Early Gmail Users Get Google Voice Phone Numbers First.
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Two weeks ago I heard that there was a waiting list to get an invite to sign up for Google Voice Phone Number. So I figured I’d better go ahead and put in my request and see what happens.

Today, to my surprise I received an email letting me know I was in. Which makes me wonder…why did I get my number so fast? Maybe it was because I was an early Gmail user. Gmail was launched as an invitation only Beta release on April 1, 2004. I knew someone who was an early Beta test participant at the University of Texas and they sent me an invite on April 10,2006. (I signed up that day) Gmail wasn’t lauched to the rest of the public until Feb 7, 2007. So I wonder…are early Gmail users getting first dibs on Google Voice Phone Numbers? I don’t have the answer to that question, but what I do have is a killer San Francisco area phone number that I will keep for life! My new Google Voice Phone Number is (650) 866-XXXX. Now that’s a nice number. What do you think?

Check out the email I received below:

You are invited to open a free Google Voice account. To accept this invitation and create your account, visit https://www.google.com/voice/inv/…

If you haven’t already heard about it, Google Voice is a service that makes using your current phones much better!

Here’s what it offers:

A personal phone number that rings all of your existing phones when people call
All of your voicemail in one inbox with unlimited online storage and free voicemail transcripts sent to your phone and email
Low-priced international calling to over 200 countries and free SMS
Other powerful features like the first phone spam filter to protect you from unwanted callers, the ability to ListenInTM on your voicemail messages while they are being left, conference calling and more

To learn more about Google Voice before registering, visit: http://www.google.com/voice/about

Please note that Google Voice is only available for sign up in the US.

We hope you enjoy Google Voice,

The Google Voice Team

Google Voice Screenshot

Tags: "Car Classifieds", "Cars for Sale", "Google Voice Invitation", "Google Voice Invite", "Google Voice Phone Number", "Google Voice", "Rate Cars", "Show It Or Tow It", Car News, Google, showitortowit.com
Posted in Founder's Rants | 1 Comment »

Did Artie Lange Go Overboard On The Joe Buck Show?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

In case you didn’t hear about what happened when comedian Artie Lange appeared on the debut of Joe Buck’s new HBO show, “Joe Buck Live”…I’ve posted the video below. Take a look and you be the judge of whether what Artie did was appropriate. I know this is not a car-related subject. But the public has been weighing in on whether HBO should “Show It or Tow It” when it comes to acceptance of Artie’s antics. Chime in.

Tags: "Artie Lang Joe Buck Show", "Artie Lange and Joe Buck", "Artie Lange Joe Buck Show", "Artie Lange on The Joe Buck Show", "Artie Lange", "Joe Buck Show", "Joe Buck", "Show It Or Tow It", "The Joe Buck Show", showitortowit.com
Posted in Car News | 1 Comment »

Senate Passes Cash For Clunkers Bill.
Friday, June 19th, 2009

Senate Passes Cash For Clunkers Bill.

The Senate has approved a $1 billion program to give vouchers to consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for more fuel-efficient models — a move that dealers hope will revive slumping auto sales. Congressional leaders attached the legislation to a $106 billion spending bill to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The spending bill passed by a 91 to 5 vote but not before some Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to strip the measure from the bill.

“Let’s not add a billion dollars of unnecessary debt,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) during the Senate floor debate.

Dealers, unions, trade groups and automakers have been lobbying for months for the legislation in hopes that it would stop the streak of dismal U.S. auto sales. “The simple fact is that we need to get Americans into car showrooms, and this is the bill that will do it,” Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.), a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement. The program offers vouchers of up to $4,500. The bill now moves to the White House for the president’s signature. President Obama has repeatedly encouraged Congress to pass a cash-for-clunkers bill.

Consumers would be able to start using the vouchers as soon as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalizes the rules — a process that must conclude within 30 days of the president’s approval.

Here’s how the program works:

Under the program, trade-in vehicles must be 1984 models or newer and have average fuel economy of no more than 18 miles per gallon. The new car or truck must get better gas mileage than the one that was scrapped. The payoff amount increases depending on the difference in the fuel efficiencies of the old and new cars. For instance, a new car getting at least 4 more miles per gallon than the old car will be eligible for a $3,500 voucher. Whereas a new car getting at least 10 more miles per gallon would get a $4,500 voucher.

