Oaty Crumble

Fox News aren't big on historical figures.  They have a story today that I probably can't link to - (if I can it is here)

But then I'm not happy about linking to a Fascist website anyway even if they do have some good car stories.

So, today they claim that "The Ford Bronco 'Oates' is a motoring mystery."

Ford have included in their latest VIN decoding information a variant of their Bronco called the Bronco Oates and this has confused the stuffing out of Fox News.

The only Oates's that they can come up with are an elderly writer called Joyce Carol Oates and half of Hall & Oates, John Oates:

He's toned down his moustache since his heydey.

And they can't see what either of them have to do with a rugged SUV.

So they have clearly never heard of Captain Lawrence Oates of Antarctic fame:

Maybe Ford plan to drive a Bronco to The South Pole.  But they would be 110 years too late to help Captain Oates.

Given what happened to him though, if that is why they they are using that name, they would be better off calling it The Bronco Amundsen.

Woof Rack

Some good car news and some bad car news out of The States over the last week or so.

I was in two minds about commenting on both until the above Post Title came in to my head for the second story and I just couldn't waste it.

But first, from Fox News of all places, some good news - unless you are a racist motorsports fan.

NASCAR's flag ban opens sport to diverse new crowd.  It seems that having less symbols of oppression at a sports event means that you get more people turning up.  The Confederate Flag has been banned from the circuits - the theory being that "for every fan who complained about lost heritage, someone new would discover a sport far more inclusive than initially perceived."

Turns out the theory was borne out - probably much to the annoyance of your typical Fox News viewer.  Good.

The second story, from Car+Driver, is bad news - but only if you like to let your dog ride loose in the back of your pick-up in Utah or six other US States.

In Utah, Letting Dogs Ride in Pickup Truck Bed May Be Illegal Soon.  A proposed bill, from a Democrat, "would make it illegal for people to drive faster than 40 mph with unrestrained dogs in the back of their truck. There are exceptions for working farm dogs and hunting dogs or if the sides of the bed are at least 46 inches tall."  Apparently, there have been some horrific cases of dogs falling from vehicles killing themselves and injuring other road users.

I envisage Fox News reporting on this the same way that they reported that "Barack Obama wanted to ban all guns" - when he actually was trying to make their usage safer - for example by preventing terrorists from buying them.

There is another solution:

Heartwarming or Heartbreaking?

This 1993 Ford Mustang has been sold twice...

…to pay for cancer treatments.

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News see it as a heart-warming story of how Wesley Ryan's children bought back the much-loved car that he was forced to sell to finance his wife's cancer treatment.

Fox News, the pro-Trump, anti-Obamacare propaganda outlet - I can't call them a News Network because that would imply serious journalism.

The story originally came from mySA, a San Antonio based news site.

And it is a nice story.

Apart from the cancer.

And the being forced to sell off expensive items when faced with cancer.

And the fact that they have bought the car off someone where "the seller was letting it go because her own mother had contracted ovarian cancer and they needed the money for treatment."

Thank God for the NHS.

China's Trumpchi Car Company Ridiculed into Possible Name Change

Well who could have predicted that?

Me for one.

The unsurprising story is here.  Although I suppose it is a little surprising for Fox News to actually admit that "in the United States the level of opposition to Trump is high."

Expanding Peugeot

Last week, a brilliant young car blogger stated this:

"It looks like Peugeot are involved in negotiations to take over Vauxhall and Opel.

This would given them Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall, Opel & Ambassador - and probably too many factories - not good news - especially since they have had financial problems over the last few years while Vauxhall & Opel have been losing money."

It appeared in this article by me.

Now, this other article, by Autocar, says they also want Proton.  It also says that their financial worries seem to have subsided - which will hopefully be good news for the workers of Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall, Opel, Ambassador, Proton & Lotus.

Did you spot the way I stuck Lotus in at the end?

That's because Proton effectively own Lotus.

Now, that could mean some nice modern takes on collaborations from the past such as when Lotus got together with PSA (Peugeot Citroen Group) to produce the Lotus Sunbeam:

...or when they got into bed with Vauxhall/Opel for the Lotus Carlton (or Omega for the Opel badged version):

If Peugeot really do splash the cash, then why not a Lotus DS4 and a Lotus Insignia?

