By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(August 11, 2015) ASHEVILLE, N.C. — I'm not the kind of guy who gushes over a place I don't like. San Francisco and Las Vegas are both cities some people rave about, but I wouldn't set foot in either if it wasn't for carmakers hosting an occasional event there. Well, I guess I'd go to San Francisco, but only because it's the closest airport to Napa and Sonoma. So, when I say that I really like Asheville you know that indeed I do.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(August 4, 2015) WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — I'm not the kind of guy who can turn down an opportunity to drive a convertible in Southern California. When Mazda issued an invitation to its national press launch for the totally redesigned MX-5 in Westlake Village, Calif., I was all over it. It didn't hurt that Mazda was putting us up in the Four Seasons with three nearby craft breweries within 10-minutes of the hotel. The only thing that could have made the invite more tempting is if there had been an In-N-Out Burger in the Four Seasons' lobby.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(June 10, 2015) I'm not the kind of guy who says no to an evening with Vince Gil. Truth be told, I didn't even know a side trip to listen to Gil play and sing with The Time Jumpers, a country swing group with which he has been affiliated for five or six years, was on the agenda when I eagerly accepted Nissan's invite to Nashville to audition the redesigned Nissan Maxima in May.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(May 7, 2015) I'm not the kind of guy who spends a lot of time wandering the boulevards of Beverly Hills. In fact, I don't think I had ever been there before the recent Fiat media event introducing the all-new 2016 500X crossover. I may have skirted this community on some previous carmaker ride and drive, but if so, I don't remember it. But then my memory isn't all that it used to be.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(March 24, 2015) I'm not the kind of guy who blows off a carmaker event in Austin even with a freshly blown-out knee. Nope, that just isn't me. However, I did offer Chrysler the opportunity to delete me from its December roll out of the redesigned 300 after hyper extending my left knee climbing off a ladder during a shed-building adventure. It wasn't that I was in pain or immobile, but I was walking with a cane.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(February 25, 2015) I'm not the kind of guy who jumps to a conclusion about a new or redesigned vehicle based on where the carmaker decides to host its media debut. That's a good thing for the renovated 2016 Sorento that Kia previewed in Lake Tahoe. The last vehicle introduction I attended there was the Pontiac Aztek; we all know how that turned out. Nope, the Sorento is no Aztek, not even close.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(January 28, 2015) SAN JOSE, Calif. — I'm not the kind of guy to ever turn down a serious bit of off roading — even when I might not be sure that the vehicle in question is really an off-roader. That was the situation when Jeep gave me the nod for a dash to the California coast in late January for some wheel time in its all-new compact-SUV Renegade.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(January 18, 2015) Historically my Decembers are relatively quiet; usually very boring, really. Even my dot-com clients that require a steady stream of content grow relatively quiet the last month of the year. December usually provides an opportunity to catch up with other projects or just decompress a bit. Not so this past December.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(December 16, 2014) I'm not the kind of guy who turns down flying to San Diego for a media launch on Monday with a return home on Tuesday despite already having flights booked to San Francisco on Wednesday. Maybe I should be, but I'm not.

By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(November 28, 2014) I'm not the kind of guy who wants to spend a lot of time in Washington D.C. walking the monuments, gazing at the cherry blossoms or dealing with the traffic. Been there; done that. It's one of those places I think everyone should visit at least once — like the French Quarter in New Orleans, Key West, Las Vegas and so on and so forth — but once you've had the experience, you've had the experience.