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Dear Dub, I was in a tire shop the other day when a guy pulled up in a smart car and came in saying he wanted some new tires. So the fine fellow at the desk said, "Let's go out and see what size they are", and the smart driver says, "Oh, they're not for that, they're for my Crossfire". What a green poser!..

Ford said on Thursday that beginning in 2010, it planned to be the first automaker to offer inflatable rear seat belts, a technology aimed at reducing injuries to children and elderly passengers in a crash. Sounds noble enough, and I'll even give them clever on the marketing side. But when is enough going to be enough on this quest toward the "100% safe car"...

The image is from the Charlie Chaplin classic, "Modern Times", which follows the Little Tramp through his trials and tribulations at a factory. I was reminded of the film while reading an interesting op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about how Ford is making it comeback, and how the UAW is throwing a real monkey wrench into the works. The real issue is the job classifications...

It's a headline too good to pass up... As Chrysler sits on blocks, what will Fiat do to fix it? Given that some folks have suggested that Fiat is an acronym for Failure In Automotive Technology or Fix It Again Tony, the headline gave me a little chuckle...

How appropriate that on election we have a story about how the US Treasury is considering options for divesting itself of our stake in the auto industry. One of the options it is focuing on is on a series of public offering. Taxpayers have sunk more than $50 billion in bailout and bankruptcy financing in GM and more than $14 billion in Chrysler this year...

There are just two problems with mass transit. Nobody uses it, and it costs [too much]. Only 4% of Americans take public transportation to work...

In just two days of voting, the Canadian Auto Workers pulled off what the UAW was unable to do in weeks -- convince its membership to vote for yet another set of contract changes with Ford Motor Co. Not only did they agree to the changes in the contract that put them in line with the deals with GM and Chrysler, they did so by voting 83% in favor as opposed to roughly the same percentage in opposition at the UAW plants. Will Ford start to migrate work to Canadian plants?..

Going on an all day exursion to Pittsburgh today with a total of about 6 hours of driving, so I thought I'd get my rubbernecking out of the way before the trip by stopping at wreckedexotics.com this morning. This photo is from the Weird Accidents section. Now that's a pothole!..

Sorry to have been so long since the last entry... been a wild year for me. Let's see, what's been going on?..

Dear Dub, Now that Cash for Clunkers has put a lot of perfectly good cars into salvage yards, I can finally follow through on an idea I've had for years. I'm going to build the perfect car by using the best parts from whatever source, and show Detroit how it should be done. What do you think?..