December 12, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-12-10-ceo-cars_N.htm?loc=interstitialskipCars often are big attention grabbers. That's especially true when it comes to what the CEO drives, according to USA Today.
Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton famously drove a pickup. Warren Buffett, worth $42 billion, drove a silver 2001 Lincoln Town Car with Nebraska plates THRIFTY until he auctioned it for charity on eBay last year for $73,200.
When Alan Mulally moved from Boeing to be CEO of Ford last year he caught flak for calling his Lexus the finest car in the world just when Ford was introducing him as its new leader. Now, he "rotates through an array" of Ford vehicles, Ford spokesman Mike Moran says.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 4:25 PM | Permalink
December 11, 2007
Is it a wise career move to show up at work in a car that's nicer than the one your boss drives?
Depends on which CEO you ask, according to USA Today.
Forty-four company leaders responding to an informal USA TODAY survey said they had an opinion on the question, and 26 of them said it was OK to pull into the parking lot driving wheels a cut above. That would fit the image of CEOs as free-market disciples who allow underlings to buy what they want — even if they upstage the boss.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 1:46 PM | Permalink
July 12, 2007
Gas prices may have hit all-time highs, but cruising — that great American pastime of driving just to drive, hanging out in parking lots and watching others drive — is back, according to a report in USAToday.
"We're the next generation of cruisers from our parents, who used to cruise up and down this same road," said Angie Guerra, 23, a receptionist who spent Friday night in a parking lot off Woodward Avenue, a main artery connecting Detroit with its northern suburbs. "We hang out and socialize and watch the nice cars go by. It's fun."
She and her boyfriend, Brian Meissen, 20, brought folding chairs and drinks. They met up with fellow car-lovers who stopped in and out of parking lots like party-hoppers on a social circuit. When cruisers got hungry, they left their cars parked and walked across the street to a nearby KFC.
Posted by at 9:45 AM | Permalink
July 11, 2007
Now's your chance to bid on Bumblebee, according to USA Today.
The 1977 yellow Chevy Camaro featured in the Transformers movie is up for sale on eBay by Paramount Pictures, with proceeds to go to the Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing for families of wounded or ailing military personnel. The Camaro doesn't change into a giant alien robot, of course, but it is a functioning vehicle.
The auction can be found under "movie props" at transformers.ebay.com. Other items for sale include the AllSpark Cube, and Captain Witwicky's code-etched glasses. Bidding for the car ends July 18.
Posted by at 3:38 PM | Permalink
July 3, 2007
The prevalence of rear seat DVD players has already made the road trip game I Spy seem as quaint as Howdy Doody. But endless viewings of “Shrek 2” or “Over the Hedge” can generate boredom in the back seat, too, which is why the next big thing for in-car entertainment may be live TV, accoding to the New York Times.
Posted by at 12:29 PM | Permalink
June 28, 2007
The auto industry is naming paint colors after foods, according to a report in the New York Times. Brown is now about coffee and chocolate, said Chris Webb, exterior color trend designer at General Motors, which has the colors Dark Mocha and Cocoa. Other G.M. colors are Black Licorice, Cappuccino Frost and Salsa Red.
Other companies are also using the palate to name their palettes: Chrysler offers Cool Vanilla, Honda has Root Beer and Volvo once offered Saffron (a coppery yellow). Volkswagen has the unsubtle Lemon Yellow and Candy White. (Is that the white of the candy after you have licked off the red stripes from the candy cane?) Hyundai borrows a French menu word for the purple eggplant and calls it aubergine.
Posted by at 2:04 PM | Permalink
June 15, 2007
In a major setback to festivities surrounding the unearthing of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that had been buried in a time capsule in Tulsa, Okla., in 1957, a preliminary opening of the concrete vault revealed the car in several feet of water, according to the Associated Press and reported by CBS.
Hundreds of curious onlookers gathered to learn the secrets of a gold and white Plymouth Belvedere buried half a century ago under this city's courthouse lawn, according to the AP.
The 1957 two-door hardtop - buried to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood - was encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
Event officials already had to pump out several feet of water from the crypt that held the Belvedere for a half-century. But the condition of the car, wrapped in three layers of mud-caked protective material, remains a mystery.
Posted by at 3:15 PM | Permalink
June 13, 2007
Summertime is when America hits the road, and — if you believe some people — it’s also when too many slow drivers clog the fast lane. Well, help is on the way for that beloved character, the Assertive American, according to the cars.com.
Left Lane Drivers of America has taken the lead in this national aggravation, and it wants to keep slower drivers where they belong — on the right-hand side of the road.
“As traffic gets increasingly congested, it’s time for citizens to reclaim the left lane,” J.A. Tosti, a spokesman for the group, said in a press release.
Tosti and his group are offering backward-reading “Move Over” windshield decal (complete with an arrow that points to the right) that “gently prods” those slower drivers into, well, getting the hell out of the way when they see it in their rearview mirror.
Posted by at 10:20 AM | Permalink
June 12, 2007
It's hard to believe that Oklahoma is only 100 years old. But the Sooner State became the 46th state on November, 16, 1907, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary, the city of Tulsa buried a time capsule on June 15, 1957.
In that capsule, among other items, was a brand new gold-and-white Plymouth Belvedere. Plymouth donated the car as a promotion.
The time capsule will be opened this Friday and it will be interesting to see what kind of condition the car will be in. It could be very good - it was sealed in a concrete vault, after all.
The New York Times' Dan Barry, who used to be a reporter here at The Providence Journal and who is one of the best writers around bar none, has written an advance story.
Meanwhile, I will attempt to keep tabs on the unearthing on the day, hopefully relying on Barry's reporting although I do not know whether he will be there. Certainly the Associated Press will be.
Posted by at 11:33 AM | Permalink
The most popular color to buy a car in has long been silver, but one U.K. company is now offering a variation on that them. Chrome is the new silver, with shiny body panels apparently set to be the next big thing, according to thecarconnection.com.
MirraChrome is claimed to be the world’s most realistic chrome-effect paint finish, with 98 percent of the reflectivity of true chrome-plating. It’s the stuff was used on a Lamborghini Murcielago in the recent video by rapper 50 Cent.
Posted by at 10:33 AM | Permalink
June 1, 2007
Thirty years after its release, Smokey and the Bandit remains the most popular car movie ever. Here's why, according to Edmunds.com
You hear it before you see it, the roar of its 400-cubic-inch V8 echoing off the wood-covered corrugated steel walls of the truck's trailer. And then it's revealed. The blackest car you've ever seen. It's just 10 minutes and 53 seconds into Smokey and the Bandit, when Burt Reynolds drives that black Trans Am out of the truck and into the sunlight. A powerslide and the car's first smoky burnout are less than two minutes away.
This month Smokey and the Bandit turns 30. It was on May 19, 1977 that the film premiered at New York City's Radio City Music Hall and injected 6.6 liters into America's vernacular. By July, everybody wanted a Screaming Chicken decal on their hoods.
Smokey and the Bandit is so much a part of popular culture, it's hard to believe it's a 30-year-old movie. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason and even Jerry Reed all made movies that film critics would consider "better," but it's Smokey for which they'll always be remembered. Because Smokey and the Bandit is the most popular and important car movie of all time, and there's virtually no chance it's going to lose that distinction in the next 30 years.
Posted by at 9:44 AM | Permalink
