DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

How many hundreds of thousands of times in automotive history have batteries gone dead because the driver forgot to turn off the headlights when leaving the car? There could be any number of reasons for this. Maybe he or she departed the vehicle in a brightly-lit shopping mall parking lot or garage and wouldn’t have noticed whether the lights were on or off.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

How many times have you been driving down the street and saw a vehicle coming toward you that looked like it was being driven by a dog? No, you’re not high on Red Bull, my friend. You’re looking at an overt abuser of his pet and a danger to every other vehicle on the highway.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour   

For the most part I think rear spoilers are pretty cool. They look sporty and actually can help a vehicle’s handling. But there’s one major flaw that some of them have, whether factory-installed or aftermarket…I DON’T WANT TO THINK THEY’RE CREEPING UP ON ME IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR!!! When I’m glancing rearward, I want to see if there are any other vehicles close enough to make me to cry out, “Danger, Will Robinson.”

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

There are many things I’ve done these past decades that I’ve wished I hadn’t wasted part of my life doing. It could be as mundane as taking a nap on a beautiful day when I wasn’t really tired, dated the ice princess from high school or watched a Detroit Lions game on television. I’ll never get that time back and I try not to think of all the things I could have done instead. But few things gripe my behind more than sitting at a stoplight in the middle of Pinhook, Indiana, at 3 a.m. when the only living things around are me and the unseen inmates that escaped that afternoon from the La Porte County Lockup.

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBE
By Al Vinikour  

How many times have you been driving down the highway (does anybody drive up the highway?) at dusk — especially during inclement weather — and at the last minute you see a car coming toward you in the opposite lane at the last minute…because the head case doesn’t have his lights on? Or if there are lights on they’re dulled parking lights (wait a minute…the PC term for parking lights is now “fender lights.”).

DRIVER'S SIDE DIATIBE
By Al Vinikour  

As near as I can tell pot holes serve one purpose; to remind us taxpayers how royally screwed we’ve been getting since highway maintenance became a “ward of the state.” Over the past several decades billions, if not trillions of dollars have been spent to allegedly improve the nation’s roads. Instead, all it has given us is a feel for what it must have felt like flying throughflack in a B-17.

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

A popular attraction for young and old alike are those monster truck shows that hard-of-hearing announcers promote in those incessant radio spots. I don’t know exactly what size tires those behemoths have — I’m guessing 450-inches…but then again I can’t tell the length of a foot if I had a ruler in my hand — but I’ve probably lived in smaller towns.