Friday, August 27, 2010

Out of 1.33 Million Recently Recalled- Many a Corolla Will End Up...


In Afghanistan. Ever wonder where old cars go to die? If you're not one to drive a car into the ground yourself- and if you drive a Toyota Corolla- chances are- it may end-up in Afghanistan. Some 90% of the cars in the country are... you guessed it- Toyota Corollas.

It has also been reported in some online sources (Wikipedia)- that a Toyota Corolla has been sold every 40 seconds for 40 years.

That's a lot of cars- no matter how you want to slice and dice the information.

I thought it interesting... So when Toyota does a recall, as they did yesterday on one of their biggest sellers- well... You can be sure it's worse, a lot worse... In Afghanistan, of course.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Another Recall for Toyota... Is This Still News?

When you've recalled millions of cars over the course of a year- what's another 1.33 million?

This time- the Corolla's engine control management module, thing, device- is causing cars to suddenly stall.

Just when you think Toyota is getting out of its hot water, between the lawsuits, the recalls, the negative press...

Just when you start believing the crap they talk about on their commercials... How they're spending a million dollars an hour on your safety...

Even as the automotive press, despite their shady reputation as of late- still sings the praises of their products... Toyota is still announcing new recalls.

At least they're consistent, no?

Next thing you know- that Predawn Grey Mica color they've been slinging the shit-out-of in their ads for the all-new 2011 Sienna is going to test to cause forms of cancer...

(Well, that's not true... But it still won't hide the fact that you're driving an 8-passenger minivan...)

Evidently- Predawn Grey Mica is the new black... But don't they wish it was a Predawn to a day when Toyota is not known for their product recalls?

Eventually- that day will come again... We think.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Oh, BMW... We've Always Liked Thee Zippy


As parents, or so I've been told, one of their missions is to make sure their children seek-out the "right thing," whatever, however you define "thing."

Was it Spike Lee who taught us to Do The Right Thing? Right or wrong, I can only write about it... I'm not a parent. But I do know what I know- a thing, or two about cars.

My mother, God love her, somehow got it into her head that she wanted a new car after thirteen years. Something "zippy," as she called it- something smaller, sporty, easy and fun to drive; yet comfortable and smooth like her '98 Lexus ES300.

While many would think this "zippy" would be easy... You don't know my mother- or my father, or our, my family's foray into performance, luxury automobiles.

No, zippy... it ain't easy, not even in the least.

I guess you could credit a lot of my initial automotive enthusiasm on my parents; or maybe it was my father- for before my mother ever really had a say on what she drove (personally, I don't think the woman really cared... but now into her sixties, and having driven everything from Hondas, VWs, Nissans and Volvos to Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs and her beloved Lexus- she may well have a pretty good idea by now...) my mother drove what my father put her in. And he put her in some neat cars, looking back.

While all the cars were certainly nice cars by any conventional measure of the word- some, however, stick into memory as being real Deuseys... (No, she never drove a Deusenburg.)

Coming out of a fog of not one, but two very sedate (okay, read "slow" if you must) Mercedes-Benzes and a Peugeot 505 that wouldn't run right, 1983 brought to my father with the need for something different. Something fast, snappy, something zippy.

While most everyone else upwardly mobile was puddling around in 121-horse ETA-tuned BMW 528Es, my father gave my mother a Charcoal Metallic 533i, a limited-production, ultra-high-performance sedan (for the time) coming out of the Carter-era smog regulated '70s when there wasn't much performance- no, not even for The Ultimate Driving Machine...

Hailed as the "fastest sedan in the world" the Big Six 533i was as racy as it got- in a time, well, before most of mainstream America knew their B's from their M's, or their W's; nevertheless the difference between a BMW Big Six and an ETA-tuned 5-Series.

Gee, 181-horsepower sure seemed like a lot in those days. The car was so high-performance, BMW made the wheels on the 533i to fit one tire, and one tire only- the Michelin TRX. Want another kind of tire? You had to change the wheels entirely.

You so much as spit in front of that car- it spun-out. It didn't go in the rain. It idled erratically, smoked, burned oil and boiled-over in city traffic. BMW had to swap-out mom's short block, and every other 3.2-liter straight-six that year under warranty in 1983. The price you paid for fast. Zero-to-60 in 7.7-seconds.

