New York Auto Show Snapshot Contest

Winner Receives All-Expense Paid Trip & Exclusive Press Day Access

An entry posted at Snap MyLife.com

The New York International Automobile Show is looking for budding shutterbugs to send in their best automobile photographs for the chance to win an all-expense paid trip to visit the Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
Launched in connection with Snap MyLife, Inc., the official Photo Sponsor of the Show, car lovers can visit visit www.snapmylife.com/autoshowcontest.
The Grand Prize contest winner will win an all-expense paid trip for two to the New York International Auto Show, including airfare and accommodations, show tickets and exclusive Press Day access to see this year's cars unveiled and be named the “Official Roving Photographer” of the NYIAS. The grand prize winner also receives an EOS Rebel T3i 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit. Second and third prize winners will receive an EOS Rebel T3i 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit and $250 Visa Gift Card, respectively.
Three winning photos will be chosen by fans voting on the Snap MyLife contest web page. There is no contest entrance fee. Winning entries will be included in the official NY Auto Photo stream on Snap MyLife.com and will be used by the NYIAS. The competition ends March, 25th.

Free Tickets to MOMA from VW

 Hey, VW's giving away free tickets to a very cool series at MOMA.  Go to: www.VWGIFaway.com
Read on below.  

Volkswagen of America is giving away 50 pairs of free tickets per night to the sold-out, eight-night live performance exhibition, Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, from April 10–17 at The Museum of Modern Art. Tickets are being distributed as part of Volkswagen of America’s sponsorship of MoMA’s highly-anticipated presentation of Kraftwerk, and its ongoing innovative partnership between MoMA and MoMA PS1 that began in May 2011.

Each evening will consist of a live performance in the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium of works from one of the group’s eight albums, created over four decades, followed by a selection of original compositions from their catalogue. The performances, adapted specifically for this exhibition’s format, showcase both Kraftwerk’s historical contributions and contemporary influences on sound and image culture.

In addition to the 50 pairs of Kraftwerk tickets to the performances at MoMA, Volkswagen is offering 500 pairs of tickets to view a temporary exhibition of Kraftwerk’s historical audio and visual material from April 12 to May 14, 2012, in the MoMA PS1 Performance Dome, which is made possible through Volkswagen of America’s collaboration with MoMA. Fans who enter to win Kraftwerk tickets will be automatically entered for both events.

Kraftwerk fans can win tickets by visiting the “VW GIFaway” website at www.VWGIFaway.com and entering their contact information. For a second entry opportunity—and an interactive way to express their excitement—fans can post an animated GIF of themselves. Animated GIFs are composed of multiple images to give the appearance of a movie clip, and are a staple of Internet culture. These animated GIFs may be featured in the “VW Online GIF HUB.” If visitors do not want to create a GIF for their second entry into the prize drawing, they can mail in their entry. Winners will be contacted by March 26, 2012.

Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 will feature 3-D visualization and a selection of original compositions from one of Kraftwerk’s eight albums over eight consecutive nights. The albums will be performed in chronological order: Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991) and Tour de France (2003). It is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at MoMA and Director of MoMA PS1, with the assistance of Eliza Ryan, curatorial assistant, MoMA PS1.

It Was A Very Good Year and More To Come

Last year was a good year for the auto business.  

- Sales are predicted by Edmunds.com to come out around 12.8 million, the highest volume since 2009, when sales had dropped to 10.4 million, a 27-year low.   Last year’s total is a ten percent gain over 2010.   

- Americans are still buying more trucks than cars.  Trucks through November are up year to date 46.6 percent and trucks are up 53.4 percent.   

- General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda sold over a million vehicles year to date in November.  Who still thinks Detroit is over and Toyota is ruined?  The volume of vehicles sold tells a different story.  

- The big winners this year were Mercedes up 49%, Kia up 42%, Chrysler up 37% and Volkswagen up 36%.  Those are astounding gains for these companies.  

- Good news for car shoppers--there's a lot of great product out there.  So if you are thinking about buy a new car, it's a good time.  Financing is good and the product is great. 

- More to come in 2012 with some great new reveals.  You're going to be really surprised by the new Ford Fusion.  It's coming out next week at the Detroit Auto Show.  

- I'm driving to Detroit on Saturday.  Alone.  Wish me luck. 

Cinderella Drives Mice to Ball In Luxury

My late husband, Jerry Flint, and I were chatting with his son, Doug about the cruelty of mouse traps. Glue them down and let them starve or snap their little bodies in half.  Yuk.  Doug sent us a couple of catch and release traps along with a supply of peanut butter crackers that his Virginia mice like, but we never got to use them together. 

My first night in the house alone, as if being alone wasn’t enough, I heard scratching noises in the ceiling.  I was sure the house was being occupied by gigantic rats.  I loaded a trap with crackers, threw it in the area where I’d heard noises and beat it back to the city.  When I got back the following week, two pair of little black eyes stared out at me from the box.  What to do?   

Being suddenly solo when you have been a partner for so many years is difficult on all fronts. Some you anticipate but trapping mice isn’t one them.  I put the three of us—all terrified-–into the back of a Cadillac CTS wagon, my test car for the week, and drove up to the town’s public park situated on a high hill overlooking the spectacular Hudson River.   I flipped open the traps with a garden tool that had a long handle and returned the creatures to the wild with an extra supply of peanut butter crackers.   

The next week I caught another one and transported it to the park in a Buick LaCrosse. As I escorted the mice to the rear seat of the coach, I thought, “Is this progress for mankind or for mice?”  Maybe both.  I was feeling compassion, not repulsion.  As for the mice they got a luxury ride to their idea of heaven. 

