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name the car quiz

AND PASSED WITH AN ABOVE AVERAGE SCORE. B+

Quiz Created By Auto Insurance.org

friends of the twingo

In the latest bit of panty waisted whingeing to appear from our betters on the other side of the pond, Friends of the Earth is in a snit over the latest antics of Top Gear*.   According to FoE, the show “appeared to have gone out of its way to be as crass and juvenile as possible“.**  FoE campaigner Mr Declan Allison said that “The wanton destruction of tens of thousands of pounds worth of machinery impresses no-one. It’s a wasteful extravagance and, in the middle of a global recession, in very poor taste“.

Poor Taste?  Mr Allison, the proles actually enjoy watching TG.  Shocking, yes, and very unenlightened of us, but for a few brief moments it allows us to escape our wretched lives and seek enjoyment in mindless humour.  I know, I know we simply don’t get it, but then that’s what you can expect from the grey mass of  drudges – we’re not like you.  Why we can barely get through a sitting of Waiting for Godot, or plough through a Margaret Atwood novel*** - we just want our Renaults destroyed in the most imaginative of fashions and if there is a tinge of humour about the whole thing, then so much the better.  Oh and a beer or two to chase it down with wouldn’t be out of place.

Maybe FoE didn’t get it;  TG fired a Renault Twingo into the ocean!  What can possibly be wrong with that?   Removing one C02 emitting, gasoline consuming Renault from the planet has got to rank quite high as one of the most unselfish and altruistic acts I’ve heard of in a long time.   Of course if FoE and their ilk had their way the western world would live in perpetual recession,  a sort of purgatory for having had the temerity to produce the most fantastic economic miracle known to mankind.  Instead FoE won’t rest until twingo’s aren’t produced at all (let alone flung into the ocean).  

Quit Whining!

—————

* Top Gear, for those of you most of unfortunate to have never heard of it, is quite possibly the best entertainment ever produced by the BBC.  Please note that I said entertainment.  It has no other redeeming qualities – but I love it.

** That’s sort of the point, really.

***Obscure and difficult Canadian author.   But there I go revealing my elitest tendancies again.

gubmint motors (your tax dollars at work)

Well, well.   I think that 16% ownership stake in General Motors is going to take a little while longer to ‘pay off’.    Sales volume at the General is off by 20% from the same period last year as folks continue to shun the ‘pelosi mobiles’, while sales volume at Ford (which in case you need reminding – didn’t require a bailout) are up by 16%.    Great pick Dalton and Stephen.  I, for one am happy I picked up FoMoCo at $1.22 in December 2008.

ht 

Brands and companies are both displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 26 selling days in August 2009 and 27 selling days in August 2008, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in the average daily sales rate for each brand/company.

Brand	Volume %	8/09	8/08	DSR*%	DSR 8/09	DSR 8/08
Kia	60.38	40,198	25,065	66.54	1,546	928
Subaru	51.51	28,683	18,932	57.33	1,103	701
Hyundai	47.01	60,467	41,130	52.67	2,326	1,523
Audi	25.77	8,057	6,406	30.61	310	237
Volvo	24.78	5,826	4,669	29.58	224	173
Pontiac	23.35	29,921	24,257	28.09	1,151	898
Ford	21.25	161,369	133,088	25.91	6,207	4,929
Honda	15.21	151,814	131,766	19.65	5,839	4,880
Mazda	12.09	26,542	23,680	16.40	1,021	877
Volkswagen	11.35	24,823	22,292	15.64	955	826
Toyota	10.94	202,196	182,252	15.21	7,777	6,750
Porsche	8.69	1,526	1,404	12.87	59	52
Mercury	8.19	9,080	8,393	12.35	349	311
Nissan	0.17	97,580	97,417	4.02	3,753	3,608
Suzuki	-5.46	5,749	6,081	-1.82	221	225
Jeep	-6.11	22,041	23,476	-2.50	848	869
Mini	-6.55	5,111	5,469	-2.95	197	203
Mercedes-Benz	-7.54	17,112	18,507	-3.98	658	685
Chevrolet	-9.16	168,130	185,080	-5.66	6,467	6,855
Dodge	-15.80	52,562	62,422	-12.56	2,022	2,312
BMW Group	-21.30	24,343	30,931	-18.27	936	1,146
Lexus	-21.82	22,892	29,281	-18.81	880	1,084
Chrysler	-23.50	18,619	24,337	-20.55	716	901
BMW	-24.47	19,232	25,462	-21.56	740	943
Mitsubishi	-25.95	6,813	9,200	-23.10	262	341
Infiniti	-30.19	7,732	11,076	-27.51	297	410
Acura	-36.21	9,625	15,089	-33.76	370	559
Lincoln	-38.43	5,874	9,540	-36.06	226	353
Smart	-44.59	1,418	2,559	-42.46	55	95
GMC	-45.15	23,145	42,194	-43.04	890	1,563
Buick	-51.71	8,612	17,833	-49.85	331	660
Cadillac	-55.01	6,931	15,405	-53.28	267	571
Saturn	-58.41	8,479	20,385	-56.81	326	755
Hummer	-64.03	777	2,160	-62.64	30	80
Saab	-67.80	484	1,503	-66.56	19	56
COMPANIES
Ford Motor Company	16.99	182,149	155,690	21.49	7006	5766
American Honda	9.93	161,439	146,855	14.16	6209	5439
Toyota Mo Co	6.41	225,088	211,533	10.50	8657	7835
Nissan North America	-2.93	105,312	108,493	0.80	4050	4018
Chrysler Group LLC	-15.43	93,222	110,235	-12.18	3585	4083
General Motors	-20.19	246,479	308,817	-17.12	9480	11438

