Having been in the autobody repair business for over 35 years, Keri Coach Works has seen its fair share of Ford trucks, including F-150s. The first ever Ford truck, the Model TT, was unveiled over 100 years ago, in 1917. They have always been popular, and Ford has not stopped building them. Here is what that first Ford truck looked like:
↑ No, that’s not us!
Along the iconic Route 66, west of Flagstaff, Arizona, relics of the past—diners, gas stations, repair shops, vintage cars—are rooted in the arid landscape like resilient cacti. One can almost picture a grandma with coiffed hair, a bonnie Irish lass in her time, seated at a diner booth. Her husband, sitting opposite her with a cigarette dangling between his lips, casts a suspicious glance across the street at the burly mechanic tinkering with his baby—a flame-red 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible.
↓ This is us!
Permitting a mechanic to repair a work of art on wheels requires trust. For over 35 years, Keri Coach Works has provided all types of auto body and collision services on Long Island. There’s a reason our auto body shop in Westbury enjoys such a stellar reputation. Keri Coach Works has a track record of excellent customer satisfaction because of our performance, knowledge, training, honesty, customer service, and on-time delivery.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. transportation sector is responsible for 28 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Amongst other factors, mindful emission control and elimination is goading the development of and demand for electric vehicles (EVs). A Bloomberg NEF report states that “EV sales are surging due to a combination of policy support, improvements in battery technology and cost, more charging infrastructure being built, and new compelling models from automakers”; and predicts that global EV sales will increase to 54 million in 2040—compared to 1.7 million in 2020, already up from 450,000 in 2015.
A recent article in The Guardian titled “Global Sales of Electric Cars Accelerate Fast in 2020 Despite Pandemic” shines a light on this dramatic jolt in electric vehicle sales. While overall car sales fell by a fifth during the pandemic, EV sales clocked an impressive 43 percent rise.
By any measure, EVs are here to stay and will likely have a large impact on the climate change landscape (hopefully for the better!). But a new development could speed the rate of EV adoption even further.
Designed by Austrian architect Karl Schwanzer, the BMW headquarters building in Munich, Germany, suggests the shape of four vertical cylinders in a car engine, while the neighboring museum structure represents a cylinder head. For almost 50 years this skeuomorphic high-rise has stood as an architectural landmark in the Bavarian capital, paying homage to the petrol-fueled engineering that drove the company’s success and made it one of the premier luxury and high-performance automakers in the world. At this legendary location, new BMW buyers receive the royal treatment, complete with airport pickup, a four-course meal prepared by celebrated chef Bobby Brauer, a tour of the BMW museum and assembly line, an interactive experience of the futuristic technology in the pipeline, and a full tank of gas when they drive away in their freshly minted BMW.
“Ever since Tesla shared a sketch of a small electric hatch last year, rumors have swirled around a sub-Model 3 offering that could allow the EV automaker to challenge the likes of the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt. Relatively little has been shared since on the progress of the Model 2, as it has unofficially been dubbed, despite Tesla’s habit of dropping hints about upcoming models for years ahead of launch…. Tesla CEO Elon Musk reconfirmed plans for such a $25,000 vehicle during Battery Day last year, indicating that it would arrive in three years, but has otherwise remained largely silent about the company’s progress on such a model.”
— Jay Ramey
‘Here’s Why a Tesla Model 2 Is a Must for the Company’
(Autoweek, March 1, 2021)
Battery Day Revelations
Are you ready for the cheapest, and perhaps the spunkiest, Tesla yet?
In 2006, Tesla’s CEO and co-founder Elon Musk shared his vision of investing the proceeds from the sale of his premium vehicles toward manufacturing a medium-volume car. Furthermore, he spoke of using the funds thereby accrued to subsidize the development of a high-volume, affordable electric vehicle (EV). In keeping with that objective, Musk hinted at his plans for the “Model 2” on Tesla’s Battery Day in 2020:
“Mr. Brown does not have a lot in common with Edmond Kirsch, the futurologist and entrepreneur of his book, but they do share a car: the Tesla Model X, the least expensive version of which costs about $80,000. Among other things, it can drive and park itself.”
From “The World According to Dan Brown”
by Sarah Lyall
(New York Times, Sept. 30, 2017)
Author Dan Brown is best known for the depiction of a memorable protagonist, Robert Langdon, a Harvard University professor of religious symbology and iconology. The professor appears in five of Brown’s fast-paced, bestselling novels. In Origin (2017), Robert Langdon—who possesses the mind of a nuclear physicist and the sensibilities of a secret agent—finds himself in a self-driving Tesla in Spain while on an urgent quest.
Knowing that Tesla cars are electric vehicles, the alert reader may wonder: If you find yourself in an unfamiliar city or region with a Tesla, how would you know where to recharge it? It’s not a far-fetched question. But not to worry. Tesla and Elon Musk have thought of that. The Tesla’s on-board computer is GPS-aware and will find the closest Supercharger or Destination Charger station for you!
From the symmetry of their Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system to the layout of the unique horizontal Boxer engine to the abundance of advanced safety systems, every Subaru vehicle is designed from the ground up to deliver the best driving experience possible. The infographic below will give you just a taste of the advanced features you will find in Subaru vehicles.
When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.
—Elon Musk
This weekend, for the first time in 10 years, the United States launched a manned rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral, with the aim of docking with the International Space Station. This feat was a joint effort by NASA, a government-funded organization, and a private company that goes by the name of Space Exploration Technologies (better known as SpaceX for short). The success of this launch is due, in large part, to the cost-saving innovations in rocketry by SpaceX engineers—one of the most impressive of which is the use of a reusable Falcon booster rocket. Yet, when somebody has a breakthrough innovation, it is usually a combined cascade of events. “Very rarely, is it one little thing,” according to Elon Musk, the CEO/CTO of SpaceX. “It’s usually a whole bunch of things that collectively amount to a huge innovation.”
Image credit: NASA TV.