Ford Chief Tries Hand at Stand-Up

Ford Funnyman: Hertz may have dropped O.J. Simpson, but Ford Motor Co. seems to have no qualms about associating its good name with the once-popular pitchman, if the comments of company Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. are any indication.

Warming up his audience before a recent speech to the Los Angeles Advertising Club, Ford waxed on about why L.A. deserves to be called the car capital of the world. It’s because people here are so passionate about their vehicles, he said.

“You spend fortunes customizing them. . . . You celebrate them in your songs. You’ve built entertainment empires filming car chases for television and movies. And,” he added after a well-timed pause, “for the evening news. We’ve sold a lot of white Ford Broncos because of that.”

Dream On: Motorists in four California localities--including Orange County--will be required to yield the right of way to transit buses as they merge back into traffic after loading or unloading passengers, under a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis.

The intent of the measure, Assembly Bill 1218, is to clear the way so the buses can stick to their schedules, said Assemblyman Fred Keeley, the Boulder Creek Democrat who introduced the measure.

Right. We can already hear the brakes screeching and see the traffic piling up as Joe Commuter, juggling his latte and a laptop (or Jill Commuter, juggling her cappuccino and cell phone) T-bones the bus that blithely pulls out from the curb in anticipation of an unobstructed path into the flow of traffic.

Prediction: The statute will generate a whole lot of ticket revenue and a few nasty wrecks, but it will take more than an act of the Legislature to get Southland motorists to extend a little courtesy to any vehicle--bus or car--trying to merge.

Cycle Softies: Shattering the macho image of male motorcyclists is this tidbit from a recent survey of more than 1,000 riders: Men who ride motorcycles are five times more likely to cry during a romantic movie than men who don’t ride.

The admittedly unscientific survey by Cleveland-based Progressive Insurance, a major writer of motorcycle policies, also found that male riders prefer “Melrose Place” to “Monday Night Football”; would rather vacation in Venice, Italy, than Las Vegas; and selected “Shakespeare in Love” over “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” as a favorite flick. (Biker classic “Easy Rider” placed only 21st on their list of all-time great movies.)

Can automatic transmissions for Harleys be far behind?

Lincoln Log: We have been watching Ford Motor’s luxury division since its unprecedented relocation to Southern California last year and are finally seeing signs that big changes are in the works.

On his first trip to the West Coast since his appointment last month as Lincoln design director, former Land Rover design chief Gerry McGovern said the success of the Lincoln LS notwithstanding, the marque “needs a fundamental shift in product design.”

He suggested that the classic ’63 Lincoln, with its “suicide” doors and slab-sided good looks, could provide a lot of “visual cues” for new designs. He also insisted that Lincoln should not have a European look, even as his boss, Ford Design Vice President J Mays, proudly points out that he added a more European look to the forthcoming 2001 Thunderbird after he came on board last year.

McGovern scoffed at suggestions that his tenure at Land Rover signals a greater emphasis on trucks at Lincoln, which is profiting mightily from the success of its big Navigator sport-utility vehicle.

“The emphasis is going to be more on the car side,” he promised. Cautioning that it will take “a couple of years to get a new face” for Lincoln, McGovern--who inked the MGF roadster while at Rover--also hinted at the possibility of a Lincoln sports-touring car in the mix someday.

The List: To mark the start of the car show season, when we all turn out to slobber over the new models we can’t afford, we offer this list of the top programs for manufacturer-certified used cars and trucks. (In Highway 1, you won’t read about pre-owned vehicles.)

Certified used vehicles cost less than new cars and trucks, of course, although they usually fetch a premium over their uncertified counterparts, because certification is supposed to assure top quality and usually comes with an extended warranty and other goodies. The program ranking was prepared by IntelliChoice, the Bay Area publisher of automobile operating cost data.

IntelliChoice analysts looked at how many items on the cars were inspected under each program, as well as the programs’ warranties, roadside-assistance plans and exchange and return provisions.

Jaguar--another Ford brand--offered the best warranty, and Chrysler inspected more bits and pieces of each vehicle than any of the others, IntelliChoice concluded.

Of the 21 programs offered in the U.S., the firm chose these five brands as offering the most benefit to buyers of certified used vehicles (and though luxury makes dominate the top of the list, IntelliChoice said there were a few at the bottom as well--it just declines to let us know where any but the top five finished):

1. Jaguar and Lexus (tie).

3. Mercedes-Benz.

4. BMW.

5. Honda.

Times staff writer John O’Dell can be reached at john.odell@latimes.com.