Honda has taken the top spot away from Toyota in the latest "Customer Retention Study" from J.D. Power and Associates. The global marketing information firm surveyed 147,238 buyers/lessees to determine how likely they were to replace their previously new vehicle with another from the same brand. Honda, for the first time, led the pack with a retention ranking of 64.7%, followed by Toyota (63.2%) and Lexus (60.4%). Mercedes-Benz (58.6%) barely edged BMW (58.5%) for the fourth position. The Germans are being chased by Ford (52.5%) and Chevrolet (52.0%). At the bottom of the list was Jaguar, struggling to retain just 26.2% of its customers (if you are a Jaguar salesman, there is apparently no need to send holiday cards this year).
While JDPA sites Honda's reputation for building safe vehicles with high resale values as instrumental in landing the headline position, they also note that fuel economy, ownership/maintenance costs, and deals/incentives play an increasingly larger role in the process. The firm projects 2009 new vehicle sales will plummet to below 12 million units in 2009, making customer retention more important now than ever before.
Ducati's Monster range has always been fertile ground for owner customization. First introduced in 1993, the Monster kicked off the current naked bike craze, and modifications have managed to remain part of its basic appeal. To promote future Monsterization of its latest unclothed model, the Italian firm has just launched a dealer customization contest to coincide with the arrival of the 1100 S in dealership showrooms. To kick-start the process, Ducati has sent 58 of its dealerships an early set of body panels for paint and the full accessories catalog will be made available.
Monster fans will get their first chance to view the bikes in real life on January 9th, though online voting is slated to begin on January 1, 2009 and will run through the 13th. It'll be interesting to see how successful dealerships are in walking the fine line between making a cool custom and detracting from the air-cooled machine's inherent sense of minimalist design.
Back in September of 2007, Steven Tyler, best known as the lead singer for Aerosmith, launched a custom motorcycle company along with his cousin, Stephen Talarico, and cycle designer Mark Dirico. The trio called the company Red Wing Motorcycles. That high-flying moniker may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out that the name was already taken. In fact, it's been taken a few times. This being the case, Tyler used the New England International Auto Show, which is running this weekend, to announce that the company has been renamed Dirico Custom Motorcycles.
Yeah, so it may not be as catchy as Red Wing, but at least it's available. As far as the bikes go, these "factory custom" machines seem like quality pieces and use mostly stock V-Twin powerplants from The Motor Company. While this means they should be pretty reliable, there's not much here to separate Red Wing Dirico Custom Motorcycles from those of the the hundreds of other "custom" manufacturers. So, what's the hook? Each bike comes pre-signed by none other than... Steven Tyler, of course.
The annual auctions in Arizona are a little more than a month away, and RM has put together an impressive lineup of vehicles that will be crossing the block. The highlight will probably be an original 1963 Corvette Grand Sport, but two 1950's show cars should grab some attention as well. The first is a Dodge Firearrow III Sport Concept that made its debut at the 1954 Detroit Auto Show (you might also remember the Firearrow II and IV convertibles that sold at Barrett-Jackson in 2007). The concept was Chrysler's answer to the soon-to-be Ford Thunderbird and Chevrolet Corvette and was fully functional down to the roll up windows. So functional, in fact, that it broke a closed-course record of 143.44 mph at Chrysler's proving grounds that that year. The car was restored to show condition in the early 90's, and after being exhibited at numerous museums around the country, it is being offered for sale for the first time in more than 20 years with bids expected to exceed the one million dollar mark.
The second vehicle, known as the Saturn 'Bob Hope Special', is a one-off custom built in 1950 at a reported cost of $12,000. The car is built on a modified Mercury chassis and features handmade bodywork and a dashboard reminiscent of an airplane cockpit with 32 individual controls. Legendary entertainer Bob Hope fell in love with the car, and even planned to include it in one of his movies. While the movie didn't pan out, Hope continued to drive the car around Hollywood giving the car its name.
