|
|
|
Available Now: Tirekicking Used Car Buyer's Guide (e-book or printed book) by James M. Flammang
After nearly two decades online, Tirekicking Today is preparing to change course ... please stay tuned in Summer 2016 for details on total revamping of the site, with a new focus.
News Headlines
in the auto world
• Detroit's auto show opens to media on January 10; public show begins at end of week, following Charity Preview (1/11)
• As expected, new auto sales hit record in 2015 (1/11)
• LMC Automotive predicts record-setting total auto sales in 2015 (12/17)
• Allegations against Volkswagen of installing fraudulent emissions software expand to include European models ... anticipated fines and costs will reach billions of dollars (11/6)
• Nevada professor travels 1,500 miles in autonomous (self-driving) car: Nogales, Arizona to Mexico City (10/21)
• FCA (Fiat Chrysler) admits under-reporting deaths and injuries stemming from recalled vehicles (9/30)
Highlights: Detroit's North American International Auto Show (January 2015)
Chrysler to revive Pacifica badge, replacing Town & Country minivan ... Honda debuts less-radical Ridgeline pickup ... Porsche shows next 911 Turbo S ... Ford launches Ford Pass mobility-service brand ... Infiniti debuts Q60 sport coupe ... Kia introduces 2017 Forte, to be made in Mexico ... Lexus launches LC 500 luxury coupe ... Ford shows 2017 SuperCrew F-150 Raptor, on foot-longer wheelbase ... Volvo brings new S90 luxury sedan ... Mercedes-Benz shows next E-Class ... Chevrolet to add hatchback to Cruze lineup ... Honda Civic and Volvo XC90 named North American Car and Truck of the Year ... GMC reveals markedly lighter, smaller 2017 Acadia ... Lincoln unveils production version of revived Continental ... Buick Avista concept takes Eyes on Design Excellence Award ... Acura shows sleek, bold Precision concept
Volkswagen introduces modern Microbus at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, ahead of Detroit's auto show
Volkwagen launches its first electric car: the 2015 e-Golf.
USED CARS
Information for buyers and sellers
• Highlights: 2013 National Remarketing Conference
• Highlights: 2013 National Remarketing Conference - final report
• Highlights: 2013 CPO Forum (Day One)
• Highlights: 2013 CPO Forum (Day Two)
• Highlights: 2013 Subprime Forum (Day One)
• Highlights: 2013 Subprime Forum (Day Two)
• Highlights: 2013 Re3 Conference
• Used Car Week scores record attendance
• Depreciation rules the used-car marketplace
• Auto-dealer ads need attention
• Acquisition strategy is key to dealer success
• Does digital "chatting" really sell more cars?
• Kontos: Wholesale prices rise, then fall, in August-September
• ”Gen Y” really doesn’t care as much about cars
• Experian reports on Q2 financing: 30-day delinquencies drop significantly
• Every used car has a story to tell
• Carfax aims for consumer confidence in buying process
• Experian reports on 2013 auto financing
• Kontos reports further used-car price softening in July
• Used cars travel by rail
• CarMark offers residual-based iinancing
• Adversarial dealer/customer relationship ... it's so 20th century
• Clunkers & Creampuffs: used car history (part I)
Green Scene
• Highlights: Green Fleet Conference
• Test Drives: 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid and Energi ...2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid ... 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid ... 2013 Lexus LS 600h L ... 2013 Infiniti M35h Hybrid ... 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid ... 2013 Lexus ES 300h Hybrid ... 2012-13 Volkswagen Passat TDI ... 2011 Lexus CT 200h ... 2011 Kia Optima Hybrid ... 2011 Chevrolet Volt
• Quick Electric Drives: Chevrolet Volt, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Mini E
• Preview Drive: 2011 Nissan Leaf electric
• Green Car Tour (diesel)
• Preview Drive: 2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid coupe
• Preview Drive: 2011 smart fortwo electric drive (EV)
• Fuel-efficiency takes many forms
Tirekicking Today editor Jim Flammang, a veteran independent auto journalist, has contributed countless product reviews and feature articles to such publications as autoMedia.com, New Car Test Drive, CarsDirect, and Kelley Blue Book. He has written extensively for a variety of major outlets, including J.D. Power, cars.com, and the Chicago Tribune. Flammang is a member of the Freelancers Union, as well as the International Motor Press Association and Midwest Automotive Media Association (past president). The author of more than two dozen books, mostly on auto history, also has contributed extensively to Consumer Guide publications and to such trade publications as Ward's Dealer Business. TK Press, established in 2014 as a division of Tirekicking Today, has already published two books by Flammang: Mr. Maurice Knows It All ... and tells you so and the Tirekicking Used Car Buyer's Guide.
|
Toil & Trouble
Tirekicking Today has been developing a new section on work, labor, and consumer concerns. Toil & Trouble builds upon the uncommon views in Work Hurts, one of our Books in Progress. In addition to notable news items related to work and labor, this section will feature critical essays and editorials.
