Car Club Blog

My Google Alerts picked up review by Laura Nielson of Cool Hunting. She posted about a car rental company in the Big Apple with a great niche.

Called Geniusride, the company rents Smart cars in NYC, a city with a large number of environmentally-conscious people and a legendary shortage of parking. The Smart’s tiny size certainly would make parking in tight spots easier.

Geniusride must be doing something right because they have 52 of the cute Smart Cars in their rental fleet. They have both hardtop and Cabrio Smarts.

Their pricing starts at $80-a-day, and they have taken a page from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car playbook in that they will deliver your Smart rental car to you.

Each of their rental Smart cars also comes standard with a Tom Tom GPS, which would definitely make negotiating the mean streets of NYC a bit easier.

I suspect that Geniusride is going to be a very successful small business because they are one of very few car rental companies that are renting Smart cars. Because the buzz surrounding the Smart caused so many pre-orders, Smart has not had to sell any cars to rental fleets at a discount. Depending on the region of the United States, the wait for a Smart can be between 9 months and a year.

Geniusride assembled their fleet of Smarts by finding orphaned cars at Smart dealers. Even if demand for the micro car slackens because of lower gas prices, I suspect a lot of New Yorkers who are on the Smart waiting list or considering joining it—will be willing to part with $80 to get an extended test drive in the Smart.

“People looking to drive our exotic cars prior to making a six figure purchase makes up a fair number of Dallas TX exotic car rentals we get every month,” said DFW Elite Auto Rental.com General Manager Tom Warren. “I suspect the same would hold true of a company like Geniusrides, especially since they are renting a car that’s desirable with a long waiting list.”

I think the Smart cars are wickedly cool and have been curious to drive one ever since I read about them. The first one that I saw was when I was travelling. I spotted a yellow Smart at my favorite Fort Worth 5 star restaurant.

At any rate if you share my enthusiasm for the Smart, Geniusride in NYC can help get you behind the wheel of one for an extended test drive on your next visit to the Big Apple. Hook up with them at http://www.Geniusride.com. They have even added a Prius and other hybrids to their fleet in the event that you need a car rental with more passenger room.

There is a great deal of bad news filling the newspapers. The Big 3 automakers have come– hybrids in hand — to Congress. Eventually, if all goes according to their plan, some uninformed and totally unqualified people will be telling automakers which cars they need to build.

Think Hybrid Pontiac Aztec…

Seeing the Congress run the auto companies for the benefit of the UAW will probably turn out almost as well as its effort to tell mortgage companies which borrowers to approve for mortgages in Tampa, FL.

Best Home Based Business Winners Announced

Amidst all this foolishness about businesses that are “too big to fail,” Start Up Nation has announced some good news about the American economy, specifically the have announced the winners of their annual contest to recognize the top Home Based businesses in the US of A.

The contest winners remind us that American entrepreneurs are still doing great things without ever looking for government guaranteed loans or a Congressional bailout.

Expert Help For American Entrepreneurs from Ron Sturgeon

For current small business owners looking for advice about how to grow a small business profitably, I recommend a book by Fort Worth small business consultant Ron Sturgeon entitled How to Salvage Millions from Your Small Business.

In his plainspoken and direct way, Ron shares the lessons learned during a 30-year career starting, building, buying, turning around, and selling businesses.

Read it and apply the principles, and Start up Nation may be telling your story of business success when the pick winners next year.

Learn more about Ron at http//www.MrMissionPossible.com

Carbon Motors, a car manufacturer located in Atlanta, Georgia wants to lure the business of municipal, state, and federal level police car business away from the (formerly) big boys of the car business. And they have a compelling argument.

For years, one of the biggest problems with police vehicles is that they are really just consumer vehicles with a great deal of modifications and upgrades. The approach taken by Carbon Motors in their E7 model is to roll a ready-made police cruiser right off of the assembly line.

“You would never send a pickup truck to go put out a fire,” stated Carbon’s CEO William Santana Li. “Why would you send a family sedan to go take care of a homeland-security issue?” Not a bad point.

The Carbon Motors E7 also boasts some features that are just plain cool. For example, the E7 will be equipped with aerodynamic lights built into the body of the car, the back seat will be completely sealed off from the front seat, and the E7 will boast a diesel engine that travels from zero to sixty in 6.5 seconds while burning less fuel and emitting forty percent less carbon dioxide than traditional police cruisers.