Legend has it- my mother got pulled over doing over 100 miles-an-hour in it. The State Police had her in hot pursuit- they finally got her over the bull-horn, commanding her to pull over... My mother denies having been speeding, if she did, she didn't know it. The 533i saw very well to that...

The 533i was the first BMW, but it wasn't the last... Over the next 25 years- there would be a lot of great BMWs and a lot of other nice cars too. But you always remember your first...

2010, like 1983 before it- will forever be the year zippy came back into our lives.

While they've driven and considered everything from a VW Passat and Honda Accord to an Infiniti G37 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, I'm thankful both my parents did the right thing and went back to BMW.

After all, they're my parents.

It just seems right, like tradition in a way- and I'm especially thankful for them splurging on the twin-turbo-charged, 300-horse six-cylinder engine, a throw-back to when "35" meant "Big Six," or to my mother, just "zippy." They did it all by themselves too...

They really deserve it, it only seems right. After all, they knew fast BMWs before most everyone else... And you cannot argue with the reputation BMW has built for itself in the years since- I hear they even go in the rain now.

But after the better part of 30 years, I'm glad my mother is finally getting what she wants- an Alpine White BMW. 300-horses... This one even has the innovative xDrive all-wheel-drive, something also unfathomed in 1983.

As the son who knows cars- I can dutifully support- they couldn't have done better for themselves; because really, when it comes to zippy, no one spells it better than B, M & W.

And if my mother doesn't like it- well, she's just crazy. But that's another blog, for another time. Lets keep our fingers crossed...

I can only wish them well, hope they drive safe and enjoy it!

I mean, it's a BMW... What's not to like?

Wait, I'll let my mother answer that one...

Zippy... meet crazy.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Chrysler Unveils a New Police Cruiser- But Will It Get Out of It's Own Way?


The web/blog-sphere is all abuzz on the purportedly "all-new" 2011 Dodge Charger Pursuit read- the car car your local municipality would probably order for police duty? And most certainly yellow the car you'll be hailing on New York City streets in a few years too.

Doesn't look all that new to me- maybe it's a revised edition? Maybe most of the new is much to what this car guy can't see.... Or tell, or really care for anyway. Only real change- from what pictures I can see- are the tail-lights.

Standard is a high-output, (rather large bore too) 3.6-liter Pentastar V6- of course, the 5.7-liter Hemi is still available... Special electronics, lights, packages... You get the picture.

It's the car Robocop would have driven if he wasn't driving a Taurus, or was it a Lumina? Who could remember... Bad movie. Or rather, bad series of movies.

I'm happy to see Chrysler picking up where Ford is leaving-off with it's venerable Ford Crown Victoria being dethroned from what has been the all-time police cruiser favorite since the Dodge Diplomat of the early 1980s- think Hill Street Blues era. Maybe it was a Plymouth Fury? Same thing...

Ford is retiring the Crown Vic Interceptor and all its real-wheel-drive, re-inforced body-on-frame glory next year... Passing police duties to a special SHO/SVT-esque Taurus.

But as a kid who watched a lot of police dramas re-runs of the 60's, 70's and 80's growing up- to see Chrysler getting deeper into police duties is rather comforting. TJ Hooker, CHiPS (when they weren't riding Kawasaki motorcycles) the Blues Brothers; Roscoe in The Dukes of Hazzard... All drove MoPar police cruisers....

Hell- in the Dukes of Hazzard- the orange Charger was the car getting chased by the police- now the cops drive Chargers... Oy, how things have really come full-circle now.

But if Chrysler really wanted to strike that chord- they would have put the revised tail lamp treatment/fascia back in the chrome bumpers.... Or vertically stacked the headlights.

Wait- there are no more chrome bumpers... Oh well, you can't go home again.

But having a few friends who are policemen, I just hope Chrysler has made the "all-new" 2011 Charger Pursuit more maneuverable than the car it replaces; because yeah, the Charger with the 5.7-liter Hemi is very fast, it just can't be tossed and spun-around as well as the Crown Vic that's "going away for a while."

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

My Apologies... Really... But It's Summertime...