Water's wet, fire burns, and the Chevy Aveo5 sucks. Drivers in the Middle East who voluntarily subject themselves to this tragedy now have a way to ensure that onlookers stop, point and laugh at their expense, thanks to GM's new factory humiliation customization program. Basically, the sky's the limit in terms of poor taste, as exhibited by this example, tricked out by a dealer in Abu Dhabi. Hey, are those quilted pleather seats? Why yes, we believe they are. Think you can do worse? Visit totallystreet.com to plumb the depths for yourselves. Just be ready for your gag reflex to kick in. An entirely over-enthusiastic press release follows the jump. Seriously: "Earn Street Cred?" Put that hookah down, now!
So far, the Force India team has had a consistent season in Formula One. Unfortunately, that means consistently running at the back. But Indian business mogul Vijay Mallya is committed to making a go of it, and the latest deal in the works could give his team the machinery they need to start moving up the field. The deal is reportedly all but complete between perennial back-marker Force India and front-runners McLaren for the former to buy their cars – lock, stock and barrel – from the latter. It's a highly tentative deal, however, as Formula One rules are due to be enacted that would ban customer cars. F1 teams are supposed to act as their own constructors, however other teams – such as Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Honda and the defunct Super Aguri – have been using common designs. David Richards' Prodrive outfit was slated to re-enter the series with customer cars from McLaren, but withdrew their tender at the last minute due to the anticipated ban on customer cars. Force India, which currently builds its own chassis and buys engines from Ferrari, evidently thinks the rules won't be enforced. If it is allowed to proceed, the Force India team would turn into an effective B-squad for McLaren.
Mustang wagons have long been part of ponycar folklore. Some customs exist, but a factory-built first-generation Mustang shooting brake still appears to be mythology. Our friends at Hemmings have turned up some very nicely done cars that individuals have put together, a particularly fetching blue one has a very well thought out roofline and rear hatch. This whole bit of nonsense may have its genesis in a one-off wagon that Intermeccanica built for Barney Clarke and Robert Cumberford back in the '60s. It seems that you can do a lot with an early 'Stang and a Sawz-all if you're determined, and wagons are just the start of it.
Late Sunday night, Mazda issued a press release from the mothership in Japan touting the arrival of the new home-market AZ-Wagon kei car. Those of you who paid attention to Autoblog last week may be experiencing twinges of deja vu as you look at the enclosed photos. Yes, you have seen this car before: the new Mazda AZ-Wagon is simply a rebadged version of the new Suzuki Wagon R, just like it was before. The regular AZ-Wagon is the standard Wagon R, while the AZ-Wagon Custom Style (above) is the Wagon R Stingray. We'd happily sign up for one, but alas, Mazda's Stateside rebadge-o-rama is limited to the Tribute and B-Series.
What you see here is living, fire-breathing proof that there is life after automotive journalism. Jeremie Paret recently left his position as Editor in Chief of Modify magazine to start his own supercar tuning outfit. This customized Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 is his first creation. It takes a special kind of tuner to have the chutzpah to tinker with an Italian thoroughbred like the LP560-4, and there are only a handful of aftermarket outfits that are up to the task. Paret sets himself apart by offering a completely customized experience, with each vehicle designed by his team according to the specifications of the customer. This Gallardo has been fitted with Asanti Diamond wheels hiding pink brake calipers, plus a host of carbon fiber bits from the side skirts and door handles to the Reventon-style front end and enlarged rear diffuser. The interior has been decked out in custom leather and Alcantara trim and an Alpine/Focal info-tainment system. Paret's crew will arrange for any customer's vehicle to be transported to France where they'll set up the car, or can ship the parts to the customer for local installation. Either way, Paret offers the client a complete range of options and a private blog to follow the process.
This is the kind of computerized world we can get behind -- not the kind that drives for you whether you like it or not, but the one that allows you to do your human thing even better. Futuremark has created a concept instrument and dash cluster for Audi that is rendered entirely in 3D graphics. In the Nissan GT-R, you can change the center console screen to show or highlight the gauges you want. With Futuremark's dashboard, you can create any kind of dashboard layout, color scheme, gauge look... you name it... that you want. Using its Open GL ES engine (that's Open Graphics Library for Embedded Systems) for the API (that's Application Program Interface), Futuremark wants to show what's coming -- or at least, what's possible -- for in-car information and entertainment systems. We're not really worried about the acronyms; as far as we're concerned, we're talking about the tweakability of video games brought to life in hot cars. Amen to that. The system will be on display at the NVISION in San Jose.
