We Hope This Podcast Has Better Brand Perception Than Saab

Sales are down but profits are up for car makers and car dealers. We discuss why that could be happening because it doesn't make much sense.

Dealers are so desperate for low mileage cars that some are offering drivers who come in for service a deal for their ride. But Mathew thinks that is just crass.

Do you care what kind of car your going to buy next? Well, more people don't see much difference between the big brands, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.

Does Kansas hate electric cars. No, but they are unhappy they can't collect gas taxes for them and may find a way to change that.

Cellcontrol offers an even more powerful way to prevent drivers -- probably young ones -- from using their phone to talk to text while driving. But it's still limited.

We have a deep discussion of the recent Supreme Court ruling around the use of GPS devices by the police to track people. Unfortunately, the media botched their reporting and the ruling actually meant something else. Read more about it on the Scotus Blog. 

VW gets us excited for the Super Bowl ads

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Loyally Raising the Podcast Standards

Loyalty is vital to auto makers success and Hyundai, which as we have discussed, continues to roll, with the highest retention rate for its owners.

Owners have also been more loyal to their vehicles, driving up the average age of cars and trucks on the road to a record 10.8 years old.

Get away from Prius camper.

One reason that could be so high is that people are driving less due to the stumbling economy and perhaps higher gas prices.

But higher gas prices and and the increase in CAFE standards coming in 13 years will probably cost drivers more, at least initially, but could save money in the longer run. Dealers are very concerned. Are you?

Speaking of concerned, Detroit is a place where you need to be concerned about the safety of your car, but police aren't increasing the patrols, they are just banning parking on the street.

Finally, need to get away. How about a Prius camper? It's hideous.

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We Obsessively Podcast the Obsessive Coverage of the Detroit Auto Show

It takes a little time to get Mathew excited about the Detroit Auto Show, but I persevere. We talk about all the exciting -- and realistic -- production and concept vehicles that auto makers showed off. And the new gadgets and infotainment systems that are drawing buyers. We also go through Autoblog's list of concepts and pick out which ones are likely to reach the market.

The two concepts from Chevrolet -- the Tru 140s and the Code 130R -- are designed to appeal to young people. But as the WSJ reports and we've discussed lately -- young people don't care about new cars or driving much.

Smart was one of those brands that was to designed for young people, but has seen sales slip. Now the company is hoping a new concept and a focus on new markets can turn things around.

A Segway-like enclosed scooter called the C-1 from Lit Motors could be the kind of thing that does draw young buys. And it never tips over.

Finally, sharing cars, sharing rides, now comes sharing parking spaces. Yet another market is being created for personal spaces thanks to digital communication and smartphones.

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Podcasting by the Seat of Our Pants

Welcome to our 2011 end of year car sales extravaganza. We talk about:

• December U.S. auto sales
• 2011 full-year sales
• Top selling by category
• Top selling vehicles
• Chevrolet Volt vs. Nissan Leaf

Other than sales, we also look at the decrease in recalls during 2011.

Ford Concept

Next week is both CES and the Detroit auto show and in addition to interesting vehicles from Ford, Chrysler and others, vehicular gadgets will be on display, including a slew of new apps for Ford's SYNC.

One piece of technology that might be too wacky even for CES is a system that uses people's behinds to identify them.

Perhaps HiGear could use that system to prevent the vehicle thefts that is leading the peer-to-peer auto rental to shut down.

Speaking of criminals, Jimmy Hoffa is apparently buried under GM's headquarters in Detroit. Not Giants stadium.

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Dude, Where's My Podcast ... About Cars

It's a particularly safe podcast this week, with a look at the record number of safe cars, the lowest number of traffic fatalities and the federal government's effort to ban all cellphone use by drivers. If you want to see where things haven't been so safe, check out this awesome interactive map showing where all road deaths have occurred in the U.S.

What does he drive?

While the Senate is looking to finally overhaul the regulations around vehicle recalls, Google is patenting a car that drives itself. That project has been a passion of Larry Page, but there are other powerful and rich people who have had just as interesting vehicles.

Young people aren't as interested in owning a car for various reasons, but if they did, we can guess what most of them would drive using this chart. There is a growing movement to discourage folks from buying cars, and now changing your oil. And we can look at what geezers prefer to tool around in, and it isn't a sexy list of rides.

Perhaps some folks will get a new car for Christmas while others will do some smart shopping now, usually one of the best times to buy a used car.

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We'll Buyback This Jointly Owned, HIGHly Satisfying Podcast

It's the beginning of the holiday season and car dealers and auto makers got some nice holiday news already as folks went out to the car dealers in November, pushing up sales to recent highs.

Chevrolet has had some great success recently with the Volt, nabbing lots of early sales and love from buyers. But they have hit a bump recently with the NHTSA report about a Volt that caught fire. Now GM is offering to buy back vehicles from people who are unnerved by the sketchy fire risk.

Tokyo is a hub of crazy Japanese car culture and the annual motor show there is always delightful. We review some of the interesting designs.

Safe drivers?

We love cars and want to drive something really interesting. But would we spend $8 an hour to own a Ferrari. Maybe.

Voice control is back in vogue and one smart guy has hacked his iPhone to have Siri take control of his car.

MIT researcher who are even smarter have designed an algorithm that can predict whether people will run a red light in 5 milliseconds. But what to do with information.

It might be that smoking marijuana could makes roads even safer. Mostly because pot smokers don't go anywhere.

Finally, some ideas for holiday gifts that car fans would like.

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