I landed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, way earlier than necessary. I figured I’d use my afternoon wisely and work in my room (at the Millennium Biltmore, which is lovely), but they wanted $10 per 24 hours for wi-fi. But, resourceful freelance journalist that I am, I noticed that the Central Public Library was right [...]

I can’t believe I didn’t post this sooner. Last weekend, I had to (had to? please) take the train to Seattle to pick up a 2009 Aston Martin DB9 Volante at King Station and drive it back home to Portland. In case you aren’t hip to the Aston lingo, “Volante” is James-Bond-style code for “convertible.”
It [...]

I’ve got a couple of new articles on HowStuffWorks.com (which is owned by Discovery), both of which have to do with hybrid vehicles. First, I did a Toyota Prius comparison of the second-generation Prius, the Prius Touring edition, and the new third-gen Prius. I also wrote up a piece on regenerative braking and kinetic energy, [...]

Yesterday, The Square, local NBC affiliate KGW’s live news magazine, sent out a tweet looking for a Portland-based auto writer. Another journalist I follow on Twitter, who follows The Square, re-tweeted the post, knowing I was out there somewhere. I picked up on it, and emailed the station. A quick phone call confirmed that I [...]

My first post for the “Wheels” blog in the New York Times Autos section went up yesterday. Richard Chang is the guy in charge of the blog, and he even left in my favorite bit, about wide, American … roads.

The chicken mole at Seattle’s Hotel 1000 was lovely, but VW head Stefan Jacoby’s comments were enlightening. For instance, VW wants to triple its vehicle sales in the U.S. in the next decade, including sales of whatever full-sized sedan will be built at the factory under construction in Chattanooga, Tennesee. (Jacoby promised the car would [...]

I went to the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association’s monthly meeting on Thursday (after an absence of many months — for shame) and met a couple of great guys. The first was Wade Patterson, who has a Zero X electric dirt bike that he demos around the Northwest. I’m going to interview him for an upcoming [...]

I was out of the home office yesterday (yay!) for a Ford Fusion event in downtown Portland. I have never been so glad to see a carafe of coffee in my life. Nancy Gioia from Ford gave a great presentation about the Fusion hybrid and Ford’s green plans for the future, but I had spent [...]

I went to the press day for the Portland Auto Show yesterday — lunch courtesy of Ford, dinner courtesy of GM, and a talk in the middle from Chrysler’s rep and all-around good guy Scott Brown.
I didn’t learn anything at the Portland show that wasn’t said at the Detroit show less than a month ago, [...]

I went to my first Detroit Auto Show this year; from what I understand, this was a real downer of a show. I wouldn’t know, have nothing to compare it to and no time to think about it while I was there. I’ve put images of the latest eco-friendly-ish cars on Flickr and created image [...]

I headed all the way out to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro yesterday to visit the Alternative Energy Show. It was small, but the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association had a presence, with an AC-powered 914, a converted Honda Insight, and a factory electric Chevy pickup. They even had a trailer of pop-up solar panels [...]

Here’s my latest article for the New York Times Autos section, about Electrathon America. I wrote it short, then it got long, then it went back to being short. But it turned out fine. It even made the rounds on the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association’s email list.
If you’d like to read it as a PDF, [...]

I went to a lovely lunch last week with Dan Kapp, who’s been in Ford’s powertrain division for 31 years, ever since he got out of college. He spoke to the group of NWAPA members and local media for over an hour about EcoBoost, hybrids, clean diesels, Ford’s long-term plans … he really covered a [...]

I’m just finishing up the last rounds of edits for an article that will run in the September issue of Portland Monthly. I did a slew of interviews and test drove a Smart ForTwo to gauge the new-car market in Portland, now that gas is so ungodly expensive.
The magazine will hit metro-area newsstands around the [...]

I’ve been given a new blog all my own, though it’s still part of the RiverWired.com universe. Check it out at GoodGreenCars.com. There aren’t many posts yet — I heard about it Monday and it went live yesterday — but I’ll be posting more often here than I did on RiverWired.com.
The new blog is all [...]

I just got back from driving a Maserati, a Dodge Viper, a C63 Mercedes-Benz tuned by AMG, and the Audi S5, among 15 others, through the mountains of Central Oregon. I drove faster and pushed harder through corners than I probably ever have, and the people on the rally were as nice as the cars.
Fellow [...]

I leave bright and early tomorrow morning to join my fellow Northwest Automotive Press Association members on a two-day jaunt through Central Oregon in a string of fast cars. The organizers lined up everything from a Mazda MX-5 (that’s a Miata) to a Maserati, with the likes of Audi, Volvo, and a Dodge Viper thrown [...]

I wrote this piece on Subaru tuners for Izmo Autos, a content site, over a year ago. A friend found it on the Internet and told me about it today, since he knew both the author (me) and the subject (local Subie enthusiast Tad Dinsmore).
Getting publication verification from Izmo has been a nightmare. I’m glad [...]

