Hybrids are good for some and no good for others. There are times when hybrids are the right choice and then other times maybe not.  Reilly Brennan of autos.aol.com gave 5 reasons when a hybrid makes sense, so here they are.

1.  When gas is expensive - that’s not rocket science. Hybrids are great financially, so when the gas is high as it was last summer, hybrids were the best option for sure.

2.  If you drive a gas guzzler - a hybrid definitely makes sense for someone who owns a truck or SUV.  You may be able to double your gas mileage if you get rid of it and buy a hybrid. If you own a sedan, you may improve your gas mileage, but probably not by too much, definitely not double it.

3.  If you are a city driver, you benefit alot more with a hybrid. Hybrids aren’t great on the highway, many times getting the same gas mileage, so if that’s your driving habits, a hybrid isn’t for you.

4.  If you are environmentally active, then you really don’t care as much about the fuel economy and just that a hybrid is good for the environment, so a hybrid is always a good idea for you.

5.  There are tax credits out there if you buy a new hybrid, so that could help make your decision if a hybrid is right for you as well.

Hybrids are probably right for a lot of people, but just make sure you pay attention to the details before investing in a hybrid. 

Yes I know I wrote the blog yesterday about Chrysler and how maybe people don’t even care about the incentives on a new vehicle this time of year because there are other expenses that people have, and then I read this article today on autos.yahoo.com about how Black Friday is the best day of the year to buy a car according to truecar.com.  Some analysts studied the day-by-day car pricing for the last several  years, and Black Friday, on average, had the best prices.  The big difference is that you won’t know the deal that you are getting until that day as you are negotiating your new vehicle.  On average, the new car discount on November 27 is 7.5% and the day before and day after is alittle over 6%.  On a typical day throughout the rest of the year, the average savings below sticker price is 4.7%.  So, if you just look at these numbers, Black Friday is the day for buying new cars!  Truecar.com predicts that you should be able to pay about 28% off the sticker price of a 2009 Suzuki SX4, 26% off a 2009 Nissan Titan or Ford F150, and 20% off a 2009 Hyundai Sonata. Who knows how Truecar.com has projected these savings, but they sound pretty good to me.  Dealerships are in crunch time now anyways. It’s the end of the month and they need to get rid of the 2009 vehicles, before they are really “old” after next month.  So, I guess you guys better get out on friday and buy some new cars!

So I found an article on edmunds.com called “How To Stop a Runaway Vehicle,” and I thought everyone should know what to do if they were in this situation, which hopefully many of us haven’t been in.  This article was in response to that terrible tragedy in San Diego when a state trooper was driving and his gas pedal got stuck and he and his family died in the crash. Floor mats, as crazy as that might sound, were to blame and this is a problem that is somewhat preventable. 

-Make sure that you use the floor mats that were specifically made for your vehicles. If you use mats that are too big, then could dislodge and then cause you problems with the pedals.

-Make sure that after you have your car in the shop or at the car wash, that the floor mats are properly put back into the car. There are hooks in many cars that have to be connected to be properly installed.

- If you are ever in a car when the pedal is stuck, there are a couple of things you can do besides the obvious of manually trying to pull up the pedal.

 -You can put the car in neutral and then brake to stop.  You may damage your transmission, but at least the car will stop for your safety.

 -You can turn the engine off or to ACC. This will make steering and braking harder, but the car will eventually have no choice but to slow down without any power.

-If these steps don’t work, try firmly stepping on the brake with both feet.

-Some cars have an engine start/stop button. If you vehicle does, you can hit that switch as well.

Sure if you are in the situation you may not think to put the car in neutral, but maybe by reading this first, you may think about what may be the best idea if you are god forbid ever in this situation. 

Chrysler had a terrible October in terms of sales and they started a major incentive campaign on Friday that runs right through the holidays until January 4.  Chrysler specifically timed the incentive announcement so that dealers could place ads in their local areas this past weekend and ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday craziness.  On several Chrysler vehicles, there will be additional cash of $1000 to $1500 with the existing incentives in place as well.  For example, the Chrysler 300 and Chrysler 300C will be offering an additional $1000 cash rebate, so that the sticker price will be $25,010 instead of $28,010.  Other new incentives are zero-percent financing for 60 months on the 300, 300C, Dodge Charger, and Dodge Nitro, lease discounts of $500 to $1000 on minivans, and cut-rate financing for the 2008 and 2009 Dodge Viper.  The incentives depends on which brand you are interested in, meaning whether it be a Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep.  I think that these incentives could really help Chrysler, though this probably isn’t the time when people by a car, though I could be wrong.  I think I could give one of these Chrysler vehicles a try given the incentives if I needed a car right now.  Why not. 

The Chinese automarket is hopping these days even though the rest of the world is having a horrible year sales wise.  There are many differences with the Chinese vehicles, but according to an article by Patrick Hong on yahoo autos, there are five vehicles that “could make it to the U.S.”  Here they are:

Brilliance GT - This is a sporty 2-door compact car with a 1.8-liter engine with a 167 horsepower and a 6-speed manual transmission.

