Categories: Miscellaneous

For centuries, Santa has instilled joy and wonder into the hearts of the world's youth by way of a reindeer-driven sleigh. A few luxury-car and supercar manufacturers have decided that Santa needs an upgrade. The world's population is growing, after all, so a little extra speed will help Santa cover his entire list with check marks.

We've seen Santa-mobiles before, but it seems like there's some growing competition this year. Within a few days, Lamborghini, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz each released visions about what Santa should be driving in the future.

For the past week or so, living in and around New Jersey has not been the most fun. Trees are down everywhere, and in some places, the only thing holding them up are the power lines they landed on. Coming home after work to a cold house, with only candles and flashlights to get around has given some of us a very clear snapshot of what life was like in the 1800's. Some of us have just gotten power back (today), and some are still stuck in the dark, and we are the lucky ones. Those stuck on the Jersey Shore and coastal parts of New York have had their home towns declared 'uninhabitable' until further notice.

TV hosts wielding black lights have long turned our stomachs in regard to the glaring lack of cleanliness in hotel rooms. Ford shows us that germs and disease are lurking much closer to home. In a recent study with the University of Michigan, Ford found that the vehicle is essentially a four-wheeled orgy of microorganisms.

Ford studied 10 individual areas of the car, including steering wheels, radio buttons, door handles, window switches and gear shift knobs, collecting samples from employee and company vehicles. It found evidence of bacteria growth in most locations, with the highest concentrations around the cup holder and on the steering wheel.

Like cricket (the game) and Marmite (whatever the hell that is) there are just things they do in the UK that I can’t get a handle on. I always thought it was a production assistant goofing around with the more apt license plates you see on Top Gear’s test cars but no: people actually have to pay for those. A LOT. Like the four grand for “V12 NUT” Bonhams got recently.

And before you think this is an isolated incident—and/or skip to the fun "Top Five" lists I’ve painstakingly copied from another site—I provide you with a roster of offerings to be, um… offered at Barons’ “Annual British Heritage Auction & Other Classics” sale somewhere on the island today (September 17) (with plates offered in quotes and auction estimate averages in greenbacks):

[And I hate math more than you can imagine so appreciate what I did here, dang it!]

They are, as follows: “DB09 AML” [$8,315]; “9 BEN” [$34,880]; “Y12 FER” [$1,704]; “D8 GTS” [$3,448]; “W18 OND” [$2,434]; “EA51 CAR” [$1,866]; “V8 REG” [$3,488]. What, you don’t see the perfectly good reason why “9 BEN” should cost more than a new Camaro? Oh, silly American. Because, as the description reads [EXACTLY], “Pre 63 Bentley? Any The ultimate Bentley registration” of course!

It would seem as though too much of the Red Headed Stranger has rubbed off his former tour bus as—in the face of a $60k-$80k auction estimate—the 1986-model-year coach “Me & Paul” pulled down just $29,250 at Auctions America’s Sept.1 Auburn, Indiana sale.

[Hopefully this buyer will want to hang onto their purchase as the seller of this bus paid $48,550 less than a year ago at a Toronto auction, giving themselves a quick $19,300 haircut.]

Anyhoo, this thing is everything you’d expect a hard-worn band-bus to be, excluding most of the hard-worn. Still, if it wasn’t for the Willie Nelson history—and perhaps the terrible murals it’s coated in—this could easily be the crap-hauler for any C-level wannabe band.

Then again, maybe now it is…

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is a new web series where Jerry Seinfeld... well, you’re probably already ahead of me. Yes, Jerry drives around in car and gets coffee with a comedian. But these aren’t just your average cars – or comedians! Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Brian Regan, Colin Quinn, Alec Baldwin and Michael Richards to name a few.

Now, I have to admit, that when I first heard about Jerry's new web series idea, I wasn’t that intrigued. I don’t know if it was the show's name or the overly-simplified premise, but after catching up on the first two episodes, I realized that, really, the show’s simplicity is what makes it so fun to watch.

Think about it. This is Jerry Seinfeld making a show about (almost) nothing – that’s right in his wheel house! Even Larry David, co-creator of “Seinfeld” – “the show about nothing,” congratulates Jerry on the very first episode: “You have finally done a show about nothing.”

The search is on. Reuters reports that a Kia executive dropped a Soul bomb during last Friday’s earnings conference. The Soul, Kia’s second-best selling model in the first half of 2012, will receive a model update sometime next year – most likely as a 2014 or 2015 entry.

And although a Kia spokesperson refused to comment on the possibility of a new Soul to Automobile, our chances are still good for a Soul update. Ever since the Soul came onto the US auto scene in 2009, sales have steadily increased each year. But the vehicle’s modernistic, box-shaped design aesthetic has nevertheless remained stagnant.

The timing is ripe for a Soul reboot.

Whenever subcompact car comparisons pop up, and the Fit is listed as an entry, the outcome can – more often than not – be predicted in favor of Honda’s most true-to-form econo hatchback. Even without a substantive update since the vehicle’s introduction in 2006, except minor aesthetic improvements in 2007, the Fit has continued to be a fan favorite amongst an increasingly popular segment.

So, you’d think that 2013 might be some kind of watershed or big update year for the Honda Fit, especially in light of recent subcompact makeovers coming from Hyundai, Chevrolet, Fiat, et al. Whether it’s because of last year’s series of catastrophes or the company’s continuing market success, Honda has chosen to stay the course and maintain the 2012 Fit, nearly in the vehicle’s present form.   

There is, however, one change worthy of note. Consumers will have a few color choices aside from the usual subcompact classics (blue, red, white, and black), including the new-for-2013 color Midnight Plum Pearl.

This one’s for the record books. After almost 42 years of grim pursuit, Dallas resident Robert Russell finally located his stolen 1967 Austin Healey 3000 – which was originally taken from his Philadelphia apartment in 1970. And, most humorously, Russell actually spotted the car on an eBay auction.

“Ever since eBay showed up, I’d check it periodically,” Russell said to The Dallas Morning News. “I checked it on Friday May 11, and there it was.”

That’s what we call persistence.

Ok, we all love free money. And, following closely behind, we all greatly enjoy free gift cards. In the spirit of our Nation’s most red, white, and blue holiday Jeep has officially issued a Freedom of the Open Road Contest & Sweepstakes.

As far as we’re concerned that long list of descriptors adds up to a $500 gift card to REI or 30 randomly awarded $25 iTunes gift cards to participants which answer the following question: what does ‘Freedom of the Open Road’ mean to you.

Only the three grand champions of the contest get the REI shopping spree. So unless you’re merely reaching for a few iTunes hits, pop on those wordsmithing caps, shed a few tears, and find your inner wanderlust, because nothing gets auto journos more excitable than glorifications of our favorite past time.

We’ve seen a lot of fireworks shooting from the Ford media engine lately – which seems appropriate with the Fourth of July looming – especially with regards to new vehicle technologies. But apparently the movers and shakers at Ford have been up to more than just EcoTech engines, KeyFree, and improvements to the company’s lagging MyFord Touch.

Ford is in the midst of developing two next-generation systems that could improve or eliminate some of the most despised driving obstacles: traffic jams and reverse perpendicular parking.