School buses are roaming once again, the fruits of my garden have been harvested, and I can tell that the days are starting to get shorter. We’re still in summer, but we are getting close to September, autumn, and the end of the season. It doesn’t creep up on you, it flashes by and you don’t know it’s happened until leaves start falling and the smell of pumpkin spice EVERYTHING is in the air! We’re still quite busy but not busy enough that a bit of this week’s news clipping get to bypass the roasting before being served up to you on a platter. Here’s this week’s Scrapple…eat up!

1.Maybe you should’ve nicked a run-of-the-mill E Class, instead.

There are good thieves and there are dumb thieves…and then there is the individual who stole this exact car, who is both. Chassis number 198040 5500434 has to be the most visually different Gullwing in existence. For starters, it’s a chop-top Gullwing. You don’t think THAT will stand out? The car was stolen from a hotel near the Nurburgring, where it had been parked…it was supposed to take part in the Oldtimer Grand Prix. Either this car is stashed and will stay that way for decades or it’s going to be parted if it isn’t located in a hurry. The owner has a €250,000 reward for the return of the car.

2. How, exactly, do you explain THIS emergency?!
In India, a camel had to be cut out of a Toyota Corolla after the car was involved in a head-on crash…with the animal in question. The camel’s head was stuck inside of the sunroof and the body was wedged inside of the car, and as you can surmise, the camel wasn’t having any of the situation lightly. The driver of the car was transported to hospital for a checkout and the camel was cared for after being extracted from the car.

3. Rent-A-Vette! 

Shut up, it’s a great idea. We aren’t talking about a run-of-the-mill Corvette that Hertz already rents as part of it’s Adrenaline collection. We’re talking about the 100 Corvette ZO6s that will certainly add plenty of adrenaline to your out-of-town rental experience. They will be yellow with black stripes, automatics (aw, man…) and you’ll have to have landed at one of fourteen cities that will offer the Vettes up for rental. You’ll be out for $199/day before you tack on the taxes, add-ons and insurance, which we do recommend getting.

4. Look at all the pretty colors…We love the idea of real colors being added to a model’s offerings, but there is a scent of desperation when you see the forty custom colors that VW is adding to the Golf R. It’s called the Spektrum Program, and for $2,500, the rainbow of colors you see above will be available. Some of the colors that are making the cut include Viper Green Metallic (used on the Mk3 Scirocco and Lamborghini Huracan),  Ginster Yellow (last used on the 1997 “Driver’s Edition” GTI), Mars Red (Mk1 GTI) and Deep Blue Pearl (Mk4 and Mk5 R32). Maybe this will help people forget about that whole diesel thing?

We do have to admit, for a German brand, that is a pretty impressive spread of color.

5. No more grocery list!If you live in Scottsdale, Arizona, you might want to check out your local Fry’s Food Store to see if they are participating in an autonomous delivery system for your groceries. Yeah, you read that right…thanks to programs like Amazon’s partnership with Whole Foods, Kroger (Fry’s parent company) and Wal-Mart have teamed up with Nuro, a tech group working on driverless technology, to gauge interest in the program. There will be a couple of stages of the program. The first will involve Toyota Priuses modified by Nuro that will have a driver on-board to make sure there are no incidents with the driverless cars. The second stage involves the Nuro R1, a driverless van that will be a human-less delivery vehicle. So long as you live within the confines of ZIP code 85257, you can be a part of this program. Or, you can actually get off your couch, drive to the store and pick your own food up, you lazy mother….