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Think everyone in the corner office favors a luxury car? They may be able to afford one but often prefer practicality over performance
It should surprise no one that Warren Buffett doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about what he drives. Last month the famously frugal billionaire investor auctioned off his personal car for charity. The auto in question was a 2001 Lincoln Town Car with the vanity license plate "THRIFTY."
The point is the 75-year-old Buffett, who took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and has a personal net worth estimated at around $44 billion, can afford to buy any car he wants—heck, he could afford to buy Ford.
Yet like many seriously rich men he either doesn't have the time or the interest to drive a car that is super-fast or ultra-expensive. What he wants is a safe, reliable, comfortable car that will get him to his next appointment on time. Not only are many of the most successful people, such as Buffett or Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, usually too busy to drive themselves, they would also give their shareholders nightmares if they took to driving around in Lamborghini's.
According to a survey released last month by CareerBuilder.com and Cars.com, the majority of respondents thought that the typical CEO drives a luxury vehicle on which he or she spent $70,000 or more. The reality is much different, if the survey is correct. It states that CE O's spend less than $25,000 on average for their primary car, and that only 19% of respondents drive a luxury car.
The rest of the list broke down like this: passengers cars (29% ), SUVs (24%), pickup trucks (13%), vans and minivans (9%) and sports cars (6%).
Apparently, it all comes down to the industry in which one works. Investment bankers concerned that they may have been condemned to a life of driving out to the Hamptons in a minivan can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The survey found that senior banking executives are the most likely to be seen driving luxury cars and sports cars, while health-care professionals prefer SUVs, and general contractors pickup trucks. Condensed from BusinessWeek.com
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 Not even the red-hot Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky are immune from the fall and winter downturn in sports car sales. Both roadsters are now readily available at many dealerships -- and at near their sticker price. Back in spring and summer, they were fetching several thousand dollars over sticker, when you could find them.
GM reported a 74-day supply of Solstices as of Nov. 1, up from 34 days on Oct. 1. About 3,500 Solstices are in inventory. The Saturn Sky has a 33-day supply this month, up from 19 days last month. GM says it has about 1,100 Sky models in inventory. At Saturn of the Valley in North Hills, Calif., near San Francisco, 11 Skys were in stock last week. At Jim Fresard Pontiac-Buick-GMC in Royal Oak, Mich., near Detroit, the dealership started the week with four Solstices but sold one to a Florida dealer. Bill Quinn, Fresard's finance manager, says the Solstice doesn't fly off the lot in the winter. But the car is still bringing full sticker price. Quinn says he expects the Solstice to do well in December: "It makes a great Christmas gift." Excerpted from "Automotive News"
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Those who spend any time on the road know that accidents are inevitable. Manufacturers make it a point to prepare their vehicles for the worst by building cars that resist deformation and damage from rolling or collision. Airbags are standard on all new cars and companies spend millions of dollars in crash tests to determine how effective these safety features would be in real time. Starting with the 2008 models, new cars will have their crash ratings prominently displayed alongside their other sticker information. In this way, consumers will not only have the word of the manufacturer that the car they’re  looking at is best or safest vehicle on the road, they will have the numbers to back them up. If you’re one of the many people who will be looking at this crash test information, you can thank the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for making the crash test results readily available to consumers. They are one of the two major players in ensuring that drivers know just how safe their cars are, the other being the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a group composed of major insurance companies. So, just what 2007 releases are the safest vehicles on the road? According to the NHTSA, the Honda Odyssey and Nissan Quest make the grade for minivans, while the Hyundai Sonata scores high among sedans. For those who have the SUV fever, the 2007 Saturn VUE, the Honda Element and the Honda Pilot, and the Hyundai Tucson score five stars in each of the four criteria  groups. Finally, the 2007 Kia Optima scored with both crash ratings groups. It earned five stars for frontal and side impact crash tests conducted by the NHTSA, in addition to getting the “Good” rating by the IIHS for frontal and rear impact tests. The Toyota Camry is another winner with the insurance companies, getting a “Good” rating in front and side impact protection.
For complete test results, please visit http://www.safercar.gov
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The 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche is exceptional. Among the crew-cab pickups -- those four-door trucks that can carry five or six people -- the new Avalanche stands out for having a full range of features and some clever engineering. But it also falls into the category of trucks targeted at drivers who don't really need  them.
At first glance the Avalanche seems like any normal, four-door truck. But, where other trucks have an immovable panel between the pickup bed and passenger cabin, the Avalanche has a “midgate.” which flips down to connect the two. This makes the expanded bed large enough to swallow a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood, with the tailgate closed.
