Video games have become as culturally pervasive as movies. In 2007, video games generated US$9.5-billion in revenues, while movies took in US$9.6-billion at the box office. Today, players come from both genders, and all age groups and, with the introduction of Nintendo’s Wii, can involve the whole family.

But you’re asking, how is this going to sell me cars? Simply put, driving a car in virtual reality increased how much someone liked that brand of cars. Clearly test drives will excited individuals. However, you can exactly go 120MPH down the back strait of Road Atlanta in an M3 on a regular old test drive. Additionally, it’s hard to borrow a Subaru Impreza WRC to excite someone, especially when they just came to test drive a Outback or a Tribecca. This sort of brand building can only be done through simulators. However, that is apparently enough to get at least 50% of audiences (according to the study) more excited and in turn more likely to buy a car. Additionally, you’re building a relationship with someone that may be more likely to buy again down the road (perhaps even upgrading as their work positions get more important).

Beyond the lab, we see similar promotions from the likes of BMW with the release of their new M3. They had a video game specifically for driving the M3 to get you excited about the brand. Even I have been subjected to this via the Ford F-150 “Raptor” simulator at this years. NADA. I was already a huge fan of the truck, but getting behind the (virtual) wheel of a “Raptor” and running it across a desert in Baja conditions was just the icing on the “I’m Sold” cake.

Source: Financal Post

As such, I’m starting out with a concept drawing of a Buick Lucern:

Buick has been known as a pretty stodgy brand in recent history. However, with recent effots via Tiger Woods spokesmanship (recently stopped due to cost) and designs that are more 21st century AD than 21st century BC. The above is a decent rendition of a modern “pimped out” Buick. It’s no 2010 Buick LaCross, but it’s forwards movement!

Tell me what you think about Buick in the forums: EasyRides – Buick Concept

Ford understood the need for for both compelling cars that dealers want to sell and buyers want to buy. They showed an excellent set of exciting cars that exemplify the changes Ford has been making since Alan Mulally came to power at FMC. Whereas some booths had pie in the sky cars that weren’t even drivable or boring models that make buyers eyes glaze over even more than dealers who have to sell them, ever single Ford vehicle there was a drivable car that dealers are waiting for right now. All of them are bold, edgy and slighly quirky in their own way. Below is a small sample of those 2010 models that got the EasyAutoSales crew very excited:

V8 Power. Mustang Beauty.

The next incarnation of the Ford Mustang. As nice as the new Chevy Camaro is, the interior dimensions are very small. The car seems tight and cramped. The dash was too high and the rear visibility was paultry. The new Mustang though, using those same retro designs as the Camaro, really made me feel much more at home. The car is much more open. The glass roof is amazing! Rear visibility is usable (despite the wing) though the same over-the-shoulder view is almost non-existant as the other muscle cars. The hood sits a little lower so you can use the front window much more than other similar muscle cars. The interior was a nice if not nicer than the leather of GM’s offerings. Overall, this Mustang impressed me with much higher quality materials than the outgoing model (the first revived Mustang) and should be an even bigger seller.

Sport Focus Coupe

This Ford Focus Sports Coupe really made me smile. Though I’m sure it’ll be a front engined car, it shows Ford is going outside their boundries to compete in the US where they are already doing well in Europe. The Focus RS is a super car in Europe that can fight it out with the likes of the Mini Cooper S and even hitting above it’s class at cars like the WRX. GM had a limited hit with the Cobalt, and now that it’s going to be leaving us in favor of the Cruze, the small American sport coupe will be once again open. Though the above is only a concept, I think it shows a great idea. If you keep trying to expant outwards, eventually you’re going to win with something. This Focus coupe isn’t quite there, but it’s close to something cool and exciting.

The New Ford Taurus!

When did the Taurus start looking like a hip car? It seems Ford is finally taking a queue from their European counter parts like Citroen and Peugeot by making a sedan that looks more like a new Audi than an old boat. The agressive headlights, funky boot (trunk) and “gills” on each side make a sedan that salesman would be more than happy to drive. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sit in the car, but compared to the Fusion next to it (which had great body and leg room, though poor head room in the back), it was vast. I think this car is going to surprise a lot of people with the upcoming SHO version. It might not be a replacement for an M5, but it shows that Ford is trying to make a premium product that any class can afford.

