Trip like that in that Audi sounds epic! What were the best roads? My sister just moved to Asheville and I expect to make a road trip there later this summer. ... View more

Agreed. I think Evening Orchid was one year only, 1965, but I'm not sure. It was invented by Blaine Jenkins, who worked on Chevy and Oldsmobile interiors and who basically created the Olds Regency aesthetic for the 1972 Olds 70th anniversary.  ... View more

Bill was a great friend of David E. Davis, Jr., former editor of Car and Driver and founding editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine. When I worked at Automobile in the 1990s, there were many framed Neale prints on the office walls, and we published numerous custom Neale illustrations in the magazine. Each year at Christmas, Bill's wife, Nelda, would send the magazine staff a big box of her famous Texas pralines, individually wrapped in plastic. I can feel the sugar high now, thinking of them. ... View more

"Decide what you want to buy, he said, and then work backward from the problem you want or need to solve, to see if the purchase actually solves it." So, Sam, for what kitchen appliance purchase did you use this method?!? ... View more

Hey, John! Jean didn't write "The Porsche of Doom" at Automobile. I was working there when we published it. The piece was written by a guy named Dave Plank, who sent it in, unsolicited. It was one of those rare instances when we actually published a piece that someone just randomly sent in. Great memory, regardless! --Joe ... View more

Hagerty did a story on the Fiat a few years ago, along with a couple of other roadsters of the era: https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-magazine/european-roadsters-that-should-have-succeeded/ ... View more

The notion of a Quantum as getaway vehicle reminds me of my older brother aiding and abetting a buddy of his who'd escaped our county jail in rural Michigan, when I was ten years old. They piled into my brother's silver Volkswagen Microbus (painted silver by my brother himself with a paintbrush) and headed south on I-75 toward Detroit, on a weekday afternoon in April 1975. Wasn't hard for the authorities to find a silver VW Microbus on I-75. My parents let my brother sit in jail for about 5 days to reflect on his error.  ... View more

This was GM at its early 1990s finest. A superb long-range sedan; a friend and I drove one from Los Angeles to Michigan in January 1992, including through some rather treacherous snowstorms in the Rockies. Fast, comfortable, secure. One particular detail I recall: the  illuminated mirrors at both rear outboard positions; they flipped down from the ceiling, allowing rear-seat occupants to double-check their lipstick before alighting from the car.  ... View more

I retract my previous comment; I hadn't seen a straight-on front angle photo, only a front 3/4. 🙂 ... View more

I can barely tell the difference between what Munich did and your illustrator did, honestly.  ... View more

Quite possibly! Other reviewers have noted the door handle design as well. Thanks for writing! --Joe DeMatio ... View more

“When. Are. You. Going. To. Learn. To. Respect. The. Desert?” she asked.    Such a smart woman. ... View more

We should all leave our phones at home once in a while, shouldn't we? ... View more

I thought the Wrangler was getting hybrid and diesel variants. ... View more

What color are you getting, Don Sherman? ... View more

It sure looks good mixing it up with Porsches and Vipers on track! ... View more

Your daughter might change her mind eventually! That Scion would be a great used car for someone. ... View more

Love the red Chevette! ... View more

Love that ending poem. My own fantasy last weekend was I sat down with Google maps and designed my month-long cross-country road trip, thinking about what stops I'd make, which friends I would lean on for free lodging, how long to linger at each place.  ... View more

Maybe we are in for a golden period of sorts for the next 5-10 years, because automakers won't be able to develop many "clean-sheet" designs of traditional (internal combustion) passenger vehicles while simultaneously developing the electric-vehicle platforms that society and government will dictate. Instead, we will have better-every-year iterations of existing platforms and technologies in some car and truck lines. Wishful thinking, perhaps? ... View more

In a review I once did of the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental, featuring a matched set, 1962 turquoise sedan and convertible, I included some more of Uncle Tom's metaphors:   Tom McCahill of Mechanix Illustrated wrote that the 1961 Continental was "one of the plushest wolftraps on the road. It's as quiet as the love life of a bass, and it rides as smooth as spilt fudge on a canted stove. [Its] looks will equal any car's in the nation and, in the opinion of some of my arty friends, will trim all others six ways from the post and twice on Sunday."    ... View more