Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram

Chrysler opened up its usually tightly guarded test facilities west of Detroit on Thursday to show off its entire lineup. Almost most everything new for 2011 and even some freshly minted 2012 wares were on hand for sampling at varying levels of speed.

And since the Chrysler 300 with the much-anticipated new eight-speed transmission is a secret--or at least embargoed--until fall, I decided to start off the day of performance testing off-road. Why not? The entire Jeep line was sitting off to the side, awaiting enticingly for some exercise. And I was happy to oblige.

Now, these weren't simple…

Just drove our new van home to San Diego from HB Chrysler. We had been looking for months at the local dealers but kept getting the same price offered to us, which we weren't willing to pay (whats up with that San Diego?). On a whim, I checked online within a 200 mile radius and Huntington Beach Chrysler popped up with some crazy good deals. I asked a salesman in San Diego if they could match the prices and they said that there was no way those prices were legit and they didn't want me to drive up to Huntington Beach and "get my feelings hurt". So I called to see how real these deals were and talked to Jason. He was great! Seriously, take it from a mom and someone who has a tendency to have anxiety of big purchases, just ask directly for him because he made it so stress free. Well, should I say, he will for you, I did stress because I was waiting for the deal to fall through or him to change it up on us but really, he was a straight shooter, I should have trusted my gut and not worried... but I did. Jason treated me like a person who had some brains and didn't try to pull any of that stereotypical car salesman stuff with me (for example, not once did he call me "sweetheart", and once I told him exactly what I wanted he didn't push me to get something else). Anyway, he gave me an awesome price over the phone (we are talking A LOT less than San Diego here), and I drove up the next day and did the paperwork at that price, not once did he try to change it.

I've been reflecting a lot on JURASSIC PARK in my head a lot this past week as I've tried to make sense of SUPER 8 in my own head. While a lot of the talk surrounding SUPER 8 and Spielberg naturally turns to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, E.T. or GOONIES, there's actually quite a bit of JURASSIC in the film. The film's action sequences, well-executed despite the film's other flaws, owe quite a bit to JP in how their lit, staged and shot and it got me thinking about how perfect a piece of blockbuster entertainment…

The ultimate daddy, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, would like to add even more performance and appearance to every dad's car this Father's Day. After perusing the Mopar® catalog, he picked his top 12 gift items.
(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110601/DE11453 )
"'Big Daddy' Don Garlits is the Babe Ruth of drag racing," said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group's service, parts and customer-care brand. "While not every dad can make sub-five second passes over the quarter mile, we think Don Garlits knows what it takes to get dad's car looking good…