Brand perception – Top 5

1. Toyota – 193
2. Honda – 149
3. Ford – 109
4. Cadillac – 102
5. Mercedes-Benz – 100

Brand Perception – Bottom 5

5. Jeep – 21
4. Hummer – 19
3. Saab – 18
2. Mazda – 17
1. Suzuki – 7

Ok, I won’t disagree that I perceive most of those brands as high or low quality, but let’s see what their real reliability scores indicate as the best brands:

Real Brand Reliability – Top 10

As a note, these are results based on Consumer Report’s annual reader surveys and are not based on data directly from the service divisions of the automakers. That means these results are still a bit skewed, but at least are based on real data:

1. Scion
2. Acura
3. Honda
4. Toyota
5. Lexus
6. Infiniti
7. Subaru
8. Hyundai
9. Mitsubishi
10. Kia

Scion huh? Well, it’s run by Toyota, but many people still aren’t familiar enough with Scion products to rank them highly. Plus since they market to “budget shoppers”, people automatically think they’re lower quality.

The biggest surprises on the list are Hyundai and Kia. Apparently their public relations departments aren’t getting the word out to consumers. People still think of Hyundai as a cheap Honda knockoff, and most probably can’t spell the name correctly. Hopefully the new Hyundai Genesis will prove people wrong, as it continues to receive accolades for build quality and value.

Although recently named one of the safest cars in the U.S., the Mercury Sable is on the chopping block at Ford, along with its stablemate, the Taurus X crossover. Both are pinned to the Ford Taurus (previously called the Ford FiveHundred), which is being redesigned.

Neither the X nor the Sable have had much success in the marketplace, even though the Sable has received pretty high accolades (for safety, pricing and comfort). However, the public just didn’t like the Sable’s bland styling, and Ford is introducing the next generation of the Taurus in the spring.

The Taurus X is being phased out in place of the new Ford Flex, which is admittedly a much better vehicle, even if its boxy styling is a bit controversial.

Personally, in my opinion the Sable was a slightly better-looking vehicle than the Taurus, but both are pretty boring to look at and drive. Ford didn’t advertise the Taurus/Sable/Taurus X nearly as much as the Fusion, and thus sales suffered.

CNN published an article today title “Pop goes the market: Detroit’s auto bubble woes” that chronicles the numerous mistakes Detroit made in offering 0% financing (among other creative financing options) plus huge rebates and cash back offers. Not only did the strong sales make the automakers think they were on the right track, it also caused them to make some risky deals with the UAW that they can no longer live up to thanks to the down economy:

The strong sales also allowed General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler LLC to generate healthy profits, which led them to agree to contracts with the United Auto Workers union that they ultimately couldn’t afford over the long-haul.

Plus, they all added factory capacity, thinking that the demand would last forever. But all good things must come to an end, and that’s what automakers (even Toyota) are realizing now. One shocking statistic is the number of cars compared to the number of consumers:

In 1998, there were about 12 million more vehicles than drivers in 1998. By 2006, the difference grew to 34 million.

Wow! No one thought that supply might outrun demand someday? But the auto companies thought they could continue the 16 million+ sales year-over-year. Now 12 million sales in a year might mean a good year for a single car company.

Why bring all this up? Well, because the automakers need to justify why they deserve the $25 billion bailout up for grabs from Congress. If they can’t prove relevancy even if they get the money (thanks to no demand), then why give it to a company about to go bankrupt anyway?

Even with the discussions of Ford shedding Volvo and GM potentially dropping Buick, Pontiac and Saturn (and of course Hummer), it may not be enough to save the companies. It’s no easy task to drop a product line. Oldsmobile cost GM millions to discontinue thanks to payoffs to dealers and employees. And who wants to buy a product line so tied into GM’s other products like Buick and Pontiac? These brands don’t have much of their own unique products (except the G8), so you would be buying the factory capacity, brand awareness and, uh, debt.

The auto industry is in for some serious growing (more like shrinking) pains, and it won’t see the light of day for at least another 4-5 years. By then, maybe we’ll see a Chinese Corvette on our shores

Here’s my take:

10. BMW Comfort Access: $500-$1000. I don’t understand why it’s so expensive. Our Chevy Malibu had remote start for like $100-150 extra (even on the base model), and our VW Passat, MINI Cooper and Honda Ridgeline all roll down their windows via the key remote (just hit unlock twice and hold it down on the second press). It wasn’t an extra option at all, it just does it.

