Auto Trends

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The nature of media warfare is a rather unforgiving beast, such as during a recent press meet where Audi President, Johan de Nysschen, confidently called the GM Volt, I say and I quote, “A car for idiots.” Well, nobody wants to be an idiot, so perhaps the Volt isn’t for me, you say.

Despite the fact that a lot of folks respected the outlandish, bad boy, comment by the Audi President, he has recently appeared back into the eye of the press to further explain his comment. This was kind of disappointing for some, especially considering that in the world of car suits, the most exciting quotes are usually nothing more than a hodgepodge of PR blubber about picking daisy’s and strolling down the yellow brick lane.

It turns out that Nysschen claims that he never really said that. Well, at least that is not exactly what he was meaning to say. What he claims he was really trying to express, is that the immediate viability of such a fine automobile, is not really feasible in this day and age. Not price wise, or when it comes to making any viable progress on the green front, or so he says.

Oh, I do really hate when an off-the-hip comment is cut short by another off-the-hip decision to demeans the first comment to keep oneself politically correct. How can you correct calling someone or something an idiot. You just can’t. His mother must have told him that he wasn’t playing nice and forced him to walk out with a dunce cap on his head and say that he was sorry.

Well, none-the-less, we won’t let that spoil any of our fun. Nysschen clarified that the $40,000 price on the Volt seemed just a little high to him for what you really are getting. This coming from a company whose average price per vehicle is undoubtedly $40,000. He also claims that by switching the emphasis from fuel to coal (electric), manufacturers will only promote more industrial type pollution (coal burning), thus in effect offering little to no positive effect over the greater picture of cleaner air.

We’ve heard all that before. So why is Audi then in the process of developing their own hybrid and electric vehicles? Oh, I guess these just must be for the idiots. Every good company after all has to follow through with the fads of society to remain ahead of the game. In truth, while they are in some development of electric, the real stake in Audi’s future clean air development will be in their clean diesel technology, which they have been promoting like the next sequel to G.I. Joe.

Electric and clean diesel are all heading towards the same goal, so I guess we can close the book on this story for now… That is, until the next round of mud slinging hits the media waves. There’s never a dull moment in cars. Not this year anyway.

Source: Left Lane News