I'm not into Hyundais or Tik-Tok

But if I was in to both, and I had low-life tendencies, then I would probably be looking to emulate the Kia Challenge - which also works on their cousin-brand Hyundai. I don't know if their posher cousin-brand Genesis is affected, you would hope that they would all come with immobilisers.

The challenge, which has nothing to do with a bucket of icy water, involves breaking a rear window, breaking the steering column shroud and using a USB cable somehow to start and therefore steal the car.

According to yahoo!news, this is an expanding problem in The States.  They cite:

• Louisville Metro Police Department announced on Wednesday that 52 vehicles, half of which were Kias and the other half Hyundais, were stolen between July 1 and July 25.
• Arlington Police Department received 12 reports of stolen Kia vehicles, with most occurring towards the end of July. Several underaged individuals have been arrested and charged.
• Police in St. Petersburg, Florida, reported 56 stolen vehicles in the last two weeks, with 23 of them being 2021 or older Kia and Hyundai models.

It is spreading worldwide too with the first instance down under in Brisbane.

This is poor design on the part of the Korean manufacturers - the 2022 cars now do come with immobilisers.

But if you are into slightly older Hyundais, you also need to be in to Krook-Lok.

Doing Bird

Well he should be soon.

Interesting story today from the BBC about two guys who crashed a pick-up into a shop then fled the scene.

Fortunately, the shop was empty - if you want to rent it, you'll need to contact Fielder & Jones - ask for the shop with a truck in it.

Actually don't - they've moved it:

I'm a bit miffed that I can't tell what make it is.

Anyway, the driver tried to make a getaway running through a field of emus.

So it can't have been Michael Parkinson.

They attacked him.  You can read the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald take on it here.

Meanwhile, in other emu/motoring news - Runaway emu rescued from busy A32 in Hampshire.

Make for the Border

 Here's a picture of the approach to the Wallasey Mersey Tunnel.

In the olden days, the "ATTENDED" lanes were called "MANNED" 

I have no idea how offended the women working there were by that.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, there seems to be a lane for a specific makes of cars crossing in to the US:

The other lanes (thinking back to my O-Level Spanish) are:

• Cars Only
• Lorries and cows
• Joint Despatch (I presume this is drug smuggling)
• Cold Stuff

This is from a Drive.com.au story.

But wait, that isn't a Tesla in the Tesla lane!

Apparently, that lane is for goods being transported to the Tesla facility in Austin, Texas.

Next they'll be telling us that down the M53 from the Mersey Tunnel there is a lane that isn't reserved for people driving Vauxhalls:

Pregnant Pause

I'm a Wordle addict.

So I've now got a log in to the New York Times - I get to keep my statistics despite using several different devices to play it..

So I've checked out their Motoring section.

Or, as they like to call it, "Automobiles"

I found this lady staring back at me:

She has the very American name of Brandy Bottone.  She is VERY pregnant and has an enormous car door.

She is somewhat miffed because she was stopped by a sheriff in Dallas for driving her enormous vehicle in a multiple occupancy lane.  The sheriff argued that there was nobody else in the car but she reckoned that, since the awful change to the abortion laws in The States, that her unborn baby should be counted.

I can see her point.

But she now has a $275 ticket to fight.

But all that the photo needs to make it look like a British local newspaper photo would be for her to be holding up the ticket.  But then again, they probably haven't sent someone down from New York to Dallas just to take a photo.

"Photo" - that would be a good word for Wordle.

Humbling

Looks like Tyre Extinguishers have made it to the States.  Car+Driver report here about a group of SUV-Haters who have started to let down tyres of offending vehicles in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

They object to gas-guzzlers but will also target electric SUVs - it seems to do more with the size than anything else.

I'm pretty sure that my saloon car does a lot more gas guzzling and particle emitting than a Ford Puma although the Puma is a lot more offensive to my eyesight.

I wouldn't normally comment on a story like this but I ended up going down one of my Internet rabbit-holes when I spotted the phrase "Hummer Salute" in the article.  I correctly guessed that a Hummer Salute is the same salute that Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns gave to a group of people who had annoyed her this week:

I also found a very prescient article from GQ Magazine of all places from 2010.

It is entitled:

The Last Hummer: A 21-gun salute for America's most cynical brand

but doesn't actually mention a 21-Gun Salute.  It does instead strongly criticise GM for their acquisition and handling of the Hummer brand at the time it was being shelved by them.  It also strongly criticises the vehicle itself.  

It blames "Zarella" for  this embarrassing GM situation.  Not a YouTube Influencer, but Ron Zarrella, part of a management team drafted in from outside the motor industry.

The prescient bit is when it says, "Under different circumstances, GM might have resurrected the brand. And another firm with very deep pockets still might—arriving at the last moment (as Spyker did for Saab, but only with more money) as a green maker of electric 4x4s, for instance."

So look at Hummer today.

Then look at Saab.

We have a humdinger and a humbled.