TheCarConnection is saddened to note the passing of our European colleague and friend, Ian Norris. Norris had traveled to Geneva to cover the motor show from his home in Le Mans and took ill last night.

The news of Ian’s death swept quickly through the Geneva show and among his colleages. Steve Cropley, editor of Autocar, said Norris was “genuinely unique” and “deserved his place in the (French) sun,” alluding to Norris’ move to Le Mans late in life. “He had gotten his world in order…and had the courage to set himself up in a place as emotive and automotive as Le Mans.”

Norris had recently celebrated forty-five years covering the car industry. Back in 1958 he joined Austin as an apprentice, and at the end of his training went into the company's PR department. It was during the great days of the Mini, and London was swinging. Norris moved from Austin to Dunlop, then to Lucas before becoming a journalist in 1978.

He reported for UPI and Cycle Weekly in the U.S. during that time, briefly returning to PR with Jaguar and resuming his writing career in 1990, taking on TheCarConnection in 1998.

Articles written by Ian Norris

The motoring press often writes about recalls and defects, but it also sometimes fall to us to unearth some of these problems, too. We tend to push vehicles a little further than most people would and because of that we discover things that a customer is only likely to find out about in very extreme situations. I had such an experience yesterday when I was out taking video footage for my new Web site, TheOnlineCarShow.com. I was driving the Honda’s Ridgeline, the 2006 Truck of the Year, and I was sliding it around a little bit on a favorite gravel road to get some nice shots for my voiceover segments.

I had been slithering about in the Ridgeline for about twenty minutes or so and had just set up the camera in a new position so I could get one last shot before the light faded. Entering the corner about 30-35 mph, I was getting ready to break the back end of the Ridgeline loose when both curtain airbags and the driver’s seatbelt pre-tensioner deployed for no apparent reason.

Immediately, I assumed I’d hit something or lifted a wheel off the ground but a review of the video footage revealed that nothing of the sort had happened. The VSA stability system was off; it wasn’t locked in 4WD; I didn’t touch the brakes, the transmission or the parking brake. The truck wasn’t even going very sideways when the airbags deployed and the side airbags in the seats didn’t go off so I cannot understand why it came to the conclusion a rollover was imminent. Don’t forget, I had been sliding it around for a while before the airbags went off and there hadn’t been any problems. Why did the computers pick that exact moment to fire the airbags? Without the video to corroborate my story, most people might assume I'd almost flipped the truck but saved it from going over at the last moment. The video proves that this is not the case. Had I been an owner out playing with my truck on a loose surface (it is tested and marketed as being capable of medium duty) without a video camera there to capture the moment, then I would be facing a very expensive repair now as two rather large airbags, as well as the entire roof lining, seatbelt mechanism and pillar shrouds all have to be replaced.

Right now the truck is at a local Honda dealership and then, no doubt, it will be heading back to Honda North America. Honda has already been in touch and I’ll keep you posted as to the outcome of their findings.

In the meantime, I’ve put together a little film in high and low resolution to take you through what happened. Check it out on www.theonlinecarshow.com and drop me a line to let me know what you think.--Conor Twomey

It rocks, it rolls, it turns your iPod's music into a lowrider simulator. Doesn't it make the perfect Christmas gift for William F. Buckley?

First we learned of the only guy to saw an Enzo in half and then not try to stitch it back together. Then, possibly, he was intoxicated. And potentially broke too. Only in Hollywood (okay, Malibu) would the backstory be more interesting than the final product.

So, did you hear how the Suzuki Swift is on the list for World Car of the Year along with the new Miata and the 3-Series? Yep. Exactly. Oh, we totally agree.

Toyota is one of America's most-admired companies, so says Fortune magazine. And they didn't even have to wear tight jeans to win the nod.

Our Street Signs contest made a buzz on the AP wire, spurring some late readers to send in even more names like Divorce Court. Hang on to them for next year, when we may be giving away our office assistant's sanity should we choose to repeat the contest.

Pontiac's GTO is dead in the water - precisely, that would be somewhere east of Tonga, if our nautical map is correct.

Younger buyers are a red herring in car sales, a new study says. TCC has already taken note and ordered our company Five Hundred with the Depends seats option.

And finally this week, TCC had the gall once again to go to Hawaii to drive a new car and report on it, this time the Lexus GS450h. Somewhere in Rhode Island, a writer's head is exploding.

South Korea’s second-largest automaker, Kia Motors, is considering building its planned U.S. plant in the state of Georgia, not in Mississippi, a local report from the latter state said. (And not Lauderdale County, as other Web sites have reported--there is no Lauderdale County, Ga.)

Since last year, Kia Motors, an affiliate of South Korea's top automaker Hyundai, has been looking for a site in the U.S. to set up a production line. Company officials were quoted that Georgia is the most probable candidate, unless other states offer unprecedented incentives.

Georgia has been a frequent loser in the bidding for new automotive plants. Just last year, DaimlerChrysler officially quashed plans to build a Sprinter plant outside Savannah. Ford had identified a site in Meriwether County on which had intended to build a new plant, only to cancel plans and eventually, announce the closing of its Atlanta plant. Last year, Kia officials were said to have chosen a site in eastern Mississippi for the plant, but that may have been done to encourage other states to sharpen their bids.

If Georgia does win the battle of state incentives, it will be out of keen economic need. The state is faced with the loss of about 5000 jobs in the next two years as Ford closes the Hapeville plant that builds the Taurus and the Doraville plant that builds GM minivans. Both plants are in the metro Atlanta area, while the site of the new Kia plant would likely be a Greenfield location on the I-85 corridor linking Atlanta and Montgomery, Ala., the site of Kia sister company Hyundai’s new assembly plant.

Georgia is also facing the bankruptcy of Delta Airlines and the loss of a huge military base within the city, Fort McPherson.—Peter Chang and Marty Padgett

We really weren’t expecting to break out the CCD so soon after Shannen Doherty christened it—but we may already have to push her aside for fresher, younger paparazzi bait. The L.A. Times, and lots of onlookers, reported that a Ferrari Enzo smacked into a telephone pole at about six in the morning, cruising easily past the 120-mph barrier. The driver was basically unhurt—but the Enzo was DOA, cut in half by the accident, its engine laying out on the PCH in Malibu (we smell a trend!) like so much fresh road kill. The sole man at the scene, one Stefan Erikssen, told cops the driver ran away on foot, but the LAPD couldn’t turn up anyone and suspects Erikssen was alone, street racing at the time. (No we don’t know who he is, but it’s Malibu and he had an Enzo, so he must be connected somehow to Kevin Bacon.) We shouldn’t have to tell you how fast or how expensive an Enzo is, but it’s a moot point, since reconstructing the real Enzo Ferrari would be cheaper and easier than rebuilding this puppy.