AB Podcast #17 – “Mr. Toyoda Goes to Washington” Episode
March 2, 2010 by Colin Bird
In this week’s episode we have a very special guest, Erich Merkel, founder of Autoconomy.com. Erich joins us for our editorial talking points in the second half of the show.
Joel’s’ Garage:
For some reason Chrysler gave Joel a 2010 Ram 2500 heavy-duty diesel with a long-box bed. Joel talks about how hard the behemoth is to park, but how easily it can crush an Aveo.
This Week in Car News:
- Cadillac ditches “Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit” and starts a new campaign called “Luxury World” [link]
- Hyundai recalls the 2011 Sonata because of a door glitch [link]
Clip of the Week:
With more than 77 million dogs in 45 million households, Subaru has decided to focus solely on the dog in its new ad campaign. The campaign was created by Carmichael Lynch and the series is called “Dog tested. Dog approved.”
Tweet Meme:
This is a new segment where Joel goes over the latest action on Twitter. This week we go over Hummer and how the twitter reaction was generally negative, until it was pointed out that some people in our twitter community would be losing their jobs over the death of Hummer.
Talking Points:
For our editorial talking points, seasoned automotive expert, Erich Merkel, joins us from Autoconomy.com. In this segment we talk about:
- Akio Toyoda’s trip to Washington
- Toyota’s expected market share for 2010
- Toyota’s lack of exciting product
- Jim Press
- The Hummer situation
- New York Auto Show: some of the product we expect to see
- The domestic car industry’s reentry into the subcompact category
- Likelihood that Chrysler will still be selling cars by 2015
Listen, Comment and Enjoy!
For additional information visit AutoBird Blog, Accelerate Minneapolis and Autoconomy.com
Images by: Andrew Walensa
