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Dubious Honors For Old Honda Civics, Accords: Thieves' Favorite Cars

The beauty is in the eyes of thieves. That’s the undeniable truth in terms of stolen cars since the most No. 1 hot-wired car in the United States is a 1995 Honda Civic.
 
According to a new report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB, the 14-year-old Civic is followed by its older sibling, the 1991 Honda Accord in term susceptible car to thieves.

According to the report, published in Forbes Magazine, “junkers” like older Honda Civics and Accord are more valuable to thieves because they can easily strip the cars and sell the parts on the street.

According to the NICB, a car is stolen in the United States every 2.5 seconds.

Here’s the list of the top 10 most stolen cars in the Uinited States in 2007 followed by the 2006 ranking

1.  1995 Honda Civic ; 1.  1995 Honda Civic
2.  1991 Honda Accord; 2. 1991 Honda Accord
3.  1989 Toyota Camry; 3. 1989 Toyota Camry
4.  1997 Ford F-150 Series Pickup; 4.  1997 Ford  F-150 Series Pickup
5.  1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup; 5.  2005 Dodge Ram Pickup
6.  1994 Acura Integra; 6. 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup
7.  2004 Dodge Ram Pickup; 7. 1994 Nissan Sentra
8.  1994 Nissan Sentra; 8. 1994 Dodge Caravan
9.  1988 Toyota Pickup; 9. 1994 Saturn SL
10. 2007 Toyota Corolla; 10. 1990 Acura Integra

The NICB study confirms theft of older model vehicles has remained constant for the past several years because they provide the market for stolen vehicle parts.

Cool Toyota Prius Even Coloer In 2010 With Solar-Powered Air Conditioniing?

Toyota hasn’t provided details, but global media outlets, including the Japanese daily newspaper, The Nikkei, report the manufacturer’s highly successful Prius hybrid will include solar-powered air conditioning in its 2010 models.

The solar panels on the roof of the new Prius model will provide two to five kilowatts of electricity, according to the newspaper.

Toyota plans to purchase the panels from Japanese electronics maker Kyocera. The panels would produce approximately the same kilowatts as a rooftop solar array on a typical house.

Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco declined comment.

The Prius is currently the most successful hybrid vehicle. In the United States, Toyota sold more than three times as many Prius models in 2007 than any other manufacturer. The Prius is also the commanding hybrid sales leader through the first six months of 2008.

Toyota’s success with its hybrid has prompted the manufacturer’s promise to offer hybrids in every model in its line-up soon after 2020.

Toyota has sold more than a million Prius models during the past decade and is planning to sell a million hybrids a year sometime after 2010.

Solar panels are already available on some vehicles, including as an option of Audi’s luxurious, all-option A8 W12, a $140,000 non-hybrid that averages between 12-18 mpg and has a 450-horsepower engine.

New Beijing Olympics Auto Mandate: Just More Hot Air?

Give or take a few cars, growing concerns over poor air quality, the Beijing officials have just taken 300,000 cars off the Capital’s roads as the Summer Olympics approach.

But nearly seven years at the competition was awarded to China, the latest move to clean the air may have come too late.

Beijing officials announced July 1 they have mandated taking 300,000 high-emission cars off the roads as a combined measure to ease congested and to clean up the air.

The move comes as a reaction to the International Olympic Committee considering moving some endurance events to different venues because of the poor air quality.

The 300,000 "yellow grade" cars, which fall short of the city's benchmark emissions standards, are banned from Beijing's roads until Sept. 20. Authorities had also banned trucks, tractors and other "low-speed cargo vehicles" from entering Beijing municipal limits from neighboring provinces.

Beijing claims to have already taken 50 percent of government cars off the roads, and will ban private cars (via odd or even license plate numbers) on alternate days from July 20.

Authorities hope to take 45 percent of the city's 3.29 million cars off the roads and slash car emissions by 63 percent. Temporary construction halts and factory closures, beginning July 20, are also seen as ways to help improve air quality.