Additionally, Carbon Motors hopes that its operations will create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. over the next 20 years. Not a bad carrot in the current economic climate. Lovers of exotic and cars will no doubt love the Knight Rider-esque E7.

Just don’t get too carried away driving exotic cars in Dallas Fort Worth, or pushing a Dallas Lamborghini rental past the red line or you may find a Carbon Motors E7 in your rear view mirror with its lights flashing.

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me do SEO web writing for you or seeing my portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.

I will admit that I was always one of those obnoxiously curious kids.  You know, the type that would wonder aloud why the Road Runner seemed unaffected by gravity yet the Coyote always seemed to fall to his doom.

Well, one of my difficult-to-answer questions posed to my parents was why Santa still used a sleigh and reindeer.  I’m sure this made sense back in the day, but surely new technology has produced some better sled for Santa.

Well, it seems that I may have been right.  Santa was seen recently tooling around Manhattan on a new Can-Am Spyder motorcycle.  And if you haven’t seen these things, you may want to put one on your wish list or include the request in your Santa letter this year.

The whole idea behind the Can-Am Spyder is simple performance.  Simple in that the Spyder has three wheels for easy balance and all of the shifting is conducted with one hand as opposed to using a foot clutch like most motorcycles.  The three wheels aren’t in the familiar configuration of one in the front and two in the back.  Instead, two wheels are in the front with one in the back.

The transmission even sports an automatic downshifting feature that reduces stalls as you come to a stop on the Spyder.  The problem with the Spyders to date is that it can be a bit tricky to find a dealer.  They hope to increase availability of the Spyders within the next two to three years.

By all accounts, the Spyder is worth the search for exotic motorcycle and automotive fans.  And coming in at under $20,000, it won’t do too much damage to your bottom line in the process.

Certainly all those who enjoy renting a 2009 Audi R8 in DFW would love a ride on something as cool as the Can Am Spyder. It probably won’t be long before exotic car clubs or even motorcycle sharing clubs add vehicles like the Can Am Spyder to their rosters of vehicles available to members.

Anyone who enjoys the top down thrills of driving a Porsche 911 Cabriolet would probably love a spin on the Spyder. Does anyone know when we might see them on the streets of DFW?

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me do professional website copywriting for you or seeing my portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.

Recently, however, the Chevy Malibu hybrid has received some notoriety. GM CEO Rick Waggoner announced that he would make the drive from Detroit to Washington, D.C. in a Chevy Malibu hybrid.

Why make this trip? Well, there are about 25 billion reasons to do so. This move is undoubtedly intended to make up for the poor PR judgment exhibited by the Big 3 executives who, on their first trip to D.C. to ask for a loan, elected to travel in separate private jets.

Hmmm, executives exhibiting bad judgment want taxpayer money to continue their operations? I’ll leave you, the informed reader, to work that out. What a pleasure it will be to see the Congress people who were so successful at telling every Florida mortgage company which loans to make, now attempt to tell auto executives which cars to build. Yeah, that’ll work.

Similarly, Ford Executive Alan Mullaly is said to be driving a Ford Escape hybrid to D.C. As of now the Chrysler representative hasn’t made his plans known (Just for fun, he should drive a Dodge Viper and give the limp wristed global warming crowd something to prattle on about).
Whether any of this PR leads to an auto industry bailout, it is clear that hybrid and other fuel efficient technologies appear to be the future of auto making.

“There are some very exciting exotic cars coming from places like Ronn Motor Company. The promise of better than Ferrari acceleration from electric cars has many sports car fans interested in alternative cars—both for their potential environmental aspects and because they will be fun to drive,” said the Dallas exotic car rental executive.

While waiting for the arrival of new greener technology, Warren shared that some great exotic cars are available to drive today at DFW Elite Auto Rental.com in Fort Worth. Recent arrivals include a gorgeous 2009 Audi R8 rental in red with black carbon fiber side blades. For complete details on driving a dream car, call 817.838.7368 or visit http://www.dfweliteautorental.com. The R8 is available for delivery nationwide.

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me do web copy writing for you or seeing my portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.

Tom Warren knows a little bit about traveling in style. Warren is GM of three businesses that cater to clients who love driving the finest exotic cars.

