Your faithful editor just dodged a bullet. And no, not from our owners, who might have wondered why I just took off for the better part of a weekday. Truth is, for the past several hours I’ve been trying to buy a car I don’t particularly need… but now it seems that circumstances have forced me to postpone my rash decision. At least until Saturday. And though it’s always best to consider big purchases thoroughly before pulling the trigger, this car has simply been lodged itself in my brain, screaming at me to buy it for the last several days. I like to think of myself as a fairly reasonable person, but I find myself stripped of objectivity, common sense and practicality, all of which have been replaced by slobbering, single-minded lust. In fact, I’m so unreasonably set on this acquisition that I’m not going to even say what kind of car it is, for fear of jinxing the deal (feel free to guess though… unless you’re one of the two people who actually know).

Now that you’ve had a taste of the madness that’s afflicted your loyal devotee automotive truth, I invite you to crack open a judgment-impairing beverage and let me know what car you might buy in the throes of automotive insanity. Keep in mind that this is not a lottery fantasy question… you should be able to acquire this car in real life (you just might not want to tell your spouse, children, or financial planner until it’s too late and madness has become reality). Alternatively, tell us about the impulse buy that taught you to overcome the insanity of blind automotive lust.

One of the world’s foremost authorities on Automotive Journalism recently got their hands on a trio of Corvettes just for fun. But what unfolded was on the verge of hilarity, if not for their self-proclaimed journalistic superiority over us “punk kids with lots of servers and a desire to get free test drives.”

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TTAC’s readers have rightly gained the reputation for being some of the best vehicle/automobilia identifiers on the planet. We keep you on your toes with several Curbside Classic Clues each week, but now we have an opportunity to flex those skills for something other than just bragging rights. Ontario police are asking for help identifying this piece of body panel which was found at the scene of a fatal hit and run. Identifying this piece of battered material could help police find the vehicle that killed 15 year-old Kyle Peters who was hit by the car in question while riding his bike. Can TTAC’s Best and Brightest identify the car that will help police find whoever robbed young Mr Peters of his future? We certainly hope so.

There’s a wise old saying that warns not to propose marriage to a woman until you’ve met her mother. What if potential MIL is out of the country for an extended period, and you’re in a hurry? You could do what I did in 1977: look in the garage to see what she drives. There I found a BMW 2002 stashed securely away. And it wasn’t an automatic either. It’s all I needed to know: “Stephanie, will you marry me?”

Alternate opening paragraph: If the 1979 Firebird Trans Am was a living dinosaur, than what was the little mammalian creature scurrying about underfoot that would eventually take its place, and revolutionize the performance car segment? The answer is indisputably the BMW 2002. (Read More…)

Looking for proof that politics are an overriding concern for GM during its forthcoming IPO: look no further than a report by Reuters which claims that

GM’s roadshow is set to begin on Nov. 3 and will last two weeks, the sources said. The IPO is expected to price on Nov. 17 and debut on Nov. 18.

Now why would GM wait until the day after midterm elections to file? Well, it could be so GM has time to file 3rd Quarter financial data before offering shares to the public, but GM’s CFO has already warned that 3rd Quarter results will be worse than results from the first half of the year. In other words, waiting to file is likely to materially hurt the IPO (and taxpayers’ chance of payback). But if GM launches its roadshow the day after elections, it won’t turn the midterm election into a referendum on the auto bailout, a situation that would surely exacerbate the already-strong anti-incumbent trend in American politics. And clearly protecting craven pols is far more important than maximizing the return on “investment” for taxpayers, right?

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The de-Ramification of the Dodge brand took another important step today, as Dodge previewed its new Ram-free logo. Similarly, the new 2011 Durango (on which the updated logo appears) has also had the Ram taken out of its Rama-lama-dingdong… er, technical underpinnings. Once a big BOF bruiser, the Durango has had a unibody makeover along the lines of Ford’s Explorer, making 2010 the year of the Cross-retro-ver. But will the old SUV brands remain relevant after becoming poster boys for automotive and cultural excess back when gas prices spiked? More importantly, does anyone actually like the new Dodge badge?

A team of experienced class action lawyers is taking on California’s red light camera industry, and photo enforcement companies are expressing unease. Last month, the law firm of Pearson Simon Warshaw and Penny, LLP filed suit in San Mateo County Superior Court arguing that tickets issued throughout the Golden State since January 1, 2004 should be refunded where the photo enforcement contracts violated a state law mandating flat-rate compensation to companies like Redflex Traffic Systems. Redflex referred to the case as a particular business risk in an August 25 filing with the Australian Securities Exchange.

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People have a lot of fears with electric cars/extended range electric cars. Will the government subsidies distort the market? Can manufacturers be able to sell them profitably? Are they really that environmentally sound? But the one which gets everyone is “range anxiety”. Will I have enough juice to get me home? It’s an issue which manufacturers are dealing with in their own ways. GM has come up with their own way of dealing with it; they’re trademarking it: With range anxiety being trademarked, someone just dreams the word, and GM’s lawyers will be on top of him, and make him surrender the illicit dream. (Read More…)

Don’t take it as gospel. The China Automotive Technology and Research Center is known for its early, but not always its most precise numbers, although their precision has improved lately. If they have their act halfway together, then a new revolution is underway in China.  According to the CATRC’s numbers, August sales in China rose 55.7 percent over a year earlier to 1.21 million vehicles. This is absoNSFWingly mindblowing, because in August 2009, sales had been up 95 percent. (Read More…)

Toyota has been selling many hybrids since they introduced the Toyota Coaster Hybrid EV minibus in 1997. A few months later, they started mass-production of the Prius, and it’s been a runaway hit. In Japan, the Prius is leading the charts. The Toyota hybrid system is available in minivans, SUVs and sedans. Nine TMC-produced hybrid passenger vehicle models and three hybrid commercial vehicle models are sold in Japan. Outside Japan, eight hybrid passenger vehicle models are sold in approximately 80 countries.  So far, Toyota has sold  2.68 million hybrids throughout the world. Of course, Toyota is proud of that achievement. But what are they really proud of? That they have saved the world from a huge pile of dangerous dirt. (Read More…)