http://hamptonroads.com/taxonomy/term/67 Category: Larry Printz en-us Copyright 2012 PilotOnline.com / HamptonRoads.com. Sat, 26 May 2012 19:17:08 -0400 The driving frenzy that is Memorial Day weekend is almost upon us. Here are some tips to help ensure that your next road trip is one you'll always remember, rather than one you'll want to forget. Is your vehicle fit? http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/travel-tips-best-memorial-day-weekend-ever Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400 Today is Mother's Day, a time to honor those who raised us. For one auto family, the holiday symbolizes something even more profound: mothers who saved the family business. The company in question? Ford. Henry Ford established Ford Motor Company in 1903 at age 40. Five years later, he introduced the Model T, a car that changed America forever. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/thanks-mothers-ford-motor-co-still-around Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400 MOST OF US PRIDE ourselves on being open-minded, able to accept a new experience without prejudice. So, if I told you that the new compact 2012 Buick Verano was worth a test drive, would you believe me? Most likely, no. To most folks, Buicks are soft-riding geezer pleasers meant for cruising slowly in the left lane with a driver oblivious to the fact that their left turn signal is flashing. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/04/drive-superior-small-buick Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400 Saturday was Record Store Day, meant to celebrate the glory of independent record stores, which have suffered as music has grown more portable, especially in the car, where eight-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs and now iTunes have displaced the radio as the main source of entertainment. There was a time when the only portable music for your car was an AM radio. Consider 1956. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/04/tapes-cds-and-ipods-there-was-highway-hifi Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:03:02 -0400   Imagine having to redesign the Coca-Cola bottle. Or an egg. Or a baseball. The bottom line: it’s hard to reinterpret a classic. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/04/2012-beetle-showcases-more-masculine-feel Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400 You might call Nissan's newest trucklet, the 2012 Nissan Juke, ugly. Or the Nissan Joke. Really. As I first sized up the Juke, thoughts flooded my head, ones sure to upset the folks at Nissan: 'you can't drink this car pretty' and 'maybe they should call it the Nissan Puke.' Certainly, its style is polarizing. It's meant to be. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/04/you-may-think-nissan-juke-joke Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400   Describing the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is easy. Just recite the numbers: its 1,001 horsepower, 16-cylinder engine can propel two people to 62 mph in 2.7 seconds. In the time it takes for most sports cars to reach the double nickel, this car will easily be travelling twice as fast on the way to its top speed of 253 mph. Sounds enticing, right? http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/bugatti-veyron-fast-and-furious Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:03:04 -0400   If you had to describe the Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid in one sentence or phrase, what would you say? Well, Toyota describes the Prius as “an enthusiast’s car for a new kind of enthusiast.” http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/new-toyota-prius-city-slicker Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:59:31 -0400 It started with a Facebook posting; A newsroom staffer noticed something strange about a Perry Buick ad in a recent Saturday edition of The Virginian-Pilot. If you saw the ad, you might not think anything was amiss - unless you read the small print. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/local-car-dealer-advertises-fred-flintstone-brakes Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400 Riley Best, a retired computer systems analyst for the U.S. Army, remembers his first collector car: a 1953 Pontiac station wagon. Since then, he's bought a 1963 Dodge Dart, a 1930 Ford Model A, 1908 Maxwell and a 1903 Cadillac - in that order. You might wonder why. "It was the number of cylinders," says the Virginia Beach resident. http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/local-owners-1903-caddy-competes-concours Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:00:00 -0400