To guarantee vehicles are actually roadworthy — and not just sitting on cinder blocks — trade-ins must be registered and insured to the same owner for at least a year.

Tags: "Cash For Clunkers Bill", "Cash For Clunkers", "Show It Or Tow It", showitortowit.com
Posted in Car News | 1 Comment »

Zipcar Eyeing IPO.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Zipcar Lot

Zipcar, the world’s largest car-sharing company, is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010 as it fends off rivals such as Hertz Global Holdings Inc.

The company, which now has a fleet of 6,500 autos, will post its first profit in the third quarter, Chief Executive Officer Scott Griffith said. Zipcar’s success has prompted Hertz to announce its own sharing service with 1,000 vehicles in New York City by year’s end, up from 100 in May.

Zipcar is aiming for an initial public offering at a time when smaller companies have been shut out of the market by the industry’s worst drought in at least 38 years.

“We’re succeeding and we’re growing in a year where flat is the new up,” said Griffith, 50, referring to the global economic recession. Sales will reach $120 million this year and grow to $1 billion within a decade, he said. Read More.

Tags: "Show It Or Tow It", "Zipcar IPO", Hertz, showitortowit.com, Zipcar
Posted in Car News | No Comments »

Men Who Drive Expensive Cars Attract Better Looking Women.
Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Jessica Biel

Men who drive cheap cars are less attractive to women, and those who drive expensive cars attract better looking babes according to a study by researchers at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff.

Psychologists proved what car-dealers have boasted for generations the car one drives is key when it comes to turning a woman’s head.
The university team showed women pictures of the same man sitting in two cars - a $180,000 silver Bentley Continental and a battered Ford Fiesta.

The women, who were aged between 21 to 40, picked the man sitting in the Bentley ahead of the same man in the Ford.

Dr Michael Dunn, of the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, said it shows women rate a man higher if he is behind the wheels of a “fancy motor rather than in an old banger”. The researchers say the men tested in the same way are not impressed by whatever car a woman drives because they judge purely on her face and figure. Dr Dunn said his findings confirmed that women judge a man by his wealth and status whereas men are primarily concerned with what a woman looks like.

During the courting phase “Females focus on questions of wealth and status because if the male possesses those, that male would be in a better condition to rear healthy offspring.” Dr Dunn believes this basic human trait will not change in the future - even as women become more independent and wealthy in their own rights.

He said: “It appears that the stereotype of women being positively influenced by a man’s status is true and, evolutionarily speaking, this makes sense.

Tags: "Cheap Cars", "Expensive Cars", "Gold Diggers", "Jessica Biel", "Show It Or Tow It", "Wealthy Men", showitortowit.com
Posted in Car News | No Comments »

Godzilla On Wheels: Extreme Vanning In Japan.
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Extreme Vanning

Extreme Vanning

Extreme Vanning

Extreme Vanning

Members of the Purple Night Angels Vanning & Custom Club

Extreme Vanning in Japan

Consider it Disneyland on wheels, Toyota and Dodge-Meet Godzilla, or the reincarnation of the custom van scene from America, but either way vanning is huge in Japan and an integral part of its custom car scene. Now enter a new form of vanning called “Extreme Vanning”. At first glance you’ll be left baffled and confused at this unique and over-the-top niche market of customizing vans. But it’s a big thing over in Japan. It’s a form of customizing left for those with deep pockets and even deeper imaginations. Although many deny it, rumor has it that these vehicles are associated with Japanese mobsters and gang families.

So what does it take to create one of these monsters? The vans usually take on a build time of a year and once they’re done, the cost can hit you in the checkbook for well over $100, 000. The Toyota Hiace, the Dodge Caravan, and the Toyota Estima are the most popular vans to customize because they all have timeless lines and designs. And even though they are 10 or 15 years old they look straight out of the future. The bumpers and wings are strictly for show -they don’t really stand for anything. They’re just meant to make people stop and stare.

The owners of the cars come up with their own designs…they make the theme, the style, and choose the color. Some people perform the modifications themselves and others go to shops to have them done. The main purpose with each design is to over-exaggerate the lines of the car. And the interior of these vehicles are just as sick as the exterior…with over the top custom seating, colorful dashes and headliners, powerful stereos and speakers, bars, gaming consoles, flat screen TV’s…you name it.

