Editorial Team

Stephen Eldridge
Editor-in-Chief

Stephen Eldridge was born in London. When he was two years old, he came to the United States with his father, his mother, his sister, and his father’s red Lotus convertible. Shipped across the Atlantic at great expense, his father’s Lotus was a beautiful piece of British engineering… until it caught fire and became a beautiful, burned-out husk.

But so prized was this cherry-red sports car that that blackened shell still sits behind the

garage of his childhood home in New Jersey, awaiting the day that the wasps are driven out, the tarp is taken off, and a new… well, everything can be installed to bring the Lotus roaring back from the grave.

Stephen, however, has moved on with his life. Although he became a staunch defender of public transit while attending Emerson College in Boston, he currently carts around his family in a green (technically “silver pine mica”) Toyota Prius. He likes it much better than the 20-year-old Honda that tried to kill him while he was driving on Route 287 in New Jersey.

Stephen has also worked as a writer and editor for non-fiction books, textbooks, websites, and online magazines. In the process he’s learned a lot about crime scene investigation, calculus, modern and historical air conditioning techniques, American History, education reform attempts, classic radio drama, and, of course, cars.

David Merline / Senior Writer

Given that David was born and raised in the Motor City (or rather one suburb north) to parents whose romance blossomed when they both worked at the GM Tech Center, you might say that cars are in David's blood. You'd be wrong, of course, but there's a good chance that there's probably a trace of them in his leukocytes, or in his albumin at the very least.

David is a veteran magazine editor, whose experience runs the gamut of the publication spectrum. He has served as managing editor for an alternative monthly, an "underground"

satire magazine, a national automobile magazine, and a bowling magazine.

David's first real brush with the automotive world (not counting the regrettable purchase of a Renault Alliance in his youth) came during his brief career as a graphic designer. David spent two years working at the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters, designing press kits and other marketing materials before leaving the graphic design field and returning to his first love: unemployment. And later, writing.

His entrée into the world of auto journalism came in 2004, when he was hand-picked

by Eddie Alterman to be managing editor of mph magazine, a short-lived but much-missed automotive mag published by American Media. mph only survived for two short years, but it left its skid marks all over the car-mag scene (most of the former mph staff currently reside at Car and Driver).

Tim Healey / Senior Writer

Perhaps it was pre-determined that Tim would find a career in automotive journalism. After all, his parents owned an auto-parts store in Chicago's suburbs while Tim was growing up, and he spent more than a few afternoons surrounded by alternators and brake rotors. Legend has it that his first word was "Vette," and his parents claim that he could identify individual makes and models of cars at the ripe old age of three.

It wasn't just a love of cars that drove Tim into this career--he's also a news junkie who used to get chewed out in his high-school study hall for perusing the sports section. Indeed, beyond his passion for cars,

Tim also has a deep love for sports, and he began his journalism career toiling behind the scenes in the sports department at the Chicago bureau of the Associated Press before picking up some freelance gigs covering high school and college sports in Chicago's suburbs.

Tim soon found himself working days in the retail sector of the automotive industry while covering sports at night, and he eventually parlayed that duality into a position as an associate editor at Consumer Guide Automotive. After a year there, Tim became a freelance automotive journalist, contributing to High Gear Media, The Detroit Bureau, AutoGuide.com, About.com, ChicagoNow.com, and other sites.

At Web2Carz, Tim continues to break news about the industry, review cars, and cover the major auto shows, all the while bringing his unique perspective as both a car enthusiast and regular consumer to the forefront. Automotive journalism is a strange and wonderful career with a strange and wonderful lifestyle, and Tim makes sure to bring the automotive world to you in clear, concise, and engaging tones.

Steve Karras / Staff Writer

After spending five years putting 300 miles a week on his 2005 Hyundai in Los Angeles, Steve Karras comes to the Web2Carz editorial team with cars very much on his mind.

A product of Northbrook, Illinois' mean streets, Steve can still vividly remember the thrill of accompanying his parents to the Z Frank Chevrolet dealership in West Rogers

Park and leaving with them in a brand-new candy-apple-red 1978 Caprice Classic-a car that survived several cross-country trips, the brutal Blizzard of '79, and the Cold War.

