Mazda looks like the big winner in The Truth About Cars' 2008 edition of the 10 Best Cars. I have to admit that I am a bit surprised that the Chevy Malibu isn't among the winners. Sometimes good news travels slowly.
Meanwhile over at the GM corral, the across-the-board budget cuts are slicing deeply into the advertising budget just when, according to AUTOEXTREMIST Peter DeLorenzo, highly targeted, big-block events are becoming hyper-important to the task of focusing public attention on the fact that GM is turning out some genuinely great models.
On the other hand, Corvette Blog has another reason to be thankful you live in America, even if, like yours truly, you really can't afford a new Vette.
You may have heard that Tony Stewart has a new race team set to go for the 2009 NASCAR season, with Ryan Newman on the driver roster. But will Newman be chauffeuring the #4, no, the #39 car? FastMachines.com has the inside dope on the numbers circus.
Street Skating, it's the newest deadly craze involving wheels and people with sub-rational IQs. 4 Drivers Only has the video and more details. Coming soon to the obituary page in a newspaper on a newstand close to you.
Peering past The View Through the Windshield, Joe Sherlock spies the new Lincoln MKS and comes away repeating something about "luxiocrity." He'll explain what that means just as soon as you click on over.
Want to stumble upon something really good automotive-wise? Hemmings Auto Blog is raving about a feature that makes getting lots of traffic for your blog "ridiculously easy."
And from the video file comes this: What do you think went through the mind of the guy driving the semi featured by The Auto Prophet?
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is among the lucky few selected by Honda for an extended test drive of the Clarity fuel cell vehicle. Cool huh. Lori Hindman at Mother Proof isn't so sure.
Dorri at if It's Got An Engine is going all copy editorish on Car & Driver's Csaba Csere.
Uh oh, big trouble in Smart-land. Next Auto says bad paint could require a roof-ectomy. If that's even half as painful as it sounds .....
WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Jaguar XF Remember the first time you saw a Jag XKE in person? If you're like me, it was memorable because of the sheer sensuality of its shape. "That's what speed looks Iike," I recall thinking to myself. There are hints of such beauty here and there in the new XF's attractive lines, and it certainly has an abundance of speed, thanks to the 420 horses on tap from the supercharged 4.2 liter V-8.
But all during my week in a lovely silver XF something kept bugging me. No matter how pleasurable was the daily drive between my home in distant rural Maryland and the Examiner newsroom in downtown D.C. the car just didn't feel right. At one point, I thought I had it - Where's that cursed L-shaped shift pattern that plagued Jags for so many years? Wait a minute, you doofus, you cursed those things all those years, right?
Well, it hit me yesterday - The shifter is a darn rotary dial in the center console that could easily be mistaken for that infernal BMW iDrive. That's it, this Jag is so advanced, so stuffed full of techno-geegaws that there's no room left for genuine soul, for the uncompromising beauty of lusciously curved sheet metal and tearing-sheet sixes at full song. The XF is a Jag the way BMW would do it if the Germans owned the Brit classic. BMW makes great Bimmers, but Jags are supposed to be ... Jags.
