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Best Cars for a Long Summer Drive with Your Honey

The end of July is here, and before we know it, August 2009 will be in the history books.

I think we all need to make sure this summer is one to remember; the summer of ‘09 should be right up there with the summer of ‘69. In fact, let’s put that summer to shame by embracing our wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, or people we picked up on Craigslist, packing up a killer car, and hitting the highway for a road trip to who knows where.

Your minivan isn’t going to cut it, though. What kind of rebel adventure can you have tooling around in a ‘02 Caravan? For this trip, when it’s just you and your sweetie, you’ll need one of these cars:

1997_jaguar_xk8_convertible

If you’re looking to travel in attention-getting class, find yourself a version of this sexy convertible. Heck, you could even go get yourself a 1997 XK8 for about eight grand and still look like you’re cruising the States in a $60,000 car. You’ll feel like a modern-day James Dean hitting the accelerator in this baby.

2004-lexus_rx

I recommend this vehicle for two reasons. First, the rear windows come factory tinted, and the rear seats fold completely flat. ‘Nuff said there.

Second, when you’re ready to pull back onto the highway, you’ll travel in leather-and-wood opulence while still getting fuel mileage in the mid-20s. You can’t go wrong.

vw_jetta_sportwagen_tdi

The key here is “TDI.” Go on a road trip without the diesel, and you’re just another wagon on the road getting in the way of the Porsches and Jaguars in the left lane. With the diesel, though, you won’t care, because you’ll suddenly go a good 450 miles between fill ups. Good thing the seats are good enough to keep you comfortable for those long hauls.

2005_maybach_62__interior

I’m assuming you are rich beyond belief by recommending this ride. But seriously, if you can secure yourself one of these rad rides, you’ll guarantee your sweetie the time of his or her life. And you’ll probably benefit, too, from the insanely huge back seat, the beverage coolers, the video monitors, the reclining rear seats, the power privacy curtains….

2007_porsche_911_turbo

I don’t care what year… if you can get your speedy little paws on one of these for a two-week road trip, do it! Nothing says “I don’t care where I’m going because I’m getting there in style” like a 911. This car is epic. You’ll feel like king of the world while blasting George Thorogood songs and weaving through traffic like a madman. Of course, you’ll end up passing the same Jetta TDI a hundred times, because you’ll have to stop for gas while it keeps chugging along.

1994_toyota_tercel

Stay with me on this one for a minute… I speak from personal experience. Get a Tercel that doesn’t have air conditioning. Yeah, it may seem crazy for a summer road trip, but if you’re a guy traveling with a girl, it’s worth it. You see, there’s a very good chance she’ll get so hot she’ll wear nothing but a bikini. Then you can spray her with a water bottle to keep her cool as the temps reach 105 degrees in Southern Idaho. It’ll be a trip you’ll never forget.

What are your favorite road-tripping cars?

-tgriffith





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Michael Jackson’s Curious Car Collection

The interior of Michael Jackson's 1999 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph

The interior of Michael Jackson's 1999 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph

As those of you who’ve seen “The best car songs… ever!” know, we at CarGurus are music fans as well as car fans. And while Michael Jackson got awfully strange and maybe a little criminal toward the end of his life, I love some of his music, and I think it’s a shame he so clearly never learned how to truly grow up despite - or perhaps because of - his absolutely massive success.

Maybe Jackson’s desire to live his whole life as a child explains why his car collection consisted mostly of vehicles that allowed him to bask in over-the-top luxury in the rear while someone else drove. Auto Trader UK assembled a slide show featuring some of Jackson’s cars in an article on a planned-but-canceled auction of Jackson items in February, including a 1999 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph limousine for which Jackson designed the interior himself, using lots of 24-karat gold.

Sadly, that limousine and a 1997 Neoplan Touring Coach (which doesn’t appear until near the end of the slide show) are the only really interesting vehicles in the bunch, and they are interesting mostly because they’re so over-the-top gaudy and gold (including the fixtures on the bidet in the tour-bus’s bathroom). No Ferraris or rare muscle cars, no hot rods, not even a well-preserved classic from the year of his birth - Jackson had the money, at least in the ’80s, to assemble a fleet of cool cars that would rival Jay Leno’s. But no, he built a 2,700-acre amusement park instead.

Based on the segment from Jackson’s film “Moonwalker” called “Smooth Criminal,” though, he did at least appreciate the futuristic looks of the Lancia Stratos - he morphs into a 1970 prototype version to escape Mr. Big and his cronies in the video. Of course, Michael probably didn’t handle the driving for that scene, and maybe one of his collaborators selected that car to feature. According to Wikipedia, that car now sits in a private showroom for Bertone, who did the exterior styling, in Italy. But surely Michael could have found - and afforded - one of the other 500 or so versions of the Stratus. Why didn’t he?

