Airbags In Your Checked Airline Luggage...No, It's Not Okay.

As anyone who's blown an airbag knows, replacing them is expensive. Apparently more so in Europe, because, according to the TSA Blog from the folks at the Transportation Security Administration, a  lot of Europeans are flying over here, buying the new bag, putting it in their checked luggage and flying home.

Trouble is that airbag actuators are on the list of hazardous materials prohibited from transport aboard passenger aircraft.

How come? Well, the same reason that Honda has recalled 800,000 of their cars and that now-retired Car and Driver Editor-at-Large Patrick Bedard pointed out that the airbag is the first safety device to carry a warning label that you could die using it properly.

Namely...it's an explosive that blows the bag (similar to a solid rocket booster, the TSA Blog tells us). 

Not safe in the cargo hold of an airliner...any sensible person can see that. But inches away from your face and chest? There's another agency of the government that has made that mandatory for the past 18 years.

Again...This Is The Brake...This Is The Transmission

Common sense is breaking out all over. Hot on the heels of Car and Driver's John Yanca with the intelligent answer to the Lexus GX 460's alleged stability issue comes John McCormick from The Detroit News with how to deal with it if your vehicle ever does something strange on its own. You know, like unintended acceleration.

Car and Driver Lends Perspective To Consumer Reports Lexus GX 460 Warning

When Consumer Reports announced Tuesday it considered the Lexus GX 460 a safety risk because it can get sideways in an emergency maneuver before the electronic stability control steps in to right things,  Toyota quickly and calmly announced they are suspending sales of the GX 460 until they can determine if CR is right and what to do about it.

But calm is elusive in media...especially online, where bloggers, including this one who calls herself a "big ball of paranoia", can spread fear (and occasionally misunderstanding and misinformation) fast.

Enter Car and Driver's John Yanca, who picked up the phone, called CR, found out what the tests were all about...and says there's a simple solution. It starts with not driving a tall SUV into a curve at 15 miles per hour over the posted speed. Well worth the read and some thought.

VIDEO: NBC Nightly News Monday (3/15) on Jim "Runaway Prius" Sikes

After a week of media hyperventilation, it's nice to see solid reporting that prioritizes the salient facts.

NBC Nightly News' coverage of Monday's Toyota news conference played up the most telling fact...that instead of braking as hard as he could, the evidence suggests Jim Sikes may have been riding the brakes on his Prius...off and on the gas and brakes as much as 250 times during his alleged unintended acceleration incident a week ago.

And, they actually interviewed someone who knows something about cars and drivers...former Car and Driver editor-in-chief Csaba Csere.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

ABC has grasped the significance of the 250 applications of the brake pedal, too...CBS makes no mention of it.

The New Car And Driver...And How To Read It

Well, TireKicker told you a month ago about the coming January redesign of Car and Driver, but Jalopnik scores the first look, including a guided tour by editor Eddie Alterman.

Car and Driver's Redesign

Good news in the December issue of Car and Driver. Editor Eddie Alterman lets us know that come January, there'll be a new look...a redesign of the once (and hopefully future) king of the car mags.

Alterman discusses the disastrous last redesign three years ago, which he rightly describes as making C/D look "like a comic book".

And it was worse inside, with a jumble of fonts and a graphic look that was universally hated by readers, who were told "we ain't going back."...which Alterman describes as a public relations move roughly as successful as the docking of the Hindenburg.

To his credit, each issue of C/D since Alterman's arrival has been cleaner-looking than the last. Here's what he inherited early this year:



And here's September's cover:




The January 2010 redesign is expected to draw heavily on the sense of style from C/D's glory days. We can't wait.

David E. Davis, Jr: "I've never told this story in public before..."

Car and Driver's David E. Davis, Jr., guesting on Autoline After Hours, tells the story of his departure from Automobile, the magazine he founded in 1986 with Rupert Murdoch.

It involves allegations of treachery, which inspires DED, Jr. to dream of a piano falling from an airplane and onto former protege' (now Automobile Editor-In-Chief )Jean Jennings. Scroll in to 14:55 and let it roll for a minute until the host and other guests start squirming.

