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Soul, is the running gear right?

December 31, 2009

Courtesy Motor Age, January 3, 1918
WELL, we’ve motored past another milestone. A new road opens up before us, unexplored, untraveled, a clear way ahead. The bells of Time have rung out the old, rung in the new!
Let us set forth with stout hearts and sunny souls, sobered by past experience, renewed with hope in the future, strengthened with faith in our brotherhood, particularly the brotherhood of good motorists!
These are thoughts to which we turn with relief, glad to shift our twelve-months’ burden and start afresh. Sometimes the traveling was good, the road was even, the day was fair; sometimes ’twas slow and painful going, up long and fearful hills, through deep and rocky valleys, often breaking miserably down by the wayside, and often stopped in our heedless speeding by the policeman of Nature and forced to serve our time in the stationhouse of Remorse. But we have learned the Law!
As [...]

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Symbolically, Chrysler starts playing offense

December 31, 2009

gusser, how long ago did you own that Fiat? Ya know, 40 years ago Toyotas, Hondas, and Datsuns were bigger pieces of junk than they are today. Stands to reason that Fiat has improved quality substantially since the last one you owned.

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Curbside Classic CA Vacation Edition: 1964 Ford Galaxie 500

December 31, 2009

The odds of seeing a cool car parked by a CA surfing beach is always a bit higher than average. We’ve been staying in a friend’s guest house on a hill overlooking Half Moon Bay, without cell phone reception or any internet; very relaxing to unplug it all. But the surfing is good around Half [...]

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This Is the Year that Was

December 31, 2009

No Top 10 list from me this year. Every big auto story in 2009 was connected to the vast economic earthquake that will forever change the way we buy cars and trucks. It’s about the way General Motors, for 80 years the…

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Curbside Classic CA Vacation Outtake: Super-Rare 1971 Opel Manta

December 31, 2009

You never know what will wash ashore on the beaches of Half Moon Bay. Heading for the coffee/wifi cafe to send these dispatches, what do I find in the parking lot, but a pristine 1971 (or ‘72) Manta. As you may remember, the best I could in Eugene was this ‘74 in a carport that [...]

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Curbside Classic CA Vacation Edition: 1964 Ford Galaxy 500

December 31, 2009

The odds of seeing a cool car parked by a CA surfing beach is always a bit higher than average. We’ve been staying in a friend’s guest house on a hill overlooking Half Moon Bay, without cell phone reception or any internet; very relaxing to unplug it all. But the surfing is good around Half [...]

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Enough of the top ten lists, what’s your ‘Vehicle of the Decade’?

December 31, 2009

Filed under: Etc.

In just a few hours, the Naughties will be no more. And while we’re all for looking back on the decade that was with rose-tinted glasses, our critical eyes inevitably fall to the vehicles released in the last ten years. There was a balanced amount of successes and disappointments, but rather than come up with yet another top picks list, we decided it would be best to pose the question to you: What’s your vehicle of the decade?
Naturally, we’ve got our own picks, but at the end of the day, it’s your opinion matters most. So sound off in Comments before you head out on the town and enjoy the final moments of one of the most compelling decades in automotive history.
Enough of the top ten lists, what’s your ‘Vehicle of the Decade’? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our [...]

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Video: Dyer’s most eXtreme moments of 2009

December 31, 2009

Filed under: Videos

Click above to view the video after the jump
Apparently Automobile and New York Times contributor Ezra Dyer took a fair amount of flack for his snowy Audi R8 escapades, so he’s compiled his greatest motive moments of 2009 into one predictably ridiculous montage. We’d describe the antics ourselves, but a chilled bottle of champagne is goading us from afar and Dyer does a far better job:

Do not even watch this video if you have a heart condition or think you might be pregnant, for it includes the following graphic material: Goading Michael Schumacher into driving like a maniac in a Ferrari 599 GTB; shooting my Cadillac with machine guns, at night, using tracer bullets; jumping a Subaru; jumping off a sand dune without a Subaru; Lamborghini doughnuts; shots of speedometers reading x-tremely high speeds. And there’s even more. Your ticket buys you the whole seat, but [...]

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Curbside Classic CA Vacation Outtake – David Holzman Edition: 1964 Chevy Bel Air Wagon

December 31, 2009

Longtime reader/contributor David Holzman asked yesterday if I could find him a ‘64 Chevy wagon while hanging out in San Mateo. We aim to please, so here it is, unfortunately hiding in a garage. Sorry, David; that’s as good as it gets. But for anyone who grew up in the sixties or early seventies, the [...]

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Report: Kansas to cease allowing motorists to have ‘duplicate’ personalized plates. Wait, wha?

December 31, 2009

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal

Kansas is revamping the way it issues vanity plates, and it means a lot of residents are going to lose their ‘duplicate’ personalized plates. They’re not really duplicates, though: Unlike most states, Kansas allows people in different counties to have the same alphanumeric combination, so while the tags might appear to be copies, they are registered in different counties and that technically makes them different plates.
According to Kansas.com, the problem with that strategy is that law enforcement officials in hot pursuit have a hard time reading which county a car’s “JAYHAWK” plate is registered to, so they have been behind the push to change the policy. The Kansas DMV is in the process of figuring out who registered each of these ‘duplicate’ plates first, and then it plans to send letters to anyone else with that same alphanumeric combo to let them know they can’t [...]

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