Of course, this could all be speculation - or even some of this fake news that the POTUS keeps warning us about (perhaps he should start by fact-checking Fox & Breitbart?)  Maybe we should swap the word "president" with "liar" and call him the LOTUS?

Anyway I'm pretty confident with reliability of the sources for the Hindustan and Vauxhall/Opel stories.

And as for Proton, I'm positive.

That Idle Lot in Westminster

And that's just the ones that turn up:

Actually this isn't a political story - it is one of two unrelated motoring stories that caught my eye on the BBC News Website this week - the newly revamped BBC News website.

Which I don't like.

It's not as good as the one it replaced.

Which I didn't like when that came about because it wasn't as good as the one it replaced.

And so it goes on - but then you get used the latest one and everything is good again.

Anyway back to the story - it appeared yesterday.  It's about how motorists sitting in their vehicles in Westminster will be liable for £20 fines if they leave their engines running if they aren't actually going anywhere.  I think I'm in favour of this - it is irratating to see exhaust fumes belching out of a parked car and the thought of fuel being wasted.  I don't see how they could police this rule though.

The taxi drivers aren't happy.  The article quotes Steve McNamara, general secretary of the LTDA saying that the fines were "absolute tosh" and a public relations and money raising exercise from the council. He went on: "It is not going to do anything constructive to tackle the pollution crisis in London. When was the last time you saw someone idling in the city? It doesn't happen."

OK then, if it doesn't happen you've got nothing to worry about, have you Steve?


The other BBC story that grabbed my attention today was this one.  It is about how a group of descendents of Confederate soldiers wanted to have the following design on their Texas State licence plates:

This request was declined as it was deemed offensive to a large number of people affected by or ashamed of Slavery.

So the battle was taken to the US Supreme Court with advocates saying that banning it was in contravention of the First Amendment because it restricted their right to free speech.  The State argued back that licence plates are Government property and therefore not subject to the First Amendment.

I was intrigued to see how Fox News was covering this - expecting a lot of right-wing bile against the ban but after searching using the American spelling license, I was pleasantly surprised to just find a sensible article putting both sides of the argument.

I had always liked the Confederate Flag and didn't realise its associations until I saw The Dukes Of Hazzard movie.  The movie just didn't live with the TV series which was my favourite show as a child of the '70s & '80s but the real reason I mention it is an excuse to show this picture of the flag on the roof of the car:

Now, there are plenty of better pictures showing more of the flag - but they show less of Daisy Duke.

Appently, a decision on the confederates' licence plate is due at the end of June.  Meanwhile, a quick Google Images search for funny licence plates caused me to put together this little collage:

Commonplace Rarities

I saw a Mark I Cavalier the other day.

It made me smile.

 

Not because I ever owned one.

 

Or even knew someone who owned one.

 

Possibly because it reminded me of my childhood.

 

This story in The Telegraph got me thinking about cars from that era.  Not for the first time, but today's post will be a bit more Hegarty-ish.

 

Hegarty are an insurance company that seem to specialise in classic cars but also produce a magazine for classic car enthusiasts.  I always thought Hegarty were American.  I was right.  They usually have an article at the weekend on the Fox News car page listing 5 or 10 classics in some context.  But they also have a British arm.

 

Lead story at this time is "London to Lisbon in Little George", the story of the triennial (happens every three years) London to Lisbon Rally organized by the Historic Endurance Rallying Organisation (HERO) with Hagerty International as both sponsor and competitor in a barn-found 1930 Austin Ulster (Little George).  The article is interesting but feels like it was written by a Year 7 student doing a "What I did in the Summer Holidays" essay.  He must have been a bit behind with his homework too because the Rally happened in Spring 2013.

 

Anyway, as The Telegraph article points out, Hegarty are also sponsoring The Festival of the Unexceptional, subtitled, "Concours de l'ordinaire" inviting you to "Celebrate Your Mundane Classic".  A car show for once mass-produced cars that you wouldn't look twice at twenty years ago but are now virtually disappeared from our roads.

