Coffee Brake: A Gift for Mom

Coffee Brake: It is time for everyone here to take a minute from scouring the internet for cheap used cars and instead think a little bit about the woman who gave birth to you.  Yup.  Mother's day is next weekend (Sunday May 8th), but you've probably been up to your elbows in Volvo wiring harness repair and haven't gotten anything for her -- fear not, DT is here to help.

15k: Happy Mother's Day: 2008 Volvo C30

If I was a more fiscally blessed son, I would honor my mother on this Mother's Day with this Volvo, a summary of everything she needs in a daily driver. For someone finally freed of minivan duty, this sleek turbocharged hatch is actually an efficient, practical mini-wagon in disguise. Find this 2008 Volvo C30 T5 for $14,933 in Detroit, MI. Words by DT contributor slowcarSLOW-MPGlol.

Tribute To Our Mothers: We Drove 'em Crazy ... They Drove Everywhere Else!

As the resident "Andy Rooney" of DT, I thought it would be appropriate to take this opportunity to show the softer side of us gear-heads by inviting our readers to comment about the coolest/oddest cars their mom's drove or provide us with some Mom-based anecdotes of the things that we've all done to drive our mothers crazy, or amazing things our moms have done while driving.  I'll begin...

Our family's favorite prank from the early '60s, while waiting for mom to get to the car, was to turn on every possible electric device in the car so that when Mom turned the key she'd be greeted with full speed wipers, a blaring AM Radio, full windshield defroster, the Speedminder Alarm set to 10mph. It was fair. We were in shorts, sitting on plastic seat covers in 80+ degree heat and our thighs would stick to it (*for those of you under 58 yrs old a speedminder alarm is an adjustable setting that causes a buzzer to go off when you exceed that speed. Most were buried at 120 the first time they were encountered).

Car pictured above is not the actual car, but is the correct model.

5k: Mothers Day Special: 1933 International Rat Rod Straight-8

When the writers of the Daily Turismo spit balled mother's day feature concepts over rounds of white Russians, the theme that kept returning was 'cars that Mom would drive'...except this was clearly wrong and we needed to continue drinking... What tells Mom you love her more than the classic 1930s "Mom" with heart tattoo? Nothing.  Logically, we needed to find the car that is the automotive equivalent of the "Mom" tattoo.  Find this 1933 International Cab based Rat Rod with Straight-8 power located in Weld, ME for $8,000 via craigslist. Happy Mother's day to all Moms out there!