Why would anyone drive across the United States as fast as possible with no promise of a reward? I once did it, and I don't have a real answer.

Imagine that you are an auto executive who has just overseen the spending of a couple of billion bucks on a brand new model. Now you must select a name for it; it's your baby, after all.

Your government, not content with having bailed out two-thirds of the American auto industry with your money, in December announced a Christmas gift for the entire industry: Mandated rear-mounted video cameras and in-vehicle displays aimed at keeping you from backing over anything. Yes, boys and girls, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after being in business for only 41 years, has concluded that the unobservant driver might injure someone or something while his transmission wa

Anyone who reads or listens to anything beyond package labels and Kmart shopper alerts knows that the United States is an oxymoron (are an oxymoron?). People in Seattle are different from people in Savannah, and the citizens of Boston are unlike the citizens of Bakersfield. Recent data from our partners at car-shopping website Honk has confirmed this. Using a sales database of 85,000 vehicles, the

Recent events raise these questions: What if there were no Swedish cars? Would automotive enthusiasts, as we know them in the 21st Century, suffer the cultural equivalent of permanent brain damage, or would the sun go on rising and the appearance of mindless X-Men sequels continue unabated? Little would change for most of us, but for dedicated Saab cultists, whose number grows ever smaller through

It now looks as if the Gulf Coast oil spill, brought to you in part by BP and the government’s Minerals Management Service, will not cause the northern hemisphere to close down. Yet, memories of BP’s former CEO, Tony Hayward, continue to stoke a national aversion to “foreign oil” and a boycott of the nation’s 10,000 BP stations (almost none of which are owned by BP).

If you want to fire up a populist, tell him that America’s CEOs are underpaid. Then, once his hair is aflame, point out that we have a free market when it comes to hiring folks. That is why George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt make more money in a week than most of us make in nine years. And why Tom Cruise once said, “They pay me that much because I’m worth it. When

I watched bull riding the other night for the first time in a while, and I was flabbergasted to see riders wearing helmets with face guards instead of big western hats. Not all of them, but enough, and they were some strange looking cowboys. I'd always thought you had to have been hit in the head to be a bull rider in the first place, but apparently not. The optional helmets signify that bul

Everyone able to use earrings has heard about the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf. And they've heard the foaming stream of breathless commentary emanating from automotive experts, from Chevrolet, and from Nissan. The modified noun "plug-in hybrid" is being thrown around like a beanbag in a kindergarten, and comparisons between the two vehicles are as common as the coin toss in

At year’s end, every would-be pundit who can get work published does an annual wrap-up. At AOL Autos, we see no need for you to suffer through twelve months before learning what happened in 2010. Accordingly, and with our astigmatic crystal ball at hand, we look back at some events that caught our eye during 2010. As you will see, a crystal ball does not always render perfect vision, though

When I opened my Hammacher Schlemmer holiday catalog, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a 2/3 scale Corvette for kids. Boy, I thought, finding the perfect gift for a niece or nephew—or both—in your mailbox beats hell out of slogging through aisles clogged with other middle-class strugglers at Kmart or Target. Then I saw the price: a mere $32,000, which did not include un

I’ve been writing about the automotive world since just after the discovery of cellophane, and during those years I suggested on several occasions that General Motors hire racing billionaire Roger Penske as its chief executive officer. I did that so many times that Roger sent me a terse note saying, “Please shut up. I have more than enough to do here at the Penske Corporation.” W

Three weeks ago, the General Motors board of directors determined that selling its Opel operation was a bad idea. Today, the board found that one of its better ideas, selling its perennially unprofitable Saab brand, had vanished like a Swedish meatball at a smorgasbord.  Fritz Henderson, GM’s president and chief executive officer, expressed disappointment that the prospective purchaser

Sometime next year, you may be able to invest in General Motors again. Should investors even consider doing that? Let’s first look at some recent history. Last July, a newly formed company called NGMCO bought the brands and business we knew as General Motors in a bankruptcy sale. NGMCO promptly changed its name to New General Motors Company. The creditors and stockholders--bag holders might

On September 9, 2009, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety destroyed a perfectly good 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air. This wanton dispatching of a perfectly good 50-year-old Chevy dismayed lovers of vintage cars, but it did add a “Thank God” to the old saying, “They just don’t build them like they used to.” Presumably as a part of celebrations marking its Golden Annivers

Do we have yet another advertising scandal on our hands? A full-page four-color ad touting the tiny Smart car’s safety features appeared in the September 10 issue of USA Today. By way of illustrating the minuscule microcar’s muscularity, the ad included a photograph of a size Medium elephant standing on the roof of a Smart fortwo. (Ed. Note: The folks who market the car, an urban econo

According to a survey of new-vehicle buyers who participated in the recent Cash for Clunkers program, more than 17 percent now harbor “some” doubt or “serious” doubt about letting a government subsidy convince them to go further into debt. CNW Research of Bandon, Oregon, a firm specializing in automotive marketing research, conducted the survey in late August. Buyer’s

Once upon a time, Ford Motor Company's advertising bore the tagline "Ford has a better idea." Recent events indicate that it may be time to resurrect that slogan. Cash for Clunkers, the bizarre promotion mounted by the U.S. Government on behalf of the country's wobbly auto industry, appears to vindicate Ford's biggest idea of the past few years: borrowing private capital instead of taxpayer cash t