Editorial: How Hard is it For a Brand to Change Its Image?

Once a company establishes an image with consumers, it tends to stick. Car manufacturers all have different images associated with them. For example, Toyota has been known for building reasonably priced, reliable, but boring vehicles. Volvo is known as a lead innovator in automotive safety technologies. Subaru is often regarded as the manufacturer for enthusiasts. However, not all manufacturers have had the good fortune of having a positive image attached to their name. How difficult is it for a manufacturer to shed their image?

Image courtesy of Logopedia

This question comes to mind because of a certain vehicle I encountered on the way to work one morning. That vehicle was the Cadillac CTS V-Sport, which is one step down from the full on CTS-V. Even though it is not powered by a rip-roaring supercharged V8, it is certainly no slouch. With a twin turbo V6 under its hood pumping 420 horsepower to its rear wheels, it is definitely not slow. This particular CTS V-Sport had a certain flair though. On its hindquarters was a D3 badge. For those unfamiliar with the name, D3 is a noted Cadillac tuner, known specifically for working on Cadillac's "V" line of cars. If the badge was any indication, it meant that this CTS V-Sport must have had some work done to it. As I pulled up next to it, I expected to maybe find a man in their 30s, possibly 40s, face adorned with aviator sunglasses. Instead, I found a man who was at least in his 60s, hunched over the steering wheel, looking like he was struggling to drive the car. The first thought that came to my mind was, "is all that effort Cadillac is putting into re-branding itself not working?"

Industry News: VW's diesel cheating scandal could have widespread repercussions for the automotive industry

By now, unless you literally live under a rock, you must have heard about VW's scandal over its diesel engines cheating on emissions tests. In case you were indeed under said rock, the VW 2.0L disesel four cylinder motor was found to have different tuning in the test mode used to perform emissions testing. That different tuning was used to reduce NOx emissions to within spec to pass emissions tests, but was not reflective of how the car actually performed in the real world. According to VW, forcing the car to run on the tune that passes the emissions tests also drastically reduces the fuel economy and performance, which are the only real reasons anyone buys diesel in the land of heavily subsidized gasoline that is America.

Of course, VW is now feeling the pain of this scandal, having suffered a huge hit against its stock in global markets as well as having to shake up a sizable portion of its senior leadership, including the resignation of CEO Martin Winterkorn (although he may get a big golden parachute so don't waste your tears on him). With numbers already struggling in the US and diesels accounting for a rather surprisingly large portion of VW sales here, this scandal could not come at a worse time for the company.

But the real damage has only just begun.

Super Bowl Ads: Super Bowl XLVIII

Every year, the Super Bowl brings together serious ad dollars and millions upon millions of viewers. While the effectiveness of the ads on actual purchases is at best weak, much like the Broncos in the drubbing they took last night, the automakers are among the biggest spenders to purchase some of the most expensive airtime. Luckily, the ads that they have put together tend to be excellent. This year is generally no exception with a number of very entertaining ads, although some of them came from rather unexpected places. What follows are our favorite car-related ads from this year's big game.

Test Drive: 2013 Mid-size Family Sedan Comparo

Over the course of the last few weeks, we have individually examined a number of mid-size family sedans. You can read the detailed individual reviews by clicking on the followings links:

2013 Ford Fusion SE
2013 Honda Accord Sport
2013 Kia Optima LX
2014 Mazda 6 Touring
2013 Nissan Altima S
2013 VW Passat SE

Each car had its strengths and weaknesses, so declaring a winner was fairly challenging, though a clear loser was evident from the start. Continue reading to see how the cars performed in the various categories.

Long Term Test: 2012 Acura TSX Special Edition post #1

Update: Click here to read post #2.

The day our beloved 1999 Mazda Miata MX-5 10th Anniversary Edition was stricken ill was a dark day for my wife and me. From the day they b
rought it home, that car had been the pride and joy of my wife's parents and she had set her sights on it becoming the first car that she would own, which did eventually happen in 2006. When we relocated from the suburbs into the city, we consolidated down into a single car, and the Miata was the car we kept. As you can imagine, there were many years of sentimental value attached to the little blue convertible.

So when it came time to find a replacement, we had a long list of requirements and a lot of compromises to make. We knew we needed something more practical than the Miata (a criteria which just about any car would satisfy) and be able to carry our friends and luggage and potentially a pet. That meant that something with 4 seats would be required, at a minimum. My wife, who is very environmentally minded, wanted a car that put up decent fuel economy numbers. I wanted a manual transmission, which narrowed the available options to a tiny handful of cars. Fun to drive, comfortable, relatively maintenance free, and moderately well equipped with modern necessities such as Bluetooth hands-free calling were all a given. Pricing needed to be reasonable as we were losing an income for a couple of years and knew we wanted to keep our expenses under control.

Test Drive: 2013 Volkswagen Passat SE 5MT

Update: See how the Volkswagen Passat did in our 2013 Mid-Size Family Sedan Comparison.

Volkswagen has always been the oddity in the mid-size segment. While the Passats have been good, they have never quite gotten the kind of accolades heaped on them the way that Honda's Accord does and have never experienced the kind of sales success that the Camry and Accord each see. Some of that may have to do with German cars generally having the reputation for having poor reliability and being expensive to repair. It could also have something to do with VW's of the past having designs that wer
e far from attractive, leaving most buyers to have written off purchasing the brand even though their most recent has have been handsome, if a bit unassuming.

Regardless of its commercial success, I have always generally liked VWs and the Passat, a car which my grandfather owned nearly 20 years ago. To see how it has evolved in some places, but not in others is interesting and might speak to some of why it continues to struggle to reach the kind of audience that the much more pedestrian Japanese sedans are able to. There is nothing particularly bad about the 2013 Passat SE that I tested, but then again there is nothing outstanding about the car either.