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Ten of each.
The ten worst and the ten most improved
vehicles of this decade so far.


Boiling frog syndrome.
Which electric car manufacturers will jump
out when the water gets too warm?


Al Gore-The next Madoff?

Gore’s societal plan and his investment plan are
indistinguishable and straightforward:
He wants to make fossil fuels uncompetitive and
renewable energy competitive by convincing
governments to punishingly tax fossil-fuel technologies
through mechanisms such as cap and trade.
In the process, Gore intends to make money at
every stage of this transformation


Run flat tires.
A complete and utter failure.

Electric cars: A clear and present danger:
EVs are little more than vanity items for elitists
who will happily let up to fifteen other Americans waste
2,610 gallons of gas per year so that they can save
 462 gallons by driving a "100% green car."


Cars that burn more money than fuel.


MINIME
How's the electric MINI doing, out there in the big bad world?


Latest study:
Diesel drivetrains have much quicker p
ayback times
than hybrids
.

Build your own racing car.
Not that difficult - apparently.

European reliability experience.
Annual cost of repair once out of warranty.

The mysteries of traffic flow - why and how congestion occurs.
Do drivers respond more positively to measures that help them
to drive faster (anti-skid brakes), or to those that reduce injuries (airbags)?

Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Electric vehicles will still leave America at the mercy of foreigners.
They just won't be Arabs.


Cars that don't need a driver.

Slowly, but surely, you're being weened away
from the idea of doing your own driving.

Super Seven.

No, not the Lotus.
But seven car companies that are increasing their sales
in an otherwise depressed market.


Got an
iPhone 3GS?
Don't leave it in your car, or it may turn pink and explode!

Flying cars.
Will remain as an unreachable pipe dream forever.

DIY car repairs.
Changing a headlight bulb,
or even your own oil,
is no longer a simple process.


The Tesla Car Company - The business plan.
Oh, there is one?

Car washes
Washing cars is now a $15 billion industry.
And the big chains are getting into the act.
Are they any better than your local splash and dash?


A road trial of the "luxury" TATA Nano.
Coming soon to a Chrysler showroom near you?

Auto leases
Some dealers are starting to offer  them again.
As ever, the number crunching is vital before a decision is made.


Some summertime questions for long distance driving.


Worlds fastest car - 1000 MPH.
Some eccentric boffins and some very brave men,
 think it can be done.

Floppers
Vehicles that should have been strangled at birth.

Another embarassing failure.
GM pulls the plug on its' rather pathetic hybrids.


Heads in the sand.
Ah, the politicians.
They'd rather let a third of the world starve,
than admit that they've got it all wrong.


Gadgets and wizardry
As the recession bites, it's surprising how many consumers have
figured out that the more stuff you have on your car,
the more stuff you have that costs too much
and WILL, inevitably, go wrong.


Four square auto sales.

The latest gimmick to create consumer confusion
when buying a new car.


Public transport.
Nowhere NEAR as green as you might think. 

Horsepower.

As the pointy headed treehuggers move us away from
horsepower towards  kilowatts, we need to remember
what that horsepower has given us.


President Obama: "If you are considering buying a car,
I hope it will be an
American car."
OK, now you need to know what that means and what pitfalls might await you.

The times, they are a'changin'

How long before Walmart has cars for sale in aisle 5?

Why GM won't survive.

Clue: It's the friggin' union, again.

40 Km extension cord not included.
Some practical Canadian aspects of the electric car.

More fuelishness.

Lemonaid.
Cheques for warranty claims against bankrupt
Chrysler are bouncing.
The advice? The line starts over there.

Socialism at work
Venezuela, a country of contradictions:
A place where gasoline is cheaper than water
and where your car increases in value as it gets older.



Not an icicle in hells' chance of survival.

Last month, Consumer Reports recommended 166 models
 -- not one of them a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep.

Cash for clunkers.
At first, car sales rocket - then reality sets in.

