides some great information about the vision of EasyAutoSales, as well as some fascinating insight into the future of the automotive industry.  Here’s a quick snippet from the interview:

WBUC: What are some of the trends you see happening within the automotive retail industry?

WY: As more people rely on the internet for research, I believe the rest of the retail auto industry (small & medium sized dealers) will catch up by establishing a web presence, so they too, can be in front of the customers when they’re ready to buy. I’m personally hoping that sites with crazy scripts and virtual assistants will go away in exchange for more useful, and user friendly sites. Flash is only cool the first time you see it, afterwards it’s just another barrier between you and the users.

Hopefully within a couple of years every dealership out there will at least have an internet connection on site and hopefully they will all pay attention to their online leads.
Check out the rest of the interview at WhyBuyUsedCars.com

Often times we’re exposed to cars via Top Gear, Fifth Gear or any number of YouTube videos that no one has ever heard of. As a consumer in the United States market, we get less than those exposed to European markets and we certainly don’t see cars native to countries like Australia. Such was the case with two cars in the second episode of Top Gear Australia. The show’s second segment displayed two cars I certainly never heard of: the FSV (Ford) F6 and the HSV (Holden) GTS. In Australia, Holden v. Ford is a bit like Chevy v. Ford. Even the US market cars, the Pontiac GTO and the Pontiac G8, are both based on Holden cars and use the Corvette  LS based engines. One would expect these cars to be based off of high production models like the Ford Taurus or Chevrolet Impala. However, both of these cars are completely Australian build chassis with looks that match their heritage.

The whole episode I thought to myself, in a particularly limited market like Australia, it’s amazing that cars like this are made at all. In 2007 the Australian car market hit 1,000,000 new cars sold. 7,500,000 new cars were sold in the United States in 2006. With less restrictions that limit high performance vehicles in the US (emissions) and a higher propensity of buyers in Australia to purchase high performance vehicles, cars like the HSV or the FPV make up more than 5% of the Australian market. I don’t think Ford and Chevy sold enough Mustang GT500s or Corvette Z06s to make up 5% of the market. Too bad.

Nevertheless, they are still great cars that seem to have the performance of an M3 with the price of a 1-Series and the size of a 5-series. No doubt the interiors aren’t the most plush in the world, but with the smiles on a HSV or FPV driver’s face, I think the most important thing on their mind is keeping the car under the speed limit.

After watching yesterday’s Top Gear Australia, I got the Ford GT bug again and thought, “What the heck, let’s see what eBay’s got in it’s inventory these days.” After doing a quick search and organizing Ford GTs by date (sure, an original 1966 Ford GT40 would be sweet, but the premium these cars bring is huge and as much as I love the rawness of the old ones, I would drive the car daily and stuff like AC would be nice in GA) I came up with this Gulf Color’d beauty. The colors are a throw back to the original GT40s in the 1960s and the performance is as much race car as the original too. This particular car has had a 3.4L Whipple Supercharger upgrade, upgraded diffs and axles, big brake kit, uprated adjustable suspension and performance tuning, among other things.
This car screams speed, handling and “meant for extreme track use.” Truth be told, I would love to have this car for something like the One Lap of America or the Targa Newfoundland. However, until the time comes when I can drop $375,000 on a whim, this car’s going to have to sit on my desktop as inspiration for the future.

By the way, if you happen to be looking for a nice new GT, check these Ford GTs out.

I saw an intersting listing here from Park Ave Acura.  This can’t be street legal right?

Well, it’s finally that time - my family needs a new car!  Unlike the automotive writers that get to test drive shiny new exotic cars at Edmunds, Car and Driver and other cool magazines/blogs, my wife has been driving around in a baby blue 92 Taurus. Yes, it’s the same car that Conan O’Brien says he proudly owns in a number of his shows but honestly… 18 years later, this car resembles more of a FAIL WHALE than a performance family sedan.

I will say over the last few years this car has been reliable in that it has not given us too much reliability problems.  However, with only one headlight working, a broken side mirror and a non-working radio amongst several of its problems - I really think its time we  shop for a serious upgrade.

While a few cars have etched themselves on our radar, our latest flavor of the month is now the 2009 Honda Fit.  Living in a town where BMW’s and Land Rover’s outnumber Honda’s and Toyota’s, the choice isn’t exactly obvious but we do have our reasons.  From our research, the Fit provides SUV like storage in a neat, compact and gas efficient package - which is exactly what we need at a time like this.  With gas mileage close to 30 mpg for city and reportedly close to 40 mpg for highway, it’s close to being as good as a hybrid without the hybrid tax.

For the 2009 model, it seems like many improvements have also been introduced - which is awesome.  Among them, 10 cup holders, 5 to 6 of which are accessible to the driver.  I’m not sure if this car was made to drive in the desert but with 5 cup holders for the driver, part of me is hoping the 2012 model will have a built in toilet.

Regardless - I am hoping someone out there with one of these in stock, more specifically a 2009 Blue Honda Fit Sport (Automatic) with Navi will come forward and help my wife get rid of her baby Louie.  If you are open to part of the car payment being an amazing advertising package on EasyAutoSales.com for your dealership - that would be even better!

The southeast gas shortage has brought out some interesting stories as the community faces shortages in the supply.  Among some of the random tid bits…

- The governor of Georgia has offered to shut down various government services to reduce usage, including shutting down schools. (Schools?)

- Arguments breaking out at gas stations with accusations that gas station owners are holding out.

- Taxis changing the way they serve/find customers so they don’t run out of gas sitting idle.

- Lawn/yard maintenance people waiting extended periods to get gas for their mowers and blowers.

- People running out of gas searching for gas with some stranded on the highway and being rescued by the department of transportation.

On the bright side, many people are carpooling and finding alternate ways to commute.  I drove on the Perimeter yesterday during rush hour and surprisingly it felt like Sunday afternoon traffic.

Citizens of Atlanta are flocking to the gas stations as news of the gas shortage spreads.  This CNN video shows footage of Atlantans going from gas station to gas station trying to find gas.

The gas shortage in Atlanta is a result of two factors.

1. The oil refineries were shut down for several days due to Hurricane Ike, and it takes a while to get the flow of gas in the pipeline back to normal.
2. Consumer reaction.  People are panicking and buying gas at a rate much higher than normal.

A search on TweetScan shows people’s real time reaction to the Atlanta gas shortage.

How are you dealing with the shortage? How high is the price of gas in Atlanta going to get before shortage gets resolved?

Let’s see how well Atlanta Gas Buddy tracks this gas crisis.

In search of social media case studies from the automotive industry?  Well, so are we… If you’ve found any please let us know.  In the mean time if you are in San Jose or surrounding areas I highly recommend checking out this conference, “How Big Companies Use Social Media.”  Big hitters such as Home Depot, UPS, and CISCO will giving presentations.  Maybe you can learn something and create your own case study for the automotive industry…

Check out this live glimpse inside Ford’s Allen Park Test Labs for the F-150 Forum today at 1:30pm. Ford F-150 Chief Program Engineer Matt O’Leary and Truck Marketing Manager Doug Scott will discuss all things F-150, and make some news along the way.