I do love the whole story arc of this commercial though. Obviously the blond in the Ferrari is turned on by the guy who took a picture of her and then turned the picture into a Andy Warhol painting on his rims. I mean, how did sexual attraction work before these were invented? I fear I might never get laid because my car does not have these rims… or because the car doesn’t exist.

So what do you do then? Well, turns out they had it right the first time around, when they merged with TechTV and became G4TechTV. I would watch The Screensavers all the time. I love that they had Call for Help helping with people’s questions live on the air, I found it so interesting and so educational that even though I’d rather be doing something else, I would sit down and tune to it, or I would just have it in the background… More than ESPN even.

After the the dust settled. G4TechTV dropped the TechTV from their name, and went to a video game only format. Everybody that left went on to do great things on the online space. Kevin Rose, while now better known for DIGG, has quite a following through Twitter and his weekly podcast Diggnation. His co-host in Diggnation, Alex Albrecht, has a plethora of different podcasts on the Revision3 network. From The Screensavers, Leo Laporte has This Week In Tech and Patrick Norton has Veronica Belmont co-host with him in Tekzilla. Hell, even Sarah Lane got a show, Pop Siren.

You know what’s sad? I watch all of these shows in a consistent basis. These are the shows that you have to watch if you want to be in the ‘geekeratti’. I also listen to 1UpYours on Fridays, a weekly audio podcast from the editors of 1Up.com that give me as much as I need to know about video games. This is what the new G4 TechTV should have been, this is what it should be. Geeks talking to geeks about geeky things. Sure, eyecandy is great and most models can read at a 6th grade level but I’d rather take Veronica Belmont talking about Rockband any day of the week.

The newly updated format includes a section called ‘G4 Rewind’ that basically plays old episodes of their programs in a ‘Pop-Up Video’ format. Which is ok but really not enough. Here is what I would do:

1. Get into some kind of partnership with Revision3, republish some episodes on TV or get some original content from Rev3 on the network on a regular basis.

2. Give whoever wants their show back… their show back. I think Leo Laporte might be a bit too comfortable now days with the TWiT army, but hopefully a revitalized Screensavers might peak his interest.

3. Whatever you do, DO NOT take X-Play off the air. It’s one of the only shows that is good on the network.

4. Make Attack of the Show a prime time show, make day shows be a show like Call for Help and another like The Screensavers, this will balance out the programming.

5. Get rid of all the car shows and automotive competition shows. If necessary, make them about technology in cars or cars of the future. I really never understood why a channel about video games or technology always has drifting on… If dropping automotive racing is not possible, get the WRC back on American TV. PLEASE.

6. Get Can’t Get A Date from Logo. They ruined that show making it only about homosexual relationships, this can be more balanced with people who have problems through all ages/races/orientations and G4 would benefit from this.

My whole idea here is that if you have the geeks watching, the less tech-savvy people will notice and will also watch for all their tech questions. Then again, what do I know. I dont watch G4 anymore.

The Taurus was plagued with transmission problems that were so common, they should have placed them in the brochure. I remember these clearly since every time we had to go to the garage I would believe this was my fault because I had picked out this car. My grandmother picked it over the Volvo my father suggested, and that was a vote of confidence in me. I had let my family down by having picked a Ford. I was not going to make that mistake again.

I have since owned a Volkswagen Golf, a Volkswagen Jetta and a Subaru Impreza. I have not really considered any American made car in a while, because honestly they all disappoint. The car that I picked out for my grandmother was not the car I got, it was plagued with problems and pieces ungluing. The Volkswagens were both great in that regard, I had a few problems, but mostly minor. A gas pump issue once, and an electrical issue with the back window. The Impreza was just great fun, the interiors had a plasticky feel, but I bought the car for the engine and all wheel drive. Which I still dream about today.

These cars were cars that when I saw them, I could see what was good about them. I could think, wow, this car looks good and is affordable. This car is something I would love to have outside my house. It has been years since I have had that feeling with an American car. Every time I see a new concept model that looks good, I can’t help but to think to myself “I can’t wait to see what kind of watered down garbage that will turn out to be.”

I understand that I may not be the demographic that American manufacturers may be after but the fact is the American automotive industry is in trouble. General Motor’s market cap is now just above $3 billion. Meanwhile the German Volkswagen AG has a market cap of $185 billion. Somehow Volkswagen has kept its value and has continued to do well in the marketplace after all these years while General Motors has found itself between a rock and a hard place. ( The ‘rock’ in this figure of speech is not a nod to Chevy trucks. )

It’s all come down to how they have presented their products. At one point you would buy a car by its brand. You wouldn’t want a luxury car, you’d want a Cadillac. This is now apparently only true in the world of Hip-Hop. The fact is that there is no reason why GM has 12 brands, and out of those 8 are marketed in the United States. There is no reason why the Saturn SKY has to compete against the Pontiac Solstice. There really is no difference amongst the two Kappa Platform based cars, even their price points are basically the same.

I mention these Kappa Platform cars because I happen to find them appealing, in that they can be a poor man’s Lotus Elise. But they were obviously going after those who bought the Mazda Miata. Which were the same people who later bought the Toyota MR-2. Both cars, great sellers in the US. Instead of GM trying to create a successor to those cars, GM tried to create a competitor. It’s the shortcoming where you don’t try that extra mile. Where you just want to do what is out there and is selling well. That is hurting American cars.

Ford had been working on hybrid technologies for years. Which never came to fruition. Then in 2004 when “hybrid” became the new black they licensed the technology from Toyota. It took about 2-3 years for Ford to develop it’s own hybrid technology, which it quickly used to get a whole 5 more MPG out of their Ford Escape. GM did the same offering hybrid Yukons. They are just following the trend, and even then, they are trying to make the trend follow the path that they have been cornered into. A Hybrid GMC Yukon makes no sense whatsoever and the slow sales have shown that.

Which brings me to my second point. Picking what car to bring to market because of research of focus groups does not work. This is what happened to the Pontiac Aztek, I’m sure behind that ugly facade something wonderful hid. I hope somebody found it because that car was just horrible. It was a car that you’d have to just think about how practical it is because it was just not appealing in any other way.

Get some good designers and try and keep that vision throughout the manufacturing process. If you go back and check what the Aztek’s concept looked like all the lines were rounded and had a very nice stance to it. The final product looked like a crushed Trans-Am. If you don’t trust your designers, fire them. I don’t want to see any more good concepts ruined because somebody from upper management who has no idea about design didn’t like something and ordered it to be changed. In fact, there’s a The Simpsons episode about that. A completely outrageous car made to look quite interesting and appealing through design, Homer crosses it out and makes it a 50s car with a bubble sticking out in the middle of it.

The way to make money in today’s market is to have a brand people know. Have that brand be something people can believe in how reliable it is and stand behind that brand 110%. The days of scattershot car selling are over. People are now actually trying to save money and still get a quality car, some will even pay premiums.

I think GM, Ford and Chrysler can still do this, if they start trying to lead and leave the competing to the other guys.

Paraphrasing from Jack Smith (CEO of GM from 1992 through 2000)  “We’re not in the business of making cars, we’re in the business of making money.”