UD Student Auto-Biography -- Ben Dapore: 1998 Buick Century and 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier

The first car that I ever owned was a dark maroon, blocky, 1998 Buick Century. Inherited through the untimely passing of my grandmother, I was more than thankful for the vehicle to take me everywhere that a young high school student needed to go. However, the car was the polar opposite of the ideal car for a teenage boy. Instead of rolling through the city with the top of a convertible popped down, blasting music, I got to cruise along at a steady speed. Let’s just say that Buick speakers aren’t exactly designed for blasting loud music. With an acceleration of 0-60 mph in roughly thirteen seconds, the car seemed as though it was determined to keep my wild teenage driving in check.

As time passed, I got another winner of a car – a 2002 Chevy Cavalier. This car added improved speed and gas mileage, without adding any sort of style or flair. However, I now needed a vehicle as a college student to go to the grocery store and buy the large supply of frozen dinners to fuel my daily life. Many memories were formed with that car, and many continue to be made, as I still drive it. What follows is one of the most memorable stories that were produced by riding in my go-to vehicle.

It was mid-October 2009 and fall break was just beginning. The leaves around campus were changing as fast as the relationships and daily lives of the students. Instead of packing up my belongings and driving the hour back home, my girlfriend, two friends, and I loaded up luggage into my car and began our road trip to New York City.

I have problems sleeping in vehicles, so I benefitted in being able to admire the scenery and fall foliage for the entire trip. The first sight of merit occurred in the Akron and Youngstown area. It was strange to see the rusty shells of factories that once housed powerhouses of American industry as I drove a symbol of the exact same industry struggle.

I-80 through northern Pennsylvania was empty and barren. Less than ten vehicles were seen throughout the entire time in the state. All were semis, carrying their load somewhere away from my vehicle and to where people actually lived. The lucky part of driving through such an empty area was that it was completely pitch dark, except for the luminescent cone produced by the headlights. This darkness allowed for a few stray meteors to be seen streaking through the night sky. This is the most vivid memory that I have of riding in any car.

Traffic became crazy about an hour away from NYC. This was roughly at the New Jersey border. Accidents were happening left and right as people cut around, becoming pillars of irony by trying to get to work faster than the people they were cutting off. Being from a small town of 2500 residents, more people existed on that stretch of interstate than I had probably ever met in my life. However, this ended when we pulled off at an exit for the technology that cars have seemingly replaced – trains. Boarding a train into the city from the small borough of Chatham, NJ allowed for all of the headaches caused by traffic to be alleviated.

Although none of the cars that I have ever owned are prestigious or stylish by any means, they have allowed me to travel to some of the most fun locations that I have ever travelled to. This has led me to believe that it isn’t necessarily the exterior of the car, or even under the hood which counts. Rather, it is the interior and the people within its seats that make the car as memorable as any other “dream” car. Although this is true, I am pretty sure the trip would have been more exciting in a Porsche or Lamborghini.

Student Auto-Biography: Amanda Merrill -- Chrysler Mini Vans, Accura MDX, Hyundai Tuscon

Hi folks -- I am beginning a series on my student's "auto-biographies," written for my HST 344 class. Thanks to Amanda for sending this to me. The automobile is at the heart of our lives, and this is one of many stories that illustrate that point.

Cars have been the more integral inanimate objects in my life so far. I have vivid memories of riding in cars, fighting over cars, and begging for cars. It seems to me, looking back on my life from this perspective, of the automobile, that the cars I had or wanted to have shaped my more vivid memories. The first car I can remember having as a child was a 1990 Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. Though I must have spent a significant amount of time in this van, I only have one specific memory of it: walking along the side with my hand trailing the wood paneling after a trip to McDonalds. I could not say at what point my parents did away with the wood paneling and bought an upgraded version of the car in green. Even my parents do not remember what year they did this. However, this car was one of the most significant cars in my life. The green van, as I call it in my head as I pull up memories from my childhood, was present at the most life altering event of my childhood. It was the green van that my mother packed to the roof, full of toys and memories from our house in Massachusetts. I remember so vividly, as a seven year old little girl, sitting in the backseat, surrounded by my life in boxes, and watching my house disappear behind us. While it was the green van that took us away from my home it was also the green van that brought us to a new one. The green van pulled into Naperville, IL after a long drive.

