Q. I hear the Ford Mustang is far outselling its old rival, the Chevrolet Camaro, this year. Is this correct? That doesn’t seem right. — H.C. (via Internet) 

A. The Mustang is winning. It had registered sales of 48,362 cars for the first seven months this year—down from 50,814 in the same year-ago period. The Camaro was far behind the Mustang with sales of 29,551 units in the first seven months—off considerably from 41,280 cars a year ago. 



Q. Why is Ford Motor Co. in a slump? Its stock price is way down and hasn’t been up for quite some time. There’s even talk it will cut its annual dividend. — E.M. (via Internet)

A. Here’s a clue: The happiest I’ve ever seen Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford at an auto show was when he was grinning after jumping on an electric bicycle a few years ago and driving it off stage during a media presentation at the Detroit Auto Show. He seems more interested in transporting people from one place to another in various ways and not necessarily in cars, unless they are driverless cars. His relatively new second-in-command is a guy from the steel furniture business. On the other hand, Bill Ford’s cousin, Edsel Ford, long has been an auto and race car fan but has a top Ford Motor financial post. One wonders how well Ford, which is dropping most passenger car models, would do headed by Edsel, who has, as they used to say of car fans, “gasoline in his blood.” 



Q. Would you buy Tesla stock? — G.R. (via Internet)

A. I don’t gamble. 



Q. How well is Maserati doing in America? It once was regarded as almost as exotic as Ferrari. — J.P. (via Internet)

A. Not terribly well, but better than I expected. Total Maserati sales for the year through July were 6,513 units, compared with 7,783 in the same year-ago period. Ferrari sold 1,379 cars in the first seven months, but its models are far more expensive than Maserati’s and are harder to get. 

Q. How is Alfa Romeo doing in America? Its few models are relatively new here, but have gotten plenty of advertising support. Alfa is a fairly affordable exotic high-performance Italian car, but I suspect many Americans don’t really know about it because it left the U.S. market for years. — D.G. (via Internet)

A. The fun-to-drive, sexy Alfa was the most desirable car to own in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe and did especially well in racing. Even Enzo Ferrari was heavily associated with it before World War II. It began offering sexy American cars in the early 1950s but left after several decades before returning fairly recently. It’s doing generally well for a reasonably affordable high-performance Italian car. It sold 14,281 units here in the first seven months this year, although the automaker must improve quality if it hopes to continue upward progress in America.



Q. I’m considering the purchase of a 1964 Chevy Corvair turbocharged Spyder model. I thought it had 160 horsepower, but an engine decal says it has 180 horsepower. What’s up?  — D.M. (via Internet)

A. The 1960s Corvairs have become a nifty inexpensive collector car. The 1962-64 turbocharged Corvairs had a rated 150 horsepower. The 1965-66 turbo Corvairs had 180 horsepower.  You’re best off with a non-turbo four-carburetor Corvair model because it runs better and is less troublesome. They’re fairly quick, with 140 horsepower. One problem with Corvairs is that you need hard-to-find mechanics to correctly work on them. Even when they were new, Chevy mechanics didn’t want to work on Corvairs because they weren’t a conventional front-engine, liquid-cooled Chevrolet, like all the automaker’s other models.. Corvairs had rear-mounted, air-cooled engines, like  a Porsche.



Q. Is it true that Enzo Ferrari, who founded the Ferrari auto company in the late 1940s, called Jaguar’s first E-Type (called the “XK-E” in America) the most beautiful sports car he’s ever seen? — M.P. (via Internet)
 
A. That’s what Ferrari reportedly—and surprisingly—said after that Jaguar’s introduction the early 1960s. While the XK-E was gorgeous, it was a thoroughly British car and Enzo was fiercely Italian. Also, his company built some of the world’s most beautiful road autos and racing cars.




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