Alright now let’s talk about the LA Auto Showthat began for the media today.  The show is open to the public on Friday the 4th through next Sunday the 13th.  There were be a ton of small cars that will take the spotlight at the show.  Fuel-efficient cars and crossovers will be the stars of the show.   The LA auto show will feature 30 world and North American debuts of vehicles and more than 900 vehicles in general.  The 2011 Ford Fiesta and Mazda2 (subcompact cars) and the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze (compact car) will be at the show.  Many crossovers too such as the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sorento. If you look at websites like autoblog.com you will find reviews on many of the cars at the show.  General Motors and Ford Motor Co. need to show off some good cars at this show to try to sway customers back to them. Hopefully they can succeed with doing that. I’ll have more to come on this show as the weekend approaches and media opinions start to come out. Stay tuned…..

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. 

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. 

So, I guess you can take this information for what it’s worth, but I found the top 10 searched vehicles on AOL autos, and thought I would share them with you.  I know this information is just 1 site and you can probably find a completely different top 10 on another site (well maybe not an entirely different top 10,)  but I still think it’s interesting to see what vehicles people like and are interested in at least interested enough to search them.  So here they are (in no particular order:)

Ford Taurus                                             Honda Accord

Chevy Camaro                                         Honda Civic

Chevy Equinox                                        Toyota Corolla

Kia Soul                                                   Toyota Camry

Smart Car                                                Dodge Challenger

I’m not surprised with several of these searches, but a few (Dodge Challenger?) are interesting choices for me. 

Here’s something you probably never thought about. The new hybrid electric cars are not only cutting down on air pollution but also noise pollution. That’s good right?  Well, it is, but then there is another problem.   Silent electric cars are some what of a problem for the blind.  Congress is considering federal regulations for electric cars.  I can see their point. Yes, the driver of a vehicle should take responsibility and not hit somebody, but that doesn’t always happen, and a blind pedestrian has no chance if there can’t hear the vehicle.  So, Fisker and other automakers as well as toying with different ideas to decide how to have the electric cars alittle noiser.   Fisker will emit a sound from speakers that are in the bumpers.  BMW was thinking of allowing the customer to choose their own sound for their vehicle.  Some are thinking maybe a ringtone that you could manually push on your steering wheel. Whichever way the automaker chooses, it sounds like electric cars will be getting louder.  I guess a quiet car cannot completely happen after all.

www.cars.about.com

So, I mentioned the Lexus LFA last week when talking about concepts being debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show, but I failed to mention the particulars of this car.  I just read an article by Matthew Debord on msnbc.com that kills Toyota and the Lexus LFA for basically building this car.  Toyota used to be known as the powerhouse.  They built the best cars, most reliable, etc. and then there were some bumps in the road with financial losses, recalls, etc.  Anyways, at the Tokyo Motor Show, the Lexus LFA was their baby. This was going to help turn Toyota around. Now granted it is too early to tell if it worked, but this car is sooo unrealistic for most people.  The average Joe (or Sue) will probably not be purchasing it. Though the rumors around town are that this Lexus will probably become ”an instant classic” when it is sold in the future. 

With that said, here are the details.  The Lexus LFA is a supercar with between 500-600 horsepower V10 engine.  It is supposed to compete with the Ferraris and Lamborghinis.  The problem with the Lexus LFA is the price……do you have about $375,000-$400,000 to spend on it?  If you do, go for it, if not, sorry the Lexus LFA is not for you.