Also: Davis' story of his 1968 firing from C/D (about 10:30), and what inspired his 1985 resignation from his second tour at the magazine (11:43).



And if you have the time, what follows is a very good discussion about Cash For Clunkers, the state of the automotive industry, Cerberus and more between David, host John McElroy, Autoextremist.com's Peter DeLorenzo and BusinessWeek's David Welch.

Car and Driver: Texting While Driving

Not a day goes by that I don't see some fool text messaging at the wheel (and my commute is at 3:30 AM and 12 Noon...imagine the target-rich environment of rush hour).

Anyone with a brain (which apparently doesn't include the above-mentioned multi-taskers) knows it's dangerous.

But how dangerous?

Well, the guys at Car and Driver broke out the instruments and measured texting while driving against driving under the influence of alcohol.

Please, watch this video. And if you have ever texted while driving, don't ever do it again.

Patrick Bedard Retires from Car and Driver

Patrick Bedard just announced (in print, in the August issue of Car and Driver) that he's retiring. August is his last column.

Damn.

In 41 years at C/D, Bedard could be counted on to tell it straight...even (make that especially) the stuff you didn't want to hear. Like how the automotive air bag is the first "safety device" in history to have a warning label saying that properly used, the device can cause death.

He called BS on a number of things that needed it...shortened yellow light times that started showing up when red light cameras did...incessant and insane attempts at regulation...I'd need a while to fill out the list. Simply put, if it deserved calling out, Bedard did it.

And he knew of what he spoke...not because he was a journalist (see David E. Davis' August column for the best line about journalism in a while), but because he was an engineer. He not only knew about cars...he knew how to (and not to) design and build them.

After 41 years, I can't begrudge Bedard his retirement. But I'll miss him...and coming at a time when C/D appears to be heading to new heights, I'll always wonder how much better it would be had he stuck around.

Why You Should Want To Review Cars

For 26 years, my favorite piece of automotive journalism has been Brock Yates' "Escape From Baja" in the July 1983 Car and Driver (you can download it as a full-color .pdf here...and you really should...scroll to the bottom of the linked page and click on the image).

I mean, really...what could be more fun than 9 frequently inebriated American writers and a photographer driving 8 midsize sedans through inhospitable territory, Biblical weather and (in the case of one of the cars) halfway through a cow before abandoning the trip...and more than $100,000 worth of loaned press vehicles...south of the border (where current press loan documents specifically forbid taking testers)?

Well, it's been a heck of a run, but Brock and the gang (including David E. Davis, Jr, Don Sherman, Jean Lindamood (Jennings),  Rich Ceppos, Larry Griffin, Csaba Csere and P.J. O'Rourke) have slipped to #2.

Not having BBC America, I missed Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear review of the Ford Fiesta until Jalopnik posted it today. If you haven't seen it, trust me...it's worth the 11 minutes it will take to watch it...and the hour you'll spend watching it again with friends. It's epic automotive journalism and great TV.

P.J. O'Rourke Is A Great Writer. As A Re-Writer, Not So Much

P.J. O'Rourke is a former National Lampoon editor and writer who branched out into automotive journalism at Car And Driver (another example of why David E. Davis Jr. is the father of modern automotive journalism) in 1977, following NatLamp's publication of his hysterical (if vulgar, sexist and, in those days, borderline obscene) piece "How To Drive Fast On Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed And Not Spill Your Drink".

Over the years, that particular gem has been reprinted in at least one of O'Rourke's books...but with a few of the words changed. Now, P.J. has put out a compilation of his car pieces for Car and Driver, Automobile and other magazines, Driving Like Crazy. And once again, he's editing himself. Jean Jennings mentions it gently in her column in the July Automobile.

O'Rourke himself cops to it in the book...arguing that he's now a better writer, so changing is improving. I disagree. P.J.'s pieces are better the first time (so much so that I think I'd like to read the first drafts).

Evidence of how good P.J. is when he's not overthinking it is found in this past Saturday's Wall Street Journal, where he gives us "The End of Our Love Affair With Cars". It's classic, yet mature P.J. Go read. Then hit your local used bookstore and see if you can find the original back issues of Car and Driver and Automobile to see P.J.'s work the way it was originally written.