I guess the King of Pop and I don’t have too much in common. I wear two gloves at a time, I’ve never had and don’t want a pet monkey, I wouldn’t hang my child out a hotel window, and I don’t moonwalk at all well. But if I had enough money to start assembling a collection of cars, you can bet I’d have some beautiful Italian cars, some American muscle, and I’d drive those babies myself.

Thanks for sharing your enormous talent with the world, Michael, and may you find more peace in the afterlife than you did in this world.

If you had enough money to buy any single car on the planet to begin your car collection - we’re not looking for daily drivers here - which car would you select, and why?

-Steve Halloran





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No recession for Audi! How are they making so much money?

audi-r8

Even in this economy, it IS possible to make money in the automotive market.  Turns out all you need is a great product, worldwide growth, and a solid business plan.

For most of the last year we’ve heard nothing but reports of declining sales and billions of dollars in losses. Just check out these final tallies for 2008:

Toyota’s 2008 loss: $4 billion
Chrysler’s 2008 loss: $8 billion
Ford’s 2008 loss: $14 billion
GM’s 2008 loss: $31 billion
Audi’s 2008 profit: $3 billion

Wait, what was that last one? Audi made a PROFIT? Let me check my sources to make sure that’s not an error… Yup, it’s true! 

Not only did they make money in 2008, but Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said:

2008 was the most successful fiscal year in the history of our company.

That’s incredible. What’s even more remarkable is that they did it by selling luxury vehicles and offering less sales incentives than other premium carmakers; all while increasing their sales in China, Eastern Europe, Germany, and the U.S.

Pretty dang impressive!

Audi is staying optimistic about keeping their momentum going as the hot new 2009 A4 and 2009 Q5 hit showroom floors, followed in 2010 by the smaller A1. Those models should keep their streak of 13 straight years of sales increases going strong.

Audi is a company that has come a long way since the days of the Audi 80, and seems to be the car company to watch. Of course, being owned by Porsche and Volkswagen (who have world domination plans of their own) isn’t going to hold them back at all.

Have you ever owned an Audi? What do you think of the brand today?

-tgriffith



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Scanning the Auto Blogosphere

Bobby Darin's 1960 DiDio 150

Bobby Darin's 1960 DiDio 150

Time for another round-up of the last week’s auto-blog highlights. You’d think the current economic crisis, particularly among the Big Three, might make it hard to find good news about the car business these days, but I guess the spinmeisters work overtime around the big auto shows - we’ve already posted a preview of the current Geneva Auto Show, and we’ll likely post a wrap-up next week. Anyway, here goes…

The Geneva Auto Show’s “booth professionals” have gotten a huge amount of blog coverage this week, and given the photos we’ve seen, we can understand why. The folks at Jalopnik put together a very lovely gallery that should make anyone who appreciates beautiful curves forget, at least briefly, our current economic and automotive woes.

Consumer Reports recently posted its list of top 2009 cars. It’s a solid list with no huge surprises, but I find it a little sad that CR’s “best overall vehicle,” the Lexus LS 460, costs about $30K more than the next most expensive vehicle on their list, the Chevrolet Avalanche, and the top-end version costs $40,000 more than a maxed-out Infiniti G37, which took CR’s nod for “upscale sedan.” Given everyone’s increasing financial concerns and carefulness these days, maybe CR’s list of the best and worst used cars will prove more useful.

Automotive Traveler posted a terrific gallery of used cars, too, but they were all from the 2009 Palm Springs Concours d’Elegance and likely even more expensive than that Lexus. The best of show winner - a 1961 Alfa Romeo SZ Coda-Trunka - was a new one to me, and while I wouldn’t want to have to keep it running, I’ll bet my co-workers would be happy to head out for off-site lunches in it.

While we’re on the topic of collectible vintage cars, have you seen Bobby Darin’s 1960 DiDia 150 (above)? CarLust’s article includes a few great pictures of a truly distinctive auto that anyone who appreciates ’60s cars - and fins - should see. And Ferrari fans will definitely want to take a look at the World’s Luxury Guide’s “Red Racers” slideshow. Yum!

Old-school still photos serve vintage cars and car shows pretty well, but video does a much better job capturing the spirit of cars in motion. Nihon Car’s video of an HKS GT-R completing a lap of the Fuji Speedway in less than 1:55 is darned impressive. And YouTube’s video of Vaughn Gittin Jr. setting a new drifting world record (not yet certified by Guiness) is amazing.

Okay, one last bit of good news, at least for the future. Apparently Fiat has just developed a new bit of technology that can adjust valve lift profiles while running to reduce fuel consumption up to 25% and CO2 emissions by 10% while increasing power and torque output. The company’s new Multiair feature is expected to debut in the 2010 Alfa Romeo MiTo, which looks like it won’t arrive in the U.S. until late this year, possibly as a 2011 model.

Anything you’d like to see get more - or less - coverage here on the CarGurus Blog?
Let me know.

-Steve Halloran



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