9. Porsche Customized Leather List:$365 for leather-covered vent slats: Why do you need leather on your vents? Why don’t you just ride a cow around the track?

8. Mercedes Benz Designo Interior: $12,015 for the Designo interior. Although you may think velour floor mats are ridiculous because they would get ruined with rain and snow, you’re right. But 12-large for a designer leather interior? Makes the Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer option look like a steal!

7. Mercedes-Benz Drive-Dynamic Seats: $1,820 (stand-alone). Ok, with the price of some of those home recliners at Brookstone, perhaps a massaging car seat at under 2-grand isn’t too bad. If you’re spending $80-150k on a Mercedes, what’s another $1,820 for massaging seats? If I’m not mistaken, though, these seats also have automatically inflatable side bolsters to keep you in place around turns.

6. Lexus Executive Package: $12,675 on the LS to get reclining rear seats with some extra switches in the middle console for ventilation and stereo. I test drove a used Infiniti Q45 (I think it was a 2002) a few years ago with this same package and the option only cost abotu $4,000 at the time. Why did it triple in price on a Lexus?

5. Mercedes-Benz Airscarf: Part of a $3,750 package. You know what, if you’re buying a convertible, you want to drive with that top down as long as possible, so I don’t fault people for wanting this glorified neck warmer. And I can imagine the piping required to route heated/cooled air up to the neck added a bit of engineering complexity. Granted all options are priced for profit, but I think this one is worth it for a convertible.

4. Rolls-Royce Starlight Headliner: $12,100. Stupid. Just plain stupid. I know it’s a Rolls-Royce, and buyers of this car think nothing of 12-grand, but for a twinkly, starry night on your roof-liner? C’mon, just skip it and buy me a new Honda Fit or something.

3. Maybach Granite Interior: $60,600+: Holy crap. How about just throwing a Koi pond in the trunk and call me Mr. Flashypants. It cost us $4,000 for the tons of granite in our kitchen, so why would it cost 15x more to put even less in a car? One word: consumerism and stupity. Oh, those were two words.

2. Aston Martin Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX2 DBS Transponder Watch: $37,900. I think the Maybach granite option is worse because you an at least use the watch outside of the car. You can’t even dice carrots on the granite in your car door. I never understood why people would spend more than $100 for a watch, but to each his own. But this watch doesn’t even let you start the car. You still need the key. It only lets you unlock the doors. Stupid.

1. Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Paint Packages: $500,000. The Veyron (all $1.6 million of it) is both a beautiful and ugly supercar. With the paint configurator, you can choose from hundreds of different paint schemes. Personally, I would choose either blue and white (Penn State) or, most likely, black and gold (Steelers), but then again, I probably won’t ever own one of these (even if I had the money). The most expensive option is probably the one without a paint job at all. Tack on about $500,000 to the base price for the super-exclusive Pur Sang edition. Nothing but carbon fiber-goodness and shiny black (or is it gray?). Uh, why is it more expensive to get it plain?

So overall, I don’t disagree with some of these options, but for the general public, we would never buy a Benz, Porsche, Bugatti or even a BMW. But when you have the money for a luxury or super car, then what’s a little more to set yourself apart from the others…even if the “others” can also buy the same thing that you are. Hmm, not as exclusive as you think.

Look at that photo and tell me what you see. If you’re like me, you see slightly restyled Toyota Prius. But we’d both be wrong; that’s not a Prius.

That’s the newly redesigned Honda Insight Hybrid.

Normally we hear about the Koreans copying designs from the Japanese, Americans or Germans for their new models, but now the Japanese are copying each other! Whodathunkit?

So basically Honda has restyled the Insight to no longer be super-efficient 2-door model (although from marketing shots, one should be available eventually). Rather, they’ve upgraded it to 4 doors and 5 passengers. Unfortunately, though, it sounds like it still won’t be a “true hybrid” where the car can run on the battery alone. Instead, it will continue to use Integrated Motor Assist like in the Civic to aid the electric motor at low speeds. The car will also shut off when idling as with other hybrids.

The Insight will be smaller, lighter and (hopefully) less expensive than the Civic Hybrid, but pricing isn’t out yet. The vehicle is expected to premier at the Paris auto show in October.