The great American car companies – Ford, GMC, and Chrysler have legacies rich enough, you could teach a history, economics, management, and marketing class on each one. From buying Maserati (Chrysler) to buying damn near everything (GM), there have been many hits and misses between the Big 3.

Now that the dust is slowly beginning to settle, Ford is clearly the winner. How is that possible? Technologically, Chrysler was the first to the small engine, forced induction strategy which is a ubiquitous trend in the economically challenged car industry today. Just look at any Audi, BMW, and Mercedes model. They are all offering forced induction options and even downsizing the big V8’s to force fed V6’s. Chrysler was there before any of them (at least 8 years ago).

GM has arguably the most exciting of all line ups. The new Camaro is absolutely gorgeous.  It is a bargain for the money for the V6 (300 ponies for under 25k?!) and the V8 is more powerful than Ford’s and Dodge’s comparable Mustang and Charger. GM is definitely, technologically speaking, winning the Pony car battle.  And what about the Corvette? Ford and Chrysler have no models competing with the Corvette. You would have better chance at finding an agreeable universal health care plan than performance at the price point of a Corvette.

Ford on the other hand, is just now adding forced induction into the Taurus SHO and is by far the slowest of all pony car V8’s. In early 2009, when the bankruptcy spree began and economy was centrifuging down the toilet, Ford’s stock was below $1.50. At the time of writing, Ford stock is selling just below $9. But how? Enter Ford Fusion – might as well call it Ford’s personal Jesus because it is the savior Ford needs. Hold the presses, Ford is offering a mid size car with a peppy 4 cylinder and hybrid engine option? As the Guiness guys would say, brilliant!

Well, sort of, considering Toyota executed this years ago and monopolized the mid size market with the Toyota Camry and the hybrid market with the omnipresent Prius. Even Nissan doesn’t have a hybrid but they were smart enough to borrow Toyota’s and toss it inside the Altima’s engine bay. Ford is following Toyota’s blueprint and that right there is the difference maker vs GM and Chrysler.

May the best car win, but please Fiat, keep Maserati away from Chrysler. Don’t want The Chrysler TC by Maserati-induced night terrors coming back..

The car industry today vs. back “then” is quiet different. I am not talking about the technological advances in car parts or addition of turbo or continually advancing car steering technology. I am simply talking about random, superfluous but interesting historical information about car companies. Any car nerd can appreciate random car company facts, so here goes.

-Which luxury car maker started off as a motorcycle sidecar manufacturer? Jaguar.

-The Volkswagen Beetle was a design ordered by Adolf Hitler as a “people’s car.” Which engineering firm got the contract? Porsche. In fact, a few years later when Porsche decided to start making consumer cars, guess which car became the basis of the first Porsche? Arguably, that point still stands today.

-Which sports car company started off as a tractor manufacturer? Automobilli Lamborghini.

-Lexus was launched in the US in 1989. When did Toyota launch Lexus at home in Japan? 2005.

-Which car influenced the FWD front engine design ubiquitous on the road today? Mini Cooper.

-What do Lincoln and Cadillac have in common? They were both founded by the same person, Henry Leland. He sold Lincoln to Ford and started Cadillac, which he later sold to GM.

-Which car company’s first model was built entirely on a farm? HINT: it was inspired by Jeep. Land Rover.

-Speaking of Jeep, what do the Jeep Wrangler and Hummer H1 have in common? They were made by the same company, AMC General.

-Which car company claims to have the highest profit margin? Porsche.

-Which car company does consulting for other firms, including Subaru and Harley Davidson? Porsche, again.

So I got this interesting question. What is a Ram Cylinder? Why did they even use it?

All cars were manual steering up to 1950’s. Starting in the early 1950’s, manufacturers such as Saginaw (now part of Delphi) experiemented with external valves, known as a control valve to give assist. This was extremely complicated for the time, but solved a major problem. Car Makers could not make cars much bigger because they were simply too hard to turn. Any assist would change the whole landscape.

So this setup used 4 steering parts. The steering pump uses a pulley to draw power from the engine and then pressurizes the system. The steering box that turned steering wheel movement into direction change of the vehicle. Then the control valve and ram cylinder to pressurize the wheels back and forth.

The upside is that it worked, it is much easier than manual steering. The downside was because of the number of parts and hoses, it was notoriously problematic. These are very common leakers. Starting in about 1957 with the Cadillac Deville, they introduced integral power steering. This moved all of the ram and control valve functions to inside the gearbox. This greatly helped with defectives.

I will preface this with the following statement – I like Lexus. I feel any car guy (or gal) can find a couple Lexus cars to love. Lexus has also been a serious trendsetter. It was the first luxury brand to introduce hybrid engines, the first luxury brand to introduce an 8 speed automatic transmission (yes, you read that right, EIGHT), not to mention it single handedly pioneered the “Crossover” – Lexus RX. In fact, the Germans are STILL playing catchup to all of the above mentions.

Enough of the bun on top of the criticism sandwich, lets get to the meat. Lexus recently introduced the Lexus LFA, a $350,000 “bargain” per Car and Driver. Go ahead, click it, I’ll wait.

Perplexing? It was to me. The maker of a Scion Xb wants over a quarter million dollars for a car. I don’t get it. Just thinking about the price tag alone, barring any supercar references, BMW has Rolls Royce, Mercedes has Maybach, Audi/VW has Bentley. The vanity of prestige is often used to justify these car brands’ illustrious price tags. The rich histories of Rolls, the ‘Bach, and Bent help justify it as well. Lexus has neither.

It might not be fair to compare a Bentley to a Lexus. So lets compare the market Lexus is going after, the Lamborghini and Ferrari buyers. History and prestige which, I would argue, also help justify supercars’ price tags. The two factors are (again) absent for Lexus. And the LFA is already being dubbed as an exotic? Call me old school but for me, mid (or rear) engine and exotic are synonymous. The LFA’s competition – Gallardo, R8, Porsche 911, Ferrari F430, all have engines where? That’s right, the back.

Nissan still has trouble justifying the $75k price tag for the GTR which, by the way, matches the LFA’s performance numbers to the tee. I don’t know why anyone would pay $350,000 for a Celica (R.I.P) on HGH with a Yamaha built V10. But hey, let’s only make a few hundred of these and people will buy em! Of course they will. People will buy anything. Pontiac Aztec, anyone?

—Lets play a game called LFA or Celica?