Saturation.
Even when North America was a 20 million unit market,
compared with 8 million today, worldwide manufacturing capacity
had an excess of 25%.
Some sobering numbers for what might happen next.


History repeats itself.

Chrysler is in love with small cars - again.
 
Sergio Marchionne
- Man of the moment.

Napoleon invaded Russia with disastrous results.
Let's hope that this modern version, as he invades America
Chrysler, doesn't end up the same way.

 
Happy fiftieth birthday, old chum.

The law of unintended consequences.
Hard to believe, but the new fuel economy rules from Obama
will actually encourage the production of more big cars and trucks.


Sentimental reveries.

In the years to come, when we are all reduced to driving pods
powered by compressed air, controlled by computer and
monitored by a police surveillance system,
 we'll look back on some of the cars we have
now with very fond memories.


All Those Beautiful Jobs From “Clean” Energy? Yeah, right!


The Toyota Prius has a death wish and it wants to take you with it.

Clean energy has a dirty litle secret: It's expensive.
Why Quebec Hydro should start building more dams right now.

Both Evil AND Wrong.

Not Evil Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria.
This film presents a devastating account of the shaky
foundations and hefty price of Mr. Gore’s brand of self-interested
and hypocritical alarmism.


Morgan Car Company - 100 years later.

A car company that is back ordered for 18 months
can't be doing much wrong.

World Car of the Year 2009.

Pontiac G3-Won't somebody,
ANYBODY, please adopt me?


Prius Pathos.
High priced hybrid sales fall off a cliff.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world
- especially in the auto industry.


The MINI bubble may be bursting.

Sabotage by laid off workers and competition
from lower priced competitors may bring the

high flying MINI down to earth.

Saturn in the rear view mirror.
A good idea gone disastrously wrong.

Electric cars.
The head of VW says electric cars are about
20 years away from becoming a reality.
In the words of the traffic cop in the movie,
The Worlds' Fastest Indian; "Yeah, that sounds about right"


Global warming hits a speed bump.
One of the toughest problems in climate science is
identifying the difference between natural variability
and human-induced change, if in fact any really exists.


Doomed to failure.

If Fords' experience is anything to go by, a Chrysler
attempt at adopting and modifying FIAT designs just won't work.


The Ice Age Cometh.
If you're wondering why winter is getting colder,
then you must have missed the news this week.


Used car advice.

There's never been a better time.


2008 may be looked back on as the year when there was a
turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made
global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America
have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures
ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace,
the tide has turned in three significant respects.


Gasoline engines: Not dead yet, not by a long shot.

Homogenous-charge compression-ignition, or HCCI.
The technology is believed capable of providing as much as a 30%
boost in fuel economy by burning gas faster at lower temperatures,
 reducing some of the energy lost during the combustion process.


The T25
Seats four and goes like a bomb. An ex Formula One designer thinks he has the answer.

Absolute folly.
Alternatively fuelled vehicles are not Detroit’s potential saviour;
they are an expensive and pointless distraction
driven by fear and greed.


Hybrid Cadillac Escalade.
It costs $15000 more and doesn't deliver
any advantage except a greener image.


Car production.

When the car factories start humming again,
it won't be here so much.
They'll be run by the men from BRIC.


Favourites of 2008

There's some really good cars languishing
on the showroom floors.
But then, there's also some you might want to avoid.

Hello, Detroit. Is anyone listening?

You don't necessarily need dazzling technology
to make a buck in a competitive market.
You do need an inexpensive, safe, reliable car
that can appeal to the masses.

The "BRIC" countries will take up the slack

No wonder that all the big carmakers are fighting like rats
in a sack to win the largest piece of the action.


King of the Hill
If there is a company in the world that is likely to emerge from
the current mess in better shape than it went in, it's Toyota.

It has the equivalent of $28-billion in cash reserves.


Wilsons' War
The Environment Minister for Ireland thinks that global warming
is a crock and a huge waste of public money.

Compact cars in the USA.

Those who tried and failed are long gone.

Electric cars - a dead end.