bucket list – 01

Herein established Junior’s bucket list – in no particular order.  Simply as I think of them.  

First up – drive the Nordshleife.   (I wonder if rental car insurance covers this sort of madness?)

my carbon footprint is bigger than yours

on third crossings and other mythical beasts

So – the other day I attended an information session about the Environmental Assessment to be conducted for the City of Kingston regarding spanning the ditch which separates eastern realms from the rest of KTown.   Truth be told, I was expecting perhaps a formal presentation with Q&A, however at this stage it turns out it was a little premature.  Of course that seems to the story of the oft sighted but rarely captured third crossing.

I am reliably informed by those who have lived in these parts that periodically over the last several years (decades?) various Lords Mayor and other worthies consider offering the denizens of Pittsburgh Township the opportunity to become fully realised citizens of the realm if only they would accept a bridge or some such crossing – or perhaps its the other way around, with the rebellious eastern citizenry clamouring to share with their western neighbours, the opportunity and delight of  having their shock absorbers destroyed amongst the potholes of Brock Street and the like.  Sadly, all of these previous efforts have come to naught; relegating the elusive beast to the realm of conjecture.   What seems to be lacking ( a singularly Kingstonian attribute it seems, regarding other ventures as well) is willpower.

XPosted at Kingstonist

sound off – ontario highways, pay for use?

Hwy 401 at Montreal Rd circa 1965? Notice how little traffic there is....

Anyone who has travelled the 400 series of highways in Ontario, will have noticed both the substantial rise in commercial truck traffic and the near simultaneous degradation of the highway infrastructure itself.  A while ago I hummed and hawed about whether it was time to consider usage charges or tolls on our highways.  Usage charges, sometimes known as congestion charges, provide  some significant benefits, (1) primarily by ensuring that those who use the roads the most pay for the wear and tear (2) it prices in what economists refer to as externalities into the total cost of ownership of the road, and (3) depending upon the structure of the charges, it can influence the conditions of use, particularly by encouraging certain types of traffic to use the road at periods of lower demand.   Two recent activities prompted me to revisit the idea – the ongoing widening of the 401 between Sydenham Road and Hwy 15 (and eventually to Joyceville Road), and a visit to Germany and the Netherlands. 

around the world 35.3 (find of the day in nordlingen)

08 March 2009:

Every now and then you come across something worth a second look.  As I was rolling slowly down a side street in Nordlingen looking for a parking place, and ultimately a mid morning coffee and snack, I spotted this rather homely creature parked alongside the curb. 

Without knowing exactly what it was, I felt instinctively that it was no model of military utility truck that had been employed by western armies – but it did not look brutish enough to have been manufactured under duress from the east.  

Sure enough it was neither.  You can take a guess at what make and model it is, or cheat and look here, or here…..

los angeles to new york in four minutes

around the world 35.1 (the brazen – rental – chariot)

makes junior a happy traveller

in an ideal….

….and just world I would own one of these, but more likely in a fit of practicality I might instead drive the Volkswagen Passat R36 ["look dear, side impact air bags"].   What’s not to like?  It hauls family and it is sehr schnell as they say.  Sadly, unavailable in the land of maple syrup.

Meanwhile, I must placate myself with the Audi A4 rental wagon – a nice enough beast to tame the autobahn – but somewhat lacking in character. 

