All, please change your bookmarks to: banovsky.com! But don’t worry; all of the posts formerly found here, (and the comments) have been moved over, and this site will be no longer maintained. So take a look. Cheers, Michael
AS I TOLD “MAXIMUM”ROBERT A. “BOB” LUTZ BETWEEN SIPS OF A BLACK COFFEE AFTER THE OTHERS LEFT, I grew up in a non-domestic family. Save for the two Ford Aerowindystar minivans my mom needed to haul us kids around in. I watched Formula One intently from the age of naught — Alain Prost, then Michael Schumacher were my favourites — while laughing at the American, Michael Andretti.
I could list for you, at age five, all manner of European sports cars. At 10, I was on to things like the Isdera, Alpine, Ruf Porsches, and a few odd Japanese cars — like that “V6 supercar,” the Honda/Acura NSX. I attended the Detroit Auto Show every single year with my father, and while I can guarantee I was blown away by the Ford Indigo, GT90, and Dodge Copperhead, I would make a complete circuit of the show and purposely cut through the domestic wares to get to the next–closest Euro or Japanese show stand. Read the rest of this entry »
This was scrawled into my dayplanner a month or so ago, and had forgotten about it until now. Enjoy.
I’m in business class, behind one of the top auto writers in the country. He’s got a brochure and booklet for the 2009 Mazda 6 on his tray table, beside his laptop, typing his story.
It’s an appalling article, even calling the engine — in a car he hasn’t driven — as “one of the smoothest and quietest in the segment.” Come on.
Oh, and do you think, “active adaptive shift control” are his words, or the marketers?
Comparing vehicles is always a lot of fun, and these three were just similar enough to make it interesting. This was for a comparo that will appear in World of Wheels Magazine next month.
Lights and lanes, ticking by. Thoughts and dreams walking by. Body at ease, mind at the ready. Driving…
So much of life in the West is devoted to the pursuit of wealth and status, with personal happiness seemingly related to both but really a different idea altogether. I say idea because although 10,000 can pack a comedy theatre and enjoy a few laughs, true happiness is personal and exclusive to that person.
For me, it’s driving without a destination. Despite the backlash I get for saying that I both enjoy driving and that I do it for fun, one person driving one modern car affects the environment far less than you’d think. What I’m on about here is keeping clean your mental health.
What does it for me is the motion. The fact I have control over an object that can move me far faster through the world than I am capable is an absolute rush. It never gets old. Thinking ahead becomes a necessity, and adding traffic to the road mean that I have to start flowing in relation to those around me.
When movement permeates my thoughts, my heart slows. My fingers and toes rest. It’s like standing in the shower with warm water running over my face. At. Ease.
I’m saying to you to find what puts you at ease. What takes you away from life. What allows you to disconnect without losing yourself in the process. Whether it’s exercise, reading, art…do what makes you happy and keep doing what makes you happy on a regular basis. Find yourself through happiness, true happiness.
A Jeep engineer having some fun in a wash during an off-road excursion. Location? Moab, Utah. This photo was used for a World of Wheels magazine cover in August, 2007.
*Update, July 31: Uploaded the original to Flickr, so felt I should update this post, too.
The main screen of the Twitter microblogging service.
…keeps what away? For me, Twitter is an essential tool for talking to people with like interests and careers. It’s a microblogging platform designed for speed of use, ease of use, and fun. Sometimes it goes down (IE FAILWHALE) but for the most part, I find it pretty stable.
I did want to share with everyone a conversation started by one of my posts, on the joy of a new Ikea catalogue:
“Is it wrong that I touch myself to the Ikea catalogue?”
All, thanks for visiting! In the month of July, my blog crested over 1,000 views. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but definitely positive and a great starting point for my upcoming ‘proper’ website.
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. — Andy Warhol
As if the Japanese could get any cooler. This vehicle, the Honda Vamos, was found in Honda Japan’s awesome Seevert gallery. Apparently it used a 354cc engine, which is as much displacement as your typical pop can.
There’s even a video on how to raise and lower the top!
Nothing too special, just spent a little time getting to know the latest Jag and my new camera. It’s available on my Flickr as a desktop-sized download, too!
I completely agree with Joe’s editorial and your response. And the horror with the situation is that in my opinion (having freelanced for them for a number of years), the Star Wheels section has the best ethics policy around.
I personally still follow the Star’s policies, including not accepting gifts over $40. And the air miles issue was still…up in the air…but I decided a few weeks ago to donate the miles accumulated at the end of the year to a charity.