Steve graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and has worked ever since as a freelance writer and documentary filmmaker. In 2009 he completed a ten-year initiative to conduct over 2000 hours of interviews with WWII veterans and was the genesis of two completed projects:

a feature length documentary film, About Face, and a non-fiction book of oral histories entitled, The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II (Zenith Press), which received a starred review in library journal.

Lindsay Prossnitz / Staff Writer

Lindsay is a born-and-raised Midwestern girl, whose earliest automotive memories include riding in the rear-facing jump seat of a metallic blue ‘92 Ford Taurus station wagon, waving obnoxiously to strangers at stoplights. She started “driving” at the age of nine, sitting on her dad's lap and steering (sort of) through her grandmother’s rural neighborhood. (Relax, there was no traffic.)

When she finally passed her driver's exam, Lindsay was ready to feel the wind in her hair in whatever sweet ride she could rustle up. It turned out to be a white '98 Subaru Outback that she inherited from her grandmother--who happened to love her golden retrievers more than life itself.

Though the door panels were scarred with the imprints of sharp paws, the seat belts chewed through, and the faint smell of dog lingered in the air, Lindsay loved that car.

It followed her to college, and even though her roommates called it a "death trap" due to mushy brakes and a malfunctioning speedometer, she could not sever the bond she felt with her first love. In fact, she loved it right up until that cold, snowy, December night when it broke down on the I-51 "corridor," never to be revived.

Lindsay would eventually replace the old Outback with a sleek 2010 Forester after graduating from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with a degree in broadcast journalism. She has been on the move ever since.

She spent a month working as a backpack journalist in Turkey, interviewing Syrian refugees at camps along the Turkey/Syria border, and reporting a story from Istanbul that aired as part of a 30-minute documentary on PBS in Chicago. Shortly after returning to the states, she began a full-time fellowship doing Web production for PBS’s nightly news program, Chicago Tonight. Lindsay now joins the ranks of Web2Carz writers, covering a variety of topics and sure to keep you on the edge of your seat!

Andrew Krok / Staff Writer

Andrew Krok's first memorable experience behind the wheel took place at the ripe old age of fifteen, when his uncle took him into the mountains of southern Arizona. Upon reaching the peak in his uncle’s 1984 Ford Escort, a monsoon swept over the mountain, dropping visibility to zero. It was at that point that Andrew was given the keys and told to drive back down.

After surviving the aforementioned downhill jaunt of terror, Andrew went on to drive a series of unexciting cars. Both of his Ford Escorts committed seppuku within 8 months

of ownership, and he described his 2002 Honda Civic as being "vaguely car-like in its abilities". His current ride is a 2008 Honda Civic Si, which has not let him down. Yet. There's still time, though.

Andrew graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BA in English, a far cry from his original Computer Engineering major. He wrote for the Food & Drink section of Illini Media Company’s buzz magazine, and for the last three years helmed a blog and social media campaign for a small automotive business in Naperville, Illinois.

In his spare time, he freelances for Total 911 – The Porsche Magazine and hopes to own a 993 Carrera at some point in the near future.

At Web2Carz, Andrew is excited to bring his auto knowledge and enthusiasm to writing articles about cars and a wide variety of other topics.

Michael Bivona / Staff Writer

After driving a number of cars, including a ’65 Thunderbird and ’64.5 Mustang, Michael hit the jackpot when he found himself the proud owner of a 2005 Pontiac Aztek. This experience convinced him to concentrate full-time on the auto industry and over to Web2Carz he went.

As a child, Michael trained himself as a backseat ninja, using the seat buckles in his mom’s 1981 Ford station wagon (with the

fake wood on the side) to intimidate his siblings into handing over their Nilla Wafers.

Not being able to join a gang because of his middle-class upbringing and because there were none in his hometown, Antioch, IL, Michael was forced to turn to his education and graduated with a degree in English literature. He started off as a lowly reporter in the northern suburbs of Chicago and worked his way up the chain, using his skills to make big money as a copy editor, paginator, editor, and bureau chief at a number of

media outlets including the Sun-Times News Group, Los Angeles Daily Journal, and AOL.

Michael now covers a number of areas for Web2Carz, but autos is his favorite. He also serves as the public relations specialist, pitching stories to every outlet in the world.