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Here's a shocker... Waning big-vehicle sales upended GM Lagging sales of trucks and larger cars have caught General Motors Corp. by surprise...

It seems that I keep doing goofy crap every time I set foot in our long-term Dodgey Grand Caravan. Let's see, I discovered it was a hotlap disappointment at Willow Springs, I sat backwards in the backseat for no particular reason and this past weekend, I added some patriotic flair to the craptacular cabin. So, two weeks ago when I hit Chrysler's Proving Grounds with every Chrysler vehicle at my disposal, I knew I had to do something fun with the Caravan...

 First it was the Volt, then others jumped on the 2010 release date bandwagon for electirc vehicles. (Keeping Up With The Joneses). Now VW says it has plans to release their "one liter" car in 2010...

Sometimes with the way the gloom and doom media reports things anymore, it can feel like no progress is being made. But remember when acid raid was front page news? or how bad LA smog really was?..

Time for a sit down (and some boat drinks) with one of your CarSpace forums hosts! Mr. Shiftright is the host of the Classic Car and Maintenance & Repair forums...

I snapped this photo during track testing this week and it got me thinking about the juxtaposed nature of this job. Yes, that's the Audi R8 we get drive around for three months. Undeniably cool...

Francis Scott Key "In Defense of Fort McHenry" 20 September 1814 Congress Made U.S. National Anthem 1931  Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?..

Welcome to a new feature here on Thoughts from the Curb. With the release of "Quantum of Solace" only 18 weeks away, I thought I'd take a look at the many cars that have appeared in the 21 James Bond films. Cars and Bond go hand in hand, with the venerable British spy making legends out of cars that could have easily been forgotten today. Just two weeks ago, a young boy pointed at my Z3 in excitement because it was "the James Bond car," completely dismissing the Ferrari 599 in front of me...

On Friday, June 20, 2008, an odd thing happened to my car's odometer.  Its backlight (see the lower right corner of the photo above) stopped working!  My thoughts ranged from, "<sarcasm>Great</sarcasm>.  Now I'll have to spend more money on the car.  Replacing this will be a pain, too, because the replacement instrument cluster will have to be turned to my car's current mileage," to "Upgrade time! :o)" after thinking a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi instrument cluster (seen below) retrofit could work.  The problem with retrofitting a STi instrument cluster is that my car doesn't have the driver-controlled center differential (DCCD) or an outside temperature sensor.  Retrofitting the STi cluster would require modifying the cluster itself to make it work well with my car and getting it turned to my car's mileage. I don't know what caused the odometer backlight to go out.  My car's left side headlight bulb went out the previous night.  Perhaps that had something to do with it.  I replaced both headlight bulbs with European-spec Philips Vision Plus +50 H1 headlight bulbs (which are amazing by the way - I'd say their light output is better than the Euro-spec Osram Silverstar bulbs) on Saturday morning.  I took the car for a quick spin to Wal-Mart and back on Saturday afternoon, but didn't notice if the odometer backlight was on or not (it should be on anytime the ignition is in the on position).  It wasn't until I was leaving church on Sunday afternoon that I noticed the odometer backlight was fully functional again.  Seeing it illuminated again was a relief!..

Well it's a big day in our house. Today is the 16th birthday of our daughter and that means time for the learner's permit. So right after 6AM basketball practice - that's right, 6 in the A of M - I'll be taking her to the driver's license center to take the permit test...