We began to settle in our new home in the Midwest. However, my next most clear memory concerning the green van was its death. While on the way to a petting zoo for a Girl Scout trip the green van died (and I missed the petting zoo). My parents, finding comfort in the familiarity of the Town and Country van series, bought a new one, this time gold, in 1997. It was in this van (our last van) that my family took our road trips to grandma’s house, our adventures into Chicago, and our daily trips to and from school. The gold van was extremely popular at the time. I remember my best friend had a gold van also. My brother and I loved the gold van. For one, it provided us with more mobility because it had two sliding doors to get to the back rather than the one our old green van had had. For another, there were two separate seats in the back to sit in. The first row was not a bench that we would have to share, constantly sliding and bumping into each other on. It was instead two bucket seats that we could recline and sit in without having to touch each other. This van lasted my family a long time – until the family van became upgraded beyond belief to the point where you could push a button and the doors would slide open. My mother decided she had had enough with the minivan genre. She got a 2005 Acura MDX this time. My mother loves this car. She still has it and it is that car that I made my college visits in, had more road trips and finally, learned to drive in. At this point, my parents had bought a third car, a 1998 Honda Accord, for my brother to drive. However, the time was coming for my brother to go off to college and for me to learn to drive. In denial, my brother refused to let me drive the Honda until he moved away. So, my first driving lessons were in a SUV.

When my dad finally pried the Honda away from my brother, he began to teach me how to drive. I will never forget that feeling of utter terror when I first eased my foot onto the accelerator and promptly jutted forward about a foot before slamming on the brakes. I loved the Honda. It was the first car that was ever personally mine to drive and it liberated me. I had so much more freedom with a car and a license. The Honda represented that feeling to me. So when it broke down in a left turn lane on a very busy three lane road while on the way to a lacrosse game, I felt betrayed. The Honda was not reliable. Sometimes it just would not start. Sometimes it would just stop in the middle of the road. It is because of this that I was constantly begging for a new car. Also, my brother had scrapped up the car in a fender bender and I had added a few scratches in my first day of driving and I wanted a newer, prettier car. Soon it did not matter if I wanted a car or not. I was going off to college and there was not a place for one.

My freshman year of college, while amazing in most respects, was horrible in that I had no transportation. I desperately missed that feeling of being able to get into a car and just drive. It does not matter where you are going or even if you have some where to go, you just drive. So as a freshman I often took cabs to random places just to get away. It was not until my parents, in response to my making the Dean’s List last year, bought me a car that I felt free again.

This past summer I went with my dad to negotiate with the slippery car salesman for a 2009 Hyundai Tucson. It is black and I call it ‘baby’. As I drove the Honda Accord to be traded in, I felt incredibly sad, and almost told my dad to forget about the new car, I would just walk wherever I needed to go. I got to the car dealer before I could. I parked the Honda in the parking lot and stood there looking at it. I peeled off the stickers that told the rest of the driving population of my town that yes, I went to Neuqua Valley High School, and yes I was a Red Sox fan. I peeled away my high school stickers, I felt like I was peeling the car from me. It was no longer mine to drive and it would probably not be driven anymore. I only have one sticker on my new car and it reads “UD”. This is my college car. As good to me as all the other cars were, they each had their time and their place in my life. It’s ‘baby’s’ turn and I hope I get to drive this car for a long time.

The "real" scoop on the future of electric vehicles -- National Research Council Report

Hi folks -- there is so much hype right now about electric vehicles and their future. This hype has become more intense as Detroit Auto Show opens today, and copmpanies like GM and Chrysler are working public relations to defuse any thoughts that they might not have a rosy future.

