Good grief! I think I've got it (so don't stand too close).
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
I hope it's OK for a rookie to answer this, but it's been driving me mad ever since it was bumped recently.
It's such an odd selection of letters, three Us, but only one E. Common letters like S and N missing altogether. There are remarkably few mainstream (or otherwise) car manufacturers' names that you can make from it.
So today I tried a different approach, on the basis that it might be the answer to an earlier AutoPuzzle. The first ever, perhaps? No. So then I started to browse the Solved AutoPuzzles section, working backwards from March 16, 2008, when this thread was started, and it didn't take long to find this:
![](http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3865.0;id=1720;image)
And sure enough, "Our Tom hurled a yttrium cab" rearranges to:
HybridAuto UltraCommuterPhew, what a relief! Now I can get back to all those other things I was supposed to be doing.
![Grin ;D](https://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)