A Very Generous Car Dealer

Longtime Michigan auto dealer Howard Cooper surprised his employees with $1,000 checks for each year of service after announcing his retirement and selling his Ann Arbor, Mich., dealership this month.

He distributed his “thank you” checks Wednesday after announcing the news on a local radio show. Each of the 89 dealership employees who had been there for more than one month received a check.

The dealership has many long-term employees; the largest check of nearly $47,000 was given to a woman who started work as a bookkeeper when Cooper opened the dealership in 1965, and later became a controller. Cooper said he had thought about the gesture for a long time.

“It’s just the way I’m built, I guess,” he said in an interview. “They made a difference in my life in the efforts they put forth and hopefully I made a difference in theirs.”

Cooper, 83, sold Howard Cooper’s Import Center on Tuesday to Ohio-based Germain Motor Co., which ranks No. 95 on the Automotive News list of the top 125 U.S. dealership groups with new-vehicle retail sales of 7,078 units in 2011.

Red Bull Heir Charged In Ferrari Wreck

 

The grandson of the co-creator of Red Bull has been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand and is accused of killing a policeman with his Ferrari.

Vorajuth Yoovidhaya is the 27-year-old grandson of the late Chaleo Yoovidhaya, who created Red Bull. According to the BBC, Vorayuth has been accused of running over a 47-year-old policeman with a new Ferrari FF and dragging him down the road before the officer succumbed to a broken neck and multiple broken bones.

The crime was alleged to have been initially covered-up by a low-ranking police superintendent. The superintendent reportedly tried to detain an innocent man for the crime before the Bangkok police chief, Comronwit Toopgranjank, discovered what was happening. That man has since been released and the low-level officer has now been transferred to another post.

Toopgranjank, who personally escorted the Red Bull heir from his Bangkok home was quoted as saying, “A policeman is dead. I can’t let this stand. I don’t care how powerful they are. If I can’t get the actual man in this case, I will resign.”

Yoovidhaya is set to be charged with “causing death by driving” and leaving the scene of a crime. He faces up to ten years in jail.

Cadillac nabs Esquire 2012 Car of the Year laurels

 

We’ve barely got to know it, and already the 2013 Cadillac ATS is winning awards from just the kind of arbiters that Cadillac has been trying to win the attentions of. Calling the ATS “perhaps the single most important thing Detroit has built in years” (sorry, Chevrolet Volt), and effusing that the “base ATS is $33,990, but from the right angle, the body creases and brightwork touches make it seem worth ten grand more,” Esquire magazine has named the entry-level luxury sport sedan its Car of the Year. It now wears the same tiara that has adorned the Audi A7 for the past year.On the sidelines, other accolades Esquire handed out were:• Innovator of the Year – Elon Musk, CEO and Founder of Tesla
• Domestic Car of the Year – 2013 Ford Focus ST
• SUV of the Year – 2012 Range Rover Evoque
• Sports Car of the Year – 2013 Porsche Boxster
• Debuts of the Year – 2013 Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ
• Luxury Car of the Year – 2013 BMW 640i Gran Coupe
• Hatchback of the Year – 2012 Volkswagen Golf R

Why gas stations in NJ, PA are selling $8/gallon gas in protest

 

Over 50 gas stations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania have raised the price of their fuel to more than eight dollars a gallon. They are all Lukoil stations, and their owners have raised prices in protest of practices by Lukoil North America that they say leave individual gas station owners at a competitive disadvantage.

According to a report by the Huffington Post (full disclosure: HP is also owned by Autoblog parent AOL), the protest is a response to the high prices that Lukoil apparently charges its franchise owners for fuel. The owners of the gas stations contend that they are paying more for delivery than what competing stations are charging to the public.Sal Risalvato is a member of the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association, and is one of the owners frustrated with Lukoil. “They essentially sell the very same gasoline to stations in close proximity of each other at different prices in order to game the market and compete with other gasoline brands,” says Risalvato. The result of this practice, he claims, is pricing that may differ by as much as 25 cents a gallon between a given Lukoil station and a nearby competitor. In a business where some people drive miles out of the way for the cheapest gas prices, the effects of that disparity can be massive.

Protesting Lukoil franchise owners have upped their gas prices to eight dollars a gallon and beyond to raise awareness for these practices. Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, first arrived in the U.S. in 2003. Today there are more than 500 stations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions

NYPD officer fired after ticketing dead people, blames quotas

A New York City Police Department officer has been fired for a ticket-writing scheme after 17 years on the force. According to The New York Post, Paul Pizzuto wrote summonses to drivers he’d ticketed in the past, some of whom had been deceased for years by the time the citations arrived in the mail. Pizzuto says he started writing the fake tickets after command told him he needed to start writing more on top of the 125 to 150 he was already issuing. Colleagues raised concerns when they realized Pizzuto never showed up in court for the additional summonses.The former officer pled guilty to three counts of falsifying business records earlier this year. The NYPD, meanwhile, denies pushing Pizzuto for more tickets and accuses him of trying to pad his pay with his efforts. Pizzuto claims he was improperly fired because the NYPD didn’t give him a hearing over the matter. The police department, meanwhile, says he was let go because the citations were an “oath of office” offense, meaning Pizzuto wasn’t entitled to a hearing. Pizzuto was one of three officers busted in the scandal, and he not only lost his job, he received 150 hours of community service along with a docked pension.