Great Wall Gwkulla- This is an electric car that has about an 100 mile range between chargings. 

Great Wall Hover H7 -  This is a midsize sport SUV with a 3.0-liter V6 engine with a 6-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive.  It has a lot of high-tech stuff as well.

Roewe MG6 - Remember MG?  Well, this is an MG. Hong suggests that the company should consider a 4-door of this vehicle instead to entice more customers.

Roewe N1 Concept - This is a midsize sedan with sporty headlamps and many stylish details on the interior that would help make it stand out for sale.     

So, none of these are currently available in the U.S. and for that matter may never be, but these are just the Chinese vehicles that Hong thinks could make it. We’ll have to wait a few years and see if he is right on any of them.

www.hybridlane.net

Motor Trend Car of the Year is……the Ford Fusion.  The Ford Fusion beat out 22 other competitors to win the award of best car.  The redesigned Toyota Prius, BMW 7-Series, and the Chevrolet Camaro were some of the competitors.  Motor Trend said that they chose the Ford Fusion as the best because of its good performance, comfort, and fuel efficiency.  Ford was praised for offering several versions of the Ford Fusion, such as the hybrid and sporty V-6 versions.   Motor Trend has extensive road tests that are completed before determining the car of the year. What a great honor for Ford and the Fusion. 

So I posted a newsclip about a driver that put their $1.8 million Bugatti Veyron into a pond, because they were supposedly attacked by a pelican (by the way there was no evidence that a pelican was at all involved!)  Now I have another story about a fancy car and a dumb driver.  Let me set the stage: A Ferrari California  was being driven by Luca Montezemolo at the Ferrari World Finals in Valencia, Spain.  Some drivers were doing like a victory lap waving to fans cheering when all of a sudden, Montezemolo decided (for whatever reason) to make a sharp right hand turn into the gravel trap that is used to catch slow cars that are spinning out of control at high speeds.  Anyways, the Ferrari got stuck and kept spinning its wheels looking quite ridiculous. See for yourself on youtube.com. Really quite funny.

I found an article by Larry Printz of The Virginian-Pilot that gives the name and some description of 8 cars that will be disappearing in 2010 to “Rust in Peace.”  Some of these vehicles have been around a long time, so it’ll be hard for some to say goodbye, whereas others life have been short-lived.

Bentley Arnage 1966-2009

Chrysler Aspen 2007-2009 - this SUV never took off. This was Chrysler’s first SUV and last.

Honda S2000 2002-2009 - a great sports car that was the “victim of corporate neglect.” Personally, I never even heard of this vehicle.

Hyundai Entourage 2007-2009 - This minivan is gone as the Entourage, but it will be in Kia’s showrooms as the Kia Sedona. Therefore, we won’t really have to miss the Entourage, just its name.

Mercury Sable 1986-2009 - With the new Ford Taurus 2010, there is no room for the Sable.  Sad but true.

Pontiac G8 2008-2009 - This was considered the poor man’s BMW.  This car will live on as a Chevy Camaro.

Saturn Sky 2007-2009 - Yet again, never heard of this car.  Another sports car that can’t make it.

Toyota Solara 1999-2009 - People don’t necessarily want spice in their vehicles, and the Solara was alittle spicy, therefore leaving us.

It’s sad to say that me personally will not miss any of these vehicles, but I’m sure there are some of you out there that will and for that I’m sorry.

Way back when I might have wrote about getting paid to drive, but I thought with the economy the way it is and people looking for work, I would touch on this subject again.  So in case you didn’t know, you can make money by just driving your own car around town.  As much as $900/month, actually anywhere  between $300 - $900/month.  Not a bad gig for just driving. That’s definitely probably your monthly car payment.  So what do you have to do?  You need to “wrap” your car in a vinyl decal with some company and their advertisement on it.  Not too hard, right? It’s not, but you do have to drive around with your car looking somewhat ridiculous, but then again you are getting paid.  There are two advertising companies that do this - Free Car Media and DrivenMedia.  You can go to their websites and fill out a questionnaire if you are interested in this.  In this day and age, why not, right?  Make a few bucks.   Years ago, these companies would lease you a car with the advertisements painted on the cars, but it wasn’t financially smart, so now they just use 3M vinyl and put the advertisements on your car that way. The amount that you get paid depends upon where you live and where you drive in your area. The companies that want to advertise decide what they are looking for and then Free Car Media or DrivenMedia decide who fits the best.  Some of the brands that are looking for advertising are Proctor & Gamble, Coke, Tang, Lacoste, and Vault energy drink.  I think this is a great idea. Maybe I’ll have to try it! 

I just thought I would post this for you guys to see what happens when you have the fastest supercar out there and a really dumb driver.  The car I’m talking about is a Bugatti Veyron that has a 16-cylindrer, 250 mph horsepower engine.   The driver was clearly not paying attention and dealing with a cell phone, when the Bugatti veered into a lagoon. If it isn’t bad enough that he had to get towed out, it’s on Youtube.com, then I just saw the story on the main page of yahoo.com. How embarassing! Check it out.