When Leo Parente, host of YouTube’s new DRIVE series, stopped me at the Detroit Show to congratulate me on something I’d written for TTAC, I was more than usually pleased. Parente is that rarest of autojournos — a winning racing driver — so his opinion is important to me. “That thing you wrote,” he barked, “about TrueCar. Good stuff.” Well, I didn’t write it, but TTAC readers are no doubt familiar with TrueCar’s recent tribulations thanks to an excellent series of articles by the other guys on the roster.
Leo inspired me to do my own in-depth piece on TrueCar’s woes, but just as I was preparing to do actual journalism, the site distracted me by hiring a bunch of female racing drivers, including Katherine Legge (above), to race in the “inaugural TrueCar racing team.” Curse them! Let’s check these ladies out.
Got another head scratcher for you. A friend of mine was involved in an accident over the previous weekend which totaled her car (2006 Corolla S). She still had a year’s worth of payments left and the money she gets back from insurance leaves her with a smidge of $4000. (Read More…)
Volkswagen announced an all-new Santana for the Chinese market, it will debut in 2013. Time to say “zai jian” (“good bye,” but nobody says that anymore in China, they say “bye bye”) to the current Santana, made by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture since 1985. And time for a short history of the Santana. History saw the original Santana, the Santana Variant, the Santana 2000, the Santana 3000 and the Santana Vista. We take a look at all of them. On the picture above is a party in Shanghai when the very first China-made Santana rolls off the assembly line. And when they said “party” in 1985, they meant it. Serious partiers they were. (Read More…)
Obama! Socialism! Taxes! Jesus! Faith! Guns! Now that you’re paying attention, it’s time for our regularly scheduled programming. A Detroit News article claims that NHTSA is denying any interference on the part of the White House with respect to the Chevrolet Volt fires that resulted from government crash test procedures.
Tomorrow evening I will have the joy of finally meeting my alter ego here at TTAC. None other than the ‘King of Swing and the Purveyor of All Things Panther’, Sajeev Mehta.
We will be meeting at Henry’s Louisiana Grille in Acworth, Georgia along with past and future contributors Megan Benoit and Frank Williams. There is an auto auction not too far away from the restaurant so who knows? Perhaps Sajeev will find a nice Crown Vic Police Interceptor and pocket the proceeds from his flight back to Houston.
So do you like Cajun? Live anywhere around Atlanta? If you do our invitation is open. 7:00 P.M. Feel free to email an RSVP at steve.lang@thetruthaboutcars.com .
Are in-car CD players the mark of a vehicle aimed at geezers? According to an Automotive News report, the CD may be going the way of the cassette or 8-track player in certain cars – namely those aimed at younger, “Gen Y” buyers, who use smart phones as music devices.
An angry owner of a Porsche Cayenne staged a massive protest at his local Porsche dealer in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. He had bought a brand-new Cayenne two months ago for he astounding price of 2.7 million yuan, or $428,000 (at least that’s what he had told MOP.com.)
Unfortunately, the Cayenne owner experienced a lot of trouble. The owner claims that the car’s problems made him almost crash on two occasions.
The quote is courtesy of John Sedat, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, quoted in a CNET article. Let’s get another quote, this one from Dr. Peter Rez at Arizona State:
To call anything based on high energy X-rays ‘low energy’ is worse than 1984 doublespeak
Until I spotted this 1979 Chevy Monza wagon in The Crusher’s waiting room last year, I had forgotten that GM slapped Monza and Sunbird badges on the (Monza ancestor) Chevy Vega wagon at the tail end of the 1970s. Then, last week, I discovered this Sunbird Safari at another Denver self-service yard. Such history to be uncovered in the junkyards of Denver! (Read More…)
Take two Scandinavian fellows (I think), a biodiesel-powered 190 sedan, and what the old Ice-T record called “ridiculous jargon, shocking sexual audacity, and repulsive images of the ghetto”, and you have the above video. Warning: this isn’t even remotely safe for work. There is no nudity, but if your boss hears the lyrics you and your 190 Sport Sedan will be out on your ear.
Your humble author had a 190E 2.3-16 restored for One Lap of America a few years ago, but at the time I do not recall performing any acts of drug use, pimping, or thugging in it. It’s always nice to see young people expressing their enthusiasm for the three-pointed-star.
If I tell you that China will hit 20 million cars this year, you probably think I was drinking. I will tell you no such thing. But what if the chief of GM China says it? As a matter of fact, he just did. (Read More…)
In 2010, plans of a (by Porsche standards) low-priced cheap Porsche, a mid-engined, entry-level roadster based on the underpinnings of the Volkswagen BlueSport Concept were floated. The car was called a “modern-day 356 Speedster” by some.
Do you live in or near a Cuban community? Drive a Mercedes? Noooooo! Leave it in the garage. Put a tarp over it.
The Cuban community hates Mercedes and Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche, despite his Cuban-sized mustache. Casus belli: At a presentation at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Zetsche praised the virtues of car sharing. Car sharing?
Until I spotted 
Recent Comments