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Racing and brand image.

I'm curious about your take on Racing and Brand Image. If a manufacturer is racing, how much influence does that have on their brand image? I follow several different racing series and root for brands I like, but don't think I am consciously swayed into thinking a manufacturer engineers and builds better vehicles based on wins and losses in racing. Yes, I have heard all of the proclamations that manufacturers apply learnings and technology from the track to the showroom, but I don't buy it.

PTK
Ortonville, Michigan



And... It's about NASCAR.

I realize I'm finishing my degree program in becoming a curmudgeon, but watching NASCAR at Talladega just makes me mad.

I can't see any reason to stage a race of any kind only to eliminate half the field or better as a matter of course, much less build up suspense among the attendees and the TV audience just waiting for 'The Big One' to occur. Especially after every other interview with team and sanctioning decries the spiraling cost of competition. And then there's the evidently small consideration of playing with the lives of every driver involved, maybe even spectators if something takes a bad bounce.

It just makes me mad to watch this dangerous and pointless spectacle be called racing. I can remember when races could cost a life every week if not more. Thank God those days are behind us in large part, but to keep rolling the dice like this surely has no rational justification... and yet it goes on year after year.

J. Wilson
Nashville, Tennessee

Editor-in-Chief's Note: We stopped covering NASCAR here at AE for this exact reason, and a few others too. For instance, the NASCAR schedule is the most ridiculous in all of sports, and that's saying something when you have the relentlessly tedious NBA and NHL schedules operating. NASCAR has too many races, too many repeat visits to tracks for no reason whatsoever, and, add the restrictor-plate racing, which is the flat-out most stupid racing on the planet, and you have a monument to mediocrity that dumbs down all of motorsport. The fact that the manufacturers keep dumping money into NASCAR is one of the most glaring examples of wasted money in all of racing. It's sick and it's stupid, but they just can't help themselves because they think that they'd be missing out on something. They wouldn't be, of course, but the absurdity will continue indefinitely. -PMD



High Voltage.

I thought at the time that I tested it for this very publication that the Chevy Volt was the right product then and still is now. 40 miles on electric and then gas- with decent mileage even. And that was back in the day when there were far fewer public charging places. GM (plus CA change) let it whither on the vine while trying to get the EV thing going. Not that they publicized the Bolt EV any better. But the Volt was a brilliant non-compromise for people who are still convinced that they must be able to drive from LA to New Guinea at a moment's notice. My neighbor is on his second (first one totaled- not his fault) and loves them. If GM could release a 35k new version at a decent price and actually spend a few bucks promoting and explaining the advantages of them; they would sell.

Tom Pease
AE's L.A.-based correspondent
Beverly Hills, California

Editor-in-Chief's Note: We are big believers in the Volt around here. In fact, WG is on her third one. -PMD P.S. And to those who would say marketing doesn't matter? Chanel No. 5 would be just pleasant-smelling oily water if Coco didn't have a brand image that she and her Chanel minions hadn't marketed well.