2010 Ford F-150 SVT "Raptor"

I have to admit, I’m biased towards this truck. There’s something exciting about this new F-150 that is so powerful, it’s taken someone who loves his BMW M3, someone who road races and autocrosses on the weekends, and turned him into a truck fan. A blubbering truck fan at that. Whereas the old F-150 SVT “Lightning” was meant to be a truck that could compete with the average sports car, the SVT “Raptor” is supposed to embarrass every other truck out there in their native playground, The Dirt. By making a truck from the factory that can stand up to the punishment of the Baja 1000 (with the exception of proper safety equipment) and finish 3rd in class, Ford has said, “We’ve been the best selling car in the US for a very long time with the F-150 and now we’re going to take it up a knotch by creating a truck that is the pinnacle of off-roading.” I was able to pocke and prod around this beast and every part I touched I was impressed with. The suspension is a work of art. The suspension travel is epic. The rear tail-gate step is thoughtful and useful, despite how bersek this truck is.

If I could have found Alan Mulally on the floor I would have given him my card and said, “Keep this name handy. You’ve taken a guy who only buys German sports cars and made him the biggest truck fan this side of the Mississippi. You can put me on that list of buyers for the Raptor.”

Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of exciting groups there. GM, VW, Kia, Toyota and many others all gave great shows that have shown the progress each company has made in their respective shortcomings. But Ford shined above them all. At the show Alan Mulally said that Ford wasn’t going to take any bailout money from the US Government and were foregoing the lines of credit they were offered while GM and Chrysler took money from the tax payers. Their products are a reflection of their progress and quality of business. I hope that the other American car makers look at Ford as an example of what can be done by a major manufacturer in a tough economic time. They are proof of American ingenuity and hard work. Even a company that was, but a few years ago, known by the moniker “Fix Or Repair Daily” can be known as “Fun Or Rugged Dailydrivers.”

Side Note: Ford did not offer me or EasyAutoSales anything nor did they solicit the above article. They currently do not pay EasyAutoSales nor have they given us any sort of gift or incentive to write the above. Not that we’re saying we’re not open to such things I’m just speaking as a passionate car lover.

2010 Ford F-150 SVT "Raptor" Simulator

Here’s another set of pictures from Sunday at the show, in addition to some travel pictures. I’ll be commenting on them later today, but in the mean time, here’s some tasty bits to keep you enticed:

EasyAutoSales @ NADA 2009, New Orleans (Sunday)

Above is a picture of the greatest simulator I’ve ever played. As good as stuff like Ferrari 360 Challenge and some of the newer games with hydraulic actuators are, nothing can compare to this simulator. When I flipped the truck it spun me around and twisted me at like 45 degree angles. These never quite give the feel of how much grip your car has on a road, but in every other sense, it was amazing. The sound of the V8 was spectacular. The pedal feel was nice. Seat and stearing wheel were accurate. HUGE props to Ford on this one. This place was almost busier than Aspen Marketing with the Playboy Bunnies!

Alan Mulally, Ford Motors CEO

There’s not a lot to look at here, but some really cool stuff (Camaro), really random stuff (Wei and I met two Playboy Playmates) and really awesome stuff (Alan Mulally’s keynote speach). I accidentally uploaded it to my personal account, but still sweet pictures! Check them out if you’re an NADA person:

EasyAutoSales @ NADA 2009, New Orleans

Another key to Ford’s performance is their European car lines and development of small cars:

Both Ford and GM are unlike Chrysler in that they have robust foreign operations. For Ford, Europe and South America earned $2.5 billion pre-tax in the first nine months this year. Those markets are slowing, yes, but they are strong businesses. Europe is providing the small-car knowledge and engineering that Ford needs in the U.S.

With the possibility of the government giving out money, can you blame them for at least asking for access to lines of credit? They are taking responsibility for anything that might put them in a position where they need more time to trim down operations and paying back anything they get from the government as you or I would with a line of credit as opposed to loans that give government partial control of operations and subject to congresses absurd whims. Ford One FTW.

