DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour   al@motorwayamerica.com

I don’t know how long I’ve been an automotive journalist but I know it’s been awhile. Probably the first three or four decades are lost because of John Barleycorn (that rotten…!) but however long it has been I’ve been bellyaching about the positioning of the cruise control stalk on Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

It’s been situated above the turn signal arm so unless you really concentrated hard you’d inadvertently engage cruise control when you had meant to put on your right turn signal. This, in turn, created a sudden acceleration that could be catastrophic.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour      al@motorwayamerica.com

One of my favorite automotive executives is a really neat guy who just might be the next CEO of his global company. To protect his anonymity I’ll just refer to him as “Mark” and to give equal secrecy to his company we’ll just say that it’s headquartered in a big glass house Dearborn, Michigan. That’s all the clues you’re getting. I’m not going to make things easy for you.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour   al@motorwayamerica.com

As stated many times during my term of community service writing these columns I have always been fascinated by over-the-road trucks. I live in a part of the Midwest (Detroit-area) that is chockablock (what the hell kind of word is that, anyway?) with trucks — both those going to and from Canada and those dropping off components and filling up with machines to be delivered all over this land.