Labor Headlines:
• Labor Notes conference coming in April, just outside Chicago
• Supreme Court thought likely to rule against public workers' union in California ... would be major loss for labor movement (The New York Times)
• "Fight for $15" group calls for national Strike day on Tuesday, November 10 ... multi-city protest to focus on fast-food workers)
• Many auto workers leaning toward rejection of pact with FCA (Fiat Chrysler), which would includes two-tier wage structure
• "Fight for $15" officially endorsed ... will raise minimum wage of all fast-food workers in New York state
• New York endorses $15 minimum wage, to be phased in
• "Fight for $15" campaign for minimum-wage hike targets New York in June
Highlights: 2014 Labor Notes Conference (April 2014)
"Occupy" movement
hasn't disappeared
• Own Nothing, Owe Nothing: yes, it can be done
• 10 Ways to Keep Occupy Movement Alive
• Surprise! Some of us like to pay taxes
• Reject! For some applicants, job search is futile exercise
• Overview: All too often, Toil Is Trouble
• Where do workers stand now, financially?
• Needed Now: Jobs, Not Careers
• New Ways To Look at Work
• Solidarity Forever? Are unions still needed?
• Quit calling us consumers!
• Let's break the chain of consumer debt
• Prioritize! Living with Less and Liking It
• Previous Labor Stories
“You know what the weirdest part about having a job is? You have to be there every day, even on the days you don’t feel like it.”
Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson, in episode 4 of the HBO series Girls, created and written by Lena Dunham
"No man is good enough to be another man's master."
George Bernard Shaw,
in Major Barbara
"He that has to obey the will of another is a slave."
Samuel Fielding (1886)
True Travel
During 2016, Tirekicking Today plans to add more Travel stories. Geared toward travelers on a budget, who prefer a suitcase to a backpack, our articles look at such issues as picking sensible hotels and the easiest ways to book trips. We'll emphasize blending into the community rather than spending time among folks from back home.
• Special Report: Riding around Paris in a charming Citroen 2CV
• El Cortez Hotel Gives Taste of Old Las Vegas
• Low-Budget Lodging in Mexico
• Today's TSA: Smile and Punishment at the security lane
• Historic Hotels Don't Have to Break Your Budget
• What's Wrong With High-end Hotels?
• Even expert travelers can make mistakes
• Online Booking Saves Time, Money, Stress
• Is Mexican Travel Finished?
• Looking Back: Train Travel in Mexico
• Cheap Hotels: Horror or Delight?
City Views:
• Special Report: Daily life in Clichy, France
• Carnival in Veracruz, Mexico ... plus unique Carnival fiesta of indigenous Mayans
• Mexico City hasn't lost its charms
• San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
• San Cristobal update
|
|
|
|
UPDATED: September 8, 2016
Tirekicking Today is undergoing a major revamping, with a new focus that expands beyond cars ... please check again during Fall of 2016
Third book from TK Press coming in September
... and it's Incompetent
TK Press, the book-publishing division of Tirekicking Today established in 2014, now has two titles on sale:
• Mr. Maurice Knows it All ... and tells you so. Available in print or as an e-book at various retailers, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
In 78 concise chapters, the stuffed pig known as Mr. Maurice–who just happens to know everything–unleashes a torrent of acerbic, humorous, delightfully wise words on subjects ranging from work to movies, from money to citizenship, from status to guilt.
Note: Mr. Maurice ... has been re-launched in Summer 2016, by a different distributor and printer.
• Tirekicking Used Car Buyer's Guide covers everything from picking the best vehicle type, to the best ways to research a potential purchase, to taking an informative test drive, to details on financing, insurance, negotiation, and much more. Average valuations, test-drive reports, and specifications of selected 2007-13 models also are included. Available at Amazon as an e-book, or a 308-page printed volume.
The third book from TK Press, Incompetent: Coming up short in a world of achievement, will be published in September 2016.
Absurdities, our fourth title, will follow soon afterward.
Although Tirekicking Today has emphasized new cars since its inception in 1993, editor Jim Flammang has been covering the used car market as a journalist since 1985. Last year, we launched a Used Car section, providing valuable information to both consumers and those in the used-car business.
Because access to new vehicles for test drives has diminished lately, we have been publishing fewer reviews. However, Tirekicking Today continues to move into new directions. In addition to expanding our sections on work/labor and consumer issues, we’re developing Essays and Commentaries. Subjects will reach well beyond automobiles, including politics, law, immigration, consumer concerns–and especially, the Absurdities that surround us. That's the title of another of our upcoming books.
Books in Progress (outlines and excerpts)
Editor Jim Flammang, the author of more than two dozen books (including six for children), is at work on several more. Each title views its subject from an oblique and lighthearted–yet serious–perspective. Outlines and excerpts may be seen by clicking on each title.
• Incompetent: Coming up short in a world of achievement. Whether it's sports, business, personal relationships, the arts, or any other area of life, some of us score a flat zero in the skills and talents department. Scheduled for publication by TK Press in September 2016.
• Absurdities: Logical Lapses in everyday life and thought is a comprehensive collection of stinging essays that gaze with disbelief at various aspects of modern life. The 86 chapters are arranged in sections, including Work, Money, Identity, Communication/Technology, Consumption, Politics and Law, Pastimes, Sex, and Transportation. Scheduled for publication in Fall 2016.
