Ford previews new Police Interceptor

 By Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

The King is dead! Long live the King! Those are the chants flying out of Ford headquarters today after previewing its new Police Interceptor model. First, because it confirms that the company will pull the plug on its Crown Victoria-based model at the end of 2011, effectively shuttering the St. Thomas, ON plant that builds it. Second, because the new Taurus-based Police Interceptor model looks like it will be a suitable replacement in fleets around North America.

Situation Normal: SNAFU license plate allowed to stay

By David Menzies

SNAFU is commonly-known as a cheeky acronym that traces its roots to the U.S. Military. It stands for, “Situation Normal, All F-----d Up.”

SNAFU was definitely the operative word in the Yukon earlier this week when the territory demanded that Douglas Potter, a resident of Riverdale, had to relinquish his vanity plate bearing the letters “SNAFU.”
According to the Whitehorse Daily Star, last spring, Potter applied for (and received) his SNAFU plate without any, well, SNAFUs occurring.

However, last week, he received a letter ordering him to return the plate by April 15 because of its “offensive language” connotations. Potter took delivery of the letter shortly after one of his friends was denied the plate, TARFU (Things Are Really F----- Up.)

Alas, apparently the government was so embarrassed by the attention the story generated it promptly flip-flopped: SNAFU will be permitted to stay. As well, the TARFU plate will be issued after all.

Government spokesman Matt King said the registrar of motor vehicles decided to review the SNAFU matter – even without a formal appeal being filed by Potter.

Evidently, both SNAFU and TARFU appear on a so-called “blue list” of licence plate terms which are prohibited for a variety of reasons ranging from profane language to racial slurs.

New Brunswick finally fitting buses with winter tires

Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

In January 2008, a small school bus taking a high-school basket ball team from Bathurst, NB home after a tournament in Moncton, NB was involved in a crash with a transport truck that killed seven students and their teacher. The Ford Econoline Club Wagon they were driving in was not fitted with winter tires, per provincial regulations.

After two years of pressure from the survivors and families of those that died, there has finally been a change in the government’s policy. Originally, the plan was to equip only the two wheels on the rear axle of the multi-function activity buses (MFAB) with winter tires. However, according to CBC News, “Mothers of three boys who died...had arranged to have the tire configurations currently used on activity buses in the province's schools privately tested in Michigan” at Continental Tire’s facility.

OLG snubs made-in-Ontario vehicles. Again.

By David Menzies

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has once again snubbed made-in-Ontario vehicles.

In a recently-launched $5 scratch card game, the OLG is offering five U.S.-manufactured Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycles valued at approximately $20,000 each.

However, the choice of prizes would appear odd given the hot water the OLG found itself in last year regarding foreign-made vehicles. In 2009, OLG casinos ran a contest in which 22 Mercedes-Benz cars were offered. But the decision to go with the imported sedans wasn’t appreciated by many observers.

Ontario’s then-Public Infrastructure Minister, George Smitherman, said that a crown corporation purchasing foreign-made cars at a time when the province’s auto sector was bleeding jobs made for a “huge lapse in judgment… it’s disappointing; it’s disillusioning; it’s wrong on all levels.”

In a rare move of solidarity, the opposition agreed. Tory MPP Ted Chudleigh noted that a provincially-owned crown corporation would do well to shop locally for vehicles at a time when Ontario’s auto and steel workers are losing their jobs by the thousands.

The OLG eventually issued a mea culpa.

“OLG regrets the decision to feature cars in a customer promotion that were not built in Ontario,” the OLG said in a written statement. “Supporting Ontario business is an important part of OLG’s mandate and this promotion should not have included foreign-made vehicles.”

Yet, barely a year later, the OLG is not only sourcing foreign-made vehicles, but it is also paying a royalty fee (somewhere between .6% and 2%) so that it can make use of the Harley-Davidson logo.

Racing legend Stirling Moss injured in elevator incident

 Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

One of motor racing's most talented and amiable drivers is recovering in hospital after falling down his personal elevator! Britain's The Independent reported that 80-year-old Sir Stirling Moss stepped into the empty shaft where the car should have been when the doors opened, and he fell three floors to the bottom.

Dangerous levels of bacteria discovered in rental cars

By Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

Ever hear something that’s just so unimaginably gross, so terribly stomach-turning that just thinking about it makes your head spin just recalling it? Today Show reporter Jeff Rosson put together a report last week that just gives you the willies.

We’ve all see the reports on bed bugs and bacteria that you can find in the hotels we stay in, but has anyone actually given a thought to the cars, trucks and minivans we rent? 

And the Automotive Oscars go to...

By David Menzies

Ho hum. Another Academy Awards has come to pass and once again the vehicles of Hollywood are snubbed.

When is the Academy ever going to recognize Best Car?

After all, what’s a movie without vehicular cinematic clichés such as the good ol’ car chase or a vehicle going over a cliff and blowing up as though the trunk was filled to the brim with nitro glycerine or the ignition on a car failing to turn over just when an axe-wielding maniac happens to be lumbering along?

For shame!

Thus, without further ado, here are my kudos to the most notable car performances in film in 2009:

The Thelma & Louise Award for Most Unfortunate Car Demise: The C2 generation Corvette in Star Trek.

Seeing that 1966 Thunderbird convertible plunge into the abyss of the Grand Canyon at the end of Thelma & Louise really made me tear up. I mean, a ’66 T-Bird ragtop? What a classic! Why’d those crazy gals have to take the car with them?

Likewise, James Tiberius Kirk was apparently quite the rabble-rouser as a pre-teen. Stealing a mint condition Corvette convertible from the ’60s – one of the most beautiful cars ever sculpted – Kirk first destroys the car’s roof when he attempts to go top-down at highway speeds. Then, in an ill-fated attempt to outrun law enforcement, the ’Vette ends up plunging off a cliff (unlike Thelma or Louise, at least Kirk had the presence of mind to abandon ship prior to descent.)

Chrysler future product plans leaked

By Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

Things have been awfully quiet at Chrysler lately in terms of getting new products to the public. Besides showing a lone Fiat 500 at the recent Canadian International Auto Show, the automaker has talked a lot about its upcoming products, but we've gotten very little in the way of specifics.

Now it appears that Allpar.com has uncovered some information about the coming year's worth of new and revised products, and there are definitely some surprises.

Ruf creates V8-powered Porsche 911

By Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos Canada

Amongst the mild, wild and downright ridiculous debuts and concepts at the Geneva Motor Show, there’s one that somehow escaped much attention. It’s a new V8-powered Porsche, but not a Panamera. Nor a Cayenne. 

No, it’s the iconic 911 shape with a V8 shoved in the back. Say what?

Audi to let customers go racing with the big dogs

By Mark Atkinson, MSN Autos

Racing has always been about who pays the bills. Other than a very select group of racers at the very top of their game, seats in racecars are virtually all filled with paying drivers. Sometimes that’s by bringing personal sponsors on board to cover the costs, other times it’s cold hard cash. That’s not to say that some of those who race aren’t competitive with the rest of the field – some championship-winning drivers have done so while paying to be there. This isn’t really a secret, but it’s not trumpeted from the windows either...

Well, cue the Audi-branded horns...