Great turnout for the Friday night Hendersonville Cruise-In

Friday night means cruise night in Hendersonville, so we made the trip to the Regal Cinema to see what we could see. The worst part about this event is battling the Friday night traffic to get there, but once you’re in, it all seems worth it. They easily had 200 cars lined up out there. We even managed to enjoy a nice dinner and a movie. It’s like a single stop for everything that you want or need. Of course, out of everything out there, what I want and need the most are cars. It wasn’t hard picking a few to write about. The only hard part was trying to decide which ones not to feature.

2013 Ram 1500 SLT 4X4 V6 test drive review. Better than I wanted it to be

I’m a diehard Chevy truck guy.  Always have been.  So when the nice folks at Chrysler delivered this 2013 Ram 1500 SLT Crew Cab 4X4 to let me try out for a week, I really didn’t want to like it.  But dammit, this truck was too good not to like.  Why did they have to go and mess with everything I believe in?

2013 Dodge Dart SXT test drive review. Economy with history

The Dodge Dart has been a part of the American Automotive scene for more than 50 years.  But the nameplate disappeared from Dodge showrooms for 36 of them.  Now, after that long hiatus, the Dart is back.  I recently had the opportunity to spend a week with a 2013 Dart SXT Special Edition.  And even though I’ve always been a fan of big cars with big engines, I now have a better appreciation for the benefits of a small, economical sedan.  Let’s take a brief look at the history of the Dodge Dart in general, and specifically at my Bright Silver Metallic test car.

2012 Dodge Charger test drive review. Would Bo and Luke approve?

I was actually kind of excited to try out a new Dodge Charger for a couple of days. I’ve driven several Chrysler products on the LX platform over the past couple of years, but only for short jaunts. And as someone who uses a ’96 Impala SS as a daily driver, I was looking forward to testing out a modern, full-sized, rear-wheel-drive sedan on my commute.

As new Chargers go, this one was about as bland as they come. Of course, even as a base model, the Charger comes with a nice array of features. 17-inch, five-spoke wheels are standard, as is the touch-screen stereo with CD and mp3 connector. The silver paint didn’t do much to spice things up though.

The Lorax hates Vipers

Something interesting caught my eye on the way to see The Lorax at the Legends Theatre. More on that in a minute.

The Lorax is an animated movie that tries to deliver the message that it is bad to cut down trees for short-term personal gain, which is a nice message, I suppose. But then it turns its attention to the evils of big business and successful entrepreneurs. People should leave the environment alone, renounce large corporations and money, and live in a perfect utopia of cottony trees and adorable forest creatures under sun-drenched skies. Danny DeVito voices the Lorax, protector of the forest.

MOPAR Maniac discovered on the streets of Kansas City

You know how sometimes you’re driving along, and something catches your eye that you have to check out? Well that happened to me the other day when dad and I were cruising by a used car lot in Kansas City, and saw about 25 mid-to-late ‘60s intermediate Chrysler products parked nose-to-tail and bumper-to-bumper.

Granted, this wasn’t a stash of Hemi ‘Cudas or something of that caliber, but it was still obvious that we had a MOPAR nut on our hands. I had to know more.

Dodge LaFemme, the first car designed for Your Majesty, the modern American woman

Imagine this scenario. Dodge takes the new Charger, offers it with a pink and white paint job and flowered fabric upholstery, includes a built-in purse and makeup compact, and unapologetically markets it to women. Doesn’t sound like it would make it through the marketing department, does it?

Well, 55 years ago, Dodge tried this exact same scenario, and it absolutely did make it into dealer showrooms. The car was called the “La Femme”, and it explored every female stereotype known to man. It seems fascinating today that a major car company actually produced this car. But it is hard to look back on the La Femme and not feel a bit of quaint ‘50s nostalgia.

Dodge actually based this idea off of a couple of 1954 Chrysler Newport show cars. The Le Compte show car was geared exclusively toward men, and the La Comtesse was supposed to appeal to women. The marketing department at Chrysler Corporation was aware that women were making many of the purchasing decisions when it came to the family car, and after observing a positive reaction to the La Comtesse, they decided to go ahead and apply the ‘for women only’ theme to a specially designed production Dodge.