 

I would love to go but it's just too far away.

 

Probably not welcome would be the Top Gear Team. 

Scaremongering

No, not Fox News for once. Although they do cover this story, unusually for them they go with a headline that immediately reassures. Maybe they are still reeling from Obama's success so haven't got back to their vitriolic best yet.

The headline that grabbed my attention was in caradvice.com.au and reads "Toyota Prius joins Fisker Karma in Hurricane Sandy fire troubles"

Their story seems to add fuel to the fire (intentional pun usage) of the worries that electric cars can spontaneously combust.

Fisker have had a few issues with car-fires in the past which pleases the right-wing, Fox News watching, Oil-Industry tycoons but these have been identified and resolved.

Not sure if these non-electric ones have been yet although I have heard glue may be at fault.

Anyway, the caradvice site refers back to The New York Times home of this brilliant quote: “We can’t be certain exactly what happened at the port,” Russell Datz, a Fisker spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “But we think being submerged in 13 feet of saltwater had something to do with it.”

These latest fires do not seem to be connected to the fact that Fiskers and Prius's (what is the correct plural there?) are electric or hybrid so restraint is needed. Otherwise, this brilliantly eloquent man needs to get on the case:

I found him on the Car&Driver site when I read this excellent article which coincidentally mentions electric car fires and Toyota. I'm not sure why he has a European number plate in his picture but his rant is perfect - I could easily imagine Lewis Black coming up with it - and if you don't know who Lewis Black is, look him up on YouTube and prepare to hear some swearing.

So, in summary, don't park your electric car in the sea and, most of all, as the great Clive Dunn who passed away yesterday would say, "Don't Panic!! Don't Panic!!"

Fox Speculate On Killing President

Killing Lincoln to be precise - This is a car blog after all.While I'm sure Fox News will continue to character-assassinate President Obama, this story of theirs today is about Ford possibly killing Lincoln. This is on the back of earlier this year when they (and then I) reported about a Lincoln MKZ show-car literally smoking and back in 2010 when Ford announced the end Mercury.

All that Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president of marketing and sales would say is "Stay tuned!"

Now President Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theatre while President Kennedy was killed in a Lincoln. See the Ford link? But then again, President Ford survived his own presidency and lived a very long life afterwards.

Quite a fusion of coincidences to focus on there.

Left, Right?

Back at the start of Summer, I posted about Alexei Sayle becoming a motoring correspondent with The Daily Telegraph.I think I don't particularly like his motoring writing - his latest piece, on the Paris Motor Show, is quite short and quite vague. It does, however, really wind up a small number of Telegraph readers who like to vent their spleen in the comments section. This amuses me very much and I enjoy their annoyance.

I have made the point myself in the past that the better motoring columns tend to be found in the more obnoxious right-wing media - Fox News, The Telegraph and The Mail.

But, then again, I hadn't really looked in the left-wing media.

So I took a look in The Mirror.

I did find two of my favourite correspondents, Richard Hammond & Quentin Willson. But overall, it is quite a disappointing site and very rarely updated - it's had the same couple of stories including one about an electric car called "The Lightning" on its header for at least three weeks now - and some very intrusive advertising.

Socialist Worker doesn't appear to have a motoring section.

I think they should.

Now, who on Earth could they possibly get to be their star guest motoring correspondent?

Hot New Lincoln

Literally.Well it looks nice enough - but not enough to using words like "Hot".

This is the new concept car, the MKZ, from Lincoln. Lincoln being the only posh brand owned by Ford since they said bye-bye to Mercury. And it looks like Lincoln are being allowed to produce their own designs and products rather than just re-badging existing Ford ones.

I found this car report on the Fox News site:

Now, I can't stand Fox News - or anything really with Murdoch's grubby paws on it - but I was curious as to what they were making of the current Republican primaries with their favourite Tea-Party-friendly candidates being beaten by Romney who they wouldn't want to be slagging off too much just in case. That was when I found that report and was soon bored watching it by the little Australian man using lots of management-speak.

I didn't think too much more about it until a day or two later when I read this report in Autoguide.

Here's the video:

Well that just takes the biscuit - the Lincoln Biscuit.