The Motor Report Auto News Blog

BY GUNNAR HEINRICH

BOSTON and New York have an ongoing quarrel.

And if you live in the Northeastern United States, you’re caught in the crossfire.

Take poor little Connecticut as an example.

The Nutmeg State is caught exactly between Gotham and Beantown and seems to be the Verdun fields of trench warfare between sports teams. From the Bronx and Jersey City, Yankees (baseball) and Giants (football) fans have invaded the bucolic state from the west, while Red Sox and Patriots fans have claimed the eastern fields and pastures.

Each fan is as red faced, loud mouthed and obstreperous as the next.

Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, District of Columbia all seem to sit perched on the sidelines, secretly gunning for Boston while watching Gotham and Beantown, posture like two drunken Irishmen trading insults at a bar; each on the precipice of throwing the first punch.

The catch is, New York is a ten time heavyweight champion coming in at over six foot seven. They call him “the Machine” while Boston is this spry, angry little man who fans charmingly call “Li’l Mick.” Not really, but it’s a good characterization - work with me.

New York is the crossroads of the world while Boston is the ten car pile up that’s I-95 hitting I-90 backing into I-93.

There’s really no explaining this ongoing rivalry. Contest over. NYC wins.

BMW and Saab have much the same strange relationship and it’s easy to understand why.

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Saab Australia have taken delivery of their first ever diesel to wear the Aero badge; the Saab 9-3 Aero TTiD. Responsible performance is the mantra behind the new Aero, which boasts exceptional power and torque for a 1.9-litre four-cylinder diesel.

Saab have long been specialists in turbocharger technology and their talents have been put to good use in the re-development of their 1.9-litre, 16-valve TTiD engine.
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This one is a corker! According to Vägverket, the Swedish Road Administration, General Motors has used ten human cadavers for crash test research over the last year. While we applaud GM’s authentic approach in the quest for improved safety it is perhaps just a little macabre. It’s hard to imagine having a day job that involves strapping a chilled and lifeless human body into a car and then ‘investigating’ the post accident remains.

Vägverket suspect that the GM brand involved in the testing was Saab based on it being the most safety focussed brand in the GM lineup and pointed out that the cadavers were people “who donated their own bodies”.
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