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The Northern California city of Tracy is taking economic stimulus into its own hands. On Tuesday, the city council passed a resolution that will give buyers of new cars from dealers within the city a $500 gift card that can be redeemed at local merchants participating in the program. Would a gift card like that be enough to get you into a new car at this point?..

Our next contestant on The Price Isn't Right is UAW vice-president Bob King, come on down! You're playing for the autoworker jobs that are going to be a part of the restructured GM. The game is simple...

Scientists unveiled on Tuesday what they hope will be one of the world's fastest biofuel vehicles, powered by waste from chocolate factories and made partly from plant fibers. Its makers hope the racer will go 145 mph and give manufacturers ideas about how to build more ecologically friendly vehicles. Makes for an eye catching headline, but I bet the major component of the fuel are the vegetable oils and you could have thrown just about any other type of food waste in there to "flavor" the fuel...

AR Index     560.87  +40.49  (+7.78%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  81.59   +3.00 GM        1.81      -0.23 Ford      5.88     +0.77 Dow 8426.74  +401.74   (+5.01%) While the news lately has been plastered with stories about Chrysler and GM, things aren't as bleak as the headlines it takes to sell newspapers might make you believe. Year-to-date, the AR Index, shown in today's chart, is up 51%, powered by a 26% rise in Toyota and a skyrocketing Ford, which is up 127% this year, offsetting the 51% drop in GM stock over the same period. I know that nobody seems to want to believe it, but business is cyclical, and what's down will eventually swing up, even if a company disappears along the way in the survival-of-the-fittest business world...

Dear Dub, After a round of golf the other day a bunch of us were sitting around the 19th hole and we came up with a terrific idea. You should be able to go get tested for your driver's license after having however many drinks you want to have. You'd be tested for blood alcohol level, and if you pass the test, you'd be cleared to drive with up to that level without the danger of a DUI!..

The Great Race, starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood  is one of my favorite movies. Little did I realize all this time that there actually was a NY to Paris car race in 1908! It was won by the Thomas Flyer, covering 22,000 miles in 169 days...

I'm still not convinced that the Chevy Volt is the answer to any question that's being asked these days, but the folks at Inside Line got to test the engineering development car, also known as the "mule" How a vehicle that's not expected to turn any kind of profit is supposed to help GM is one that has a lot of folks besides me scratching their heads. But you can read about the 2001 Chevy Volt Prototype First Drive over on Inside Line.

Facing a June 1 restructuring deadline to avoid bankruptcy, GM will begin notifying outlets the automaker plans to eliminate by May 11, the company told dealers in a video conference call. They're looking at up to 1200 underperforming  outlets and more than 450 stores will be cut with the ending of the Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands. Some serious fat trimming going on...

AR Index     520.38  +79.02  (+17.90%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  78.59   +2.80 GM        2.04     +0.38 Ford      5.11     +1.42 Dow 8025.00  +183.27   (+2.34%) Another good week for the index, but I thought the focus should be on Ford this week and the stock performance over the last year. Since they announced they wouldn't be taking any bailout money the stock has been like an explorer in the mountains on an expedition seeking higher ground. When car sales start to rebound, Ford will find themselves in a fair lane headed for quite a fiesta!

GM is expected to announce its third new restructuring plan today and it looks like the elimination of the Pontiac brand is going to be part of it. The only real constant is change and it's become pretty obvious that GM has to change drastically to survive. That the change has to eliminate one of the storied brands in American automotive history is regretable...