Nonetheless, all of the last-minute maneuvering could be futile. The country's top environmental chief in May warned Beijing could only guarantee clean air with favorable weather conditions during the Games.

Automotive Apocalypse? Chrysler Soon To Debut In-Car Wifi System, UConnect

Chrysler has just announced a new highspeed wireless system call Uconnect. It will allow drivers to access the internet at stoplights while other passengers simultaneously utilize other high-speed internet features.

This may sound like innovation and it may catapult the car world into “hot spot” nirvana.

But to me it sounds like the automotive apocalypse. Do drivers need any more distractions?

A Chrysler spokesman commented “We see great potential for this.”

Potential for what? More absent-minded drivers? More head-on collisions? Increased road rage?

The dealer-installed system, officially called UConnect Web, will be an add-on to Chrysler's UConnect information and entertainment systems.

The wireless router and cellular-based Web connection will serve Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, iPhone and other smartphones, entertainment systems and other personal devices.

UConnect Web will be offered in most 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles starting in August. The in-vehicle router will cost $449, plus installation of up to $50. Mobile Web access for it will require a $29-a-month subscription, after $35 for activation, through provider Autonet Mobile.

Chrysler believes the system's greatest benefit likely will be as back-seat video and game entertainment for kids. But adults will benefit as well, Chrysler executives say.

I say its biggest benefit may be it likely an economic boost . . . more ambulance drivers will have employment and increased emergency room staffs will be necessary. And they'll be waiting lines at funeral homes.

Want To Get Lucky? Don't Buy These Cars

As part of the Sporting News Network, a guy using the logo “Tennessee & Random Crap,” has compiled a clever list of his 10-top cars in a very specific category.

It’s not sexiest car list, more powerful list, most expensive list, most “green” list or any list that warrants passionate attention.

Instead the list is all about a lack of passion, so to speak.

This top-10 list is a dubious, but practical list of “Top 10 cars, guaranteed to ensure your family line ends with you.”

The writer, Vol85, begins with the premise: “I was recently in Knoxville (recently being about six hours ago), and I saw a bunch of Pontiac Azteks at used car lots there. I was thinking, ‘No wonder. Who would want to ruin their life by being seen in one?’ So, the idea for this list was born.”

“ . . . These are the cars that say, ‘Nobody in the history of mankind, has had a bulge big enough to compensate for this loser-mobile.”

(Comments in quotes are the original author’s remarks.)

10. Mazda 5 —  “it's like a minivan whose mother smoked while she was pregnant. It just never grew up. It's like a dwarf minivan.”

9. Toyota Yaris Sedan —  “Toyota has a knack for creating some of the wussiest cars ever.”

8. Honda Insight —  “you're going to have to drive a long way to find a female who'll give you the time of day...or anything else.”

7. Plymouth Colt Vista —  “If you have one of these, just kill yourself now.”

6. Chevy Lumina APV — Pretty much any minivan will end your sex-life, but the Lumina has a better-than-average ability to kill any libido.”

5. Pontiac Aztek (See above text and the corresponding image.)

4. Toyota Previa —  “While minivans across-the-board, will kill any single-person's chance of an encounter with the opposite gender, the Previa will even prevent copulation with one's spouse.”

3. Toyota Prius (1st generation)

2. Geo Metro Hatchback

1. Toyota Echo

To read the full blog, visit: Tennesse & Other Random Crap

GM Offers '08 Pontiac Solstice With Sweet, Six-Year No Interest Deal

I don’t work for General Motors. But for anyone interested in a moderately price convertible sports car, it’s hard not to tout an impressive deal the carmaker will offer beginning today (June 24) and through June 30.

Now in its third year, the 2008 Pontiac Solstice is among the vehicles covered under the umbrella of GM’s new zero percent interest plan incentive to held the manufacturer’s lagging sales

Like the Saturn Sky, the Solstice has attracted a lot of attention with its unique design and innovation.