Sorry for being so mute this last week or so... It's just that- well, there's really nothing too monumental worth noting lately... Nothing professionally, nothing personally, and nothing car-wise- as professional and or personal as that may be. It's the tail-end of Summer.

With cars, the summer is always a bit slow. Hell- even the best Autoblog (one of the larger, more popular auto-related blogs out there...) can muster lately is a bit on Mike Tyson's Bentley Continental Coupe- I mean really, who cares???

I did, however, find it ironic that not a day after GM had announced its profitability last week, they too initiated a some 250,000 unit product recall- something to do with the seat belts in some SUVs/Crossovers...

But after the myriad of recalls from Toyota- well, everything else is just a small recall. But 2010 has proved-to-be the recall year to remember.

Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting the 2011s to be coming out- many of which that are out- are just warmed-over versions of the 2010s.

Eh, summers suck... Markets are slow, people are on vacation- both literally and mentally. And if the best you can must is a bit on Mike Tyson's Bentley Continental Coupe, well... Bloggers like me just won't even bother to bend your ear on it...

Because if you remember- Mike Tyson's been known to bite ears.

Friday, August 6, 2010

My Hero Don Draper Wears...


An incorrect Rolex... In Season Three (or Two?), Mad Men's top ad-man got a Cadillac- in Season Four it's become very apparent that the quiet Midwesterner wears... a Rolex watch?

For a television show, so scrutinized on a weekly basis for its accuracy to the period- I'm a bit shocked at this... Don Draper, wearing a 36mm, no-date Oyster Perpetual, most probably an Explorer I Ref. 1016?

Not that I don't like the watch- I just don't think its, well... accurate. The Cadillac yes, the Rolex Explorer, the acclaimed watch worn during the first climb to the top of Mt. Everest? Not so much...

While I clearly wasn't around, I will contest- no man, let alone an ad-man from 1960's Westchester County, NY knew what-the-hell a Rolex watch was in (what is now) 1964, Season Four, of AMC's Mad Men.

A Bulova Accutron or an Omega maybe. But a Rolex? Not very likely.

Truth-be-known, a Rolex really wasn't half the watch a period Omega was back then- the Rolex, in my opinion didn't reach its popularity in mainstream America till the 1970's... That's when it, the Rolex, got famous... In the 1980's, well, it got infamous... And the rest is history, for better or worse.

In an entertainment industry that is laden with product placement, endorsements and the like- I doubt the Rolex is anything more than Jon Hamm's own personal watch...

I'm not the only one speculating on Don Draper's stupid watch, many other, more popular publications and blogs have been speculating for years...

While some have claimed a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso, others have maintained a Rolex Cellini of all wrist creations- depending on the season.

But speaking of product placement- I can't wait till the Seventh Season of Mad Men (at the rate this show is going- it's going to happen!) when Don trades the old Cadillac for a '68 BMW 2002- but... That, I know- would also be totally wrong...

Then again, BMW is a big sponsor of the hit series... And they'll do anything they can... well, to get you into one of their Series!

With Mad Men and television- we are talking advertising after all, right?

Here I Go Again... For the 10,000,000th Time...

One of my favorite music videos/songs from the 80's goes to Whitesnake... And alas, 9,999,999 also feel the same way on YouTube- having watched Here I Go Again 10 Million Times.

Whether it be a bad break-up from a girlfriend, or just a bad day at the office- it's one of those songs that goes great with a bittersweet triumph, going boldly well... you get the picture.

And as far as cars go, well... I'll say this- never in my life do I wish I were the hood of a Jag XJ6 (or two...)- incidentally- both the white and black Jaguars in the video belonged to David Coverdale, the long-haired front man for Whitesnake.

Incidentally, Tawny Kitaen too belonged to David Coverdale...

One thing I will contest- neither the '87 XJ6 or Tawny have held-up very well to the tests of time- but you have to hand it to those over-engineered, heavy-gauge steel hoods of the old XJs....

Why? Because I don't know any other hood in history that can take a prancing Tawny Kitaen undamaged.

Why so strong? It's British... If it's not put-on extra thick, or overbuilt... It's coming-off...

Tawny Kitaen, eat your heart out.

If you want to see more of Tawny- watch Bachelor Party... If you want to see an old XJ6- check the junk yard... But I dare you to find a collapsed hood... Bonnet, "if you're nasty."