Edmunds.com just launched its latest product and it's worth a look, especially if you've got an automotive question you need answered. It's called "Edmunds' Answers" and it makes finding -- and providing -- auto-related answers extremely easy.

My first time cruising through Edmunds' Answers I saw that someone had asked about the sliding editors' rating for the Chevrolet Equinox. The user noted that the rating was relatively high in 2005 but has fallen every year since. It took me about 100 seconds to type in a response (basically "all-new vehicles typically perform well against the competition when new, but fall as the product cycle continues and newer competitors are introduced in the segment") and post it live. You can see the full answer here.

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There's a series of ad inserts that Conde Nast has been running in Automotive News. The compaign's theme is "The point of passion" and between the insert's size and the paper stock used it must be costing Conde Nast a good chunk of change. The photos on each page show various famous folks (this one has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vera Wang and Eva Longoria) gazing through various Conde Nast print publications in picturesque settings. Eva, for instance, is sitting in a red, late 1960s Mercedes-Benz SL with the copy, "Eva Longoria. Actress, desperate housewife, reader." Vera Wang is described as, "Designer, lifestyle mogul, reader." In fact, the word "reader" appears at the end of every description.

The ad copy on the back of the insert says, "A more engaged reader. A connection that drives culture. And the most effective media choice." Of course none of these folks are looking at a computer screen, though if you check out the online version of this ad campaign you will, logically, see famous folks looking at computer screens for Conde Nast's online publications like brides.com and flip.com, but online titles still make up a small minority of the company's offerings. 

The "point" of this campaign seems to be, "If you want to have real influence with the 'right' kind of people you'll buy an ad in one of our many print publications." I can't begrudge a media company for spending ad revenue to try and create more ad revenue, but the idea that only print readers are truly "passionate" or "committed" or "engaged" makes me laugh. And suggesting it's "the most effective media choice" is, frankly, ludicrous.

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If you've received your latest copy of AutoWeek you may have checked out the BWTM page (I know it's the first thing I look at every week). One of the items on this week's BWTM page had a familiar ring to it. I think because it mentioned my name and a quote of mine. In their ongoing "Captain Obvious" series they used a quote that appeared in The Detroit News story about the Toyota Tundra's engine failure. I've always hated the term "out of context" because it's such a standard-issue response when someone doesn't like a quote that's attributed to them. Instead, I'll just repeat the conversation with the reporter of this story.

To the best of my knowledge (yet another great phrase), the conversation went something like this:

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I need several "Talk Back Tuesdays" to cover the current state of the automotive world, but I'll try to touch on the three most important points in just one blog post:

Issue Number One -- Mercedes-Benz sells Chrysler, and loses approximately $30,000,000,000 in the process. The new owner, Cerberus Capital Management L.P., is a private equity firm. This essentially means Chrysler can now focus on...BUILDING BETTER PRODUCT!! Oh, you may think the company has been focused on this for years, but in reality Chrysler (like all automakers) has been focused on quarterly reports and stockholder happiness. With that B.S. out of the way, the company just might build some killer cars and trucks in the coming years. Yeah, they've got legacy health care costs and UAW folks to wrestle with, but Cerberus is flush with cash so they can throw money at this problem like no traditional automaker ever could. This is a huge (and in my opinion hugely positive) development. I expect drastic and rapid changes for the company. What do you expect?

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In last week's Talk Back Tuesday I admitted to throwing away my old Car and Driver issues because I simply couldn't justify keeping them around any longer. That post sparked some interesting comments, among them several opinions of why certain buff books are better, or worse, than other enthusiast publications (along with how they stack up against Edmunds/Inside Line). Those comments gave me an idea, so today I'm going to conduct a completely non-scientific, non-certifiable survey about what each of the major buff books has to offer and what each one could do to improve themselves. To get the ball rolling, and show you the format I'd like to see used for your responses, I'll start with my own assessment of the major dead-tree rags:

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That title is a little misleading. I don't mean to say I've thrown away the publication completely -- just the printed versions of it. Like plenty of automotive enthusiasts I've been saving Car & Driver magazines for many, many years. I liked having them as a possible reference point for everything from bench racing discussions with my friends ("So, what was the Corvette's 0-60 time in 1992?") to article research when discussing how vehicles have changed over the past 30 years. But there are two problems with this system - first, it takes up too much space to store decades of magazines and second, it's too hard to find the information. Sure, you can dedicate huge swaths of shelf space to help organize the books, but that means taking up even more space (I've simply been using boxes in a closet), and you'll likely still have to leaf through multiple issues to answer that question about the '92 Corvette.

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If you've always had a hankerin' to drive exotic cars for a living, and the folks at Ferrari's test facility aren't returning your calls, you might be in luck. Well...there is one caveat -- it will take a good chunk of change. But if you have the funds you could be the proud owner of Motor Trend magazine (along with a gaggle of other Primedia titles like Hot Rod, Car Craft, Automobile, and - my former employer - Super Street). You can read the corporate spin here, but the real story is simple: Big-wig executives invest more time/energy in cutting wages and overworking employees than they do in the future of publishing. Meanwhile, Internet offers whole new way to reach readers while more effectively serving advertisers. Corporate clones panic and further cut costs (and employee dignity) to make company appear profitable -- then attempt to get out before their golden parachutes turn copper.

Sad really, as many of the books over there have never looked better (despite the executives' best efforts to demoralize the workforce).

I think you're better off waiting for Ferrari to call back...

In case you missed it, we launched a new web site this week: www.AutoObserver.com. This one is headed up by industry icon and highly capable journalist, Michelle Krebs. She will be producing both feature stories and regular blog entries that provide unique and poignant commentary on this crazy universe we call the automotive industry. Michelle is easily one of the most connected individuals covering our industry, and I'm stoked to have her resources and talent living in our blogosphere.

If you're looking for the latest goings on in the world of wheels, stop by www.AutoObserver.com and see what Michelle has to say.

It's really more like switching apartments on the same floor of the same building, but my blog will officially be re-locating to Edmunds.com. When we launched this blog (along with Straightline) it was simpler to produce them both on Inside Line. Since that time we've expanded the blog capabilities and offerings of both Edmunds.com and Inside Line, and with me technically being the editor of Edmunds.com it makes sense for my blog to reside there.

This should have minimal impact on you, the reader. The URL address remains the same, as does the format, but the color scheme will reflect the Edmunds bright-red-and-dark-blue versus the IL dark-red-and-gray. The switch should happen tomorrow, so don't let the color shift throw you.

And remember -- change is good.

Recently I had a very interesting discussion with an automotive industry veteran. Between his high-level background and his current position suffice to say he knows from which he speaks regarding where things are going. I won't provide any additional detail because it's respecting these people's anonymity that gets me this information in the first place. So instead of obsessing over exactly who it was just enjoy the type of information he provided:

1. Predictions of 17 million new cars sales in 2007 are optimistic to say the least. Think 16.5, or less, and with the domestics cutting fleet sales plan on massive market share drops for at least two of them.

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