However, if we are to believe a report by the National Research Council, subsidies of "tens to hundreds of billions of dollars" will be needed over several decades to spur development and deployment of plug-in hybrid vehicles. The problem is one of the cost of batteries. Consequently, a PHEV may cost $18,000 more than a similar internal combustion engine powered car. It is the lithium-ion batteries that are the main reason for the price differential. According to the report, battery technology is developing at a rapid pace, but marked cost reductions won't take place anytime soon. These lithium-ion batteries are especially important for cell phones and laptops, but of course are much smaller.

There still is hope for a breakthrough that will drive down costs. In the end some 13 million electric cars are projected to be on the roads of America by 2030, These vehicles can be serviced by the power grid so long charging takes place at low load times of the day.

Oliver Stone on General Motors -- Nazi Funding

Hi folks -- my thanks to Ed Garten for this newsworthy clip:

Director Oliver Stone's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context." "Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy -- these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history," Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.
"Stalin has a complete other story," Stone said. "Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good.' Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been used cheaply. He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between WWI and WWII ... I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view. We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated."

NOTE THAT DURING THE PAST DECADE RESEARCHERS HAVE POURED OVER DOCUMENTS AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES ON THIS TOPIC, AND SEVERAL BOOKS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ON GM AND HITLER/NAZIS. Timing is evverything here. 1939 -- Opel and the Nazis, maybe. 1941 or 1942, Opel is divorced from GM and highly unlikely. CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE VERY HARD TO CONVINCINGLY PROVE, MR. STONE!!!!

LaJolla Concours and Saturday Rally

Hi folks -- I had a great treat this morning. I got over to the SD Automotive Museum around 8 a.m., and met a number of the folks who are participating in a 100 mile rally that precludes the LaJolla Concours that will be held at the Cove tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. I met Museum director Paula Brandes, and a number of the car owners. Some of the highlights included the Mercedes 250 SE Convertible owned by Roy Orbison (with a plate "Pretty Woman"), and the Ferrari owned by actor William Holden now owned by Barnbaby Brokaw. The weather was simply terrric, as it is almost every day in this area of the world.

Yesterday my friend Rebecca Morales took me to the LaJolla Historical Society, where they have an exhibit on motoring in LaJolla in the early eyars. Rich people, wonderful cars in the period berfore 1940 were depicted. But there were also a number of photographs of people who fixed cars, owned cas stations, and kept folks on the road.

Driving a Chrysler Sebring Convertible -- what a pig!

Hi folks -- my apologies for not including more photos -- I am having some problems uploading pictures right now while in SD.

So I rented from Alamo a Chrylser Sebring Convertible, with a rate so low that I couldn't get an economy car instead. This car demonstrates to all why Chrysler almost went out of business! It has a huge, bulbous rear end, like many older people. It is anemic in terms of pick up -- to the point where when I step on the gas the car sounds like a sewing machine and threatens to blow up. The suspension is such that the car grunts when turning lieft, and let's pray I don't have to use the feeble brakes.

The top takes up virtually all of the trunk when it is down, in part because of the complicated boot mechanism. If you don't have a trunk barrier in place, sensors come into play and prevent the thing from operating.

Yet when the top is down, as it was yesterday as I was coming back from the Automotive Museum and I was driving down I-5, life couldn't be much better.
Life will take a turn today as I go to the Historians Meeting. Nothing like being around a bunch of high-powered nerds, almost all of whom wear glasses and have pinched faces.

A Visit to the San Diego Automotive Museum

Hi folks -- hard times for museums right now, and SD Automotive Museum is no exception. There is a special exhibit on Porsches right now, and the cars are nice, but certainly not exceptional. There are the old standby exhibits in place, including the Cadillac (?1947) that can be driven for months at a time, if desired. The gift shop is nice, but I wish they would carry my book there. Plenty of models for sale. And the library has some ads for sale as well. Too good a library to be so static right now, and SD ahs too rich a history. With all the tourism, there should be more here!