I thought about Gus and Jaq, the two mice who powered the pumpkin-turned-coach that took Cinderella to the ball.  In a great reversal, Cinderella was taking mice to the ball.   Jerry would have loved it.  And I'm sure the mice did too.

Here's a great resource:

fueleconomy.gov, the government’s official site for fuel economy information, has just released the new fuel economy estimates for 2012 model year vehicles. Please see the attached article for full details. The site has also published its list of “all-time” fuel economy top ten vehicles for model years 1984 to the present (go to http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/topten.jsp and click the “EPA Rated - All Years” for details). What’s new this year is that half the vehicles on the all-time list are 2012 model year vehicles currently available for purchase. Older, low-tech vehicles are being replaced by newer, high-tech models.

GirlDriver, USA Wins Popularity Contest

You know you're hot when teenage boys stare at you in awe. I had their attention several days ago, driving the 2012 2LT Camaro Convertible, white with an orange stripe down its torso. It also looks foxy in silver (see photo). I had come from our auto writers big yearly event, which we call Test Days. The auto manufacturers bring their new cars, line them up along the road leading to the track, the keys in the ignitions. We auto writers are let us loose on them around the Monticello Race Track in New York. At dinner the night before track day, we celebrate a new model year with the automakers and the next morning we hit the track for a day of serious driving. The folks at GM gave me a Camaro to drive away. I left the track and hit the highway. Almost immediately, I was stopped by two pimple-faced cops--they couldn't have been more than 19. They had a little blockade set up. Whatever they were looking for I couldn't have fit the profile even remotely. And, I was on the nose with the posted speed. But I got stopped anyway. "I knew you'd stop me," I said. I mean they were so young, they wouldn't have had the guts to arrest me. Seriously. "What's with this car?," the tall one said. I explained my job, as they looked at me quizzically. I showed them around the car and then the short one said, "I'd like this car for the weekend." "Can't help you," I shrugged. But would my tune change if I were facing a $200 speeding ticket? Hmmmm, well, no. It's not my car, remember. I did allow a car nut friend to take it out for a spin. A spin? We drove 100 miles. Top down, gray sky, cool breeze, September--there are moments when you just say, Hey, this convertible, horsepower, muscle thing? It's alright. The thing about the Camaro? It's pure Detroit. No accents. Detroit steel--no question about it. Jerry and I were driving a muscle car once and, looking misty-eyed, he said, "It's like driving yesterday." The rear drive Camaro come with a 3.6 liter, V6 engine paired with a 6-speed manual or automatic transmission. The tame model puts out 312 horsepower and 278 lb-ft of torque. Anyone who is interested in this vehicle wants its 0-60 credentials. The Camaro, according to the guys who test for this, is 5.7 seconds. It gets faster with the ZL1 that delivers 550 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. Remember those 19-year-old cops? GM calls the interior color Inferno Orange. I call it red. Anyway, its paired with the white exterior interrupted by the orange paint strip. You won't go unnoticed. Gas mileage, at 18 city/29 highway, isn't bad for a muscle car . My vehicle as equipped including destination charge was $38,530. This was with the RS package that includes high intensity headlamps with an LED halo ring, 20" aluminum wheels, the 6-speed automatic transmission with tap shift and remote vehicle start and the orange stripe down the center of the vehicle. The rear view mirror had a back up camera in it--very cool to see it in the rear view mirror. And the car had head-up display. I wish more cars had it. It's so much easier to keep your eyes on the road. The Camaro was very well equipped--you want for nothing. Nice job, GM. I would have a hard time deciding between this and the Mustang Boss, which I drove a few weeks ago out in Detroit. I guess I'd just have to have both of them.

Mazda RX8 Grand Touring--Be Mine

Have you ever had this experience? A tone invades the cabin of your car. It's coming from the engine but it sounds like a choir of aliens. But, wait! It t is so integral to your existence you become one with the universe? No? Well, then, I guess you have not heard the engine of a Mazda RX8. That is a sound that makes you whole. I step into the Mazda RX8. The car is flawless. It's roomy in the cabin. The seats are very comfortable on a couple of long rides--and, to boot, they are heated. I did get all my stuff into the trunk though it was a bit of a squeeze. I let a friend drive it and he was so taken with the car, he convinced himself that it was a family car. "No," I heard him say, "this could be a family car." That's how bad this car gets to you. It is rear wheel drive, equipped with a 1.3 liter Rotary engine that doles out 232 horsepower and 159 lb.-ft. of torque. The engine is paired with a 6-speed manual transmission, and power assist 4-wheel ventilated disc brakes. My car was tarted up with a sparkling red called Velocity Red MC that complimented the 18-inch aluminum wheels quite nicely. There was only one choice for the interior color of this car--black leather. I would not term this vehicle a family car, but it has suicide doors and those two back seats will fit adults okay. Anyway, if you're the owner of this car, you're really not going to worry that much about the comfort of back seat passengers. I like the way the eyebrow headlamps work within the fluid design of the car, but at night in the country on those deer-infested roads, I yearned for more light to spot them. It's just fun to have an open moon roof in a car like RX-8 on a beautiful night. The only thing that I didn't care for is that gas mileage isn't great--16 city/22 highway and since it requires premium fuel and I could not stop driving the car, I spent a few pesos on gasoline over the weekend. My vehicle was a 2011 and as optioned it cost $33,055 including destination. I returned the car Sunday night, as I usually do, and I wept. I owned a Miata and when people ask me what my favorite vehicle is, I always say that Miata. With all its flaws--not that many--it was to me the car most in sync with my motor personality. I will add the RX8 to my conversations from here on out. What was Ford thinking when it divorced itself from Mazda? This company makes such great cars.