Articles about Automotive
Ruptured Gas Line Shuts Down Streets in Downtown Dallas
Take a late lunch, or prepare for a long one. A gas line that ruptured just before 11 a.m. on Main Street near the Neiman Marcus building has prompted emergency crews to block off several of the surrounding streets. Steer clear of Main Street at Field, Akard at Elm, Commerce at Ervay, and St. Paul at Main.
Live Blogging My Wait at DPS
I lost my driver’s license a couple of weeks ago. A stomach bug is keeping me away from the office today, so I thought I would invest my afternoon in getting a new license. (I don’t want to get my co-workers sick, but I’m not so concerned with everyone here.)
I entered the Department of Public Safety office in Carrollton at 12:45 and was issued Ticket 078. I have no idea when I will be helped, because the big screen says Tickets 431, 211, 054, and 512 are currently being served. I’d estimate there are 75 people with me in this lobby. Good times.
State Fair of Texas Picture of the Day, Oct. 3
The State Fair auto show was buzzing on a beautiful Monday afternoon. photo by Jason Janik
Check out our guide to plan your own trip to Fair Park.
Notable Car Burns On Beltline
It was a Twin-Turbo Ford GT, which I guess is a thing. And now there is only one of them.
Pricey Gasoline Here to Stay: Lexus Boss
The general manager of Toyota’s Lexus division predicts gas prices will keep rising and will stay at higher levels for the foreseeable future. “I don’t seem them coming back down again,” Mark Templin said in Dallas Friday. “I see them at $4 a gallon in the short-term. We’re already paying $5 in California. Long-term, I think they’ll go even higher.”
The top Lexus boss was in North Texas for something called “An Evening with Lexus,” one in a series of exclusive, focus-group-style dinners he’s hosting in homes around the country. Part of the carmaker’s “epicurean marketing” strategy, the dinners are attended by Lexus owners and their friends and are catered by celebrity chefs. The local one will be tonight at a house in Rowlett, where Casey Thompson will serve up salmon, veal tongue and buffalo to Templin and 13 others.
Subscription-based Electric Car Service Expanding to Dallas-Fort Worth
The provider, AeroVironment, plans to install 70 public charging stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For $89 a month, electric car owners will have access to unlimited charging in Houston and around here.
Now, will Texans be willing to embrace these services, and electric cars in general, if the auto companies continue to give the vehicles weak-willed names like the “Leaf?”
How about, instead, “the Live Wire,” “the Gridiron,” or “Electric Boogaloo?”
Is the Texas Rangers’ C.J. Wilson the Most Interesting Man in the World?
We already knew:
1) He’s a pretty solid starting pitcher for your American League champion Texas Rangers
2) He’s a Lost fanatic, and got to play ball with that show’s creators.
3) He’s an accomplished Twitterer
4) The ladies seems to enjoy giving him a look-see.
What we’ve learned from this Forbes Q&A with him:
1) He’s got his own car racing team.
2) He owned so many Porsches that he sold some because he didn’t have enough time to drive them all.
3) He got to drive the pace-car at Texas Motor Speedway.
If there’s a better candidate to be Dallas’ version of the Most Interesting Man in the World, please let me know.
UPDATE: The man himself tweets to point out that I neglected to mention how he dabbles in photography. I apologize profusely for the omission. <swallowing hard to suppress now-raging jealousy>
NSFW Pic of Erin Wasson
The famous Pirelli Calendar is out, and our own Erin Wasson makes an appearance. An alert FBvian points us to her nipples.
Getting a Sneak Peek at the McLaren MP4-12C
Besides a functioning ice machine and a Keurig with 14 different flavors of coffee—and the chance to work with editor Glenn Hunter again—one of the things I love most about my new gig here at D CEO is the opportunity to write car reviews. I used to not care much about cars and made fun of guys who got all gaga over them, but that was before I spent a week with a Jaguar XKR—and went just slightly over the speed limit in both a Lamborghini Gallardo and a Ferrari F430 coupe.
One review possibility I’m now drooling over is the new McLaren MP4-12C. The exotic will become available next summer and sold in Texas only at McLaren Dallas, a new dealership from Ken Schnitzer, founder of Park Place Motorcars. He gave me and several others a sneak peek of the car this morning at a press conference in the design district. All I have to say is: “Wow.”
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Have Trouble Catching a Cab This Morning?
Took a little detour on the way to work. Four friends from Michigan, in Dallas for a health care conference, needed a ride from the Anatole to D/FW Airport to catch their flight home. They were tipped last night on the way back to the hotel—after watching the Rangers trounce their beloved Detroit Tigers—about a taxi cab strike this morning. The driver told them cabbies are still upset about special privileges given to those whose taxis run on natural gas. The cabbies planned to strike from 7-9 a.m. then converge on Dallas City Hall. So if you have a downtown meeting this morning, you may encounter a bit of a traffic jam.
Dallas: Not Quite the Worst Drivers in America
Just the 20th worst. Out of 193 cities, Dallas comes in at 173. Peaceful, sweet Fort Worth comes in at 140. Washington, D.C. is the worst, but anyone could have guessed that. After all, we probably pay their insurance.
Routine Maintenance, Un-routine Advice
Scenario: You take your eight-year-old “premium” SUV to a Dallas dealership for its 75,000-mile maintenance (not one of the major checkups, according to the book). Your adviser reviews things and presents his service recommendations, telling you they add up to more than $800. After you get up off the concrete floor, you ask for an accounting of the individual charges.
He’s basically listed about eight items, including “detailing” ($200) and nearly $100 to rotate and balance tires that had been rotated and balanced about 3,000 miles earlier–at the same dealership. Friday question: Are these ripoff charges by an outfit that needs to make up for still-tepid new-car sales by pushing its “service” side? Or is this just a concerned company that really, really wants to see my tires in better-than-perfect balance and my chrome grille sparkling in the summer sun?
Leading Off (8/16/10)
1. Dallas is not as tough on drunk driving as advertised. Over the past ten years, more than 40 percent of drivers arrested for intoxication manslaughter received only probation sentences, and most of those who did go to jail received sentence lengths that were below the state average. Embarrassing stuff, considering the county has the third-highest rate of drunk driving fatalities in the nation.
2. I had a friend who had bedbugs, and it basically ruled their life for the better part of a year. Their experience was tortuous, expensive, and embarrassing. So when I hear reports that the nation’s bed bug population has had an 81 percent increase, I get worried. A Dallas pest control professional says their bed bug calls have risen from about five annual to about five a week.
3. I’d just like to make a public service announcement: it is now time for bandwagon hopers to please make their way to the Texas Rangers’ wagon. Please leave your Yankees and Red Sox jerseys buried deep in your closet and out of sight.
Ed Whitacre Steps Down As GM CEO
Whitakcre basically created the new AT&T (hence, the Whitacre Tower in downtown Dallas). He is stepping down from his temporary role overseeing GM as it announces its second quarterly profit, this time of $1.3 billion.
Whitacre is being replaced by fellow telephonatic Dan Akerson, former CEO of XO Communications and Nextel. Now the question is, will Akerson take the next step in reforming the geriatric, inbred GM culture by moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas?
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