France buries a a very pessimistic report
on the future of all-electric cars.


Formula One.
In 2008, each point won by a team cost $4.5 million!
New rules for 2009, including Cosworth standard engines,
are an attempt to reduce these costs.


Hybrid batteries.
The latest situation. Some good news and some not so good news.

Too many car brands, too few buyers.
Why "George W" got it all wrong (again).

Friends in high places.

Cerberus got Chrysler for nothing
and now wants a $6 billion bail out.
How do they get away with this bare faced effrontery?

Formula One. Honda's gone, who's next?

Premium Auto Group (Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover)
"PAG should have been a success, but it turned into a
complete cockup; both strategic and tactical
."


Brockbank.- a Christmas gift idea.

If I have to trace back my lifelong interest in motors and motoring,
it probably started when I got a book of  Russell Brockbank
cartoons for Christmas.
Who could have known that I would end up where he was born
and he would be such a huge success in England?


Battery powered cars: The epitome of arrogant extravagance.

SAAB as saviour?
According to Bloomberg News,
if Red Ink Rick Wagoner could stop blinking for a minute,
he'd see that the future lies with SAAB, not Pontiac or Chevrolet.


"The love of cars never outweighs the love of money"
Signs of the times:
Vintage cars that should never have been for sale
are showing up at auctions - priced to sell.


The tip of the iceberg.
Is Hondas' withdrawal from F1 only the beginning?


Should you buy an American car right now?

Changing direction
It's very hard to change car designs so easily.
Which is why the American auto industry needs time
- something it just doesn't have.


A new broom sweeps clean.
And it's broom time in the motor city.

Eleven bad ideas fom the car industry in 2008.

Straws in the wind.

If Obama bails out Detroit, we'll know that they
changed the colour, but not the stripes.

Speed cameras don't help save lives.

There are speed cameras on every street corner.
Sidewalks are fenced off from the roads.
There are more underpasses and foot bridges.
Autoroutes are safer. Road surfaces are more grippy.
Tyres are much better.
Antilock brakes and air bags have been introduced.
And none of this is making the slightest bit of difference
to the number of people being killed. Why?

What price now, luxury cars?
"Suddenly an ordinary life with an ordinary car
and mortgage seems a whole lot more attractive than it did
when I was a master of the universe." 


Climate change.
Six irrefutable truths you won't hear from the Econazis.

Consumers Reports 2008- latest conclusions.

Ford is the American make of choice, otherwise - no big surprises.

Hypermiling.
If you believe what some people tell you about their fuel economy,
you may also be eligible to buy Ballard or Bre-x shares too!

Chrysler's dead. Long live Chrysler.
Forget the GM buy out, or up.
If you've got a couple of billion you don't need,
you could get in on the action.


Engine damage from water ingress.

Too easy, too often - a lesson to be learned

Performance winter tires.

Why the best cost so much and what they can do for you.

Misers in disguise.

You don't have to be miserable in an Aveo just to save gas..

Oil price futures.

Every now and then someone writes a column that
sums the situation up with great perspicacity.
This is one of them


Chevrolet Volt.
The Volt is about as relevant to the survival of GM,
much less to the world, as Paris Hilton is to the future
of Western civilization. 


Farmers' Almanac.

"If human beings were not contributing to global warming,
it would become really cold in the next 50 years."


No activity from the sun!
Start using carbon based energy folks,
otherwise, we may well be in trouble!


Pay as you drive.

Back out of your driveway, and a satellite picks up on you,
measures how far you drive and sends you a bill.
Impossible future? Not really, it's happening in the UK right now!


Seven reasons(?) to buy a Prius
- and another six to tell you why you shouldn't.


$199 A MONTH - STILL AVAILABLE,

If you don't give a damn, what you drive.

Uh, oh. Obama
Nancy Pelosi was taken aback to discover that
natural gas was, indeed, a dino fuel.
And it seems dear old Barack doesn't understand
much about basic engineering either.


