We just love this story.
Otis Raring of Austin, Texas, went shopping for a minivan on Cars.com and found a 2008 Honda Odyssey Touring with only 2,600 miles on it at a dealership in Riverhead, N.Y. This already sounded like a great deal before the salesman said that the minivan had just been returned on a two-year lease by Jerry Seinfeld.
For anyone who doesn’t see the absolute majesty of this story, there is a classic episode of “Seinfeld” in which George Costanza buys an ’83 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country because he thinks it used to belong to actor Jon Voight. (Turns out it belonged to a dentist named John Voight.)
Despite living in Texas, the barely used Odyssey was too good a deal to pass up for Raring — whether it was owned by Jerry Seinfeld or Gerri Seinfeld.
So he flew out to New York and used uShip.com to cut down on his traveling expenses. Through the site, Raring hooked up with a couple of people and agreed to transport a few items on his road trip back for money. We’ve heard many stories of users flying to pick up a car, but this is the first one mentioning this creative way to help offset the cost.
As icing on the cake and proof that it was once Seinfeld’s car, the GPS unit had the comedian’s Hamptons address still programmed in.
For the record, Cars.com does not claim it can find more celebrity minivans, though we hear Ted Danson’s Sienna may still have a lightly chewed pencil in the glove compartment.
(Wheels)
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It’s been 55 years since road deaths were as low as they were in 2009. Fatalities in 2009 fell 3,300 from 2008 to 33,693. That’s the least amount of deaths since 1954, and traffic deaths have fallen nearly 10,000 since 2005. Not only did the total number of deaths drop, but the rate of fatalities is at its lowest level ever, at 1.16 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and others attribute the drop in deaths to the recession and folks driving less. But because the rate is also lower, it’s likely that safety improvements to new cars are another reason. Others have pointed to safety campaigns for wearing seat belts and drunken driving prevention as well.
(Detroit News)
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The 2011 Nissan GT-R supercar will start at $84,060. With the 2011, you get 485 horsepower from a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine that's paired with a six-speed dual-clutch transmission
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When Wisconsin resident and Mercedes-Benz customer Marco Marquez discovered that his E320 didn’t work at all, he set about collecting his restitution, which in Wisconsin is double the purchase price plus legal fees under the state's “lemon law.” He then said Mercedes-Benz stalled in giving him his refund, and now a judge has ordered the automaker to pay him $482,000. The settlement over the E320, which Marquez bought in 2005 for $56,000, has ballooned because the lawsuit kept getting ruled on and overturned. In 2007, a judge ruled in Marquez's favor with an award of $202,000, but then an appeals court overturned the ruling and sided with Mercedes.
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At least $6.3 billion of the $17.2 billion in taxpayer support to GMAC will likely never be repaid, according to the congressional panel overseeing federal bailout money. The panel criticized the Treasury Department for not attaching more conditions to the money as it did with Chrysler and GM. Treasury wiped out the shareholders of those automakers and demanded detailed plans for how the companies would return to profitability; that was not the case for GMAC.
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Normally we don’t cover promotional giveaways, but when you introduce Twitter into the equation, it becomes part of the “social media is the new plutonium” story. Thus, we report to you that Chrysler is offering to give away a brand-new 2010 Jeep Wrangler Islander through its Tweet-to-Win Contest . Starting Monday, March 15, through Friday, March 19, you need to have a computer or smartphone handy
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Normally we don’t cover promotional giveaways, but when you introduce Twitter into the equation, it becomes part of the “social media is the new plutonium” story. Thus, we report to you that Chrysler is offering to give away a brand-new 2010 Jeep Wrangler Islander through its Tweet-to-Win Contest . Starting Monday, March 15, through Friday, March 19, you need to have a computer or smartphone handy.
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This week’s news of two Toyota Prius hybrids experiencing alleged sudden acceleration has reminded us that Toyota hasn’t tackled every car it has recalled. To date, Toyota says of the 5.7 million vehicles included in the various recalls, more than 1 million have been repaired.
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This week’s news of two Toyota Prius hybrids experiencing alleged sudden acceleration has reminded us that Toyota hasn’t tackled every car it has recalled. To date, Toyota says of the 5.7 million vehicles included in the various recalls, more than 1 million have been repaired
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Chrysler has restarted discussions with Cummins to continue development of an all-new light-duty diesel engine for Ram pickup trucks. “We’re in discussions with Cummins,” said Joe Veltri, Chrysler vice president of product planning, at the 2010 NTEA Work Truck Show .
