Do you want the good news or the bad news first?
Let's start with the good news?
In
Colorado the Chrysler Sebring may be the most exclusive car you'll ever
own. In fact, during the one week I drove the car I saw exactly one
other Sebring (more about this later).
I felt like I was behind the wheel of Bugatti Veyron
as I glanced over the distinctive furrowed hood of the Sebring at all
of the masses in their oh-so-common Audi(s), Subaru(s) and Prius(s) or
is it Pre(i)?
OK, I have to be honest here and admit that you probably, make that certainly, won't be able to eat Toyota's new 1/X concept plug-in hybrid car that it hopes to build from seaweed.
The kelp car is not as crazy as it sounds, Toyota hopes to have it in showrooms within 15 years. Bioplastics are becoming more and more popular, and Toyota hopes to build the car's body from the earth friendly material.
Let's face facts, like beautiful people, beautiful cars are just treated better.
I
recently did an internet search for used Ferraris, and discovered that
you'd be hard pressed to find a 5-year-old car with over 50 thousand
miles. It seems that most Ferrari owners tend to baby their cars,
admire them lovingly from afar, and keep them parked in the garage for
that special summer day when the stars and moon align for a gentle
drive in the country.
I suspect the Vantage V8 I drove will never
see snow or even much rain. Which is probably a good thing because I
believe this car would handle like a goat on ice given even the
slightest bit of snow between it at the massive 275/35 high performance (don't even think about ice or snow) rear tires.
If James Bond had a son, there is no doubt this is the car he'd drive.
With
an as tested sticker price of just under $150,000, it is a full
$123,000 cheaper than James Bond's Aston Martin DBS, and not much
slower with "only" 420 horsepower versus the bigger brother's 510
horsepower DBS.
But would James Bond Jr. be willing to spend the equivalent of five drop top Minis, or eight Honda's Fits for one V8 Vantage?
Let's find out.
If you are a fan of cars and movies this year's five Oscar "Best Pictures" nominations offer slim pickings.
But out of the five movies that are nominated for Best Picture one stands head and shoulders above the rest for car gear guys and gear gals.
So without further commercial interruption: The Oscar for the Best Car Picture goes to Slumdog Millionaire because the movie cast several Mercedes Benz in the much overlooked, but never-the-less best supporting car roles.
It is not all that far fetched.
All you need is GPS, or a GPS chip in your car and a few new laws.
The new Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he is considering taxing drivers by how much they drive.
Meet Rob Hilarides.
He's a California dairy farmer who just spent a $600,000 grant to convert two of his dairy's semi trucks to run on bio-gas.
Bio-gas is a fancy term that really means the stuff that's produce when you convert cow manure into purified and pressurized methane. His trucks had to be converted from compression-ignited diesels to spark-ignited methane-burners.
It is a painful fact but the world wide economy is circling the toilet.
In the United States the car companies are calling uncle, and begging uncle Sam for more billions every press conference.
But for some drivers around the world these issues are just minor speed bumps along the road to their yacht, private jet, or personal Caribbean island.
