[The Cajun]

What’s weird is that it did not go off. My guess, either it is NOT supposed to go off now or it malfunctioned

Guess I'm about as nutty as you because that's what I first thought about. Maybe it wasn't supposed to go off, period. Warning, diversion, fear, etc. etc.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Oh it was supposed to go off, I think it just failed. Because supposedly(Now I have never been to New York so I don’t know how busy Times Square is that time of night) there were thousands of people outside..so that would have been his time to do this, but it failed, either it failed or he chickened out when he saw the cops checking out the car..Now, we have to find the guy because either he is working on his own and thought of this by himself or he is working for a much larger group

[Fabozz]

It's not weird for the bomb not to explode, because the bomb maker is clearly an idiot. Gasoline, propane tanks and gunpowder are lousy explosives--barely even worth bothering with. If everything had gone perfectly, the bomber might have caused some passers-by some really nasty burns, and maybe some lacerations from flying glass.

Now, somebody reported acetylene bottles in the car. That would work. But that's still amateur hour compared to real explosives like TNT or PETN that are perfectly within the manufacturing capabilities of a real terrorist organization. If the bomber knew how to make a reliable trigger, then he'd know how to make real explosives too. His choice of materials marks him as a lone wacko.