The Citroen 2CV

If the rumoured economic perils continue as advertised,
one can see the 2CV, or something like it, making a comeback.
Thinking about it, there are some modified electric
golf carts
cars that already look like this!

What's in a name?
An awful lot of badness, actually.

Efficiency last.
Brilliant engineers have spent millions of man hours coming
up with better ways to deploy a side air bag or hold a coffee cup.
But what is becoming increasingly apparent is that what they should
have been doing is devising technology to improve fuel-efficiency
 in a car that people might actually want to buy.


Hydrogen injection.

Why the latest ripoff doesn't work and never will.

180 MPG.
Leave us alone and we will come home, holding our tails up high.

Keyless starting.
Whether you want it, or not, here it comes.
Just in time to drive you bonkers.


A Nissan Nightmare.
A gas pedal that pushes back at you when you try to press too hard.


On the face of it, compressed air cars seem a likely idea:

Air is clean, relatively easy to make, store and use
- so what is the problem? Why isn't it used routinely?


Some incredible GM statistics that are hard to comprehend.

Do you really save any money -
trading down to a more "economical" car?

What's wrong with this picture:
Chrysler's building 42 mpg 300s with diesel engines
in Canada and shipping them to Europe.


Sunspots.

If they don't buck up pretty soon,
we're in for some really bitter winters,
so get your right foot down - now!


Used econoboxes.
Panicking as usual, the Americans are
bidding up the price of small cars.


Misconception.
Gas prices today are almost 50% below the record highs of 1980,
after adjusting for higher incomes today
and much greater fuel efficiency
.

Hypermiling:

Some fanatics are going too far, turning off their engines
going downhill, which loses both power steering and
power brakes and so on, but there are some practical
things you can  do.  Although they take practice and dedication.


Tesla Follies.
The all electric car saga continues.
A movie script in the making.


Buying a new car?

Keep your lips zippered!

Hybrids and performance.
Seems like an oxymoron, but the instant torque of the electric
motor produces some surprising results.


Without due care and attention.

Merely listening can reduce activity in the region of
the brain that processes spatial and visual
information by as much as 37%.


Driving a hydrogen car - 30 minutes to fill it up.


A common econazi theme : Do as I say, not as I do.

$1.50 a litre? Thanks, Al.

Robot drivers.
What can't be programmed? Instinct, born of experience.


iDrive.

Instead of getting less complicated, you can now program
ALL your BMW car functions, and I MEAN all, from your PC
while the car is standing in your driveway.
If you can plow your way through all the BUMF in this
article, just ask yourself one question:
What happens when it all goes wrong?


Gimmicky
UK testing of so-called green cars shows that they're
nowhere near as ecofriendly as the manufacturers claim.


No traction
Even with a much improved line of cars to sell,
Saturn doesn't seem to be succeeding.
The brand may be just left to die.


Automotive Hoes - Part Two

Someone who should know agrees with me.

Which brands will follow Oldsmobile down the tubes?

Clean diesel vs hybrid.
An update on the state of the art.

A bolt out of the BLUE
Red.

Is GM a genius or a dolt for developing the Volt?

Hippycrits.

Many celebrities pontificate about global warming
and saving the planet, but do they actually practice
what they preach?


Plug in electric cars
A study by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory agreed that
the number of plug-in vehicles in use and when they recharge
could profoundly influence power-generating costs.
Under some scenarios, electricity costs could more than double.

Automotive Penis Envy.

How many people do you admire or respect
because of the car they have in their driveway?

Sure, the car freaks may find Toyotas and Hondas boring,
but for $100,000 in savings over time I'm willing to be really
bored,
as long as I have reliability, safety, efficiency and comfort.


Holey Sonata, Batman.

Air bags

Are you sure you still have them?

Practice makes perfect?
The Chinese sold 650,000 units last year.
Mostly into the third world, where a crooked bumper
or a misplaced decal don't matter much.


Hybrids - From worst to best.
Before we all get carried away in a
bi-powered love fest, let’s have a reality check.


Here's why.

