Friday, June 25, 2010 at 12:10PM Sunday, September 5, 2010 is the date for the next Street Dreams invitational antique car show. The event, featuring vehicles that have been the subject of articles by Vern Parker, will be at Spring Hill Recreation Center in McLean, Va. The free, five-hour car show starts at 10 a.m. Spring Hill Recreation Center is located at the intersection of Spring Hill Road and Lewinsville Road.
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 12:04PM By Nick Yost
Despite a significant sales spurt over the last year and a half that saw market share zoom from 3 to 4 1/2 percent, Korean manufacturer Hyundai feels it must do more to properly capture the attention of the buying public.
That’s why it is spending $160 million on the launch of the recently introduced 2011 Sonata, a dramatically restyled and re-engineered family sedan that it believes can change the company’s image from a follower of the competition to the leader.
“We want the Sonata to educate, and to change the perceptions that people have about Hyundai,” Michael Deitz, manager of product planning for Hyundai Motor America, told a group of automotive journalists at a Sonata introduction in Philadelphia.
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 11:51AM |
By Vern Parker One of the Silver Spurs manufactured in England by Rolls-Royce during the 1982 model year was loaded into a 40-foot-long container with another Rolls-Royce and shipped off to the United States. It was early June, 1982 when the container with the luxury car was hoisted onto the Americana Legend that was to carry it across the Atlantic to Lindhurst, N.J. That 5,040-pound Rolls-Royce Silver Spur was painted black with a double pinstripe of red highlighting both flanks. The Everflex material covering the top was also black but the carpet inside the car was cherry red. The leather upholstery matched the carpeting.
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Friday, June 25, 2010 at 11:45AM By Nick Yost
With more stringent fuel-efficiency and emissions regulations looming in the not-to-distant future, auto manufacturers are scrambling to produce passenger cars that will satisfy the government—and the buyers.
By necessity (and the laws of physics), many of these new vehicles will have to be smaller, with less powerful engines and comfortable seating for no more than four passengers.
And that’s a tall order in a country where bigger has always been equated with better.
The good news is that there actually are a number of compact cars on the market right now that approach the upcoming requirements and provide comfortable, economical transportation for a family of four.
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 11:38AM When did station wagon become dirty words?
They were hardy, versatile, fun vehicles my station wagons. The first was a wallowing Chevrolet company car in one of my early failed careers. After becoming a homeowner and in need of a backup workhorse (the Rover 2000 wasn’t up to it), I snapped up a stripped down, slant six, stick shift 1964 Dodge for $125 at the Government Services Administration’s monthly car auction.
Bert, named after an old schoolmate who was also big, homely and simple but brave and loyal, did yeoman service for six years as we went about civilizing our 1929 bungalow. He succumbed to rust but was quickly replaced by Nubert, a nearly identical 1962 Plymouth wagon that had sat crippled in the Architect of the Capital garage for many years and whose crevasses were still filled with seeds, pods and wilted flowers. Nubert gave way to the Green Hornet, a plucky 1977 AMC wagon from – where else? – the GSA auction. I loved them all.
