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Nissan wanted to advertise its new Nissan Cube car, and so it created an iPhone game that lets users customize the car. I'm not sure if it will help sell cars, or is the wave of the future, but it sure puts the Cube in front of people who always seem to have their iphones glued to their ears or noses buried in some app. Read more about it at GamesBeat

2009 Civic Si Sedan Purchase Agreement Ben will not buy another car until July of 2014.  The only exception can purely be need based, for example, loss of job. Ben has written this agreement for the sake of himself and his family. My wife and I both signed this contract today...

Dear Dub, I THOUGHT I bought my dream car a year ago, low miles, great shape, black with heavily tinted windows. I took off all the badges, bought some sharp wheels and put on low profile tires and some mods and started cruising. But right away, my mileage dropped like a stone and it's costing me a fortune at the pump...

Today is the day GM is going to emerge from bankruptcy and I expect there will be a lot of crowing from certain quarters about what a wonderful thing has been done to save an American company. I wouldn't be handing out cigars just yet. Given the government's reputation for efficiently running things and considering that the bailout money we threw at GM that was supposed to keep them out of bankruptcy seems to have been thrown down a hole and buried, any instant claim of success has to taken in with more than a grain of salt...

So I'm reading a story about how GM is getting ready to emerge from bankruptcy and that the "new" GM will come out of the chute with $48 billion in debts. Now I know this is going to take some high level mathematics and some cipherin' that would test Jethro Bodine's limits, but flash back to yesterday's blog entry and Ford's situation. The article in the NY times said: Ford, meantime, has some $26 billion of debt...

Eastwood has been the trusted source of automotive restoration tools and supplies for more than 30 years. It has always been the place to go whenever the home hobbyist needed to fix a body panel or treat a rusty frame. Adding to that product lineup is the new MaxxPower brand of engine accessories...

Leave it to the NY Times to try and drum up a crisis where there really isn't one. If you want to believe it, Ford could be in trouble because GM and Chrysler have declared bankruptcy. The "logic" goes like this...

AR Index     517.05  -8.23  (-1.57%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  75.61  +0.12 GM        0.70    -0.44 Ford      5.75    -0.03 Dow 8324.87  -204.51   (-2.40%) Prices at the pump have started to ease a bit, although it seems to have nothing to do with any kind of reality regarding supply and demand, just more of the games in the commodity markets. But it seems that this time around, unlike last year,  the traders haven't been able to force the markets to insane levels. The year-to-date chart of crude oil price divided by gas price at the pump is settling down to a steadier number...

According to sources, a plug-in version of the Prius should hit the market in about 2012. Toyota plans to build 20,000-30,000 plug-in Priuses a year and intends to price them at about $48,000 - twice the price of a conventional Prius hybrid and about $8,000 more than the Chevrolet Volt, which will hit the market at the tail end of 2010. Just like the Volt, I don't think a $48K vehicle is likely to be a widespread commercial success...

Perhaps I need to change my opinion about low-profile tires, or at least modify it. A Mountaineer owner comes in with a low tire light and I wonder how to tell which one. I would never put low pros on a vehicle, no matter how cool I thought it looked...