With the pyrotechnic end to Cash For Clunkers last night, we are all confronting the reality that whatever car is sitting in our garage is going to be there for a while. A new study released today gives little comfort. It shows that, while 90% of us think we do...

Times have been tough in the last year for the US car market, especially the used car market. Because people haven't been buying nearly as many new cars as they have in years past, there are fewer trade-ins. Without these, the certified pre-owned (CPO) programs that tend to buoy the...

Forget about premature balding or a dating-age daughter -- few things terrify most married men more than the idea of getting a minivan. It just says so much about the changes that mark the end of bachelorhood and the inevitable realization that there is no going back. I have a...

American holidays are supposed to be about doing good and feeling good. Today is Father's Day: a classic feel-gooder. Nobody has to turn a year older. No religion is excluded. A large percentage of the adult population qualifies. Hallmark is happy. Tie and cologne sales are up.

As a...

April car sale numbers are in: Audi outsold Mercedes and is nipping at the heels of BMW.

For those of us old enough to remember the Audi 5000 and the era of "unintended acceleration," the April numbers are nothing short of miraculous. For a brief time it looked like...

Other than fastening a seatbelt, I hardly think about safety issues when driving. I certainly wasn't concerned last month while racing to the Seattle airport in my full-sized rental car. Rare Northwest sun sparkled as I merged into a lane behind a pickup. Before I knew it, something heavy and...

Continuing the steady drumbeat of bad news in this automotive annus horribilis, a new survey from DriverSide.com/Kelton research shows that more than 4 out of every 5 automobile owners now plan to keep their current vehicle longer due to the recession. An amazing 82% of vehicle owners aged 18 and...

Welcome to 2009. Chances are, your New Year's resolutions do not include buying a new car. That might be a very new feeling for some auto junkies! No worries, the one you have now is likely perfectly good and able to last a lot longer than you may think. To...

The dreaded apocalypse has come. Auto sales were down 36.7% in November. (Chrysler was down 47%!) Buyers can't get credit. Dealers are failing left, right and center. Car salespeople are lonelier than a Big Three CEO on his private plane.

Is this the end of the American love affair with...

Remember those plans to pick out a nice new car this year? Chances are they went down in flames this month along with your IRA. We Americans have a passion bordering on entitlement for purchasing a new car every two or three years. Low monthly payments and easy financing have...