Source: Forbes

Recently a few other auto blogs have done some testing on the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. As the peak of Ford efficiency technology, the car got almost a combined cycle of 45MPG. A recent CNN Money story has shown that GM has spend almost $750 million developing the new Volt. I have no idea where Chrysler is as there’s almost nothing exciting coming out of there the last few months. Besides that, how, you say, could I be against companies spending so much money and bringing such efficient cars to the road at a time when energy efficiency and research is so important? Because it’s all a sham.

Let’s look at the Chevy Volt. $750 million dollars and what does GM have to show for it? A test mule. In terms of car development, that’s a huge amount of money. GM has stated most of that money went towards battery technology. So, that mean GM is going to be a battery maker? If their supplier Cobasys (currently in financial trouble) fails, they will.  So, why hasn’t GM decided to work with companies like GE, EnerDel (Tesla, Mercedes) or even Toyota for that matter in acquiring proven battery technology created by people who have been at this a lot longer than them. Why are they trying to re-invent the wheel? I understand that the vertical nature of the car business works in many cases. However, can you possibly say that you can make a better battery for hybrids than someone who has been doing so for 10 years already? Additionally, why would GM buy a failing company?

Let’s check out this Ford Fusion Hybrid now. 45MPG combined cycle for city and highway driving. To the average American, that sounds pretty good. However, what about the average European? The Ford Mondeo (Fusion equivalent) with a 2.0L diesel engines gets almost 57MPG. The 2.2L petrol engines gets around the same 45MPG as the Hybrid Fusion but without all the time and effort and money spent in developing a new, COMPLEX hybrid drivetrain. Look to some other brands that are selling full sized sedans like BMWs 320d and you’ll see a ~$30,000USD car that gets 59.1MPG and still does 0-60 7.9 seconds. The point is, why is Ford spending all this money when they already have a product that surpasses all US safety and economy standards for sale in Europe and the rest of the world?

Chrysler still has nothing new in any sort of hybrid that stands out or they have tried to make a huge deal about. Maybe this is a good thing. Though I can’t see the point of cars like the Aspen Hybrid that still only gets 19 / 22 MPG in the city and highway, respectively. UPDATE: Ah, here’s what happens when you’re that boring… Detroit Free Press

The point of all this is to show that even in a time of changing requirements (fuel efficiency) and dramatic economic upheaval that would end in bankruptcy if nothing is done, Detroit has done nothing truely dramatic to change their destiny. Whereas Tesla and Fisker are coming out with amazing plug-in electric cars liks the Roadster and Karma, whats sporty or fun about the Chevrolet Volt (most unoriginal electric car name ever, besides the Chevy Ohm, Ford Ampere and Chrysler Impedance). Have they shifted their brand (or attempted to) like BMW has with the EfficientDynamics or Mercedes with their “Blue” (BlueTec, BlueZero) brand? They all could just as easily gone the complete opposite way and say, we’re just going to be super cool fuel efficient cars like the Toyota iQ that doesn’t need hybrid technology and slow down production of our trucks to create more of a “halo” arond the large vehicles with a more limited brand.

There are a thousand reasons why Detroit needs new leadership but only one of them matters. They are all about to go bankrupt without huge amounts of car purchasing today or large scale loans (from either banks or the US Government). Considering even banks realize how bad an idea loaning them money is, shouldn’t that mean that tax payers money is an even worse idea? Let’s clean house in the Motor City and turn these car giants into lean, mean machines that can compete with their Japanese (and French in the case of Nissan/Renault), German and Korean counter parts. Either let them fail for their lack of foresight. Bankruptcy isn’t the worse thing in the world. Neither is failure. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted and this is exactly what America will be getting. Experience. “Saving” these companies now will only hurt the American car makers in the future. If you though the credit crunch was bad Detriot, wait until you feel the wrath of the American consumer. You will have stole their hard earned money via taxes so you could continue to waste cash and live off the fat of the land like some sort of corporate welfare recipient. Do like millions of Americans and earn your money by being the best. That’s how we got to be the most wealthy and prosperous nation in the world and it works. There is no “easy” way out and in the end, taking the bailout money will hurt you. It may not seem like it when you get that first check from Uncle Sam, but in 3, 5 maybe 10 years from now when your market share has eroded to almost nothing, you can look back and know exactly when it all went wrong.