• Work Hurts: Reflections on a wasted life questions the conventional wisdom on work and careers. For untold millions, including many with "good" jobs, each day's toil delivers no joy and little reward. The 34-chapter manuscript (with four sidebars) is scheduled for completion early in 2017.
• Hotel Life, subtitled "Living small in an age of large," assesses the satisfactions of simpler living and minimal consumption, while chronicling the joys (and drawbacks) of residing in low-end accommodations.
• Fraidy-Cat: Surviving a lifetime of unwarranted fear and fright. A personal look backward, focusing on lessons learned about debilitating fear and anxiety, including ways to cope and survive.
• Untied Knots - Fiction by Flammang: two groups of short stories, each with a tangy twist. One group is travel-based; the other focuses on stay-at-home folks. Scheduled for publication in Fall of 2016.
Also under consideration for future publication:
• Hybrid/Electric/Diesel Buying Guide (updating and expanding upon our prior online guide).
• Car-Buyers Guide for those who don't really care much about cars.
• Steering Toward Oblivion is a caustically critical but humorous observation of the car culture and auto business. Note: Outline will be updated to reflect current conditions.
For further information, please contact us at JF@tirekick.com.
O Canada, How Could You?
Humiliation and disrespect at the Immigration counter
by James M. Flammang
Looking for a trip that turns abruptly into a nightmare–right at the airport, upon arrival? Then, look no further than Canada, our alleged “neighbor” to the north.
Note: An update of this story will be posted in July 2016.
Perhaps you, too, can be subjected to a barrage of vile, hostile, intimidating queries that pry brutally and abusively into your private affairs and personal history. Rather than receive a welcoming gesture, I was humiliated, insulted, demeaned, and degraded, in disgraceful ways that I’d never even imagined in my many years as an international traveler. All in the name of “protecting” the Canadian economy from the possibility, however remote, that an arriving visitor might be thinking of toil rather than tourism.
Click here for the complete essay on arriving in Canada
For additional essays by James M. Flammang, click here.
Please click here for our Special Report on daily life in Clichy, France, during our two-month stay early in 2012
Looking Backward:
Auto History: When Rationing Came
Online since 1995, Tirekicking Today has presented a fresh and distinctive approach to the automotive world, including: Preview Drives of selected coming-soon models; Test Drives of current vehicles; feature stories of interest to car buyers and owners; plus commentary with a distinct and tangy twist. Lately, however, much of the auto business somehow remains in subtle crisis mode–despite record-setting sales. Media outlets such as Tirekicking Today have been affected adversely. Automakers host fewer new-model media programs. Invitation lists to those that occur have shrunk sharply, and continue to decline. Availability of test vehicles has diminished. Growing numbers of bloggers and pseudo-journalists vie for attention alongside those, like ourselves, who have covered the auto business for many years.
As a result, Tirekicking Today isn't just about cars anymore. Rather than vehicle reviews, we expect to publish more editorials and feature stories. Turning aside from cars, Tirekicking Today also expects to expand coverage of consumer concerns, social and political trends, and work/labor issues(See Toil & Trouble in box at right).
| | 
• Drivers willing to dismiss privacy
• Young British drivers have attitude problems ... "radical" insurer claims to have the answer
• Who do car-shoppers trust for information?
• Idiots Rule: Social media shouldn't dictate product plans
• Are auto ads changing tune?
• Where are the "Detroit 3" headed now?
• Red Light Cameras can snare safe drivers
• Archive for All Editorials
• New automotive (and non-automotive) Editorials and Essays are being developed and will be posted soon.
|
|
Highlights: 2013 (November) Used Car Week
• Highlights: 2013 National Remarketing Conference
• Highlights: 2013 CPO Forum (Day One,
• Highlights: 2013 CPO Forum (Day Two)
• Highlights: 2013 Subprime Forum (Day One)
• Highlights: 2013 Subprime Forum (Day Two)
• Highlights: 2013 Re3 Conference
• Used Car Week scores record attendance
Highlights: November 2010 used car conferences
• 2010 CPO (certified pre-owned) Forum
• 2010 National Remarketing Conference
Highlights: 2009 National Remarketing Conference
Market Trends ... CPO ... Valuations ... Used Car Trends ... POADA
• Survey: Nearly half of commuters text behind the wheel
• Numbers Count in Used Car Search
• KBB Explains Consumer Surveys
Please watch for helpful new Consumer Advice.
|
|
Isn't it finally time to think seriously about reducing oil use - and to take action? As gasoline prices remain below $3 per gallon, interest in fuel-efficient vehicles appears to be waning.
Coming Soon:
• Feature story: Cars and traffic in Paris
The Dunning-Kruger effect:
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
Charles Darwin
Automotive Literature
for Sale:
Large stock of books, magazines, photos, press kits, memorabilia, and more. Mostly from 1985-2010, but some items date back as far as the 1920s. Includes collection of Automotive News magazines dating back to 1989, available for pickup from Illinois office. Please let us know what you need, via e-mail to: JF@tirekick.com.
| | | | |
