THE HARDEST PART OF MAKING A WEBSITE: NAMING IT

If you have been waiting with baited breath for my next post, you can stop suffocating yourself now.

I contacted Matt Farah of the Drive Network on YouTube and his own TheSmokingTire.com what he thinks about this blog -- its concept, its direction and where I should go next.

At first he said, simply, "that's funny." I didn't know to take it as an insult or for good. Evidently he meant the good kind of funny. He then recommended I "do a counter-point to every post jalop makes." That took me back.

Yes, that was the point of this site at the beginning, but I'm realizing more and more how much of a challenge that'd be for a (!) lad like myself. How could one person possibly counter every. Single. One of Jalopnik's seemingly unlimited supply of posts?! There are too many in existence to be counted by man, let alone machine. 

This site garnered an unexpected amount of attention (1500 views within 12 days), sure. For me, that's a boatload and a half, which for scientific purposes, is kind of a lot. However, I don't know how sustainable the site is.

So then, the vision of this site was impossible to achieve. What then? How am I supposed to needlessly push my opinions on the internet masses and break out as a wannabe/student (same thing, right?) journalist. 

In a series of incomplete sentences via Twitter, Farah told me to make a .com site. "No one ever goes to a ".blogspot" site, so ditch that ASAP. Get a real .com site. Most semi-pro's/pros use the Wordpress platform. We use Wordpress."

Whatever I end up pursuing, it's evident at least that I should make it a .com site and use Wordpress. Now the hardest part of it all is what do I name the damn thing? 

There are a billion-odd other car sites out there and how on the planet am I to stand out? They usually incorporate the following buzzwords in some funky conglomeration: "Auto," "Sport," "Line," "Week," "Driving," "Speed," "Tech," "Gear," "Track," "Road," "Car," "Driver," "Automobile," "Trend," "Piston," "Motor," "Torque," "Authority," "Motoring" or "News."

So what does that leave me with? SpeedTechGearTrack.com? No, too cumbersome. 

AutoSpeed.com? I'm betting without even checking that that's already taken. 

PistonTrend.com? That's a helluva lot better.

DrivingAuthority.com? Probably already taken, but sounds corporate, boring and all-too-familiar. Also, I'd need a lot of facts that I don't have to back up my opinions with a name as vanilla as that. 

AutoMotor.com? Sounds like a Chinese instruction manual gone wrong. 

RoadNews.com? That'd be a good government-sanctioned website for highway conditions, I guess... 

I think no matter how I jumble up this can of automotive alphabet soup, it's still going to sound horribly bland and uninteresting. I need something short, sweet, catchy (of course!) and memorable. 

So I hate to beg. But if you've got a name you're 1) so unbelievably selfless so as to recommend to me and 2) dumb or lazy enough not to use it yourself send it to me at MFL11592@aol.com. 

Thanks in advance, that is, if I get any ideas. 

KIA OPTIMA: DOUCHEBAGS NEED APPLY

If you were one of the 13,000 to buy a Kia Optima this past month, you're a douchebag.

The heavy marketing the Optima has received since its release late last year has propelled the "not-so-average midsize sedan" to increase Kia sales "15.9 percent over 2011." (Source)

This goes to show how marketing can brainwash the public into buying something they don't need. 

Something tells me people who want 24MPG city and 35MPG highway aren't the type to take full advantage of the 274-horsepower powerplant the Optima provides. 

What's most insulting to auto enthusiasts is how blatantly Kia uses deception in order to sell the Optima as if it's a rear-wheel drive sports sedan... 

Which it's not.  

Watch as this 2012 Kia Optima engages in a maintained slide.  

This, and the other well-known ads have thwarted the Optima into it high sales trends. 

There is not only deception from the ad campaign that this economy car is rear-wheel drive and sporty, but also from the design department. Compare the exterior design of the Optima to the E60 BMW M5. 

The door design, the fender vent, the rear taillights, the headlights, the front fascia, to even the wheels are very similar from the top-end luxury sports sedan to the econo-box sedan. Here's a textbook example of how design influences trickle down from the elite to the economical as years go by and body styles are phased out.