Warren manages an exotic car club (http://www.dfwelitecarclub.com) that offers drive time in more than 20 exotic cars to club members. Their latest addition: a 2009 Audi R8!

This DFW car sharing club spares members the expense of direct ownership but not the thrill of driving a variety of coveted sports cars. No large up front fees, and a five to one member to car ratio.

Tom is also GM of a company that offers exotic car tours (http://www.dfwdriveyourdream.com) where participants speed through Texas roadways sampling 5 exotic cars for half or full-day excursions.

But despite the depth and breadth of his exotic car inventory, Tom can’t help you fly to your destination. “No, all of our automobiles stay on the ground. They may eat up a lot of asphalt in a short amount of time, but lift-off isn’t in the cards,” admits Warren.

For that you’ll need to check out the Moller M400 Skycar.

Moller seek to change the way we all view personal transportation. For years Moller has been in the business of developing personal vertical take of and landing (VTOL) vehicles.

Generally, the idea is that, eventually, you could simply walk out to your driveway, hop in your VTOL vehicle and jet off to, say, New Orleans for lunch and New York City for dinner and be home in time for the evening news.

Admittedly, there are technological and regulatory hurdles that have yet to be overcome. However, Moller intends to have a fully functional prototype of the M400 Skycar in the air by 2012 and for sales to begin within a few years thereafter.

Apparently, this idea is attractive to some consumers. Even with an initial estimated price tag of $500,000—a company spokesperson claims to have over 100 reservations for the FAA certified models.

The Moller M400 Skycar isn’t meant to function as a car, but rather as a personal aircraft. The M400 tops out at 35 MPH on the ground.

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me write stories for you or seeing my website copy writing portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.

November auto sales are, unfortunately doing nothing but worsening the current crisis facing American auto makers. Early numbers show that the overall auto sales numbers are down approximately 28% from last November. 

While most of the negative news is coming out of Detroit, foreign car manufacturers aren’t doing much better.

In fact, Honda has seen a bigger than the average decline. Reports indicate that the Japanese auto maker’s November sales are down over 30% for cars and over 32% for trucks. The one glimmer of hope for Honda appears to be the Honda Pilot – a model that increased sales in November by 4.5%. 
Making all of this worse for domestic auto makers is the fact that this news comes immediately following their highly publicized failed attempt to convince the Congress that the Big Three need a dose of corporate welfare.

Ford appears to be the hardest hit of the domestic auto makers. November sales fell by 30% from year ago levels. None of Ford’s lines had positive numbers. The best appears to be Ford’s Lincoln brand, which only fell by 8% while Volvo brand fell 47% from a year ago sales levels. 
Many higher-end brands are feeling the pinch of the economic slowdown in ways never before seen. In the past, high-end shoppers were often immune from such downturns and continued purchasing their exotic cars of choice.

But now, it appears that even high end shoppers are getting hit. “[W]e suspect that November was just as bad as October because people on Wall Street and in the banks are still losing their jobs,” stated Rebecca Lindland, an IHS Global Insight analyst. 

But there are other alternatives to buying for those who love the experience of driving exotic cars.

“Our businesses thrive by putting car buffs behind the wheel of exotic cars they never thought they would be allowed to drive,” claims DFW Drive Your Dream GM Tom Warren. Warren manages three businesses which provide access to some of the top performance cars on the road.

• DFW Elite Car Club (http://www.dfwelitecarclub.com) is an exotic car club where members (individual or corporate accounts) can access the club’s garage of exotic cars for as little as $750 per month.
• DFW Elite Auto Rental (http://www.dfweliteautorental.com) allows customers to rent exotic automobiles for special occasions and business events. The company attracts clients from across the United States and delivers cars nationwide. Check the website weekly internet exotic car rental specials
• DFW Drive Your Dream (http://www.dfwdriveyourdream.com) offers half and full-day exotic car tours where participants get to drop the hammer on five exotic cars on Dallas Fort Worth TX’s most scenic roadways. Exotic car tours are also offered in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, TX.

So if that six-figure price tag is a little daunting, there are other ways to get yourself behind the wheel of a dream car that don’t involve a mortgage professional. If only for a few hours.

Perhaps 2009 will produce some auto sales figures that will be better news for the Big Three and other struggling auto makers worldwide. We can all hope so.

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me write stories for you or seeing my web copywriting portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.