UPDATE: Well, the entire process has stopped again with the death of a bill in the Senate this evening. It seems GM, Ford and Chrysler have been given another chance to fail. I applaud the Senate for not approving a plan of action that they were not 100% sure would work. Throwing money you don’t have at a problem that might not be fixed by it is a waste and the American people should applaud this.

The UAW is likely to seek a seat on General Motors Corp.’s board and expects the automaker to offer another round of hourly buyout and retirement incentives next year in the event the union grants concessions to help the automaker win federal loans.

Maybe someone forgot to tell the UAW what a seat on a Board of Directors does. A member of a board is appointed and these appointed persons jointly oversee the activities of a company, most notably accounting to the stakeholders for the organization’s performance. It is the job of the board to make sure the officers and various managers are running the company in such a manner as to maximize efficiency. That doesn’t mean offering huge sums of money to labor unions when it’s been shown time and time again that unions do nothing to improve the quality of work, size of the paycheck or conditions of the workers. They are a relic of a time when workers were easily exploited. A Detroit Free Press article in 2007 even explains in real number how well non-unionized workers do:

Toyota Motor Corp. gave workers at its largest U.S. plant bonuses of $6,000 to $8,000, boosting the average pay at the Georgetown, KY, plant to the equivalent of $30 an hour. That compares with a $27 hourly average for UAW workers, most of whom did not receive profit-sharing checks last year.

Make a great product and you’ll be rewarded. Sounds like a great system as opposed to the UAWs entitlement system. Are we supposed to believe that the UAW is going to give into some small hourly buyouts and retirement incentives for a seat on a Board that will not be able to do anything because he’ll be working against every other member? I’m 100% for paying workers whatever they are worth, but adding the union middleman will only cause liabilities to stay high and wages to continue to plummet, if not implode with the rest of the “big 3.”

Source: Detroit Free Press

Lock up your GMs! Seem as if criminals have it out for you this year. Between Cadillacs and Hummers, GM hold 4 of the top 8 spots on this list. In fact, if you have any large American car, you might want to think about building a small shed to house it.

Car: Claims Per 1,000/Average Loss Payment Per Claim

10. Honda S2000 Convertible: 8.1/$13,624
9. 2005-2007 Dodge Durango: 8.1/$9,682
8. 2005-2007 Hummer H2: 8.7/$18,791
7. 2005-2007 Dodge Magnum: 9.9/$8,926
6. 2005-2007 Hummer H2 SUT: 10.0/$23,771
5. 2005-2007 Ford F-350 SuperCrew: 10.7/$20,138
4. 2006-2007 Dodge Charger: 11/$7,047
3. 2007 Cadillac Escalade: 11.3/$14,657
2. 2005-2007 Ford F-250 SuperCrew: 13.1/$19,250
1. 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV: 15.0/$13,060

For the same reason American car makers love to sell large SUVs and truck, thieves are seeking these behemoths out. They are large, cheap ways to get a nice car that will allow you to put expensive stereos, large rims and other accessories on that are easy to steal and resell without too much worry. Dropping 24s on your Hummer may say, “You’re ballin’” to your friends, but it says, “Come steal me” to every car criminal out there.

On the other hand, should be you be looking for the most inconspicuous (boring) cars on the road to protect your insurance premiums and pimped car stereos, you might want to check out the list below. To be honest, not all of them are boring or lame. Some of them just have excellent security systems and car-jackers know that it’s not worth the time to steal the car or there will be no way to re-sell the expensive parts off the car. As you can see, most of the cars are people carriers though with a preponderance of SUVs. The interesting thing is that whereas some of the cars are rather popular (Ford Focus, VW Beetle, Toyota Prius) some of the cars are the most obscure models available (Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay).

10. 2005-2007 Ford Freestyle
9. 2005-2007 Saturn Relay
8. 2005-2007 Toyota Prius
7. 2005-2007 Volvo V70
6. 2005-2007 Ford Focus
5. 2005-2007 Volkswagen (New) Beetle
4. 2005-2007 Buick Terraza
3. 2005-2007 Subaru Forrester
2. 2005-2007 Buick Rainier
1. 2005-2007 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Source: Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute