This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:30 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: Which Police Car Is The Best?
Short of a few modified specials, the Ford Police Interceptor with the twin-turbo V6 is the quickest police car, pulling a 0-60 mph time in Michigan State Police tests of 5.66 seconds, compared to 6.04 seconds from the Dodge Charger with the 5.7-liter Hemi and 6.01 seconds for the new Caprice with the 6.0-liter V8. All this according to a story from Chris Woodyard.
Note that we said it's the "quickest" and not the "fastest." The Dodge Charger is still the fastest around the MSP track.
The Caprice, form what I've seen, is the most comfortable.
2nd Gear: How Congress Tried To Kill Car Sales
The shutdown is mercifully over, with Republicans getting exactly what they wanted for shutting down the government for two weeks and scaring the shit out of everyone. Oh, wait, no, they got almost nothing but bad poll numbers, a media distracted from the massive ObamaCare rollout clusterfuck, and scorn from members of their own party.
It's almost as if they don't want the economy to recover…
Speaking of, the strong car market might see a bit of a setback as people, understandably, don't want to go add a new bill to the monthly expenses when Congress seems unwilling to do anything.
"The budget impasse impacts consumer sentiment which clearly affects sales," General Motors Co. spokesman Jim Cain said. "We have seen some softness in sales but we don't know yet know how deep the impact will be."
GM's comments come a day after the chief executive of Hyundai Motor Co.'s U.S. operation, John Krafcik, said in an interview with Bloomberg that new car sales for the U.S. could fall as much as 10% in October from September's levels because of the impasse.
I've figured it out! Senator Cruz just wanted a better deal on a Hyundai Equus. You know he'd drive an Equus.
3rd Gear: Ford Is All Over Trucks
While Toyota is fighting off rivals like the Fusion for its top spot amongst cars, Ford has little to worry about when it comes to keeping its place atop trucks in the U.S. for its millionth year. In fact, Bloomberg reports that it'll probably expand its lead despite being the oldest truck behind the new GM twins and the Ram Ram.
Ford F-Series deliveries surged 21 percent to 559,506 this year through September. F-Series extended its lead over combined sales of Detroit-based GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks by 18 percent to 63,061. The F-Series' advantage over Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler's Ram pickups expanded by 19 percent to 296,719.
Imagine that to continue when Ford unveils its next generation F-Series.
4th Gear: Ducati And Corvette Are In The New Monopoly
So, there's a new Monopoly game built around the concept of winning in business (very literal!) and attaining famous brands instead of locations. It's called Monopoly Empire and would be ridiculous if you didn't get to drive a Ducati 1199 Panigale or a Corvette Stingray around instead of a thimble.
Here's the explanation:
Featured brands in the new MONOPOLY Empire include: Beats by Dr. Dre, Carnival, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, eBay, Electronic Arts, Fender, Hasbro, Intel, JetBlue, McDonald's, Nerf, Nestlé, Paramount Pictures, Samsung, Spotify, Transformers, Under Armour, Xbox, X Games Yahoo! and Ducati.
You apparently display your brands on a billboard or something.
5th Gear: As If Carmakers Weren't Having Enough Problems This Month
We're also hearing from Bloomberg that the #1 port for importing automobile cargo, Baltimore, is now on strike over a contract dispute with the Steamship Trade Association.
I actually know everything there is to know about this because I watched the second season of The Wire, although I can't figure out who "The Greek" is supposed to be.
The most impacted will be Chrysler-Fiat, Mazda, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, although it seems like the strike could end in a few days and be minor.
Reverse: The Oil Embargo-oh-oh
"You know, OPEC was founded in 1960. And like most of us, it didn't start causing trouble until its teens. In 1973, OPEC pulled the IV drip on our petroleum habit and we went into shock," General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson told the Securing America's Energy Future summit Wednesday on the 40th anniversary of the oil embargo. "It was an easy thing to pull off."
Neutral: Which Cop Car Would You Have?
And no, that Italian Gallardo doesn't count.
Photo Credit: Getty Images