Autoblog

We're surprised that this gag can be retailed without disclaimers. CarPool Kenny is an inflatable head and torso that is marketed on the premise that you can cruise the carpool lane in passengerless peace, your inflatable pal offering impunity. People have tried this, and many have had their ruse detected. When you do eventually get hooked by the long arm of the law, it's going cost a lot more than this $20 useless hunk of plastic. Think hundreds.

Your odds of getting caught are likely rather high, since police officers tend to operate on the assumption that all is not what it seems, and Kenny looks so fake that he's just asking to get busted. Our own healthy sense of schadenfreude would kick into overdrive if we cruised by a schmuck whose bluff got called.

Using one of these things to circumvent the rules just means you'll bypass a jam and have to attend to being productive sooner than the rest of us left surfing for that mythical NPR station that's not fund-raising.

Thanks, Jason, for the tip.

It's nice to be back in the swing of things. We're once again cranking out weekly podcasts, and #63 is a compact one. We start off salivating over the news that the next generation Suzuki Swift will be headed for US shores. We devolve from discussing an unsubstantiated rumor into wistful praise for the current can't have it Swift, and even make mention of Swifts from nigh on twenty years ago. The dustup over Alan Mulally's work of fiction at the New York Auto Show keynote draws our ire next. This one has it all, lies, grandstanding media with agendas, attacks, grandstanding media with agendas, misinformation, grandstanding media with agendas, disinformation, and finally, grandstanding media with agendas. Speaking of grandstanding, we nearly go as far as calling Lutz's bluff on the announcement that the hotly anticipated RWD cars from GM are on hold 'till regulators get their shizzle together. Whatevs. The entire GM turnaround is on hold? Not bloody likely. The consensus we come to is: Bad Lutz. So, turn on, tune in and peel out for our latest slice of podcast goodness.

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