Enough with the rolling stock already- this could go on all day - rather the point is to ask – if money were no object and in an ideal world what would you…..?

around the world – part 32.1 (in which I help reverse the cooling trend and discover a thingplatz)

Dec 01 2008

Once again in Bavaria, and imagine my shock and horror to discover that it had snowed.  Clearly something was amiss.  I scratched my head in puzzelment attempting to sort through the flood of information I knew to be true.  According to the Goracle (respectful genuflections) snow could only be a figment of my imagination as it had been banished forever by the evil ways of western man, yet here, plain for all to see was a couple of inches of snow, with more (gasp!) on the way.  This was clearly not what I was expecting, lead to believe that the world was irrevocably headed towards becoming a burnt over desert,  I had only packed shorts and t-shirts – falsely believing that Germany in December would give the French Riviera a run for its money.  Who to blame?  Apparently all of those selfish North Americans, busy not driving their SUVs had spawned a freak cooling trend, one so unexpected that even the prophets could hardly acknowledge it.  And then it struck me – I had the divine duty to reverse this cooling trend, this affront to the gospel and so…..

I embarked on my very own warming crusade -  namely a needless, entirely gratuitious and deliciously delightful CO2 burning tour of the countryside.  Believe me, equipped with a Mercedes C220 and a handy autobahn I figure I have personally reversed the global cooling trend by about two or three hours.  You can thank me later….

And so this time my excursion took me towards Eichstatt in search of the ruins of an elusive ThingPlatz.  Inspired by recent timewasting sojourn on the interwebs thingy, I determined to find abandoned evidence of Germanys recent past.   Getting close to the ruined amphitheatre took almost no effort, however finding it did require a little more trouble – its not like there are signs pointing to relics of an embarrasing history.  

Just southwest of Winterhof, overlooking Eichstatt is the ruin – and what a creepy feeling to be standing on the site.  I tramped around the place taking a few photographs and the entire time I could not shake the feeling of horror.  I have no idea if the place was ever actually used for party functions, however that was clearly the intent.  At any rate the whole place carries an unsettled feeling…

around the world – part 26.3 (twenty seven tunnels to interlaken)

January 22 2008:

Drove down from Greding to Interlaken this morning – about five hours with a stop for breakfast.  I think I like the Mercedes COMMAND gps system – was very accurate and let me know about 150km in advance of an accident.  The motorways were pretty quick (except the rush hour on A9 leading into Munich) all the way to the Austrian border at  Bregenz where the 130kmh limit comes into effect and continues on into Switzerland.  Out of curiosity I started counting tunnels I passed through on the way – twenty seven - and the absolute coolest is the spiral tunnel on the  Swiss A8 at Brienzwiler Switzerland.  Love the switchback before entering and immediately upon exiting the tunnel.  Classic!

 How to get there:

1. Fly into Zurich; or

2. Drive as I did from Greding:

Follow Autobahn 9 (A9) south towards Munich; at Kreutz Neufahrn take A92 southwest towards Augsburg, join the A99 and follow signs for A96.  Join the A96 towards Lindau and Austria (A) and Switzerland (CH).   A96 ends at the border with Austria – follow signs for Bregenz – remember to purchase the autobahn vignettes for both Austria and Switzerland!  Follow signs for Zurich, then Luzern.  Once past Luzern follow signs for Gotthard / Interlaken.

is it time for toll roads?

Those who have heard me heap praise on the Autobahn system will have almost certainly heard my equally poor opinion of the highways in Ontario.  Too many smarter folks have already made the connection between the poor state of our freeways and the costs to our economy, namely in the form patchwork repairs, congestion (notably the substantial increase in freight trucking) and safety. 

Although the German autobahn system is toll free for private motor vehicles it does have a toll system for commercial trucking.  Austria and Switzerland have gone one step further and adopted an autobahn flat fee (Austria annual highway toll = 93euro / $150) structure for all motorists, residents or otherwise.  Cleverly, Austria offers tourists or those transiting the country a short flat fee toll which covers the few days tourists use their road system, but which offset maintenance costs.  Additionally failure to obtain a vignette is punished with steep fines. 

Is it time for Ontario to adopt a similar system?

I would advocate a structured system in which Ontario residents pay a flat fee for use of our 400 series highways, tourists or visitors pay a fee based on the number of days travelling in the province (could also be built into car rental contracts?) and trucking companies pay a sliding scale according to the time of use.

Of course, all of this is predicated on the idea that the tolls raised would actually go for the improvement of the road network rather than disappear into general revenues to fund pet projects.

Thoughts?