This vehicle is a great example of how rarely people buy cars and trucks based on their usual, everyday usage, opting instead for vehicles that meet the largest variety of potential automotive needs. Marketers have long targeted this tendency to sell trucks to people who don't really need them. Think of all those commuters who drive gas-guzzling pickups just so they can haul a single load of mulch every spring. Or the SUV pilots whose closest brush with the back country is their subscription to "Outside" magazine. The Avalanche is pretty much the crowning achievement of this idiom.
When introduced in 2002, the Avalanche's fuel economy was awful, with the four-wheel-drive version carrying an EPA rating of 14 miles per gallon. Thanks to a new, all-aluminum, 5.3-liter version of Chevy's venerable small-block V-8, the four-wheel-drive Avalanche's fuel economy is up to 17 mpg. This is an improvement, but hardly environment or pocket book friendly.
 The new 2007 Avalanche went on sale in May, and despite its redesign, sales are down 19.3% through October. Lay the blame on gas prices if you will, but consider that at least some of those people who didn't buy an Avalanche finally wised up and right-sized their vehicle, ferrying the family in a four-cylinder sedan and renting a pickup on mulch day. More likely is that those lost buyers have been shopping for so-called crossovers, vehicles that trade some of the Avalanche's 7,800-pound towing capacity for fuel economy, but still continue to champion the philosophy of maximum utility.
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The 2007 Honda CR-V has had a steep road to travel since it came out in late summer 2006. It is not quite an SUV, and it isn’t a status car like the Lexus or Mercedes. Nevertheless, this little crossover doesn't care. Like a tuba player in a high school marching band, the 2007 Honda CR-V can trudge silently along with the rest of the Honda line, keeping the beat alive without missing a step. This doesn’t mean that the CR-V stays in the background. In fact, this vehicle is sold in 160 countries on five continents.
Just whom the CR-V was manufactured for is up for debate. While soccer moms will enjoy the roomy 5-person cabin and a postal-service kind of dependability  that allows travel through rain, sleet and snow (with the help of the real time 4WD), empty nesters and couples without children are sure to find the moon-roof, heated leather-trimmed seats and XM radio more in tune with their casual existence. For all types, the 2007 Honda CR-V’s various safety features, such as a deformable hood to protect pedestrians, a body structure that resists cabin deformation in the event of a crash, and the six airbags stationed along the front, sides and roof of the vehicle, give peace of mind to drivers, even on high traffic days. For those who spend their days running errands, the CR-V has variable valve timing, which allows for a wide spectrum of power, and it is shaped to enhance gas mileage and fuel efficiency, so even city drivers can flit from store to store at a respectable rate of 23 mpg. The CR-V is also environmentally friendly, having earned an Ultra-Low-Emission Vehicle (ULEV) rating.
The base price of the 2007 Honda CR-V is $20,600, but consumers can expect to pay upwards to $28,000 for one that is fully loaded. To find your nearest Honda dealer, or get more information, click here.
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As a nation, Americans are interested in recycling what they use. There is hardly a street corner around that doesn't have a retail store specializing in selling second-hand merchandise, from sporting goods to clothes to household items. It should be no surprise then, that more consumers are purchasing used cars  and trucks now than ever before. And for good reason; according to the 2006 Used Car Market Report, made available by Mannheim.com, the average cost of a new vehicle is $24,275, compared to only $8,315 for a used car.
Until recently, buying a used car has been like playing a game of Russian roulette. Used cars and trucks were sold "as is, where is" and there was simply no way for non-mechanically oriented buyers to know the history of the vehicle or what mechanical condition the vehicle is in. Now, with the birth of the certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicle program, this uncertainty has become a thing of the past. A certified pre-owned vehicle is a late model car or truck (usually under five years old), which has been thoroughly inspected by its original manufacturer and approved for resale. CPO prior leased vehicles are popular among luxury car buyers, in particular luxury cars such as Lexus or Mercedes.
Many auto manufacturers offer warranties for their certified vehicles that take effect as the original warranty is preparing to expire. Some also offer benefits such as pick-up/drop-off service, roadside assistance, free scheduled maintenance, free loaner cars for times when the vehicle is in the shop, and even a “3 day return/exchange period.” With this added value, CPO vehicle buyers are not only safeguarded from buying a lemon, they are offered many of the same perks that a new car buyer might expect. You’ll still want to follow the same precautions as the typical used car buyer. Check that the inspection report matches up with the particular car or truck you want to buy and double check that the VIN number is the same both on the paperwork and on the body of the car. Expect to pay about 8% more for a CPO than for one bought blindly off the lot.
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