Things You Should Never Do (When Working on a Car)
A good mechanic often has the scars to prove it. My friend Tim - a professional mechanic with years of experience - just acquired a new one the other day. While...
People Aren’t Buying . . . Here’s Why
New car sales are down - again - for the seventh month in a row. Which means they've been slipping all year long so far. The last time it was this...
$5 Gas This Summer?
The way things are going, gas prices will probably top $5 a gallon this summer. We may be lucky if it stops there. Some industry experts, including former Shell CEO John...
Guerrilla Car Buying
It’s never been easier to buy a new car; the harder part is not paying too much for it. "Easy" financing obscures how much you’re really paying, by spreading out the...
Before You Go Old . . .
Maybe you’ve been thinking about buying an older car as a way to avoid some of the hassles, expense - and Big Brother-ish - aspects of owning a new car.
These are...
Don’t Depend on Just Gas…
Having a generator for back-up power is great - unless you don't have the fuel to run the generator. The irony of the portable back-up generator - most of them, at...
Things Cars Ought to Have… But Don’t
I've ranted about stuff new cars come with that seem over-the-top, unnecessary - stupid, even. The obnoxious back-up buzzer in the Toyota Prius hybrid, for instance. Headlights that stay on all...
The Ticking Time Bomb in Your Dashboard
Air bags - driver and front seat passenger air bags - have been mandatory in cars since the mid 1990s. That means there are now millions of older cars on the...
How “Safety” Requirements Make Your Car Less Actually Safe
The government enacts laws - or issues regulatory fatwas - requiring that new cars comply with various "safety" standards. Ironically, the result of these standards - in terms of vehicle design...
Goodbye, V-8s. Maybe This Time, For Good
V-8s are on the way out - again.
The first mass extinction occurred circa late 1970s/early '80s - as a result of the first round of the government fuel economy edicts...