I went to Pioneer Courthouse Square Saturday morning to check out EV Awareness Day, held by the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. There were about a dozen cars and trucks there, from a squared-off Citicar from the early 1970s to a Prius converted to plug-in hybrid technology.
I overheard a woman tell her husband, “He’ll let me [...]

Here’s a link to my latest New York Times article, about the Isuzu Trooper that runs on wood chips. I’ll get a PDF in my clips sometime in the next couple of days. It took almost a week’s worth of edits and rewrites and expansions, but I’m happy with how it turned out. What started [...]

I just finished (I think) the last round of edits for a story I did on Robert “Chip” Beam’s wood-chip-powered Isuzu Trooper. It’ll be in the Sunday New York Times, probably in just the metro edition. But you can always look it up online at nytimes.com/autos, and I’ll post it here on my Clips page.

I just got the latest issue of Ultimate Northwest in my mailbox, and there’s a piece in there that I wrote about usable SUVs. I finished the article in March and had almost forgotten about it.

Had lunch with GM honcho Bob Lutz on Tuesday in Seattle. It was interesting to talk to Mr. Lutz, as he’s on a kind of PR tour to counteract the negative image people have about the company. Also, the restaurant used fresh local berries in its desserts. Tasty. Read about Mr. Lutz’s comments (and not [...]

My latest piece for Portland Monthly’s Mudroom section is a short one, on Electrathon America, a race for electric vehicles designed and built by high school and community college teams. I started the first draft of the short article during a visit to Mrs. Peterson’s class at Spring Mountain Elementary School. I talked to the [...]

The March/April issue of Ultimate Northwest is on newsstands in the Portland area today, with my article “The highway, your way” on page 74. I picked eight vehicles, from a Harley to the latest Town ‘n’ Country, for taking on the great American road trip in 2008.

Last night, at the invitation of fearless AROO leader Marty Schneiderman, I gave a presentation entitled “Sports and Collector Cars in the Eco Age, or Why You Won’t Have to Give Up Your Alfa Any Time Soon” to the members of the club. Marty warmed up the crowd for me by running the regularly scheduled [...]

My latest article to reach newsstands is “Plug-and-Play 914s” in the March 2008 issue of Sports Car Market magazine. I interviewed fellow Oregonians Tim Kutscha, John Benson, and Otmar Ebenhoech about converting Porsche 914s to electric motors. There’s even a great picture of Benson, and a few images of Kutscha’s 914 in the garage.

Well, obviously not, since I didn’t know about this post on Autobloggreen.com until today. Since I’m now, as a RiverWired.com blogger, monitoring Autobloggreen’s every post, I’m happy to see that my article in the November 25 edition of the NY Times was worth a mention.

I’ve got a couple of new projects these days. The first is a new blog, RiverWired.com, that I’ll be writing posts for in the future. I’ve already written a couple, but we’re still working out the details. They tell me that I’ll have my own space to post green car news, which is exactly what [...]

In the December 9 issue of Ultimate Northwest, I wrote articles on holiday decor (”Breaking out of the tinsel trap,” p. 30), toy collecting (”Kidd stuff,” p. 35), home and garden gifts (p. 72), automotive gifts (p. 80), and the return of Alfa Romeo to the U.S. market in 2009 (”Alfa’s alpha car,” p. 107).
Now [...]

I just got the PDF proof of my latest article for the New York Times, and it looks pretty good. I’ve been working on this article, about drag racing electric vehicles, for a couple of months, so I’m glad to see it hit print the weekend after Thanksgiving. Also, this article will be in the [...]

My next article for the NY Times, on the National Electric Drag Racing Association, is on the schedule for November 25, and the issue of Ultimate Northwest with several articles by me will be out December 9, it seems.

I’ve been writing for a new automotive newspaper insert called izmoAutos, and I finally got a stack of issues. I’ve scanned in the review I wrote for them and an article. Both are available on my Clips page.

It only seems like I haven’t been working. I’ve actually been busy working on weekly auto reviews for Izmo Autos, a couple of articles in the November/December issue of Ultimate Northwest, and a book editing project. As soon as I have clips, I’ll post them to that page and stick a post up here on [...]

I spent two days last week evaluating 28 SUVs for the Northwest Automotive Press Association’s annual award. Also during those two days, fellow NWAPA member Tom Voelk filmed me talking about women and SUVs. Tom produces Driving Northwest for Northwest Cable News. As soon as I know times and channels, I’ll post them on this [...]

As promised, here is the link to the auto museums article in the August 12 New York Times: www.nytimes.com/autos. If you aren’t already logged in, you’ll need to do so, but it’s free.

The August issue of the Northwest Women’s Journal is about to hit newsstands, and my feature article “Women in the Automotive Industry” is on the cover, with a great picture of local mechanic maven Liz Dally. I also wrote a shorter piece for the magazine, “Women’s Influence on Auto Design.”