Black Wheels Do Not Look Great!

I don't care what car, this is not a good look.I’ve written before about the transition vehicles have made from the “bygone years” when if you had a vehicle with blackwall tires you were at best considered a bum and made fun of behind your back and, if that didn’t work, directly to your face. Even the poor man’s whitewalls, “porta walls,” were judged a step better than having no white stripe at all. When Uniroyal came out with its “Tiger Paw” tires that were basically blackwalls with a red stripe around the circumference, the fact that vehicles sitting on them were all high-performance Muscle Cars gave them a pass.

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Your Car isn’t a Beauty Salon!

By Al Vinikour

This may come as a shock to you, but there are a lot of things that irk me. One of them is the number of people who wait until they’re driving to their jobs before they work on their appearance. I’m going to give these people the benefit of the doubt and presume they’ve gone #1 and #2, taken baths or showers, and gotten dressed before leaving home. However, when they close the door of their cars and turn on their own local version of “Morning Zoo Radio” they might as well put a barber pole or clever salon sign outside their vehicles.

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Steering Wheel Controls: Wonderful Within Reason

By Al Vinikour

Uh oh, Al's confused again...Car manufacturers throughout the world often develop some great innovations that keep their customers happy. I’m not talking about massaging seats or even glove boxes with a cooling function to keep your pop cold (or “soda” if you are an Eastern, elitist). I’m referring to the neatest technology since turn signals, anti-lock brakes and blind spot information systems — redundant controls located on steering wheels.

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Daytime, Nighttime… Any Time

By Al Vinikour

Where is it written that road construction is a daylight-only ritual? With few exceptions this type of work is performed from just prior to morning rush hour to just after evening rush hour, and all times in-between. It seems that whenever major road projects are announced — such as rebuilding a section of an interstate highway for maybe a four-mile stretch — the estimated time for completion is generally a year or two away. Forget about the poor drivers who either have to leave much earlier than normal to make it to work on time, or arrive home long after dinnertime because of the mass delays. What about the roadside businesses who suffer tremendous financial losses if not complete oblivion because of the difficulty of anyone getting to them?

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You Call That a Name?

By Al Vinikour

Despite what Al thinks, CTS is better than what it stood for: Catera Touring Sedan.Every so often I revisit a tirade I’ve written in the past and give an update. What prompts this is seeing something that ticked me off in the past that has not been addressed to my satisfaction, like life in general. But this gripe is more specific. Recently, as I was making preparations to head to a major international auto show, I began perusing the list of new cars I would see that were either having their world introduction or perhaps their North American premier or even rare instances where a manufacturer doesn’t have anything earth-shattering to show and just puts lipstick on its pig. What produced a liter of liquid bile in my digestive tract is the large number of vehicles that look like the insides of a Campbell’s alphabet soup can.

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