It’s the dog days of summer. Have you been lounging around or glued to the news? Let’s find out by taking a quiz on ...Carrent Events
Bertrand Russell listed life’s essential passions as longing for love, searching for knowledge and pitying the suffering of mankind.
If he’d been a car guy and a Californian, Bertie would have placed lust for fine motorcars way ahead of love, smarts and sharing your pain.
There are 550 million cars and trucks in the world, and we Americans own 30% of them. We drive 2.2 trillion miles a year across this land of ours and spend $100 billion to insure those travels. Sixty-five percent of Americans vacation by car.
Think of the social implications here. If it hadn’t been for the motorcar:
* Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow might have stayed in Rowena, Texas, and expanded their B&C; spareribs franchise into a national chain.
* There would be no shopping centers, Disneyland, filling stations, the Petersen Museum, freeways, motels, Jiffy Lube, drive-in movies, Pep Boys, suburbs, the Indy 500 or TV work for Lindsay Wagner after “The Bionic Woman.”
* Gridlock at 5th and Figueroa would mean two dead horses.
* McDonald’s would have sold 42 billion fewer burgers, and at Jack in the Box, nobody would be asking if the guy wearing the clown’s head is really Pee-wee Herman.
* And you certainly wouldn’t be reading Highway 1, let alone its irresistible automotive quiz, which this month will explore your knowledge of carrent events.
Score five points for each correct answer. 50 to 40: you probably think a Lewinsky is a sport coupe built in Yugoslavia; 40 to 30: you might know the names of some of your children; 30 or lower: get your nose out of the sports section and smell the unleaded.
1. Bob Dole, former U.S. senator, presidential candidate and star of Visa commercials, bought his wife a car for her 67th birthday. What large lump did Bob gift-wrap for his Liddy?
2. Another birthday girl was Chelsea Clinton, who turned 18 in February. It was widely reported that Mom and Dad bought her a car for daily driving around Stanford and weekend trips to San Francisco. Then the White House officially denied the report. What was the car that Chelsea didn’t receive?
3. In May, General Motors’ share of the domestic automobile market was 31.9%. Then came the strike, and in July, the General’s market share skidded to 20.8%. What is GM’s projected total financial loss, rounded out to the nearest few millions?
4. Second strike. Which company moved into the domestic sales lead--if only for the eight weeks of unrest--as GM’s sales stalled?
5. Third strike. As part of a massive reorganization, GM announced that it plans to convert its $31-billion parts division into an independent company next year. What’s this division’s name?
6. Cadillac has become the latest contender in the luxury sport-utility wars, going against Lexus and Lincoln with a 225-horsepower off-roader loaded with Orient Express amenities. What are they calling this Caddy that zaps?
7. Talking of things that go bump in the dirt, the iconoclasts at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are again locking fenders with makers of small sport-utilities. The institute says these vehicles may rack up repair bills of more than $7,000 after even low-speed bumper thuds. Of seven vehicles tested, which pint-sized 4x4 was deemed the scariest of them all?
8. Volkswagen paid $795 million for Rolls-Royce, Bentley and their British plant, beating out BMW in an extraordinary high-stakes Anglo-German poker game. But the vaunted Rolls-Royce name didn’t go with the sale. Quicker than you can say Porsche Turbo, BMW bought the name, plus eventual rights to produce Rolls-Royce motorcars--all that it wanted in the first place. What was the comparatively piddling amount paid by BMW?
9. Mika Hakkinen won this month’s German Grand Prix--much to the dismay of native son Michael Schumacher, who placed fifth--and leads the world Formula 1 driving championship. Hakkinen’s car is a McLaren, but who supplies the engine?
10. Ford Motor Co. has announced that it will lower the average price on its 1999 vehicles, the first reduction in at least 30 years. How much will all this largess reduce the price of a base model Ford Taurus?
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Answers are on W13
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And here’s the contest: Highway 1 commuter mugs go to the first 50 readers who mail correct answers to Highway 1, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Entries are due by Sept. 10, Maine residents are not eligible to enter, and this contest is void where prohibited by law.
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Ready? The question: To counter public complaints, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is preparing standards that will dim the intensity of daytime running lights. What car was considered the worst offender of all this dazzling by day?
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And Last month’s Highway 1 toughie clearly was above “Double Jeopardy” standards because we did not receive an answer from Alex Trebek. We asked you to identify the fat lie that lurked beneath claims that came with the 1952 Virginian by Kaiser. Answer: The car wasn’t a 1952 model but a 1951 leftover given a new body, paint and hood ornament--and fresh serial numbers.
