Update: Texas high school gets to keep using Ram logo
Filed under: Government/Legal, Chrysler, Dodge
Remember a couple weeks back when we told you about Chrysler’s improbable legal battle against little Lake Mary High School in Florida? Chrysler’s legal team put the smack down on the school for using the Ram logo as its school insignia, and the law jockeys in Auburn Hills, MI were giving the school until June 15 to remove all instances of the logo at a considerable cost to the school district and neighborhood taxpayers.
It appears cooler heads have prevailed at Chrysler, as Allpar is reporting that the school and automaker have made an agreement that allows the school to keep the admittedly perfect-for-a-football-helmet logo, at least until wear and tear requires their replacement. The reported agreement stipulates that the school must declare its partnership with Chrysler on signs stating “Lake Mary: Proud Partner of Chrysler.” We think Chrysler should also sponsor the prom and provide a 300C stretch limousine for every senior. C’mon, think of the good will!
When we originally told you about the legal tussle between Lake Mary HS and Chrysler, we were more than a little critical of Team Pentastar for its legal action against the small school in a town of 15,000. It wasn’t because Chrysler didn’t have every legal right to protect its trademarks, but rather making a school district pay lots of money to remove a logo when it wasn’t really damaging is just bad PR for a company that can ill afford any more bad PR. Compromise can be a very good thing, and it’s nice to see that the folks at Chrysler see that. Good people of Lake Mary, Florida: feel free to continue purchasing vehicles from the Chrysler group.
[Source: Allpar]
Update: Texas high school gets to keep using Ram logo originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: chryslerlegal, florida, gmc, lake mary, lake mary hs, lake mary ram, lakemarychrysler, proud-partner
Daytona Bike Week 2010: The magic number is 69
Mar 9, 2010 Object
Filed under: Motorcycle
Festivities and events once again shifted into high gear this year in Daytona, Florida, as the 69th installment of Daytona’s “Bike Week” roared into town with all the usual suspects present and accounted for. Year after year, bikers far and wide have flocked to the beach to cut loose and congregate in the warm Florida sun.
It all started on January 24th, 1937, when Ed Kretz wrung out his Indian on the hard sand beach winning the first ever Daytona 200, or ‘Handlebar Derby,” as it is know by most locals. It was official, Daytona was a two-wheeled town and what’s now known as Bike Week was born. Each year popularity grew for the races, and soon, as non-race related activities flourished, crowds became more and more rough-edged. The invasion, as it came to be called, became so rowdy that after the 1986 event a special task force was formed in cooperation with the city and chamber of commerce to manage the gathering.
Some things have not changed. Daytona’s Bike Week is now a ten-day festival and is known as “the worlds largest motorcycle gathering.” It also continues to attract crowds from all over the globe… as well as corporate sponsors, including the likes of Budweiser and Harley-Davidson. With this event aging along with it’s patrons though, will Daytona hang on to it’s bad-boy, bar-banging reputation?
Take a look at this years events schedule. It reveals a discount prescription card and a section dedicated to the event’s “Executive Riders,” who apparently “shed the confinements of day-to-day business and evolve into a completely different self.” Whatever that means. Only time will tell what the next phase of Daytona Bike week will be. We certainly hope it includes a little bit of the spirit Mr. Kretz and others in the early days displayed, hanging it all out atop two wheels on a beach in Florida.
[Source: Official Bike Week]
Daytona Bike Week 2010: The magic number is 69 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: a-friend-via, beach, bikerrallies, daytona, daytona florida, daytona-bike, florida, motorcycles, news
Tampa ‘Strippermobile’ grinds to a legal halt… but not for the reason you think [w/video]
Feb 27, 2010 Object, news, video
Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal
Tampa Strippermobile gets shut down - Click above to watch video after the jump
To advertise the D
Tags: a-box-truck, a-friend-via, a-legal-halt-, after-the-jump, closed-the-show, entry, florida, mobile, opel, rocket-poweredmotorcycle
Chrysler legal turns into schoolyard bully over use of Ram logo
Filed under: Truck, Government/Legal, Chrysler, Dodge
About the same time Chrysler and Fiat executives were running through a marathon eight -hour look into the future with the world’s automotive journalists, Pentastar lawyers were working over the principal at Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida. You may be asking yourself what Chrysler lawyers would want with principal Michael Kotkin when, just six months earlier, The Pentastar needed billions of taxpayer dollars to exit bankruptcy. Good question, for sure, but the answer is pretty lame.
Moto Bullet reports that Chrysler’s legal department was reportedly all up in Kotkin’s grill because the school’s logo was a near-perfect match for the Dodge Ram logo. Team Pentastar ordered the school to replace the company’s favorite goat head as the school logo or risk having to drive a Sebring head into court. Chrysler lawyers even had several photos of the logo being used at the school in several different spots. The Seminole County School District decided that the logo wasn’t worth an expensive legal battle, so the school, ranked in the top 1.4 percent nationally for academics, reportedly has until June 15 to remove it from the premises. But while avoiding court will likely save the district plenty of money, the school won’t get out of this mess scot-free. Removing the horned-head from the school’s gym floor alone will reportedly cost the school (read: local taxpayers) $15,000, or roughly the cost of a new science book for about 300 kids.
