CARNIVAL OF CARS: A Drive Around the Auto Blog Block for Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007
Congress took major steps this week toward crippling what's left of Detroit's Big Three automakers as the House of Representatives passed a 40 percent hike of the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and the Senate prepared to follow suit. Japanese and German liquor retailers reported record champagne sales. So let's jump in our cyber SUV and enjoy this week's drive around the auto blog block, while we still can.
Want the real low-down on CAFE? Bob Lutz spoke at the
Western Auto Journalists meeting in San Francisco and
The Auto Channel has the address on video, conveniently broken in to topic segments.
Chrysler officials reported being flooded with advance orders and deposits this week for the upcoming Dodge Challenger SRT8, according to the company's
Firehouse media blog. Firehouse is a limited access deal, but Edmunds.com's
Inside Line has the
details from, where else, the inside.
Just think, soon there will again be true muscle cars from Ford, Chevy and Dodge and they will be faster, handle better, last longer, go further on a gallon of gas and be gentler on the environment than anything even dreamed of back when Ronnie and the Daytonas were inspired by a
little GTO. My preference back then was
this.Now, back to the real world ....
Bet you didn't know one of President Bush's cabinet officials is an avid motorcyclist. It's Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, who, according to
AskPatty.com, has just embarked on a
new motorcycle safety effort. She knows whereof she speaks, having broken a collar bone a couple of years ago when she went down during a ride on an Arizona two-lane.
Also falling down is somebody at Kenneth Cole. The
Auto Prophet has the
details.Where do the reviewers at
The Truth About Cars find those analogies? Megan Benoit explains why the new Accord Coupe's handling reminds her of the time she had to persuade a drunken buddy to be
the rear man in a horse costume. Honest, I don't make this stuff up, folks.
Yes,
Full Throttle, what are
Joe and Rose Mattioli thinking?
Peter DeLorenzo at
AUTOEXTREMIST has the latest chapter in the
long, sad tale of Carroll Shelby's descent from icon of American racing to something roughly approximating a certain anatomical feature found at the lower rear mid-section of every human being ever born.
See ya next week!
- Permalink | Comments (6)
- Posted by: Mark Tapscott December 8, 2007, 8:45 AM
- Categories: Carnival of Cars
The illegible neon text continues. Hey Mark, why not use Crayon?
Excerpt from "How to avoid Bad Design",
Avoid bright & neon colors. Less is always more and bright colors can make your page hard to read, and thus annoying
Hmmm.....
The CAFE standards were not that bad for Detroit. It's basically the 32mpg recommendation in a 35mpg cloak.
Yeah I think the intro is a little over dramatic. Everyone is sweating the new requirements, and it may well kill a ton of fun cars in the pipe, but I think everyone is going to be more or less OK in the end. Also, the market has tended to be ahead of the CAFE curve anyway, so I hardly see how it matters.
The green HAS GOT TO GO! It would be more legible if it were writen in white!
sorry, Ednumds folks but on Mac or PC, the green text is very hard to read.
But thanks for links.
Wrt Muscle car revival - sounds like Deja Vue all over again save these cars are a more "responsible" in terms of overall handling and fuel useage (one can actually use the horsepower rather than just fry the tires). As for what $$$ insurance companies charge owners for the privledge of driving 'em, only time will tell.