The gas prices that cracked $4.00 and spilled green yolk north towards $4.50 a gallon were not part of your imagination over the Labor Day weekend. No, those prices were higher than all other Labor Days since the dutiful book keepers began keeping track of such things. Gasoline prices rose 9.4% in August, which is the largest percentage gain for a single month in more than three years. The national average was $3.83 last Saturday, or well above the previous record of $3.67, set on the Saturday before Labor Day weekend in 2008. Continue reading →

Most of us started out on hard plastics before moving on to the real thing.  I’m sure we can all remember the toys that transformed us into car nerds; the ones we begged our parents to buy for us while waiting in the checkout line at the store.  The toys of our youth gave us some much needed time to pretend, and some of us have yet to grow out of that phase.  It’s time now to take a quick trip back to the days of no worries, so that we can pay homage to those sweet, sweet playthings.  Read on and tell me that remembering these things doesn’t make you want to go on a Nickelodeon style Toys”R”Us shopping spree. Continue reading →

That U.S. car industry sure can be unforgiving. When August figures are released, GM believes sales of its electric-powered Volt will break all sorts of its own records. 2,500 of the cars are expected to drive off the lots of the new dealers offering them in California, Michigan, Illinois and Florida (the cars, of course, will not be driving themselves; at least not yet). August should be the highest-selling month for the Volt, beating out the paltry 2,000 GM sold in March, which was the previous high. Continue reading →

Anything short of double digit growth in the auto industry tends to make people FREAK OUT. Like the industry is flirting with the scrap heap, resembling the disheveled state of the Boston Red Sox and Bobby Valentine. In July, new auto sales jumped 8.9% from last year, and an analyst said the market was “stuck in second gear.” Continue reading →

Allstate Insurance provides an annual “America’s Best Drivers Report”, determining exactly where in the country auto claim frequency is the highest in the largest 200 cities in the U.S. Continue reading →

We all love a little space, especially when it comes to parking our cars.  In this case, a big space would be preferable, but, as anyone who has experienced city parking knows, big spaces are far and few between these days.  And it’s going to get worse.  That’s the bad news.  The good?  Smarter people than me have been busy developing ways around the tight car crunch that many of us experience daily. Continue reading →

We live in a strange, strange world (not because of what follows, but the cause of what follows). Congress has just authorized a grant program that provides $17.5 million in FY 2013 to states that have enacted or are enforcing anti-distracted driving laws, including anti-texting statutes. This is part of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act, which governs U.S. federal surface transportation spending. Continue reading →

Tired of presidential campaign talk, replayed sound bites and idiocy yet? GM and Chrysler are. Both companies have decided against hosting any sort of campaign events this fall in front of the November 6^th election. Continue reading →