Families in Need Get Cars for Christmas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Several families received a car from the man known as Car Santa on Thursday.KMBC's Jere Gish reported that 11 years ago, Terry Franz gave away six cars from his small lot. This year, he'll help give away 50 in Kansas City.The cars are donated, along with the parts to make sure the vehicles are in good condition.

"An old car sitting on the side of your house you're not using isn't worth much to you, but it's worth a million to these people if they can get across town," Franz said.Jewel Smith cried as she look at her new car. She's never owned a car in her life, Gish reported. Now she doesn't have to walk to work."It's so nice. Thank you guys so much," Smith said. Sylvia Hoover lost both of her parents last year, then she lost her house and her car because of financial problems.

She has been borrowing a van to drive her 3-year-old daughter and two younger siblings."All these people that are here helping are just doing amazing things for everybody. For myself, for all the other families in there, it's just amazing. It's absolutely fantastic," Hoover said.

Gish reported that the families were nominated through Car Santa's Web site and through radio station 99.7KY. Franz said that he now gets 20,000 requests a year. He's also giving away cars in several other cities.

Source: KMBC-TV

Chinese automaker recalls 1,875 faulty cars globally

The Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., a home-grown carmaker based in eastern China's Anhui Province, has announced it will recall 1,875 defective cars sold globally.

This is the first time for a Chinese local automaker to recall cars in the world range.

The recall involved offroad vehicles with automatic gear shift, which were branded Tiggo and manufactured between March 27, 2006 and Oct. 25, 2006.

Chery said there's something wrong with the fan controller which may overheat the engine.

These cars will be recalled between Dec. 20, 2006 and March 31, 2007.

Chery said it had exported over 25,000 cars this year, including the salable Tiggo series, to more than thirty countries and regions including Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia and Iran.

From November 2005, Chery began recalling its faulty Eastar series in China, making it the first home-brand automaker to recall cars in the country.

In developed countries, auto recalls are commonplace. China launched its first auto recall regulations with detailed implementation rules in October 2004.

Analysts said that there would be more vehicle recalls in China and the recall was good for the healthy development of the auto industry.

Source: People's Daily Online

Classic Mustang Limos

Source: AutoBlog

In the aftermath of the whole four-door Mustang affair, we bring you something along the same lines... only significantly more depressing, at least for classic motor enthusiasts. It seems that for some, owning a vintage Mustang just isn't unique enough. A few owners have chopped and butchered their classics into stretched abominations.

Our friends over at Carscoop have managed to hold back the tears long enough to find three Mustangs that have met such an ill fate. A black pony-car was stretched out by Mustang Restorations in Illinois. A light blue Mustang limo is operated by Preferred Limousine in Ontario. A third example, a white '66 model with a 289, can be found in California (of course), built by ABC Mustangs of Hayward. And if by some sick, twisted chance this actually strikes you as a good idea and you simply must own such a black mark in the history books of this iconic motor, that last one is up for sale on eBay Motors. At the time of writing, the bidding was up to $15k, the first payment of which must be accompanied by your soul.

We've seen a lot of strange novelty stretched limousines, but this is just too much. Someone put a stop to the madness!

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