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#37 -- While a 4WD car may get you moving better, it will not stop nor corner any better in ice. Also, for 4WD to work you actually have to have power to the wheels which you may not do if you went to hot into a corner so it means you still have to corner slow like a RWD car.

I live in New England and I have owned 2WD and 4WD cars. My current 4WD is a 95 Eagle Talon AWD Tsi. I also have 2003 330Ci. My 330Ci can handle the snow as well as my Talon.

Car and Driver I believe in January of 04 or 05 did a test of AWD vs RWD -- in the end as long as you drive with your head and get a real set of snow and ice tires (NOT ALL SEASON) you can drive all winter long. Most people are too cheap to buy Winter and Ice tires.

That being said, there are two types of tires I have used on my 330Ci in the worst of winters. My current set that I will put this winter is The X-Ice from Michelin. YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE THESE ON IN THE SPRING, but you will not regret them in the winter. My last set were Hakkapeliitta Winter Tires -- Simply the best, just hard to find in my area. I used these on old Volvo 240 went up some messy Winter hills in Waterbury, CT like there was nothing on the ground. Again, you want to swap them out in Spring.

Lastly, the 50/50 balance of a BMW makes it more predictable and easy to drive in the snow versus a front heavy or rear heavy car.

Note the update on the site:

"Update: LA Martin sends the disappointing news that this isn't real -- merely a graphic of a potential rug. What a bummer. -- BoingBoing"

It does not actually exist!

A few replies to the above posts:

#6 -- Iran could, but they will not because 80% of there economy relies on the sale of oil. They need the money like everyone else

#9 -- ExonMobile does not set the market price for oil. I know you have bloomberg and CNBC in the UK -- watch it sometime. They may benefit but they do not set the price. The UK just like in the US have investiaged BP many time and have never found them guilty of price fixing. In that same vein, you can blame Russia which has most of the worlds gold reserves for fixing the price of gold, they don't the financial markets do.

Finally, the US transportation infrastructure, geography and business centers are completely built on the idea of cheap fuel. Even if all of America drove cars that got 40mpg, we would still have high fuel prices for no other reason than there is no single federal standard for gasoline composition and each state has its own rules which increases the cost. Ethanol is also driving up the cost of gas and in bad crop years it will make it worse. One solution which is still far away is to use diesel (which has a single federal standard because of trucks) and biodiesel fuels for transportation. One thing we thing we can learn from the EU, it diesels are cool! and efficient. Even if we eliminated all SUVs, that would be only 5% decrease in consumption because oil is used in many other things besides driving from A to B. Oh, and in Brasil, there was recent sugar crop scare that sent prices up 50% in a single day, only to go down after a few days -- so there is no silver bullet for energy except to conserve

Boone Pickens has been predicting $80 and potentially $100/barrel oil and he has been ahead of most of the "experts" -- then again, the cure for high prices is higher prices. I would not be surprised if we see $4/gallon gas in the next 6 to 12 months. If its not the middle east it will because the ethanol feed crops are hurting because of drought -- add to that states like CT that continued to increase the gas tax and gas it going to go higher for certain.

its no mistake that someone came up with the phrase "Your milage will vary"

As the posts have shown, you can have crappy luck with new or used cars. In both cases, you have to do your homework but even if you do, it does not mean you might not get a lemon.

From a pure economics point-of-view.

If the average person purchases 5 cars in his or her life time (i had to pick a number) and each car costs about $40,000 that is $200,000 that went towards cars not including, Taxes, Insurance, and basic maintenance and repairs. Take that same person, and instead buy used and say pay half, $20,000 per car, that is a savings of $100,000 in your lifetime even if you get 1 lemon that costs you a big repair bill.

I have owned only used cars. I have owned a Buick Regal (Paid: $8k, got 120k miles on top of the already used miles before I junked it), A Volvo 240 (Paid: 14K, got 200k miles on top of the already used miles), An Eagle Talon Tsi AWD (Paid: 12K, I have 120K miles and counting), Subaru Legacy 2.4 (Paid: $14k, I have 160K miles and counting) and finally a Dodge Durango LST (Paid 17K, put on 30k miles so far).

That amounts to a huge savings over new.

