While automobility continues to thrive in this still new century, the reigning companies and the executives who run them are amidst upheavals that parallel the revolutions of the 18th. Potentially there are similar consequences – not only for automakers – but for car, truck, SUV and crossover owners and the communities they live in
Add to this the democratization of communications that are web enabled as old, establishment print and broadcast media fade, and the climate is right for an open dialogue about personal mobility and the issues surrounding it.
Thus is born AutoInformed – a web-based information service that urges critical thinking about the political, social and economic consequences resulting from the complex business of automobiles, all the while celebrating what are at heart magnificent machines at the very pinnacle of the human industrial arts.
Please join us and make your observations about the political, economic, social and environmental consequences of automobiles available to all for debate.
Ken Zino, publisher, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, media, with automobile testing, auto marketing, public relations and communications backgrounds
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms and auto company headquarters, as well as industry research and testing labs where the real work is done. He can quote from court decisions and dockets, refer to instrumented road tests, or reminiscence while citing their contemporary relevance the work of legendary auto writers such a Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or sports writers such as Red Smith, all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first fired up a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly crossed.
It is from such a perspective that AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves these magnificent transportation machines while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive growth market in the world.
Zino continues to conduct his education in public – via this format - and invites all to celebrate, to contribute, to shape the ongoing debate about automobility so that we can all be - AutoInformed.
Good stuff!
“ We can’t afford this any longer. We need to focus on four reforms that don’t require new bureaucracies to implement. 1) If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up. We can’t risk another trillion-dollar bailout. 2) If your bank’s deposits are federally insured by U.S. taxpayers, you can’t do any proprietary trading with those deposits — period. 3) Derivatives have to be traded on transparent exchanges where we can see if another A.I.G. is building up enormous risk. 4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: (Ken Zino at AutoInformed) U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from. The public needs to know ”
Well done. Now on my regular reading list.
Good to hear you. Hope all is well. I was just telling my beloved about the weekend you threw me the keys to your MG… still appreciated.
I thought that a reference by Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times op-ed page yesterday about the influence of money in politics sounded familiar.
Sure enough, the line, “U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from” is not new. I saw it for the first time anywhere in the AutoInformed website.
Friedman credits the “blogosphere” for the quote. Well, the word from AutoInformed certainly does get around.
Well, I certainly did write it, but I don’t know where Friedman saw it – or if someone else used it as well, or given the nature of blogs just used it without attribution.
In any event, here’s my original contained in Taxpayer Subsidized Ethanol Caught in Partisan Budget Battle
“The politics of ethanol, virtually all of it corn derived and therefore benefiting big money farm lobby interests, are as tangled as it gets. Taxpayers would be better off if legislators were required to wear NASCAR-style uniforms with the patches of the organizations that are their major, err, sponsors, to put it politely in “pay to play” Washington where campaign contributions from special interests determine policy not our national interests…”
Friedman was working a similar theme – click here – He said:
“…We can’t afford this any longer. We need to focus on four reforms that don’t require new bureaucracies to implement. 1) If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up. We can’t risk another trillion-dollar bailout. 2) If your bank’s deposits are federally insured by U.S. taxpayers, you can’t do any proprietary trading with those deposits — period. 3) Derivatives have to be traded on transparent exchanges where we can see if another A.I.G. is building up enormous risk. 4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from. The public needs to know…”
Thanks for bringing AutoInformed.com to the national listening audience at Car Concerns Radio USA! Two car guys talking cars…priceless!