The age of cheap and easily pumped oil is over.
A doubling of gas prices within four years.


Canadas' cheapest new cars.

What do you get for your (minimal) money?

Farewell, Commander.

The first of many.
Why buying any Chrysler product right now is a crap shoot


We drive while they starve. Biofuel follies.
The world intelligentsia has been asleep at the wheel.
While we rage over global warming, global hunger has swept in.

Premium gas: Do you really have to use it?
New vehicle models that need, or at least supposedly
run better on the priciest gasoline has steadily risen:
From 166 in the 2002 model year to 282 this year.

Economical used cars.
If fuel economy and low price are the only combination you seek,
then these cars and trucks might suit your budget.


Formula One energy recovery.

Under the new regulations, I shuddered to think how F1 cars
might turn into "Piouses". But in fact, no batteries are included.
Designers are turning instead, to an old and well known energy
storage device: The flywheel.


High cost hybrids.

A new Canadian study shows how much it really costs to go green.


Push button starters.
Why? And how much?


Frequent oil changes:
About as useful and modern as a hoola hoop.

Every year, 185 million gallons of used engine oil get
dumped on the ground, tossed in the trash, or poured
down the drain. That translates into the equivalent of
17 Exxon Valdez oil spills.


Car repairs are getting more and more complex.
Although DIY may make a comeback someday,
the near future is bleak!


A history of Jaguar.
From greatness to mediocrity in just over 80 years.


Hondas' new clean diesel.

No need to pee into the muffler on this one!

IF global warming exists, then the car is not to blame.
Putting science ahead of superstition.

Across Europe in a 5 series BMW and a Toyota Prius.
Which one was the most economical?


A clever and yet simple idea. (The best usually are).
A new engine oil monitor almost guarantees
a 25% increase in oil change intervals.


Eliminating asbestos and lead.

Two big mistakes in the automotive business.
While not using asbestos in brake pads has caused
havoc in brake noise problems and maintenance,
eliminating lead in solder joints has led to tin whiskers.
One reason your garage may need several hours
to find an electronics problem


Plug in electric cars -
NOT a good idea for most parts of the world.

Burgers bad, cycling good.

AJAC COTY award gets more ridiculous as time goes on.


Prius problems.

As the car gets older and as we predicted 7 years ago,
old Priuses have horrific and expensive problems.


Prius problems

Don't drive them on slippery or snow bound roads.

Hybrid Camry.

Fuel consumption varies wildly in cold conditions.

Changing a light bulb.

Is becoming a job for professionals,
particularly if the bumper has to be removed!


Automobile Batteries - a long, long way to go yet.

Car makers can't very well sell vehicles that might
"ignite and burn up grandma and two kids sitting on half a ton of
batteries in the car."


Now comes the hard part.

The 6% of the public who are hybrid buyers represent the lunatic fringe, who will buy
anything "green" at any price irregardless.
Now comes the hard part - selling this concept to the rest of us.


Europe regrets.

Encouraging palm oil production to use as diesel
biofuel is turning out to be a serious mistake.


Guess what? Radar detectors using GPS are back in vogue.

Dashboarded to death


The TATA $2500 car.
It's been all over the media but here's insight
into what wasn't included in the design, and why.


Back to the future.

In 1987, you could buy a production car off the showroom floor
that easily achieved 57mpg, and it wasn't even a hybrid.
So what has changed so drastically?


Be careful what you wish for.
Wouldn't you know it?
As
windpower projects start to materialise,
the econazis begin to argue with one another
over exactly where these projects should be built.
Not in MY backyard, they're saying.


A catalogue of new stuff you may, or may not, want.

You decide.

Suspicions confirmed.

You always knew that traffic tickets were about revenue,
not traffic safety. Well, here's proof and it's far worse than
you might have thought.


Too safe for your own good.

Do modern cars lull you into a false sense of security?

New car buying.

Don't fall off your horse!

Anything's better than ethanol blend E85,
even ordinary gasoline.