Despite the Wheels writers (and some select freelancers) holding themselves to a high standard, where is AJAC in all of this? Why shouldn’t automakers and journalists come together to revamp the system? They’re all members of the same (fucking) organization.
The fact that nothing has changed yet is proof that the voting majority of AJAC members don’t feel their ethics can be bought — but fail to put concrete systems in place.
I was explaining to a good friend just last week the perk issue, and her first reaction was, “You write about products. Perks are part of the process. What’s the problem?”
I said the problem is that for the car buying public, the wrong (or a bought) recommendation can put them upside-down in an expensive loan for years. Cars can emotionally and financially strain people to the point of breaking.
Consider for a second a single mom with an old car, who turns to a reviewer for a new car recommendation. Reviewers not stating depreciation, residual value, fuel economy, projected reliability, and an honest review of the vehicle can unwillingly put her thousands of dollars in the hole.
I went on to say that although it’s consumer reporting, perks — especially gifts — should simply not be offered anymore. The simplest way to do this is for journalists to say no to gifts, but I maintain the question (and choice) of accepting gifts shouldn’t happen in the first place.
Automotive journalists, when doing their jobs properly, protect consumers from making what is generally the second-biggest purchase of their adult lives.
But throw in the usual turnover of a new car entering our 1.5 car families every 3-5 years…and doing our jobs takes on much more significance.
I just wish I didn’t get slapped by our advertisers every time I’m honest.
Yes, this is awesome. No, it’s not sold here. It’s the Suzuki APV, a small van-thingy that looks an awful lot like the Honda Crossroad (also awesome).
My thoughts? Automakers selling cars in North America better start selling more unique, personable cars that fit into the myriad lifestyles of consumers.
Yesterday and today I’ve taken the MX-5 long-termer to teh Intrawebs course. It’s been bright, sunny, and marvelous each day. I wonder, though, if living with the car through the thick of winter (as seen here), makes the sunny days that much better?
Please, don’t get me wrong: I love Ford. One of my first memories of them was when my dad came home in an Explorer Eddie Bauer, with which the family took on an extended test drive to Canatara Beach. It was brilliant. External temperature display and compass! Both very gee-whiz for a young kid.
He went with a less expensive Explorer, then into a Lincoln Continental. Green on green. Cool car.
But now I look across the Ford range — especially the Taurus X and Focus — and I wonder who the fuck has been making decisions at that company for the last ten years? in Canada the Taurus X costs $3000 more than an Infiniti EX35. Wait, what? The Focus is more than a Volkswagen City Golf! And dressing shitty vehicles up with crap like Sync won’t win you fans.
Ford, you won’t have much more time to think about selling cars until you can produce some great product. The Flex, MKS, Transit Connect, and everything Ford Australia or Europe makes looks amazing.
Well the challenge has started, hanging out with Kathy(?), and I think we’re gonna easily win these challenges. First things first, head to Scarborough(?). listen
So I’m just about ready to go downstairs, for an orientation meeting for the Pontiac Vibe event and I’m checking out catchthevibe.ca. Look at the challenges on the right hand side if you scroll down a little bit. They look pretty crazy and I think tomorrow will be an interesting day to see how many of them we can do. Anyway, look for more updates along the road tomorrow. listen
This is Jott thing I just signed up for. Basically, it let’s you talk into your phone and it will post the text anywhere you likes so actually, this is finished. It’s gonna go right to my blog that you’re hopefully reading right now and it will get sent to my inbox. It’s a free service, it’s incredible to use. Super easy and unfortunately, pretty addictive. So, you maybe seeing a lot more of this in the coming weeks. listen
Today was my first drive in the Infiniti EX35 wagon. Well, not wagon…SUV? Crossover? I don’t get why we’ve got to categorize every vehicle on-sale — because inevitably something won’t fit. The wagon-like EX35 is one of them.
And, despite committing a cardinal sin (it’s marketed as a crossover), it’s alright.
Apparently, this envelope and marketing message is part of a direct mail campaign in the UK. I personally enjoy the look and feel of metal, leather, and high-quality paper. But surely they could have just sent a German engineer out to each house? Maybe it’d be a take on the AMG motto of: “One man, one engine.”
To everyone with an RSS feed (or on my FriendFeed): sorry. I decided to return to a more conventional theme, which caused huge problems with text display and usability.
It’s fixed, but I’ve lost some comments. So feel free to chime in.
I’ve been browsing the presentations on TED for a few hours now, and decided to check out some of the new videos posted. One of which is the World Wide Telescope which, incredibly (in Spring 2008):
WorldWide Telescope … enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.
