Our French ancestors would be rolling over in their graves—more easily accomplished since they went in the box sans heads, thanks to the guillotine. But the French police have decided that the traditional Peugeot and Renault police cars won’t cut the moutarde when it comes to high-speed chases. So the French, like half of the world rally circuit and lots of college-age guys, have
switched their allegiance to the Subaru WRX. Reuters reports that the nation’s Gendarmerie Nationale will get 63 WRXs with 149-mph capability, good for catching rogue Belgians who manage to sneak across the border in search of good wine. A lucky group of 156 French cops will get to train with the vehicles on the Bugatti race circuit at Le Mans, and will be called into action only in case of high-speed chases. The cars also will be outfitted with lighted displays warning perps to stop in five different languages—French, English, German, Spanish and Dutch.
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How would you like your ride pimped out by Fergie and her crew? Not that Fergie—she’s too busy hawking Weight Watchers meals and possibly, her family jewels. We’re talking about formerly street-credded and now so-commercial-they’re-cool rap-hop group The Black Eyed Peas. The Peas are hooking up with Honda’s Civic Tour to style up a new Civic Hybrid and to push it in their video for “Pump It.” Even better, the Civic’s being sweepstaked away at the tour’s official Web site,
http://www.hondacivictour.com. With any luck, the BEP logos on the rear doors will peel right off in about 12 to 18 months.
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Multiple choice: Rick Wagoner is praying that a)
he's won valuable time from the UAW and Delphi on restructuring; b) the GM board of directors is blissfully unaware that he has a
box of company Sharpies in his briefcase; c)
J.J. Reddick has a fifth year of eligibility left.
This week, our
spies caught the revised Cadillac STS and its leaner, cleaner grille. They also caught bird flu and trust us, you don't want to know what the chicken got.
The
New York Auto Show debutantes are lining up: so far, we've got the Nissan Altima, Scion coupe concept, Saturn Outlook, and Jeep Patriot. Stay with TCC as we make our way to the New York show just in time for
a raging case of appendicitis the delicious Kobe burgers at the Mandarin Hotel at Time Warner Center.
Dieter Z. has decided that
selling smart isn't such a smart idea right now. We tend to disagree, if only because we think DaimlerChrysler should be sentenced to some special purgatory for naming the brand in a copy-challenged way - a la quattro, HUMMER and MINI.
Chevrolet says that girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks--apparently oblivious to the gender-indifferent crowd on display at our Home Depot.
Paging Miss Lopez? We've found a place where you can
have a Fit for less than $14,000--and Prada doesn't even have to get involved.
We wonder if
hiring Gene Simmons to appear at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix will backfire on the hosts--or if they'll just end up drenched in fake blood like everyone else.
And finally this week, Audi's amazing victory at Sebring last week is encouraging voters in TCC's weekly poll. If you haven't registered your opinion, click over to
the home page and vote.
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Maybe you’re wondering, as is TCC, if the pile-on with full-size SUVs has reached a fervor pitch—or if we in the media aren’t contributing to the latest pendulum swing in anti-SUV hysteria. We know where we stand—and we know now where the
New York Times stands too, as if there were much question. Check out today’s story on the people trading “Hummers for Hondas” and you’ll detect the faint odor of a pre-programmed story with quotes that fairly leapt into the reporter’s hands. To wit:
David Katz, who owns an interior design firm in Seattle, traded in his 1999 Ford Explorer last year to help buy a Lexus 400H, the hybrid-electric version of the RX sport utility. "I was sitting at my desk, ruminating about the crisis in the Middle East and what I could do personally to use less fuel," Mr. Katz said.
To its credit, the Times has reported on the latest hybrids and how they can fail to meet the fuel-economy hype—of which the RX400h is a prime example. But we’re left wondering, wasn’t the SUVOA available for a manufactured quote, too? We do give props, though, for making the Honda Element – HUMMER H2 connection we made back in 2003.
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That twisted tale of a Ferrari Enzo that ended up very twisted itself has developed another kink. The Los Angeles Times, hanging on the story like a Rotti on a pig’s ear, says the owner of the now-in-pieces Enzo might have been videotaping his 162-mph run down the Pacific Coast Highway. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the possible existence of a video of the event, in which owner Stefan Eriksson and a man now known to be Trevor Karney wrecked a million-dollar Ferrari Enzo in spectacular fashion on the PCH on Feb. 21. The Enzo tale is a loopy one: Eriksson, a former videogame executive, was said to be blowing a 0.09 on the breathalyzer. By his report at the scene of the accident, Eriksson was a passenger in the car, not the driver — that, Eriksson says, was a man named “Dietrich” who fled the scene. Add in a Scotland Yard investigation into Eriksson’s missing Mercedes-Benz SLR, potential impersonation of a police officer, and a reclusive defendant holed up at his Bel-Air estate, and this one still has all the makings of the follow-up act to Phil Spector’s murder trial. Stay tuned to the sensationalized news broadcast of your choice.
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Marty Padgett March 30th, 2006
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