A few years ago, if you asked a car guy to respond with the first word that came to mind when I mentioned Continental, the answer would have been tires. And the next five words would have been either Conti Contac performance summer tires or Conti Blizzak performance winter tires.
But no longer is the Germany-based Continental synonymous just with tires. Slowly, and somewhat under the radar screen, Continental has been reinventing itself, not a bad thing in a fast changing automotive environment. Today Continental is still renowned for its tires, but for those automotive folks who are hardwired into the “parts” sides of the business, Continental has emerged as the world’s third largest automotive supplier company behind Bosch and Magna. In some segments of the fast food business parts is parts, but not in the automotive business. Suppliers are the lifeblood of the industry. Today, every automotive manufacturer—Ford, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, you name it—is highly dependent upon suppliers for much of the hard and software in every one of its vehicles. Literally hundreds of suppliers, some with well known names such as Lear, Johnson Controls, Bosch and Delphi, and unknowns (except for auto industry insiders making their living designing, engineering, costing and manufacturing vehicles) such as NTN (axle bearings), Brose (electric seat adjustment), and Rehau (rear spoiler) work closely with their auto company partners, helping them create many of the literally hundreds of primary and subsystems required in every vehicle: airbags, brakes, gauge clusters, tires, seats, shock absorbers, steering wheels, transmissions, ECMS . . . the list is endless. No auto company possesses all of the internal capabilities to design, engineer develop, test and manufacture an automobile today. Thus the need for specialists such as Continental. (more…)
My friend’s Jeep Cherokee experienced the always-fun occasion of a cracked head, leaking coolant into the engine and ruining bearings- engine swap time! My brother also owns a Cherokee so he took the reigns of this problem and tracked down a replacement motor for a swap. (apples to oranges, it can be less labor intensive to swap an engine than it can be to open one up and repair it- we’ve done a swap before on an 87 4Runner, so it was the most viable option)
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Our travels took us from my parent’s suburban neighborhood about 20 minutes south of the NH-Mass boarder up to Amherst, NH. On the way up, a place caught my eye, with banners, old-style gas pumps, and classic automotive ads. I thought the place to be unique, but we had business to handle. (more…)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big NASCAR fan. Its comprised of 4+ left turns which are actually just two big left turns on an oval track. The term stock car is a joke, as there are countless race series’ that run cars closer to stock than the cookie-cutter cars with laughable models such as Impala and Camry (both are front wheel drive, and neither run a V8, or manual transmission). Having said that, I can understand why NASCAR is a popular sport (yes, the strain on drivers is enough to call it that). The crashes are epic. A perfect pit is a thing of choreographed beauty. Its a general shock to the senses. I’ll watch it for roughly five minutes. (more…)
At a time when even many auto insiders might ask, “Is Mercury still in the car biz?, how is it possible for a former head of Mercury to be named 2009 Automotive Executive of the Year? (more…)
Ford CEO Alan Mulally was interviewed today by CNBC on its morning business news show. During the interview he said, among other things, that, “We are really turning the tide in North America,” and “Ford will be profitable in 2011,” and, “Ford is ramping up U.S. production by 25 percent in the second quarter.”
No problem. Typical business talk. Mulally believes Ford is on a roll. (more…)
Here’s yet another great joke shared by my grandfather.
A few days ago I was having some work done at my local garage. A blonde came in and asked for a seven-hundred-ten.
We all looked at each other and another customer asked, ‘What is a seven-hundred-ten?’ !
She replied, ‘You know, the little piece in the middle of the engine, I have lost it and need a new one..’ (more…)
These were sent to me from my grandfather and thought they were so great so I had to share them here.
One morning on the way to work, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Lexus doing 80 mph with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner. I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.
As a man, I don’t scare easily. But she scared me so much; I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand. In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed, and burned Big Jim and the Twins, ruined the damn phone, soaked my pants, AND disconnected an important call. (more…)
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Nobody asked me, but . . .