Why do you not lie awake at night yearning for the day when you can own a Hyundai? Simple. Because Hyundais are not made to plunge their hand into your pants. Only to plunge their hands into your bank account. – Jeremy Clarkson
I’ve been driving around in a Hyundai Elantra Limited since Monday. No, it’s not the soon-to-be-released (and possibly amazing) Touring model, it’s just a regular sedan that someone spec’d to the milligram. Clarkson, as always, has a point. The worst crime a car can commit is by having no discernible soul.
I took this shot somewhere slightly northeast of the city. I spotted this pristine green field, flat, and full of colour. Besides doing static stuff in front of old buildings, the Bentley is very hard to photograph. It’s a sense that whatever shot it’s in, it’ll be the dominating factor.
Especially in robin’s egg blue with a butterscotch sundae interior.
If you’re not up on the latest Web 2.0 trends, fear not: neither am I. But RSS aggregates seem to be a huge traffic-driver these days, mostly because people still like their date categorized. Just like a newspaper. And searching requires typing? Oh noes! Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve spoken to Bangle, but never realized his unique accent.
He brilliantly describes the madness in loving the auto-mobile.
He discusses BMW’s very interesting Deep Blue project, aka the BMW X5.
Looking back at the larger, more interactive video on the TED site, I noticed an interesting comment, by Larry Pipitone:
This is a wonderful talk about art and design, but Bangle didn’t design the Pagani Zonda. The Renaissance art reference is out the window for me.
Chris Bangle speaks of passion and history, but he has stripped BMW of both elements. A marque of engineering triumph and purposeful design has turned into an illustrator’s display of his careful linework and American machismo – an utter failure in the evolution of the company. Dare I say, the last true BMW was the E46 M3.
Thanks again for the design talk, but I don’t buy the follow-through.
Ben Kunz of Thought Gadgets discusses the pros and cons of a future with free services:
“Free” has a challenge, because most free models are underwritten by advertisers — who only pay if they get results. The problem is consumers are paying less and less attention to peripheral marketing messages as they begin to control the social conversation, and this undercuts the entire model. Deep in the heart of “free” a cancer is forming called diminishing advertiser response.
The country’s third-largest advertiser is getting ready to shift fully half of its $3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next three years. And as GM goes, so goes the entire automotive industry — the leading advertising category that pumped some $9.42 billion into the ad economy last year.
I took this while on a drive with my friend Nauman. North of Toronto there are some wonderful driving roads that are just two lanes of tarmac laid upon the countryside.
This is a shot I took of Doug Andrews, owner of a racing tours company. My friend Dan and I traveled down to Talladega, Alabama to watch the Nascar race. Saturday night, however, was spent at the nearby short (dirt) track.
It was also the first outing for my trusty vintage rangefinder camera.
I joke around with my friends and family that I came out of the womb programming a VCR. It’s probably close to the truth, though. I had my first Nintendo at five, and from there on in I was hooked on the burgeoning virtual potential of computers and video games.
From Wikipedia: Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, “happy accidents,” and alternative film processing are often considered part of the “Lomographic Technique.”
So what better car to photograph using my new Holga 135 than the new and apparently ugly Impreza WRX sedan? My shots and analysis after the jump.
Salesman: Man, I’m driving the same car as you, same colour and everything. It really gets going when the VDC light kicks in, eh?
Customer: Uhh…?
Salesman: Yeah, most cars, in this weather, want to fishtail. The VDC, you crank the wheel hard and – boom – it gets you going through everything. With this car, you drive it hard – don’t lift off the gas because the car gets confused. It doesn’t know where you’re going. I tell you, I drive right in the snow, I drive it hard; that VDC gives you so much speed and traction.
Within metres, this car will tear every superlative in the English language to pieces.
Say hello to the Ariel Atom, more of rocket sled than a car. Given its extruded tubular structure, the fact I was strapped in so tightly and its ferocious acceleration, you can forgive me for fantasizing that I was Lt. Col. John P. Stapp.
Who’s Stapp? He was a voluntary human guinea pig who still holds the record as sustaining the highest known voluntary acceleration force, at 45g. The U.S. military sent him down a rail, attached to a chair with a battery of rockets as lumbar support.
This is the home of award-winning Canadian automotive journalist Michael Banovsky. Through words and photos, it’s a no-fuss look at what I’m thinking and doing. Contact me at michael (dot) banovsky (at) gmail (dot) com
My new website…
In Comment on September 22, 2008 at 1:56 pmAll, please change your bookmarks to: banovsky.com! But don’t worry; all of the posts formerly found here, (and the comments) have been moved over, and this site will be no longer maintained. So take a look. Cheers, Michael