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Why are pickup trucks so needlessly big these days? They're so huge that you have to climb up into them, you need steps to reach into the box, and they have less towing and payload capacity than the smaller trucks of earlier years.
That's my 1995 Dodge Ram up against the 2011 version. Mine was the biggest truck you could buy for 1995, and now it looks like a Dakota. Read my opinion piece on truck size in the Toronto Star by clicking here (it wasn't online - sorry about the pdf!).
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My knees are weak. Oh, if only they could turn this concept into a production car, I'd sell my soul to buy one.
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I'm in Barton, Vermont - population about 2,750 people and 298 Cadillacs. Those cars were enough to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of Cadillacs in a parade (yes, there really was such a record - 102 cars, set in 2002 in The Netherlands).
I arrived here in a 2011 CTS-V courtesy of General Motors and was number 51 in the historic event. There were cars from 1905 and 1909 right up to 2011, and including cars, SUVs, hearses, a flower car and an ambulance. They came from as far away as Georgia, Quebec, Alaska, New Brunswick, South Carolina and Florida.
Why Barton? It's the birthplace of Henry Leland, who founded Cadillac back in 1902. He left the company in 1917 and started a second one, which he called Lincoln. I wonder if I'll be back some day to drive one of those to set a record!
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Volkswagen's Jetta is redesigned for 2011, and while I absolutely love the diesel engine (carried over from the last model), I'm not as impressed with the cheaper interior and feel of the car. Read all about it in Autos.ca by clicking here.
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These two houses, side-by-side on Ontario's Highway 7 near Fowler's Corners, have been garnering laughs for many years. The obviously more religious homeowner put "Jesus is Alive" up on his roof. His neighbor countered with "So is Elvis."
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I've recently returned from eight glorious vacation days in Munich, batteries recharged and with plenty of weisswurst (literally now) under my belt.
The first question most of my friends asked was, "Did you drive on the Autobahn?" When pressed, I discovered that most of them thought it was a single stretch of road, speed-limit-free, as if you'd stretched a Formula 1 track out straight and let everyone have at it. Which it isn't. (And the answer to the question is no, I didn't. I have on other trips, but this time it was entirely shoe leather and a couple of subway rides, which I find far more relaxing. It also allowed me to enjoy the nectar pictured here more often.)
Here's how it works. It isn't "The" Autobahn, as if it's a single road - the name translates to "motorway" and refers to Germany's national highway system. Saying you drove in Germany on the Autobahn is the equivalent of saying you drove in the U.S. on the Interstate.
It also isn't entirely free of speed limits. The overall recommendation is 130 km/h, and when you get close to towns there are strict limits, which can go as low as 60 km/h if there's construction or very foul weather. Trucks, buses and cars pulling trailers are limited to 80 km/h. Only when you see specific signs are you in an area where you can travel to your heart's content, and even then, there are relatively few cars that whizz past you at 200+, mostly German and Italian sports cars. Which they do on the left, because Germans are smart enough to obey the drive right/pass left rule (and they can get hit with a hefty fine for passing on the right).
The roadway is in impeccable shape, the cars are well-maintained and the drivers are trained, and it can be a real joy to take a high-performance car along the no-limit stretches to see what it will do. But that's next time. This time around, walking speed was more than enough for me.
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Browsing the Internet, I came across Sweetie Girl Racing, the first Canadian all-female show and race team. Not only does the club promote safe driving and work for charity, but it also offers driver training for women - and "smart men", as the site says - allowing them to become more confident behind the wheel.
Part of the driving force, Anna He, is a great lady, a good friend and, like me, a dedicated fan of the greatest feline ever, Hello Kitty. Check out the site at Sweetie Girl Racing.
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The U.S. government, along with 13 automakers, has announced a new fuel efficiency standard: 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. It will apply to all cars and light-duty trucks.
"This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we've ever taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said, and strictly speaking, he's probably correct.
But the U.S. (and Canada, too) isn't taking another important step, and that's the step of looking at the big picture and bringing everyone on board. It's all focused on the automakers, and no one says anything about drivers and infrastructure. Of course they won't - telling people they have to drive intelligently flies in the face of so-called American freedom, where many people act like bratty children, refusing to wear seatbelts and motorcycle helmets not because they think they're unnecessary, but simply because "big brother" told them they should.
What we get are automakers that have to spend millions of dollars - and pass the cost along to consumers - to develop vehicles that can squeak out just a little better fuel economy, even as they have to add an increasing number of mandated heavy and complex safety systems to help save drivers in the face of their inability to operate their vehicles properly.
Gaining better fuel economy and decreasing dependence on oil is not achieved through the single-stage solution that the government seeks. We get better fuel economy when drivers stop taking off from stoplights like scared jackrabbits, start checking their tire pressure, drive smoothly instead of gas-on-gas-off, and look ahead to avoid problems that slow them down and require more fuel to get back up to speed.
We use less gas when we stop building subdivisions out in the middle of nowhere that cannot be accessed without a car and, all too often, don't even contain sidewalks. Stop building giant mega-box-store malls that you cannot access on foot - or in some cases, even get from one store to another except by car. Stop building houses in one area, and workplaces and stores in another with only a car to get between them. Spend money on public transportation that is convenient, simple to access and relatively inexpensive. Ban drive-throughs. Encourage children to walk or ride their bicycles to school.
The U.S. and Canada make it very easy to get anywhere by car, and very difficult to get anywhere without one. Improve the infrastructure. Make driver training mandatory. We can save a million barrels of oil a day without making a single improvement at the manufacturing level. Imagine what we could achieve if we did both.
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I don't get the maximum benefit out of most hybrids because I live in the country and so don't get to drive on the battery alone all that often. Hyundai has changed all that with its 2011 Sonata Hybrid, which can run on electricity at much higher speeds. Read all about it in Autos.ca by clicking here.
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Here's a look at the CR-Z, Honda's new hybrid coupe, which is a lot more fun to drive than I would have expected. Read all about it in Autos.ca by clicking here.
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Spotted in Munich. Buddy, what did that poor BMW ever do to you to deserve those wheels?
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It's bad enough that you drive a Kia Amanti, but when you put these centres in your wheels, well ...
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I’m a freelance writer and a member of the Automobile Journalists of Canada. My regular outlets include new-car reviews and special-interest articles for National Post and its Driving.ca website; new-car reviews and features for AutoTrader.ca; features for Automotive News Canada; articles on antique cars for Old Autos Newspaper; and articles in the industry trade magazines Collision Management, Fleet Digest and Tire News. You can still find my work at Autos.ca, where I wrote reviews and features, and was the Assistant Editor. For almost three decades, I wrote for the Toronto Star's Wheels section, and also contributed to the newspaper Metro.
But I’m more than just cars: I also write about food and drink, travel, pen collecting, celebrity interviews and pets, among others. My work has appeared in such publications as Sharp For Men, Maclean's, Harrowsmith Country Life, Pen World, Dogs In Canada, Gambit, Where New Orleans, Rural Delivery and Writer’s Journal.
