It wasn't easy. I failed the first time – on my birthday. I took it hard, but I went back in the saddle and tired again. In April, I passed my driving test and was given my license. It came in the mail weeks later.
In this case, I have to go back to the oldest story on the site. It was a look at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. I was not at the show, but it would help frame future remote auto show coverage of those that I did not attend.
Some will look at it from the lens of the global headlines. Headlines not worth repeating for the sake of keeping us in good spirits. Some will look at the overall challenge of navigating a year full of curve balls and emotional rollercoasters.
In the meantime, the automotive retail business has been working overtime to reinvent itself. They are hungry for inventory, while production is ramping up under safer conditions along the assembly lines. Used cars are becoming scarce, with some auction facilities laying off personnel. However, the rental car companies are trying to reduce excess fleet in the pall of financial issues due to a reduction in travel.
Translation: Japanese cars were thought of as cheap tin boxes that would never make it through a Minnesota winter. That was the mentality of the American consumer until the last couple of decades. It does help that several Japanese automakers set up shop building vehicles on our soil to change our collective minds.
The polls are now open until 11:59 PM Pacific Time tonight!
You’re probably glad you do not have to mail your vote in. Or, stand in line to vote early at your election office or city hall. Or, are probably nervous and anxious to get your vote over with.
The scores have been tabulated. The Media Panel has convened and given their input on the Long List of Nominees. There is only one last step to take: Your vote!
It is with historical context, however. It was ten years removed from a war that should have ended all wars. Unfortunately, a spat between Korean partisans turned into an international affair splitting the peninsula in half. The same trouble was brewing in Vietnam, a soon-to-be former French colony. Even those within the Soviet Bloc weren’t buying into the new world order as envisioned by Karl Marx. Hungary was a year away from challenging Moscow on whether it should be their superpower or not.
It took these past four years to reacquaint myself with one of the more powerful versions of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ North American modern muscle icon. Four years is a good amount of time to prepare myself to be taken away by an SRT-massaged "392" 6.4-liter V8 and its absolute thrust. Yet, I felt unprepared. Not even an F Performance Lexus helped in priming me from this massive blue hulk of thrust.