It was cloudy last night, the wind was blowing pretty hard, and it threatened to rain. And then there was the weather outside. Yes, Volkswagen put on its best show face in Brooklyn for the unveiling of the 2016 Passat on Monday evening, a tough act for U.S president and CEO Michael Horn. I heard one guy joke that maybe it should have been held in a St. Patrick's confession booth, with the Roman Pontiff himself behind the screen.

Traditional automakers are facing an insurgency. Google and Apple aren't playing tablet games.

YouTube is critical to auto campaigns. Digital video content supports launch creative and sustains the campaign over weeks and months. But who's watching what? From the perspective of sheer volume, very few are watching official content on automaker channels.

"A buzzard took a monkey for a ride in the air," as the song goes. That story doesn't end well. But it could be about the mutual choke hold between technology and record numbers of auto recalls over the past year, most having to do with Takata airbags, and many having to do with safety technology in general.