It’s a tough time for the venerable automobile. Around the world, unsold vehicles – gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks in particular – are piling up on dealers’ lots, as cash-strapped buyers stay out of showrooms, squeezed by the spreading economic slump sparked by US troubles. Here at home, the incredible shrinking Big Three are scrambling for cash as losses mount and they burn through gobs of cash. What does the future hold for the beleaguered US auto industry? For the answer, we turned to a few consumer-oriented auto magazines.
Automobile aspires to do more than just car reviews, although it has plenty of those in its latest issue. The mag is more interested in the future of the automobile. Do you think it’s possible to make an air-driven automobile? Would you opt for pay-as-you-drive auto insurance, which promises lower premiums but comes with invasive technology to track your miles? How about a car that does more than survive crashes – it avoids them. Apparently, all that and more is possible in the future. And if Detroit gets itself out of this morass, maybe we will actually live to see some of it happen.
The always-entertaining political satirist P.J. O’Rourke makes an unlikely appearance in the December issue of Car and Driver. O’Rourke piles the family into a new Ford Flex for a road trip across the Mojave Desert. Placing the Flex on a historical continuum between station wagon and sport-utility vehicle, he casts it as a central character in this vacation narrative, and describes it with as much care and flare as he does his own children. The Flex sure seems to have been the best part of the trip – at least from the kids’ perspective. Sports cars and gas prices underlie the other pieces in the issue. There’s a story on the best cars to buy for gas mileage, but since no one is buying cars, skip it and go to the one about mileage myths and misconceptions. We confess that we were particularly turned on leering at the photos of the fleet of Corvettes on the cover – that is, until the spread on the beautiful $1.7 million Bugatti made us forget all about them.
Road & Track does its part to dispel the notion that electric cars are geeky subcompacts with no horses under the hood. This month, the mag showcases the E-Ruf, an all-electric concept car similar to the CTR3 speed-demon model. It’s a good exercise in automotive voyeurism, but we can’t help wondering if such a ridiculously fast and expensive car really puts it on the road to righteous environmental responsibility. With the economy in a swoon, the mag figures the only people who can afford the $450,000 Lamborghini Estoque live in Russia and Asia.
New York treats the election of Barack Obama like some politically charged New Year’s Eve. Fair ’nuff. But what’s up with the cover – a cherubic newborn in a funky Obama T-shirt, posed with one fist raised defiantly a la the Black Power salute? While the cover is ambiguous, the accompanying article, called “Obamaism,” touches on the cleansing effect his election to the presidency may have. Get it? We don’t. We did enjoy, however, the piece on “Geek Pop Star” Malcolm Gladwell, of “The Tipping Point” fame, which is a welcome anecdote to all the political navel-gazing.
After the backlash from its controversial cover depicting Obama and Michelle farcically as terrorists, one can forgive The New Yorker for relegating Barry Blitt’s image of Obama bumping fists with God to page 77. The artwork, a twist on Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” is tucked into an article by Editor David Remnick discussing how Obama deftly handled the issue of race in the campaign. The mag also makes the case that Sen. John McCain may have done “lasting damage” to his reputation by heading a campaign that became more mean-spirited with each passing day before Nov. 4.
Time rolls out a commemorative spread that coincidentally has Obama featured on its cover and golf juggernaut Tiger Woods in a backpage Tag Heuer ad – two larger-than-life multiracial icons who have smashed barriers. Time, however, while offering a few colorful pictures of Obama and the immense crowds on Election Day, fails to offer up any true insights on the final hours of the presidential campaign or our soon-to-be new commander and chief.
Newsweek, on the other hand, succeeds where Time fails. It serves up extensive coverage of both candidates, featuring an army of embedded campaign reporters who provide (Hallelujah!) context to the election. The frank behind-the-scenes photographs of McCain and his family and the Obama contingent peppered throughout its issue also go far to demonstrate how deeply entrenched their coverage was. That fact is equally reflected in the coverage in one article entitled, “The Age of Obama,” penned by Jon Meacham, and the ensemble report “How He Did It: The Inside Story of Campaign 2008.”