Video of the Week: "The Car Sounds Like..."

This one spoke to my past, brief life as a service writer. For those who don't know, service writers often use the term "customer states" followed by the customer's description of the problem.

Like so: "Customer states there is a creaking noise when turning left at under 15 mph."

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The Perfect Song for People That Love Cars but Hate Their Spouse

Driving songs are an intensely personal thing and can be influenced as much by your taste in music as your preferred style of motoring. For some, nothing but the most frantic electronic dance music will suffice. Though others may find themselves requiring classic rock or hair metal to get into the groove – perhaps with a hint of vintage R&B for cruising. Whatever your particular brand of ear poison happens to be, there’s a good chance that your significant other won’t appreciate the noises coming out of the speakers as much as you do and may even resent the massive amount of attention you’ve given to your automobile generally.

Assuming you haven’t left that person already, and they have a decent sense of humor, there’s a song you absolutely must consider adding to your driving mix.

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Remember That Boris Johnson Was Once a Car Reviewer

One of the bigger pieces of geopolitical news this week involves Boris Johnson. The U.K. prime minister is stepping down.

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Bronco Spied on Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway

A bronco was being tested on Chicago’s Dan Ryan Expressway Monday, without camouflage, in full view of commuters.

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Last Rides: The Compilation Album

A couple of years back, as I sat at my desk having another existential episode with one of Murilee’s Finds loaded up on my monitor.

Junkyards have been something that have always fascinated me from an archaeological standpoint, even as a young lad. Many are more than just discarded automobiles. Often, you’re looking at the story of somebody’s life frozen in time, a bug in the amber.

I gazed at that mundane ’77 Plymouth, and then tossed out an intentionally absurd, yet profound, comment into cyberspace — sort of an internet version of “Hold my beer, and watch this.” Nobody really noticed, so I subsequently polished my sickness “craft” until people did.

This satirical drivel became an amusing device for laughs for me, but alas, the sunset has come to my column here.

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Chevrolet Volt – Building a Better Tomorrow Via Satire

Chevy Volt – Building a Better Tomorrow from Ben Howe on Vimeo.

Our very own Ed Niedermeyer was on CNN today talking about the Chevrolet Volt, and in honor of his appearance, we present to you a satirical Volt ad that is sure to incite untrue accusations of political bias among TTAC staffers. In other news, vote Lyndon Larouche 2012.

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  • Doug brockman There will be many many people living in apartments without dedicated charging facilities in future who will need personal vehicles to get to work and school and for whom mass transit will be an annoying inconvenience
  • Jeff Self driving cars are not ready for prime time.
  • Lichtronamo Watch as the non-us based automakers shift more production to Mexico in the future.
  • 28-Cars-Later " Electrek recently dug around in Tesla’s online parts catalog and found that the windshield costs a whopping $1,900 to replace.To be fair, that’s around what a Mercedes S-Class or Rivian windshield costs, but the Tesla’s glass is unique because of its shape. It’s also worth noting that most insurance plans have glass replacement options that can make the repair a low- or zero-cost issue. "Now I understand why my insurance is so high despite no claims for years and about 7,500 annual miles between three cars.
  • AMcA My theory is that that when the Big 3 gave away the store to the UAW in the last contract, there was a side deal in which the UAW promised to go after the non-organized transplant plants. Even the UAW understands that if the wage differential gets too high it's gonna kill the golden goose.