The Ford Racing Drive Zone will be bringing a fleet of 2007 models to a parking lot near Kid Rock & Eminem’s home town on Thursday August 17. Vehicles on display will include the Edge, AWD Fusion and the Expedition, not to mention test drives in a Mustang and F-150. Visitors will also be able to win hot laps in the new Shelby GT500.

NASCAR drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray will be on hand for a meet and greet with the fans leading up to the GFS Marketplace 400 at MIS.

You can get free tickets for this event from Detroit area Ford dealers and find more info at Ford Racing Events

Read the press release after the break

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Up here in the Great White North, we only have valet parking at hotels, theaters and weddings. When I was in Chicago last summer, I was amazed to see Valet Parking signs all over. There was Valet parking at every door of one shopping mall we went to! How lazy is that?

In the spirit of fat, lazy people all over, Lexus is offering The ES Insiders Guide to Valet Parking. This fun and informative guide is going to be available at www.lexusvaletguide.com There’s no word if it will teach you how to protect your ride from the angry robotic Valet.
press release after the break

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It used to be pretty easy to find the boss’s car in the parking lot. Just look for the Caddy, Lincoln or maybe a 5th Avenue. Over the last few years though, the parking lot picture seems to have changed a bit. What do we expect to see now? A big Benz, or maybe a 7 series BMW? That’s not the real deal, according to a recent survey by cars.com where they found that Chevy owners outnumber Mercedes owners. In fact, the average purchase price of CEO’s primary vehicle is about 25 grand. The story also has some interesting thoughts on colour.
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While most of us are concerned about the rising price of gas, the cost of not driving is going up as well. Across North America, parking lot prices have increased 4.4% and this is the 3rd year in a row for the increases. The only bright spot to this news is a comparison to cities on other continents. While $574 us a month in Manhattan seems crazy, but not overly surprising. London on the other hand is a whopping $898 a month!

full press release after the break

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As a follow up to yesterday’s post about being prepared, comes today’s rant about the ignorance of some people. Many car dealerships up here in the great white north don’t have the benefit of a full blown drive through. As a result, the service advisor must head out to the parking lot to get the current mileage off each customer’s car, unless the customer has brought it in with them.
This morning, while dealing with a lineup of customers myself (due to a sick employee) someone commented as I walked past to go get a customer’s mileage that “I don’t understand why they need the mileage, it takes too long”. Of course when it was her turn to be served, not only did she not have an appointment, she didn’t know her mileage. No surprise there. Beatch!

End Rant.

There are several reasons that your chosen service center needs your correct mileage. Of course we need it to correctly advise you as to what service your vehicle is due for. Correct in and out mileage is also needed for warranty documentation if you are servicing at a dealer. The other, less obvious reason is for the protection of the dealership and the customer from unwarranted “road tests”. Let’s face it, on occasion we do come across less than honest individuals on both sides of the counter. I’ve seen employees (managers even) take customers cars for lunch, or even over the weekend. This is inexcusable and having correct mileages protects you from it happening to you. On the other hand, I’ve also had customers come in after a service and blow up because their car had been driven 1000 km since they dropped it off an hour ago. Right! Fast car huh? In that case, Fortunately I had recorded the in & out mileage personally.

Help yourself get good service, record your mileage on the way in and save the service advisor a trip. He will appreciate it & a happy service advisor is much more likely to be on your side.