Canadian auto dealer uses radio spot to get even with crooks

Marty Giles runs a Ford dealership in Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. Marty Giles had his dealership robbed over the weekend. Marty Giles has a good sense of humor… and a plan to get even. What you are listening to in the video below is an actual radio spot, in which Giles tells listeners, “I know you’ve heard about our family pricing initative. Over the weekend, however, we had some non-family members come steal some rims and tires.” The wheels and tires belonged to a Harley-Davidson Edition Ford F-150, an F-150 FX4 and a Mustang. Rather than voice his anger, Giles decided to get even by offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who could provide information to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the crime. Another $10,000 will be donated to a charity of the Mounties’ choosing.

According to the ad, if the tires are returned, Giles will “call off the posse… no harm, no foul.” Giles also attempts to get inside the heads of the criminals, by adding “I get a great deal on commercials, and I’ll run them forever until you get caught,” and several other truly great lines.

FORD STUDY ON BAD DRIVING HABITS

The study by Penn Schoen Berland, commissioned by Ford, surveyed 2,506 U.S. drivers in May and found 99% think they’re good drivers, even though 76% eat or drink behind the wheel, 55% speed, 53% talk on a handheld phone, 37% drive when they’re too tired, and 22% will pick up their phone and search contacts and 3% will receive oral sex while driving.

“People are saying they are safe drivers, but they are engaging in other things while behind the wheel,” said Billy Mann, managing director of Penn Schoen Berland.

The result: 57% have had an accident or close call with someone in their blind spot, 48% hit or almost hit something backing out of a parking lot and 38% avoid parallel parking, Mann said.

Ford, as do many of its competitors, has technology to address many of these areas, but the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker was surprised to learn that even though it has offered driver-assist systems for years, less than a third of respondents were aware of features such as those directed at teens that limit the car’s top speed and block incoming calls and texts.

The survey found drivers want systems that alert them of a car in their blind spot or behind them in a parking spot or that makes the steering wheel vibrate when they drift out of a lane and illuminates a coffee cup icon on the dash when they stray too often, suggesting a drowsy driver needing a break.

That was good news for Ford as it prepares to sell the all-new 2013 Fusion with the most driver-assist technologies in a Ford vehicle to date, said Marentic. Ford has nearly 30,000 orders for the new Fusion, which goes on sale next month with an advertising campaign in October.

100-year-old driver jumps curb near elementary school, 9 children injured

It’s never pleasant to run across a story of an elderly driver plowing through a group of innocent pedestrians, but here we are. This time 100-year-old Preston Carter lost control of his Cadillac Sedan de Ville, drove up on the sidewalk and injured 11 people across the street from Main Street Elementary School, which had just let out.

Carter, who turns 101 on September 5, said his brakes failed when he hit the group of kids waiting to be picked up by parents, but a witness said that he had put his car into reverse just before running over the curb into the crowd of people. Four kids were trapped under the car, and people nearby were able to lift the car up to get them to safety. In total, nine school kids and two adults were injured and taken to the hospital, and four of the victims were in critical condition. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to a report by the local CBS affiliate, KCAL.

When asked why he is still driving, Carter simply said, “They gave me the license.”

Highly modified Nissan SUV impounded after 200-mph ‘Hollywood-style’ chase in Dubai

Police in Dubai have been cracking down on illegal racing by seizing modified vehicles, but they probably didn’t expect to find themselves in pursuit of a full-size SUV supposedly capable of speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. The driver had altered his Nissan Patrol , similar to the Infiniti QX56 here in the United States, to allow it to run on “jet fuel”, according to the report, and he put it all to the test when he tried running from the cops.

The report says that the unnamed driver had spent around $68,000 (U.S dollars) to equip his Nissan Patrol with the new fuel tank (we’d assume it’s really aviation fuel for piston engines) along with plenty of engine and body upgrades, but it isn’t clear what exact modifications were made to allow this full-size SUV to run on the high-test fuel or be capable of hitting speeds comparable to a supercar. Regardless, the modifications couldn’t stand up to whatever stopping devices police in Duabi use to end pursuits (referred to as speedbreakers), and after a “Hollywood-style” high-speed police chase that ended in a residential neighborhood, the suspect was apprehended.

The pilot was charged with reckless driving, unlawful car modifications, expired registration and resisting police, and he told police that his vehicle was modified at a local garage and that some of his friends had spent upwards of $80,000 USD for similar upgrades. We’ve all seen the crazy videos coming out of the Middle East of reckless drivers on public roads, and Dubai Police had apparently been cracking down on these drivers especially hard during the month of Ramadan. In that time (July 19 through August 18), police had seized more than 120 vehicles and are said to be investigating an additional 1,700.

Designated texter becoming popular with teens

We’re all familiar with the designated driver concept. Most everyone with a drivers license has either been one or needed one. But now, the designated texter is a new idea being promoted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to target texting drivers.

A recent study by State Farm Insurance and Harris Interactive says more teens are taking the initiative and volunteering to text for everyone.

A new video from NHTSA called “Stairs” has the tagline, “Not everyone should should text and walk. No one should text and drive.” To illustrate, a texting teen attempts to ascend a set of stairs. She falls face-first, her phone landing at her feet. In the next scene, another teen at the wheel of her SUV gets totally distracted by a text on her phone and looks up just in time to see the pedestrians about to be plowed under her front bumper.

Having a designated texter is a pretty clever idea for those that can’t wait. We’re just concerned about what happens when an inebriated non-driver becomes the designated texter for the designated driver. Wackiness is sure to ensue.