I just started reading a book called Country Driving
and it's super interesting (I'm only 800 units in on the kindle). It's subtitled "A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory" and is essentially an American's journey through China from behind the wheel. I particularly liked this story of negotiating a small traffic accident (which apparently happens quite regularly).
Once, a driver backed into my rental car near the Lama Temple in downtown Beijing. I got out to inspect the dent; the other motorist, by way of introduction, immediately said, "One hundred yuan." It was the equivalent of about twelve dollars, which was generally the starting point for a midsize Beijing dent. When this offer was relayed by telephone to Mr. Wang [the rental operator], his response was also immediate: "Ask for two hundred." I bargained for five minutes, until the other driver finally agreed to one hundred and fifty. Mr. Wang was satisfied; he knew you never get what you ask for. And every accident had a silver lining--dents were good business. There wasn't any paperwork for these exchanges, and I suspected that the desk men at Capital Motors sometimes kept the cash.
Am sure there are more quotes to come.
Tags: books, cars, china
Reading about the Honda Insight's game-like interface design reminded me quite a bit of this article about the user experience of the Prius:
You quickly learn that fast acceleration is bad: the engine always comes on, and your MPG drops like a stone. But coasting to a gentle stop is good, because you can see the car reclaim almost all that energy. It's especially fun to climb hills: to watch the numbers drop and the engine kick on (red arrows) as you start climbing, and then to see the engine shut off, the regenerative braking start (green arrows), and the MPG go to 99.9 (whoo-hoo!) as you zoom down the hill. As an early hybrid owner put it, feedback screens turn ordinary driving into "an eternal battle between Red and Green. Red is bad, because you're burning fuel. Green is good. I encourage green."
Though the Insight seems to be embracing this, I'm curious when one of these companies will take it a step further, adding an online application that allows you to track and learn from your habits.
Tags: cars, games, interface, ux
You know the Hyundai assurance program where the company will give you your money back if you lose your job? Well, looks like no one has taken them up on it yet: "On Friday, Hyundai spokesman Dan Bedore confirmed that so far no one has used the program. It's still early in the plan's lifecycle and final March figures have not come in, but the fact that no buyer has taken advantage of it says that at least the 55,133 people who bought a Hyundai this year probably still have their jobs."
As Consumerist points out, it's easy to conclude no buyers have lost their jobs, "But perhaps it just means people who are financially secure enough to be in a position to buy a new car got there by making secure bets, so they would gravitate towards a program that provides buyer protection." Fair point. Either way, the strategy seems to be working pretty well.
Tags: cars, economy, marketing
I was in the middle of reading yet another article on the auto industry bailout when I realized something really interesting: I genuinely haven't made up my mind yet. It seems like such a quaint idea that I was actually reading all this stuff and getting swayed from one side to the other, still unable to make up my mind on what move I think is right. On one side you've got folks arguing that whether you believe in what they've been up to or not, the eventual net effect on the economy of not bailing them out will be greater than the cost. Further supporting just how far this ripple effect could go, when I picked up AdAge from my mailbox this evening the cover page outlines just what roll Detroit plays in the ad industry: 3.3% of total US measured spending, 5.9% of US network TV spending, etc. (For the record, the most interesting and compelling argument I've read so far comes on this side as Jonathan Cohn argues in the New Republic that a) they may be forced into Chapter 7 not Chapter 11 and b) that the auto industry has actually already begun going down the right path and they just need some more time to get there.)
On the other side you've got people saying that they must be allowed to fail and that, "if GM is going to be a welfare agency, it’s hard to also expect it to be a viable company that will rapidly get off the federal teat."
Anyway, I still haven't come to a conclusion, but I'm having a lot of fun being one of those undecideds so many of us spent the last year debating about.
Tags: bailout, cars, economics
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