Are newer cars safer? Are newer cars more efficient?

Those are all good points to argue -- but over my lifetime I rather pocket the $100K savings vs buying new.

The economic rule is "The cure for high prices are higher prices" There is a point where it hurts enough that people change. The question is, what would people eliminate or substitute. Tobacco prices are up to $6 or more a pack and that has not stopped the smokers -- when asked many smokers have sacraficed food money to buy cigarettes. What would people sacrifice to for gas? In UK most drivers would not stop driving unless the gas was upto about $20/gal.

Taxes can change habits, and that is the role of government which is to sometimes force people to do things they would not normally do for the benefit of the society.

That said, Tax the cars themselves. At the federal level, charge a 10% Tax at the point of sale of any car that gets less than 35mpg new or used. At the state level charge a yearly $500 for the same for households with incomes of $80,000 or more. Add $50 tax on tires and $1/gallon tax on motor oil and $5 disposal charge for old oil, tires and oil filters -- the more you drive the more tires and motor oil you need.

Make motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles tax free to purchase, own and operate and give a $100 credit to people who drive them to work at least 3 days a week subject to audit by companies who get energy tax credits for each person who shows up to work on a motorcycle, moped or bicycle.

The higher prices will force people to purchase more fuel efficient cars and create a market for auto makers to make more efficient cars. The yearly sting will get the straglers but the market forces will handle the gas prices.

There is no such thing as 100% so there will always be a class of people who will be happy to pay all the taxes -- either for principle or because they can.

All the collected money should go to Universities for engineering research on better fuel/power efficient technologies.

Money can change behavior but you need to make sure the incentives/decentives are inline with what you are trying to accomplish.

Daimler-Benz purchased MOPAR but has never done anything with the company. Hear is a real chance to actually use some of that German know-how.

What makes a Benz, BMW or Audi great is that they look civil on the outside and handle on rails when pushed. Here the challenger looks like a monster on the outside, its the driving that I am not sure about.

Can they make a car that can go in another direction other than straight? I am thinking BMW M5-like performance for a car that is sub-40k.

Make it the average guys Viper and they will sell like hotcakes. It has to be tame enough to be a daily driver and then come the weekend it has to be the ultimate street rod.

I don't know if MOPAR has it in them. The car is going to be front heavy and probably have monster push in the corners. I doubt they will give it a 50/50 balance. The suspension will be rock hard and it will have big displacement without any agility. It will be a great idea but will never fullfill what it could have been. American car companies have become the could'a, would'a, should'a car companies and can't seem to get all the pieces correct because they lack vision and have forgotten how to dream

Its the same reason many BMW owners dump there old beamer for a new one once the factory maintenance and warrenty is up -- the repair costs are way too high.

Ditto for Audi and other cars like it that have a similar program.

I find it funny when I here a BMW, Audi or Merc owner talk about there latest $500, $600, $700 or $1000 repair bill.

The dealers with there $200/hr labor charges don't help either.

The Auto industry is like the razor blade industry -- make little to nothing on the blade handle but then mark up the blades 400% -- the luxury brands get you coming and going

To Mac users that think that they are safe, I spent the good part of last week at the Software Security Summit in Baltimore, MD -- if you think you can't be bitten you are either foolish, stupid or nieve -- one of the speakers showed an exploit using his own personal Mac -- don't feel so high and mighty. The only secure computer is the one that has no I/O ports or devices and never ever plugged into a network.

And if BMW is smart, they will have a switch to turn it off. Seriously though, if anyone has been on the I5 in the UK or around London, or L.A. or San Fran or the NY Metro area during morning or evening rush hour when its a parking lot for several hours, this feature is better than burning all the fuel and creating all the smog while just sitting there. Sitting at the stop light will not do you much, but anyplace where you just plain wait (e.g. airport, after a ball game, after a concert, during xmas shopping etc) it would be great!. I believe the current 06 3s have an electric motor for the fan, the A/C and some other items that is seperate from the motor and is not connected to the motor -- I can see them extending that concept to the start/stop motor.

I would love to know how this would work with a manual gear shift or on a steep hill unless they plan on using the Rover hill climb/decent tech it could be interesting. Also will be fun in New England snow storms when momentum is your friend.