This over the top form of vanning has also started to catch on in Australia. Will the United States will be the next country to catch the extreme vanning bug? Feel free to chime in via our comments section with your thoughts. In the meantime here are some photos of vans belonging to members of the Purple Night Angles Vanning & Custom Club in Chiba, Japan. (This article was originally in Issue 8 of Heavy Hitters Magazine.)

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Tags: "Car Club", "Dodge Caravan", "Extreme Vanning", "Purple Night Angels", "Show It Or Tow It", "Toyota Estima", "Toyota Hiace", "Vanning Club", "Vanning in Japan", showitortowit.com, Vanning
Posted in Car News | 8 Comments »

The Top 7 Reasons Why GM Failed.
Monday, June 1st, 2009

Rusty GM Logo

Was this Rusty GM logo a sign of things to come?

Here are the “Top 7 Reasons Why General Motors Failed”:

7. Overreacting to the truck boom
GM is often criticized for too many SUVs, but, as Wagoner has acknowledged, GM actually overlooked the start of the high-profit truck boom kicked off by the launch of the Ford Explorer SUV in 1990.

“We always considered ourselves a ‘car’ company,” he later explained.

When GM realized how fast 1990s buyers were switching to trucks as personal transportation, it overreacted, pouring time and money into SUVs and pickups at the expense of car development. The result: As long ago as 2000, Wall Street was warning that GM could be overcommitted to trucks and wind up out of phase if the pendulum of buyer preference swung back to cars. Once consumer tastes began changing, the market was awash in new truck models, and profits were sapped by discounts needed to keep sales boiling.

6. Mishandling Fiat
When GM bought 20% of Italian automaker Fiat for $2.4 billion in GM shares, the deal seemed like a genius move. With Opel/Vauxhall, it would’ve given GM dominance in the European market and made GM an even stronger global player.

But then Fiat CEO Gianni Agnelli died, and problems with the automaker mushroomed.

As part of the deal for GM’s stake, Fiat had the right to force GM to buy the remaining shares and take control. In 2005, GM decided, instead, to pay Fiat $2 billion to get out of the deal. Fiat used that money to turn itself around, and it will be Chrysler’s newest owner.

5. Ignoring Jerry York
In the fall of 2005, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian bought up 10% of GM’s shares, making him the company’s largest shareholder. He then pressured GM to take his aide, Jerome York, as a board member, and tried to force GM to partner with Nissan and Renault. Although the Nissan/Renault marriage failed, York showed some foresight.

4. Selling control of GMAC
For years, the ongoing joke was that GM was a bank that happened to make cars. Quarter after quarter, year after year, GM’s financing arm, GMAC, pulled in way more revenue than its automotive operations.

3. Killing the EV1 electric program
Wagoner said his biggest mistake was killing the EV1, the company’s pint-size electric car that was in test fleets in the late 1990s. It was a public relations debacle when the test cars had to be reclaimed and GM then scrapped them. But the real loss was scrapping the program behind them. GM abandoned a big lead in electric car technology and let Toyota take the green mantle for its hybrid Prius.

2. Driving incentives into the ground
Following the 2001 terrorist attacks, GM was praised for responding quickly and decisively: It offered consumers 0% financing on loans up to five years. When the newness of that deal wore off, the automaker piled on a $3,000 rebate.

And the deals kept coming. GM stuck with cash-back deals and low-rate financing for years, increasing rebates to $6,000 to $8,000 in some cases. But to afford the rebates, GM kept sticker prices high. It took GM until 2006 to realize it was damaging itself with the non-stop deals: Shoppers often wouldn’t consider a GM vehicle because its sticker price was so much higher than the competition.

1. Not filing for bankruptcy sooner
Momentum toward a bankruptcy filing accelerated since the auto market collapsed last fall. But as far back as the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 2005, then-CEO Rick Wagoner faced questions about whether GM would be better off filing for bankruptcy reorganization to cope with its labor costs, debt load and excess dealers.

Wagoner was then, and remained until his last days at GM, adamantly opposed to bankruptcy. He said it would drive away buyers and irreparably harm workers and shareholders. He believed GM could turn around: He was CFO in 1992 when GM teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, only to make a strong rebound.

Read the Full Article in USA Today.

Tags: "General Motors Bankruptcy", "General Motors Failure", "General Motors", "GM Bankruptcy", "GM Failure", "Show It Or Tow It", "Top 7 Reasons Why GM Failed", "Top Seven Reasons Why GM Failed", "Why GM Failed", showitortowit.com
Posted in Car News | 2 Comments »