Missouri Cops Harass Video Vigilante A Third Time

It has been almost three years since a young Saint Louis, Missouri motorist drew national attention by videotaping an out-of-control police officer’s profanity-laced tirade during a traffic stop ( view video). St. George Police Sergeant James Kuehnlein was fired because of the bad publicity generated by the incident captured by the taping system that Brett Darrow, 23, installed in his 1997 Nissan Maxima. On Saturday, St. Louis County Police stopped Darrow once again.

Read more
You Are Cleared For Takeoff…
Want to fly somewhere, but don’t want to set foot in an airplane? The Dallas-Fort Worth airport has you covered. Just remember, even if you don’t…
Read more
"Due To Extreme Weight Savings And Emissions Reductions, The Engine Has Been Completely Removed"
This video is the kind of thing that a pretentious grad student would call “an artifact.” For one thing, it proves that Germans do have a sense o…
Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: Shades Of Firestone Edition
Ford learns once again that partners can hurt as much as they help. Hat Tip: Twitter’s @ SexCigarsBooze
Read more
Quote Of The Day: Ram Gets The Hell Out Of Dodge Edition
As the Dodge brand redefines itself with new lifestyle packages, new ads, events and sponsorships, and a slew of upcoming new products, it’s using its…
Read more
The Strange And Wonderful Custom Cars Of Xenatec
To be perfectly honest, we weren’t familiar with the work of Weinsberg, Germany-based Xenatec group before hearing that the custom bodywork shop would…
Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: TTAC's Recent Content Slowdown Explained Edition

As I noted in my most recent review, TTAC’s coverage of cars and the companies that create them are based largely on the power of the internet to deliver the latest news on which to base our breaking analysis. And though a constant stream of news-based analysis will continue to define TTAC’s content, it’s also become clear to me that we (myself, in particular) need to spend more time behind the wheel even if that means a little less time behind the keyboard.

Read more
Russian President Requests The Rebirth Of ZiL
What is it about former (or ostensible) communist leaders and retro limousines? China’s Hu Jintao got a tip of the hat from us last October for steppin…
Read more
Quote Of The Day: Toyota Terror Explained Edition

It was just this guy that thought that this was how you got something to Toyota’s research and develop office

Sgt. K.S. Dickson of the Winfield (West Virginia) State Police detachment had wvgazette.com by way of explaining the recent bomb scares at four of Toyota’s US facilities. Apparently the suspicious packages were sent by a Nigerian inventor trying to sell his turn signal design to Toyota. After one package was “disrupted” by a police bomb squad, it was discovered that

There were no explosives in the box, just relay switches, wiring and film canisters, in addition to a letter from the Nigerian man claiming to be an engineer

Read more
And Now… Toyota Terrorists?

Workers in an Indiana post office were forced to evacuate their workplace yesterday, when the fourth “hoax bomb” targeting Toyota’s US facilities in the last week was discovered there. The AP [via Google] reports that the latest package was addressed to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in Princeton, IN and according to Toyota spokesfolks, it is

similar to other suspicious packages mailed to our corporate office in Erlanger, Kentucky, on Friday and our West Virginia and Texas plants on Monday. All of these packages were found to be non-threatening

All four packages bore handwritten originating addresses in Nigeria, and contained devices described in the latest instance as a cardboard tube containing electronic components. Auto industry PR guys, you have a new worst-case scenario…

Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: Analysis-Retentive Edition

About a half-hour after TTAC’s 15 Years of Compact Car Sales graph went up today, the normally enthusiast-oriented car blog Jalopnik gave the internet its own take on compact-car segment analysis with a post titled The Ford Fiesta Will Dominate The Small Car Segment. Some might question how this is supposed to jive with Jalopnik’s alleged commitment to “awesomeness,” but our concerns are far more prosaic. Examples: the absence of the Fiesta’s actual competitors like the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris, and the absence of interior volume comparisons which would expose this “comparison” for the fraud it is. And that’s just for starters…

Read more
Do Androids Dream Of Powerslide Parallel-Parking?
You stay hoony, Stanford University
Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: Enjoying Your Test Drive? Edition
Automotive News highlights a new trend in the car sales game: the luxury dealership destination. This picture was taken at Lexus of North Miami, which its…
Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: The Wages Of Sin Edition

From John Dillinger to Nicolas Cage, the car industry has always needed villains. In fact, one could almost make the argument that the entire top quarter or so of the luxury car market is wholly dependent on scumbags of one kind or another. As Raymond Chandler once noted, there’s no honest way to make a hundred million bucks… and spending millions on cars is a great way to advertise one’s comfort with the moral ambiguities of ostentatious wealth. So when America’s most notoriously crooked car dealer, a certain Denny Hecker, auctions off his personal fleet as part of his $767m bankruptcy (itself triggered by 25 counts of fraud and related criminal charges), you expect to see some good stuff hitting the block.

Read more
What's Wrong With This Picture: Checker Handles Like It's On Rails Edition
How did this not make it into our Illustrated History Of Checker Motors? Because TTAC commenter whynotaztec didn’t send it in soon enough. Better late…
Read more
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.