We don’t want to pretend that we’re experts on branding rights and corporate logos, but we just can’t see what the harm is to Dodge if the brand and the school share the logo. After all, we’re assuming the school isn’t going to start making a competitive truck in wood shop. Principal Kotkin is still putting a positive spin on the situation, saying that Chrysler’s actions have “galvanized my school,” but unfortunately for Team Pentastar, the school’s new battle cry sounds something like “I’ll never buy a Chrysler as long as I live.”
[Source: Moto Bullet]
Chrysler legal turns into schoolyard bully over use of Ram logo originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: a-friend-via, a-positive-spin, about-the-same, entry, florida, michael-kotkin, news, remove-it-from, school-district, the-school
Spotted in SoCal: Vauxhall VX220, a Lotus Elise in disguise
Feb 20, 2010 Object
Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Vauxhall, UK
Vauxhall VX220 in a La Jolla garage - Click above for high-res image gallery
If you spend any time hanging out in the same areas frequented by the affluent, you’ll inevitably stumble across plenty of exotic motorized conveyances. Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and La Jolla, California are riddled with Bentleys, Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins. Since those vehicles are readily available for sale here, anyone with enough liquidity can wander in to a dealer and pick one up.
Every once in a while, though, you’ll stumble across something genuinely unusual, that clearly took some effort to acquire. Such was the case the other day when we came across this diminutive silver speed demon in a La Jolla parking garage. Those familiar with the Lotus Elise and Tesla Roadster will recognize the lineage. However, this machine is far more sharply chiseled than its cousins.
This is the Vauxhall VX220, complete with the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the cockpit. During the first half of the 1990s, Vauxhall and its continental counterpart, Opel, collaborated with Lotus to produce a rebodied and stretched version of the Elise powered by General Motors Ecotec four-cylinder engines. We have no idea how this car came to make its way to the Golden State, but if the owner (we’re probably safe in assuming there is only one person in California with a VX220) reads this and cares to enlighten us, we’re all ears.
Spotted in SoCal: Vauxhall VX220, a Lotus Elise in disguise originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: a-are-riddled, a-dealer-and, a-friend-via, a-rebodied-and, about-the-same, entry, florida, golden-state, newport-beach, opel, opel speedster, sports, tesla roadster, vauxhall vx220
Latest Legal News: BofA ‘Forecloses’ on a House Bought With Cash
The bank has gone after a Massachusetts couple’s future retirement home in Florida, for which they had paid cash. Despite protests from the couple, the bank came in, removed the couple’s belongings, changed the locks and turned off the utilities.
Continue reading Latest Legal News: BofA ‘Forecloses’ on a House Bought With Cash
Latest Legal News: BofA ‘Forecloses’ on a House Bought With Cash originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:00:00.
Filed Under: Company News, Columns, Bank of America
Read more here:
Latest Legal News: BofA ‘Forecloses’ on a House Bought With Cash
Tags: america, changed-the, entry, filed-under, florida, foreclosures, from-the-couple, protests-from, real-estate, the-utilities-, utilities
Customised one-off gold Ferrari 599
Jan 27, 2010 news
A one-off Ferrari has made an appearance at a car show in Florida - the customised Ferrari 599 dubbed P540.
See the original post here:
Customised one-off gold Ferrari 599
Tags: 599-dubbed, a-car-show, car-show, customised, florida, has-made, news, one-off-gold, p540
LEGOLAND to open in 2011
Jan 22, 2010 Object
Next year, the LEGOLAND in Florida will be opened. You see, the 145-acre Cypress Gardens was recently purchased by Merlin Entertainment for $22 million to create the newest attraction.
LEGOLAND is said to be a resort complete with hotels and attractions like the London Eye Ferris wheel, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, …
Read more:
LEGOLAND to open in 2011
Tags: cypress, ferris, florida, legoland, like-the, like-the-london, madame, madame-tussaud, merlin, merlin-entertainment, museum, newest, the-145-acre, with-hotels
Report: General Motors no longer provides Tiger Woods with free cars
Filed under: SUV, Marketing/Advertising, Buick, Cadillac, Celebrities, Luxury
Tiger Woods GM-owned Cadillac Escalade, post crash - Click above for high-res image gallery
According to a report from USA Today (via San Francisco Chronicle), Tiger Woods no longer gets free cars from General Motors. No worries, we’re pretty sure Tiger can afford to pay for his own ride anyway.
The news, attributed to Buick spokesperson Dayna Hart, comes as a number of companies like Tag Heuer and Accenture have canceled advertising contracts with the star golfer. GM, though, indicates that the free car agreement was scheduled to end on December 31st and therefore isn’t necessarily a result of Woods’ November 27th accident outside his Florida home that led to his admission of marital infidelity.
Woods hasn’t been a spokesperson for GM since the golfer’s contract ended in 2008, but the automaker had reportedly agreed to let Woods keep his Buick and Cadillac vehicles for an additional year. As previously reported, the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Woods was driving will be repaired and sold.
[Source: USA Today via San Francisco Chronicle]
Report: General Motors no longer provides Tiger Woods with free cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tags: a-top-speed, axing-the-not, buick, cadillac, florida, general-motors, generalmotors, horsepower, news, with-the-star, woods