David E. Davis Jr. Rejoins Car And Driver

Car and Driver's new editor-in-chief Eddie Alterman is on issue number two of his tenure...and he's continuing to hit all the right notes.

At his invitation, David E. Davis, Jr., who held that office twice in the 60s, 70s and 80s (both tenures widely considered to be the golden years of C/D) has returned as a columnist.

Davis is the father of modern automotive journalism, a true giant whose talents and instincts not only propelled Car and Driver to the top while he was at the helm, but provided sufficient momentum to keep C/D there for the 23 years since his departure to launch Automobile. His most recent venture was the online magazine Winding Road.

If you took everything Davis ever wrote in his life and put it in one volume, I'd read it all (most of it for the second or third time) and then urge you to do the same.

Davis says he's rejoining Car and Driver because it is the one car magazine with the ingredients needed to succeed.

Alterman's second issue (July, 2009) is yet another big step forward in putting Car and Driver back in gear, from a thought-provoking editor's column, to continued refinements in content and artwork (including the cleanest-looking cover in years).

Last month's appearance by former editor-in-chief Csaba Csere, kicking off a series on Certified Pre-Owned vehicles, appears to have been a one-shot...Tony Swan writes installment number two (on Porsche 911's)

DED, Jr.'s first column is in there, too...a brilliant piece on former General Motors chief Rick Wagoner and what might soon be the former General Motors. Go buy a copy. Then subscribe. This is going to be very good...at a time when we car folks need it most.

Car and Driver May 1964 (Vol 9 No 11)
Automobile, December 1988, Vol. 3, No. 9.

A New Day Dawns at Car and Driver

(Graphic originally created and posted by Jalopnik.)

Do you know this man? You will. It will be on his watch, most likely, that America's best car magazine (and once upon a time...say 1982-1985...I'd argue, America's best magazine, period) will either fade away or enter a new golden era.

I'm betting on the latter.

His name is Eddie Alterman. Never met him, never exchanged a single phone call or e-mail...but I've read his stuff over the years (MPG, Jalopnik) and he's good. Really good. He's the new editor-in-chief at Car and Driver, replacing Csaba Csere after a very long run.

It wasn't Csaba's fault, but a tremendous amount of decline occurred in the last few years. Cost-cutting as the general malaise in print hit Car and Driver resulted in some bad decisions (parting ways with the legendary Brock Yates, a highly-questionable re-design, an at least temporary dumbing down of the once brilliant writing that was a hallmark of C/D) that only accelerated the attrition of the faithful.

The June 2009 issue is Alterman's first, and while it's too early to tell much, there are some encouraging signs: The art and graphics are cleaning up, the brilliant and hilarious John Phillips has four pieces in this issue (after months where he was so low-profile that I was checking the masthead in fear that he'd been Yates'd) and Csaba himself is on-board with the first in a series on Certified Pre-Owned vehicles (apparently he no longer has access to the C/D press fleet).

But most encouraging is the tone Alterman himself sets in his introductory column. The two worst things that could have happened to this magazine would have been to hire someone with no sense of the history of Car and Driver or to hire someone who treated it like a museum...with blinders on as to where magazines (or whatever might replace magazines) are heading and a plan to get there first.

Alterman, in his late 30s, has hands-on experience with the web (which is no walk in the park...Winding Road has gone to a subscription model for its innovative .pdf edition, which rarely works for something that's been free for years, and The Truth About Cars has suggested recently that it's going to need to see some money from readers to stay afloat), but was raised by a father who read C/D religiously. Alterman not only knows who David E. Davis, Jr. is, he interned for him at Automobile. And he also knows from Leon Mandel, Don Sherman, William Jeanes and Karl Ludvigsen.

With archrivals Motor Trend and Automobile in trouble (parent company Source Interlink has filed for bankruptcy protection), Car and Driver has a unique opportunity to get very far out in front.

Go read Eddie's column online...then go down to Barnes & Noble and get one of the subscription cards out of the magazine and mail it in. A 2-year sub is 75 cents an issue (newstand price is $4.99). I'm betting you'll be renewing in 2011.