Recent Comments:
Step back in time with vintage color city scenes {Autoblog}
Sep 28th 2007 8:40PM It may surprise you that those cars were just as modern to us in those days as today's cars are now. Many did not have radios in them and the ones that did could only get AM stations. The steering wheels were faux-marble, as if stone implied strength and solidity. The seat upholstery was sticky for kids in short pants, also used in those days on passenger train seats. Each age thinks it is the latest, newest, most modern -- which it probably is, but change will overtake it quickly.
Those were the days of 5-digit phone numbers, except in big cities where letters + numbers were just coming into use. The days just after the big Depression when few people owned cars in small towns, it was not unusual to see one car per block on a residential street and that one bought used and probably had a real *trunk* on the back. The reason today's cargo boxes have that name. A folding rack on the back for strapping on a leather trunk (think very large suitcase) when traveling. The sportiest thing a young driver could buy for his jalopy was a spot light, same kind police cars have today. They were eventually outlawed for private cars, they blinded on-coming drivers at night.
Where chrome is overkill today; in 1941 through the 1960s the more chrome the pricier the cars, it denoted luxury and wealth. And is returning on many models for much the same reason, though it's not real chrome. More like Reynold's aluminum bonded to clear mylar.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was not the shock and awe that 9/11 was on television that dreadful morning. It took quite a while for the movies of the attack to reach theaters in Movietone News shorts before the featured film.
Wrenching LeMons, Part 1 {Autoblog}
Aug 30th 2007 12:30AM Gee, that looks like the car I just bought. The harder I haggled the more the dealer took out.
Keyless entry pwned! Researchers say it takes less than an hour {Autoblog}
Aug 30th 2007 12:20AM Ah high tech - what those researchers had was a wire coathanger connected to the ethernet port on a laptop. HEH
I'm old enough to remember when GMC, Ford and Chrysler had only ONE KEY for each line of cars. That's right, only one key. Every car buyer thought his car's key was different and never bothered to try it in another model like it. To prove the point, my parents and I went to a movie, parking my Dad's 1937 Chevy on Main Street in our hometown. After the movie we returned to the car to go home. A couple walked up and began chatting with my parents. My dad offered them a ride home. They declined saying they also drove to the movie and we were in their car. Our car was three parking spaces up the street. They, too, had a 1937 Chevy.
Time Rendered Useless: drawing a Lambo on MS Paint {Autoblog}
Jul 26th 2007 12:30AM When he was a kid in elementary school way back in 1980s something. Sheeesh, I use to draw cars on the backs of envelops that brought the gas, electric and water bills during the Great Depression, used No. 2 pencils and a twist-type sharpener, no modern tools like a crank type. Cars had split windshields and I drew them with one-piece glass and a wiper on the passenger side (optional in those days). I'm still doing cars using PS and a Mac. My how time flies!
Automakers doggedly pursuing canine needs {Autoblog}
Jun 12th 2007 9:52PM Guenther: I am sure that is right, but I do not have an SUV or hatchback. The trunk is not the place for a small dog. I take her to a park for walks, twice I have gone and forgot to take her. I would definately hate to forget she is in the trunk on a scorchingly hot day. Takes on ten minutes for a dog to die in a hot car.
Automakers doggedly pursuing canine needs {Autoblog}
Jun 12th 2007 6:55PM P.S. If you have a little dog, say 9" to 12" at the shoulder, the best safety thing you can do for them is to put a harness on them and loop a seatbelt through it using a shortened leash. Otherwise, if they ride on the back seat, as mine does, I use three medium-density foam pillows side-by-side and standing on end as pre-inflated airbags. Stopping suddenly a small dog can be thrown forward against the front seatbacks or into the front cockpit.
Automakers doggedly pursuing canine needs {Autoblog}
Jun 12th 2007 6:43PM When buying my last car I measured the distance from the armrests to th window sills on every car I test drove to be sure my little dog could see out easily. The one that was closest to her needs was our new ride. Now I'm shopping apartments with floor to ceiling windows and French doors onto patios and porches. Look at it this way, dogs have a limited world, their eye-level; we can live with anything.
Saturn Side-by-Side-by-Side campaign launches {Autoblog}
Jun 11th 2007 9:31PM People fall in love with cars for different reasons: some love the taillamps, others the dash and center stack, or the sheet metal. Few cars have it all the way most car buffs would like them. And even fewer are bought because the buyers loved everything about them. Can the Aura match the Accord and Camry spec for spec and option for option; I don't think so. But some buyers won't mind the differences.
What all three lack is handling and small turning circles. What my last Accord (1998) lacked was comfortable seating and I sold it back to the dealer in 30 days and got something else. All the options in the world can not overcome hard seats.
XXX car wash gets approval in Australia {Autoblog}
May 19th 2007 6:51PM Now you know what "soaked" means.
Paris sentenced to the pen for violating probation {Autoblog}
May 5th 2007 11:15PM Will she take her own $25K designer jumpsuit?
The really interesting part will be her attorney's appeal and what THAT judge decides. She may not serve any time at all.
