In the July issue of Car & Driver, a reader takes the editor to task for not mentioning in a story on new diesels the cars’ ability to run non-petroleum fuels. Specifically, the reader talks up used fryer grease. So-called “grease cars” seem to get media attention wherever they go, and this company is one [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2008’
Sign of the Times
“Four-Cylinder Camaro.” Now there are three words that, in a perfect world, would never come together. It’s true, though, GM is studying the “feasibility” of a 4-cylinder Camaro. It’s difficult to look at pix of the upcoming Camaro and not hear only the rumbling of an LS3 V8 through dual tailpipes. So, is GM mad [...]
Geo Metro: Hotter than a Shelby
Right now, it looks like the three hottest cars on eBay are the Dodge Challenger SRT, the Shelby GT500KR Mustang and … a 10-year-old Geo Metro. Paying seven grand for an old Metro to save on gas sounds self-defeating, don’t you think? Here’s why I think Metros are hot on eBay: people don’t know there [...]
Fireball
People ask me about a photo I use on my bio page and in some marketing materials. It’s me in my first car, a Fireball pedal car that I received for Christmas in 1967. My father and uncle assembled it on Christmas Eve, just in time for Santa to park it under the tree. Made [...]
Small Car, Big Fun
Do MINI drivers have more fun? After participating in a dealer’s road rally in May, I’d say so. Prestige MINI of Mahwah, N.J. marked its sixth anniversary by hosting a road rally along scenic roads of New York’s Orange and Rockland Counties. Prestige hosts 4-to-6 such events a year rather than using conventional advertising. I [...]
Worst Case Scenario
Back in February, I interviewed Edmunds.com Senior Editor and Green Car Advisor John O’Dell for a story on Honda’s “sustainable mobility” initiatives. The article, entitled “Wheels of Destiny,” published in the spring issue of AIADA’s Auto Dealer magazine. O’Dell said that the reason so many American car buyers do not purchase for best fuel efficiency [...]
Busting Romney’s Packard Myth
While writing a speech for Mike Kunz, manager of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, Calif., I unintentionally stirred up an old Packard controversy. You don’t hear those two words come together too often, now do you? And no, it had nothing to do with Mercedes-Benz getting its big break in the U.S. market when [...]
