I spent the final night of 1989 at a bowling alley. At 12 years old, my parents wanted to make that New Year’s Eve memorable and took my brothers and I midnight bowling.
I remember feeling a sense of awe that the calendar was about to switch the 1990s. It sounded so futuristic and had the potential to be the decade that would bring on the realization of a future I’d seen in the movies. I half expected to see flying cars in the sky on the ride home in those first hours of the 1990s.
Of course, all the 1990s brought us was email, the Internet and Vanilla Ice. Not a single flying car anywhere in the world.
If only the 12-year-old me from 1990 could have seen what Terrafugia has planned in the second decade of the 21st century!
Continue reading >>>
Is it our cars that make us fat, or how we choose to use them?
A great injustice has been done to our beloved automobiles.
They have become a new candidate in the never-ending quest to figure out what’s to blame for the obesity problem in this country.
It seems the obvious causes are no longer worthy of blame. What about the fact that unhealthy fast food is cheaper than natural organic food? Or our propensity to watch a lot of TV while ingesting mass quantities of nachos and Hot Pockets?
No, the real culprit for our fatness is something far more sinister.
Our cars.
Continue reading >>>
My 11-year-old son is years ahead of the times regarding police vehicles.
Since he was about 9, he’s been bewildered by the fact that most police cars are old Fords. He can’t quite grasp that those old Crown Victorias have an ample amount of scoot when needed and are pretty darn capable of getting their work done.
Almost every time he sees a police car, he says the same thing:
“Dad, why don’t police drive faster cars? If they all got Veyrons, no one would ever outrun them.”
Budgets seem to be another concept he has yet to grasp.
If he lived in Dubai, though, things would be quite different.
Continue reading >>>
Admit it—you’d want one
Peer pressure isn’t just for middle schoolers. Apparently, the pressure to follow the path of others never really goes away, and the inability say ”no” can lead to some questionable outcomes. All it takes is a decision from one trendsetter, and pretty soon everyone else is trying to do the same thing.
Today I’m thinking about Porsche as the trendsetter with the Cayenne SUV. Yes, it’s a superior and well-respected vehicle now, but when it was announced there were plenty of people who thought Porsche had gone off the deep end.
Nope. Instead, it spawned a new category of luxury road-going performance SUVs. And now Jaguar wants in.
Continue reading >>>
I remember the first time I drove a car, I was 13, and I spent hours stalling my dad’s 1984 Toyota Pickup. Over and over we drove around in that circle, my dad refusing to give up on me until I could finally master the art of the manual transmission.
Many of us probably have a similar story (okay, most were probably more gifted and were able to learn how to work the clutch in a matter of minutes, not hours), one of trying and failing until that glorious moment when you get enough (but not too much) gas to the engine and take off for that first time in first gear. It’s a story of pain and struggle, but at the same time it intensely bonded you to the person who taught you an essential life skill, and it ended with sheer joy at the point when you finally mastered the stick shift. Sadly, this experience may not be a common one for much longer.
A right of passage for many a teenager, learning how to drive stick is gradually becoming less and less common, as more and more automakers choose to discontinue production of vehicles with manual transmissions. Just this week, we received the heart-wrenching news that Porsche would no longer produce the 911 Turbo with a manual gearbox. This follows in the footsteps of Ferrari and McLaren, who dropped manual transmissions altogether in recent years, along with Mercedes-Benz and Lamborghini, who have already nixed the necessity on their superstars, the SLS AMG and Aventador. If European makers of supercars can no longer produce fun-to-drive cars with stick shifts, who will?
Continue reading >>>
Speeding is bad. Don’t do it.
That said, I know we all have been guilty of pushing the speedometer’s needle a few ticks above the posted legal limit. Most of us have even been caught and felt the adrenaline rush that comes with seeing the flashing red and blue in the rear-view mirror.
Sometimes people panic and try to talk the officer out of writing a ticket. In the few times I’ve been pulled over, I just cooperate, admit guilt, and take whatever the friendly officer decides to dish out. That strategy has worked out pretty well, as I have gotten only one ticket in my life for speeding.
The topic of speeding came up in conversation with a cop friend the other night, and he shared some funny, and common, excuses he heard during his time as a traffic cop. Learn from these, friends, and never utter the words you’re about to read.
Continue reading >>>
When photos of coming new cars are “leaked” on the Internet, there’s a good chance the manufacturer was somehow responsible. Nothing triggers blog coverage and media attention in the car industry more than photos of a yet-to-be-released new car.
Make that car the flagship sedan of a best-selling luxury brand in the United States, and odds are, the leak isn’t a mistake, but a well-orchestrated publicity grab. That’s pure conjecture, of course, but it’s what I’d do if I was in charge of marketing at a car company.
What you see above is the “leaked” image of the officially still-veiled 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Continue reading >>>
Irv Gordon’s 1966 Volvo P1800
I found myself thinking about Irv Gordon yesterday.
If you’re not familiar with the name, you will be shortly. I thought of him as I drove my aging 2004 Jaguar X-Type through the pothole-ridden streets of my city. My car has 111,000 miles on it, along with all kinds of suspension/steering clunks and a frustrating occasional loss of power due to a vacuum line problem. On most days, the car purrs like the day she was new, but the old cat has recently shown signs of distress.
Its mileage isn’t terrible for a 10-year-old car, but I don’t know what kind of repairs lie in her immediate future or how much longer we will have together.
That was my train of thought when Irv popped into my head.
Continue reading >>>
2009 Jaguar XF
Quick depreciation is a terrible thing. And a beautiful thing.
For buyers of new luxury cars, a sinking value can lead to abandoning a car after just a couple years of ownership. For buyers of used luxury cars, it can lead to some killer deals on cars that would have been unattainable new.
Think about it: If you had the choice between a brand-new, top-of-the-line Toyota Camry or a 3-year-old Jaguar XF, wouldn’t the Jag bring you an exponentially greater amount of happiness? Of course, it might also bring heftier insurance and repair bills, but that’s beside the point. We’re talking image here—and a well-priced used luxury car can provide ample amounts of that!
Continue reading >>>
A lot of people in advertising seem to think they can add instant credibility to their marketing message by adding a superlative or two to the copy.
Calling a product or service the “best” or the “biggest” or the “most” is pretty common practice, but this rarely means anything, since such labels are typically subjective marketing speak and used everywhere, all the time.
Tesla Motors posted a piece on its blog Friday announcing the “World’s Best Service and Warranty Program.” Well, that’s a mighty bold statement to make, but then again, Tesla is a pretty bold company and tends to back up what it says.
Continue reading >>>
Recent Comments