DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

It is no surprise that I’m an unabashed fan of trucks — big ones and small ones. Where I live, alongside Interstate 75 in Michigan that is the main freeway thoroughfare to Canada, watching trucks is the 18-wheeler version of reading Playboy, except in this case I don’t have to hold anything sideways and unfold a couple of pages to get to the “good stuff.”

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

All of us of a certain age have something we relate to as the symbol of a by-gone era; the “good old days” if you will. Some look to hula hoops, Pet Rocks, their first transistor radio, etc. However, not one to be conventional, I have a different object to fondly recall my youth; the inner tube.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour   

Some people study human nature while others study bugs and plant life. Me? I never studied, which is probably why I wound up in journalism. However, as part of my weekly chore of coming up with a topic for a column I notice everything about me that’s auto-related. This week’s piece involves something that I’ve probably been looking at for years and it never registered until a few minutes ago when I sat down to figure out something to write about (which is why I was never hired by the British to warn them of Luftwaffe aircraft coming across the channel) — Open gas caps.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

This may come as a shock to many of you but there are a lot of things that make me angry. Those who have followed my columns for the last several years have only read a small pittance of events that tend to drive me up a wall — everything from failure of drivers to use turn signals to poking along on a freeway’s left lane and leaving a trail of cars that resemble photos of contrails from a mission of B-17s on their way to ruin the mood of residents living in German neighborhoods.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour   

Today I’m going to revisit a topic I haven’t done in quite a while but I feel it’s something that needs “re-scussing” as we used to say in my beloved home state of Indiana. The subject is people who smoke in cars when there are kids inside, and even worse, infants.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour    

The last front bench seat in a Chevrolet came in 2013. Most other brands stopped offering bench seats about the same time. Although a good deal of our population hasn’t known anything but bucket seats there are a lot of us dinosaur-dodgers who look back fondly at the comfort and convenience of bench seats as we went through our formative years.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

I love navigation systems that have become part of so many vehicles no matter what segment they’re found in. I’m talking about factory-installed systems, not Tom-Toms or Garmin’s or any other brand of aftermarket system. There’s something comforting about heading to a new destination, no matter how far from home it is, and knowing the chances of getting lost are about as great as seeing the Loch Ness monster (providing you generally don’t drink).

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour     

One of the better ideas in the auto industry has been the advent of what I refer to as “intelligent steering wheels.” Defined it means steering wheels with controls for the audio system, cruise control, vehicle information, etc. The concept is to put needed adjustments to the aforementioned goodies in the hands of the driver who doesn’t have to go on a treasure hunt to find them somewhere else in the vehicle cockpit while taking his or her eyes off the road.