And until Sunday, a new car buyer can purchase the Solstice with a six-year, interest-free GM payment plan.

The Solstice, available in four configurations and priced from about $22,000 to $31,000, has fine curves and smooth, rounded corners and, in short, it's sexy.

A full-on front view reveals, a short, compact grill. With its elongated headlights, daytime running lamps and the small, pointed Pontiac insignia, the front of the Solstice resembles a human face with a determined expression

Additionally, the 18-inch wheels fit perfectly under the body and the windshield is angled just right. The Solstice looks like a sports car — and it's an American sports car.

Mitsubishi/Peugeot-Citroen Consider Electric Car Collaboration

The French and Japanese may again join forces — in the automotive industry.

Mitsubishi Motors of Japan and PSA Peugeot Citroen of France may enter the electric vehicle market in a collaborative technology effort to become viable in the “green” automotive segment

The several-month project, announced in Tokyo, will involve joint development of components to transform electricity into driving force for small urban electric cars.

Mitsubishi and PSA Peugeot Citroen already have various joint programs, including the recent announcement of the joint construction of a new factory in Russia.

The French group is the largest global manufacturer of electric vehicles with more than 10,000 units sold. Mitsubishi hopes to debut its i-MiEV battery-powered vehicle in 2009.


ExxonMobil Set To Sell 2,200 Gas Stations Around The United States

There will soon be longer lines at gas stations in many states around the country. But it won’t be for the usual reason of limited fuel supplies.

Now, in another example of the tumultuous economy, Exxon Mobil Corp. has announced its plans to sell 2,200 company-owned gas stations.

The planned sale will account for about 20 percent of the Exxon and Mobile stations in the United States.

ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the United States, earned $41 billion in 2007. But the amount wasn't enough.

During the next few years, ExxonMobil plans to sell 820 owned and operated stations as well as 1,400 stations leased to dealers.

"The fuels marketing sector is a very challenging market," ExxonMobil spokesperson Prem Nair told CNN. Nair said the company has increased competition from hypermarkets like Wal-Mart that sell gasoline and often at lower prices.

The company says the stations to be sold will continue to sell ExxonMobil product.

California and New York each have the most ExxonMobil stations, each with more than 200. Texas, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia also have large numbers of ExxonMobil stations.

NASCAR Racial Matters: Talk Show Fodder To Huge Discrimination Lawsuit

National sports talk show host Jim Rome calls it NECK-CAR. It’s an entertainer’s prerogative and it’s done with humor and a twist and as part of the popular morning radio show's banter.

Now, the racial reference to the immensely popular auto racing circuit is no longer just part of talk show host’s approach. In short, it's no laughing matter.

In fact, it's a serious matter, at least according to Marcia Grant and her attorneys.

Grant, an aspiring African-American race official, is suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Grant, 32, an African-American, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until her termination in October, 2007.

In the lawsuit, she said she was referred to as "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba," by co-workers, was often told she worked on "colored people time," and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.

Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit, according to the Associated Press.



MotoGP Special Ticket Charity Benefits Riders For Health In Africa

The Weekly Driver doesn’t offer stray from automotive topics, but there’s announcement in the international motorcycle circuit worthy of attention.

Last year, after more than 20 years of periodically covering motor sports at Laguna Seca Raceway — CART racing to the World Motorcycle Championships — I attended the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix for the first time.

I was taken aback by the sport’s popularity and equaly impressed with the poise of the international field of riders.

This year, the MotoGP, the world’s most prestigious motorcycle circuit, again has only two United States races, including the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, July 18-20.

One day prior, the event will showcase its charity side at is best. Fifty MotoGP fans can pay $500 each for a special ticket that will give them an insiders’ day into the sport — meeting riders to a ride along the Big Sur coast near the championship’s venue. It’s part of a charity called Riders For Health.

For motorcyle enthusaists with interest global charitiy, it seems like a good thing. For more information, visit my longer article: MotoGP Special Charity Ticket.
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