- A new cost-benefit analysis of alternative fuels,
by researcher John Graham.


Inherited bling.

As usually happens, items generally found in high priced cars
are gradually filtering down into our price range.


It's a cat and mouse game.

Detroit learns not to make cars nobody wants
and then try to fire sale them like last years' computers.

Depreciation I

As we've been saying on this site for many years
and just like carpenter ants in the woodwork,
this disease takes money out of your pocket,
without you even noticing.

Depreciation II
OK, now we've got your attention, what SHOULD
you be buying this year to try to hold on to maximum value?


Weather Channel Founder:
Global Warming is the ‘Greatest Scam in History’


The law of diminishing returns.
It's getting harder and harder to improve hybrid efficiency

Run flat tires: A very, very bad idea.


BMW diesels on their way.


VW Diesels on their way back to us.
No black smoke, no white smoke and no noise,
but lots of zip.


Technology catches up.
Of the 20 most economical cars now sold in Europe,
only one is a hybrid and it comes in  -  dead last.


Cross border car shopping.

Apart from some very expensive exotics,
the actual saving on main stream cars is
nowhere near as large as has been
suggested in the popular media.


The electric horseman - not yet, not for a long while.
Not a single purely electric vehicle with four seats and
the ability to reach highway speeds is being mass-produced
anywhere in the world.


Hyper-miling.
You won't believe what the lunatic fringe is up to now.

Race ready off the shelf? Doesn't exist
Some high end production cars are being hyped as "track ready".
No such thing exists and probably never will.


Problematic Pumpbusters

According to Forbes magazine, many hybrids don't come close
to their promise of vastly improved fuel economy.
In one case, the difference between the regular model
and the hybrid is 1 mpg.


Ethanol and bio fuel.

A crime against nature and the taxpayer.

Don't like the price? Wait a bit!
The subprime mortgage debacle will have some silver linings.

New car prices will be one of them.


More battery problems.

Face it, these high powered batteries are not ready for prime time.
In cars, laptops or cell phones.


Population control.

Courtesy of the Toyota Prius.


Is Toyota quality slipping, or are the others gaining on them?

Recall champions of model year 07.

Who had to recall the most vehicles during the past model year?

Car buying.
The latest trend: Cash is king, but not for the dealer.

Ottawas' feeble feebate program.

When the politicians get involved in areas they don't understand
and that's most of them.


Cars, BE and R.
(Before electronics and robots.)
When do-it-yourself actually meant something.

"Safety devices" that are guaranteed
to drive you to distraction.


The Ultimate Prius put down.
After the Daily Telegraph in the UK published a less than
enthusiastic review of the Prius, they were bombarded with letters
from econazis.
So they did a massive study of the situation.
Their conclusions, among many others?

Toyota and Lexus hybrid advertising has been found to
be "misleading" and "untruthful" by the
Advertising Standards Authority.
"We know the Prius is a pretty remarkable vehicle, but it doesn't
run on water and it isn't the answer to global CO2 emissions.
If you've got a Prius, fine, but please spare the rest of us
your pious condescension."


For lo' these many years,
in our FAQ section,
we've been telling
you that teflon oil additives,
electronic rust proofing
and "fuel saving" devices don't work.
Well guess what?
The American Government just got round to testing 94
so-called fuel sippers and not one of
them works - nary a one!
Click here for the details.


New Renault Megane dCi
Proves that Hybrids are Much More
Costly
and No Greener than a
Class-Leading Renault Diesel Engine


California Dreaming.
Driving an SUV is like walking into a crowd with a false beard
and a backpack full of ticking alarm clocks and then shouting:
“Only kidding.”


Unlocking car doors by cell phone.

Apparently it can work, under certain conditions.

Rules of the road.

The unwritten "laws" that control our daily driving.

Built in navigation systems lose
you money in the long run.

The answer lies in compact, portable, transferables.

Planned obsolescence.

As the number of parts in a car increases, the odds on
finding what you need down the road get less and less.
Someday your car may not have much more life than your PC.


