When we drove the Shelby GT500KR at Miller Motorsports Park last May, we were impressed with the steps that Ford and Shelby had taken to make its new King of the Road a special vehicle. Not only was the KR a huge improvement over the GT500 (which led to the development of the 2010 GT500), but the car featured trick items like a carbon fiber hood and lightweight wheels wrapped with R-compound tires. At that time, Shelby also proudly told us that none of the KR-specific parts would be available for sale separately to ensure that owners of lesser Mustangs could not make shadetree replicas that might compromise the KR's image. Of course, all of this exclusivity and performance came at a price: $79,995 to be exact.
$18,400 for a new hood, $3,392.50 for a front spoiler, and $632.50 for a set of hood pins Unfortunately, as one GT500KR owner has learned the hard way, replacement parts for this pony car can be surprisingly dear. After an unfortunate incident with a critter on the road resulted in a modestly damaged front end, the owner in question was shocked to learn about the high cost of his vehicle's replacement parts. And as is increasingly the way these days, he aired his displeasure on the web. That initial report has since touched off a firestorm in the online Shelby community, with the issue spreading to numerous forums and chat rooms.
So just why were these replacement parts such a contentious issue? In the main, it's a numbers thing. As in $18,400 for a new hood, $3,392.50 for a front spoiler, and even $632.50 for a set of hood pins, among other things. Further, the disgruntled owner informed a forum member that Shelby requires any damaged KR parts to be returned to their facility in Las Vegas before new replacements can be sent out.
Obviously, a bit of due diligence was needed to verify the claimed replacement pricing and parts return policy, so we got on the phone with Jim Owens, vice president of marketing and communications at Shelby to get the straight scoop.
Welcome to the Series Finale of Knight Rider. No, that's not official, but it may as well be. Counseling will be made available to those in denial. Okay, it won't. Part of me might actually miss Knight Rider, because making fun of it has been such a blast. Nevertheless, it's over. I probably should have taped plastic up like they do in the locker rooms of playoff teams about to clinch the title. That way I can keep the champagne spray off my A/V receiver.
And tonight, we arrive at "Knight and the City", the penultimate episode of Knight Rider, Season 1 (and only). Tonight, KITT turbo boosts and barfly Mike helps out the Random Babe of the Week. At least that's what the teaser at the end of last week's Knight Rider/Access Hollywood crossover episode indicated.
Last week, Mike broke all the rules of Fight Club and solved The Mystery of Dead Tiki Barber. Then KITT yelled like a drill instructor in the final moments of the show. It was as cringe-inducing as it sounds. Anyway, the post-reboot skinny on Knight Rider is this: it has gone from being hilariously bad to surprisingly boring -- especially for the crew that's now essentially jailed at the Fortress of Suck. Including tonight, there's 3 episodes to go before the Cancellation Reaper does his inevitable thing.
Tonight on Knight Rider, the writers' wheel of movie plots to rip off lands on Fight Club. In "Fight Knight," Tiki Barber guest stars as a dead drill sergeant, there's no soap made from human fat, and you won't need to worry about subliminal porn images being edited in -- just promos for Heroes and Chuck.
And so, we arrive at the post-reboot Knight Rider era, also known as garbage time, wherein the leftover players run out the clock to cancellation. Tonight's episode, written and directed by showrunner Gary Scott Thompson, the architect of this disaster, is called "Exit Light, Enter Knight." Metallica's lawyers are on line two, Gary.
Last week, we learned that Carrie's survived the massive explosion, that her dad is Shaft, and that she's not good to go for field ops any more. Exit Carrie. Then, later, Bruce Davison bought the farm in an offscreen plane crash . This would appear to leave the option open for him to pull a Tony Almeida and resurface, except that we know NBC canned him. Tonight, we get the KITT vs. KARR showdown. Oh, and Torres is gonna die, I think. It should be both awful and awesome.
Well, what do you know? K.I.T.T. was a big hit here at Barrett-Jackson today. We'd never have guessed that there would be enough fans (with money) of the original Knight Rider series here at the auction to drive bidding all the way to $40,000 (add another $4K in fees), but indeed there were. This isn't actually one of the original cars that was used by the Hoff in the '80s, but bits and pieces of it were in fact used in the craptastic new version that our own Mr. Núñez so lovingly mocks each and every week in his hilarious live blog. Not all is lost, though, for fans of the real K.I.T.T., as this is a fully functioning replica, complete with the trademark flashing front strobe lights and two working monitors inside. Plus, how many of your friends have talking cars that are signed by George Barris? None. Perhaps it was worth the dough after all.
Alex should be writing this post, as he's the sharp end of the stick with which we've been poking NBC for the past 11 episodes of the new Knight Rider. His Knight Rider Liveblogs are ruthless and hilarious at the same time, and next weeks will be a high watermark for his creative series of posts. That's because episode 12 of what will surely be the first and last season of Knight Rider in the modern era will feature the showdown between our beloved KITT and his nemesis KARR. In the original series, KARR (Knight Automated Roving Robot) was the prototype version of KITT and a little rougher around the edges compared to KITT himself, i.e. he had a programming error that made him "unstable" and liable to kill an innocent pedestrian with a Turbo Boost to the chest. The modern KARR, however, is a full on Transformer that's bipedal and has a mean right hook. Take a gander at the official preview after the jump that appeared at the end of episode of 11, and come back next Wednesday night when Alex enters the ring with KITT and KARR and only one comes out alive.
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And... after a lengthy hiatus, we're back. New Year's Eve marks the return of Knight Rider. It's the 9th episode, there are nine episodes left, and in a few hours we all ring in 2009. Huzzah. Knight Rider's New Year's resolution is to not suck as much, so starting with next week's episode, they're going to try and make the show better. As if. My New Year's resolution is to watch less Knight Rider, which NBC should make easy for me when it throws dirt on KITT after the February 25th episode.
