While You Were Gorging: A Compendium of Thanksgiving News You May Have Missed
While the rest of the world warms up to our Thanksgiving tradition of football and mountains of potatoes and gravy, we must admit that the world goes on without us some days.
Thankfully, the Internet never forgets. So here’s a roundup of the stories we missed in our Tryptophan-induced naps.
California Has Bad Traffic, But It’s Not The Worst …
According to our friends over at AutoGuide, Chicago’s I-90 between Roosevelt Road and North Nagle Avenue takes the crown as the worst stretch of road for bad traffic. More than 6 million gallons of gasoline is wasted by Chicago motorists in traffic jams every year.
California’s highways had the best (or worst) of the rest — and many of the rest — with six deplorable stretches that took up spots Nos. 2-7. Nearly 35 million hours of not watching “The Walking Dead” were lost on the roads by motorists in California each year.
… but Montana Has The Worst Drivers
Montana drivers are the worst drivers in the country, according to CarInsuranceComparison.com, via USAToday. Drivers in that state were ranked the worst for the second year in a row by the website.
The state earned top marks for speeding, sixth for careless driving and eighth for failure to obey traffic laws.
New Mexico and South Carolina tied for second place. Texas and Louisiana rounded out the top five.
Celebrate Mercedes’ F1 Championship Season With A $70,000 Hatchback
You too can celebrate Lewis Hamilton and the other guy’s record-setting year with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One with a limited-edition GLA45 — wait, 70 grand?
The celebratory model is fitted with 19-inch wheels, the lovely paint package that you see above and a commemorative plaque near the gear shifter, which is still an automatic. The GLA45 is all-wheel drive too, just like the F1 cars! Oh, wait.
The car will be sold only in Germany, where presumably people will buy this car.
Fiat Sold 50 Percent More Abarth Models This Year, So Let’s Make More of Those
Automotive News reported that Fiat performance sub-brand Abarth will sell about 10,000 Fiat 500 Abarth models this year, and that the brand will make available a second Abarth-branded car next year.
That car, likely a version of the 500X, will precede a version of Fiat’s 124 Spider that would come later.
The Abarth 124 Spider would use a more-potent version of the company’s 1.4-liter turbocharged mill found in the Fiat 124 Spider.
The Abarth 124 Spider could portend a return to rally racing for Fiat, who’s last successful rally car was the Fiat 131 in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Famed Audi and Porsche rally driver Walter Röhrl piloted the Fiat 124 to a group championship in 1980s. (Hot heel-toe video action here.)
Toyota Outsells Volkswagen Worldwide for Fourth-straight Month
Toyota is widening its lead over Volkswagen in the race for “Who Wants To Be The World’s Largest Automaker” for 2015, according to Reuters.
Toyota reported it sold 8.35 million cars worldwide, from January to October, which outpaced the 8.26 million sold by Volkswagen.
Volkswagen’s sales dropped 5.3 percent in October, according to the automaker. I have no idea why.
More by Aaron Cole
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This doesn't jibe with my observations. You will get some real lunatic drivers going from Salem to PDX on Friday afternoon, much as the 2:30 a.m. crowd in Polson with their attendant go-cups. There is no monopoly on stupid behind the wheel in America.
That first photo brings back memories of an "Airstream Turkey" featured in the Tom Robbins novel "Skinny Legs and All".