Each week I bring you the top stories in the auto industry along with my commentary or sometimes amusing thoughts about the craziness that goes on in the world of cars.
Stories you’ll find today:
The Getaway Plan Needed More Planning. A Florida man apparently thought changing his license plate would make a road-rage incident disappear. Deputies had other ideas. According to authorities, 29-year-old Jordan Patascher allegedly pulled alongside another driver in heavy traffic on southbound Interstate 75 near the U.S. 301 exit in Hillsborough County and pointed a handgun toward the other vehicle. Unfortunately for Patascher, the encounter was captured on the other driver's dash cam. No shots were fired, and investigators say Patascher later switched the license plate on his white Chevrolet SUV in an apparent attempt to avoid identification. It didn't work. Two days after the July 29 incident, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office arrested him. Authorities charged Patascher with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and driving with a revoked license as a habitual offender. The takeaway is simple: changing your license plate after you've allegedly pointed a gun at somebody might sound clever right up until you remember the whole thing was captured on video. It's difficult to disappear when your starring role has already been recorded in high definition.
Burt Reynolds Met the Ultimate New Management. Burt Reynolds helped turn the Pontiac Trans Am into an automotive superstar with 1977's "Smokey and the Bandit," and Pontiac apparently appreciated it. Reynolds later told Car and Driver that Pontiac's president promised him a free Trans Am every year for life. According to Reynolds, the cars started arriving and he gave the first one to his sister, the second to his stepbrother, couldn't remember who got the third, and finally kept number four. Then one year, no Trans Am showed up. Reynolds called Pontiac to find out what happened and discovered the company had a new president. According to Reynolds, the new boss explained the situation rather efficiently: the previous president liked his movies. The new one didn't. And just like that, the lifetime supply of Trans Ams was over. The takeaway is simple: if somebody promises you a free car every year for life, get it in writing. Especially if the promise comes from a guy whose replacement may have seen "Smokey and the Bandit II."
The Ultimate Act of God Claim. Getting a door ding is annoying. Getting hit by a 4.6-billion-year-old rock from space is in a completely different league. Jalopnik found at least three well-documented cases of meteorites striking cars. The first came in 1938 in Benld, Illinois, when a 3.9-pound meteorite crashed through a garage roof, then through the roof, seat, and floor of a Pontiac coupe before ricocheting off the muffler. In 1992, an 18-year-old in Peekskill, New York, had just bought a 1980 Chevrolet Malibu from her grandmother for $400 when a 26.5-pound meteorite punched through the trunk and cratered the ground beneath it. She later sold the damaged Malibu for $10,000, so apparently cosmic vandalism can improve resale value. Then in 2009, a much smaller meteorite fragment struck the windshield of a Nissan Pathfinder in Grimsby, Ontario. The takeaway is simple: meteorite strikes on cars are extraordinarily rare, but they do happen. And if one ever hits yours, forget diminished value—you may have just accidentally bought a museum piece.
Repossessing a Deployed Soldier's Car? Bad Idea. A Southern dealership group learned an expensive lesson after repossessing vehicles from three deployed U.S. service members without first obtaining court orders. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Holmes Motors violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides certain legal protections to military personnel, including restrictions on repossessing vehicles purchased before entering military service without a court order. Holmes Motors agreed to a $137,000 settlement: $77,000 will go to the affected service members and $60,000 will be paid to the federal government as a civil penalty. The dealership said the cases represented only a small number among roughly 20,000 vehicle transactions during the period and characterized some of the problems as administrative and documentation deficiencies. That explanation apparently didn't make the $137,000 disappear. The takeaway is simple: there are plenty of complicated regulations governing automobile dealerships, but protecting deployed members of the U.S. military is one area where you'd better have the paperwork exactly right. Because if your customer is overseas serving the country, perhaps "send in the repo truck" shouldn't be your first move.