Sat Nav.

If your GPS system suddenly stops working,
drive directly into the nearest coal mine!


Black box spies.

If you're worried about an approaching brave new world in
which our every action in a car is monitored by technology,
you're too late
.


So Toyota passes GM as the worlds' biggest car manufacturer.
Will it take another 76 years for the next star to arrive?
Probably not.



Before you pour used french fry fat into
your diesel car, better you should read this.

Glamorous garages:

After the bathrooms and the kitchen, a well organised garage
becomes the next major selling point for a house owner.


High tech cars:

The more the technology, the faster the depreciation
and the bigger the used bargain.


Curbsiding.

In the spring, many peoples' minds turn toward the purchase
of another car. Curbsiders are waiting out there to "help" you find one.


Ethanol.

The news gets worse. Ethanol will produce more smog than gasoline.

Potholes.

A damage claim to your insurance company
may not be considered as "no fault".


Fuel economy:

It's available in many different forms
and at a much lower cost
.


Natural gas fueled 2007 Honda Civic.

It weighs 1 1/2 tons more and costs 50% more,
but hey, it meets the latest, greatest California regs
and you can refuel it at home - for an extra $6000


Run flat tires in trouble.

As predicted on this website a year ago, run flat tires
are proving to be an expensive and unnecessary "innovation".


Lexus automatic parking.
You can play with it while the wife shops.
She'll just about be finished at the same time as you.


Economy eschewed.

On average, cars are 800 pounds heavier and
no more economical than they were 10 years ago.

Suspicions confirmed.
Our owners' manuals are written in the third world.

lindspots.

Had a close call with a pedestrian or cyclist you just didn't see?
Might not be all your fault.

Environmentalists, stop treating us like idiots.
The rest of you, relax. It's OK to own a car.


Reliability 2006 - Consumers Reports

A handy chart and short commentary on what's
been good and what's been bad in 2006.



If you've already succumbed to the
religion of the environment,
here's what you're facing.


Hydrogen
It may the fuel of our future, with the potential to rival the invention
of the the first car in 1886 in terms of its impact on personal transport.
The problem for car makers is how to harness the gas
and how to make it commercially viable and when?


San Storm.

No, the "d" isn't missing, this is the
name of a new Indian sports car.


Supercar blues.

If you drag together enough money to buy your dream car,
new or used, you'd better know what you're getting into.


God bless America - Live free or die.
Oh, to be in England, now that the nazis have arrived.

No more smoke - very soon.
 
Clean diesel has arrived


A Rogue's gallery of men doing their
damnedest to make motoring miserable.


The anti-theft chip in your key may not be as secure as you think.

Features you pay for that aren't really there.

Cars that won't start are a royal pain.
So why deliberately make them shut down all the time?


A year of driving with a 2005 Porsche 911 Carrera S
As long as it doesn't need servicing, the gilt stays thick
on the gingerbread.


Forget top speed.

Point to point, it's braking, cornering and handling that wins the day.

Car Haters.
It's not your imagination.
Newspaper editors hate cars and auto racing
and everything else associated with the car industry.


The tortoise and the hare.

In a 12 hour dash across Europe which is faster?
A 500 HP Mercedes SL or its diesel engined sister SUV?


Reliability and cost of repair:

Japan and Korea vs Europe.

Money, but no skill.

Suspicions confirmed.
Lawyers and stockbrokers may be rich,
but that doesn't mean they know how to drive.


Your choice.
A good car may not be a cool car.

Feel good gimmicks.
Like Honda starter buttons.

Bullitt.
Regretfully, there's a re-make of this classic 1968 movie in the can.
But was the Mustang REALLY capable of defeating the Charger?
Apparently, not.


Debunking the hydrogen myth.
If all the cars in the world were
converted to hydrogen tomorrow,
one in every five vehicles on the road
would be a hydrogen-carrying tanker.


Diesel death
Another saga in the misfueling story.

Driving a diesel?

Good for you, but for heavens' sake don't put gasoline in it!