I'm surprised this hasn't come stateside yet. I could easily see this selling and competing well against the Honda Civic and Scion.

CAFE is what's causing manufacturers to "recommend" 5w-20 in their fleets when the stuff is too thin and will lead to premature engine wear and reduced engine life.

They do this to eek out slightly higher numbers at a dire cost to the consumer.

Mazda was recommending 5w-20 in their RX-8's and engine failures were too common. That's why folks switched to 10w30, 10w40, or 20w50, despite the slight hit in the MPG department.

It wasn't that long ago that traveling by plane was reserved for the extremely wealthy either. Wealthy individuals and companies sank money into these expensive ideas and helped bring the cost down so that average citizens could afford them.

The same thing will happen with hybrids. Simple economies of scale in action. What was once exclusive eventually becomes a commodity.

The yellow skinned person is a vikings fan... painted yellow. I do have to say that there are a lot of crazy sexy woman in The D.

Same here. Amex jacked my rates even though I have been with them for the better part of a decade, used the card frequently, carried reasonable balances, and made sizable monthly payments on-time.

Thanks Amex!

My goal is to have the Amex paid off by Jan 2010 and minimize it's use. Either I pay in cash or use the Amex and pay in-full each month.

That's what they get for doing me the 'favor' of jacking my rates for selfish reasons.

This is a recession and video games don't fall into the "need" category. With games at a whopping $60 a pop new, people are waiting for copies to show up used at places like GameStop and on eBay where they can pick them up for 15-20% off only a month or two after their release.

Games like Madden are even worse because each year the game only offers incremental improvements. You only see major changes to sports games every 3 years or so. I think many are tired of shelling out $60 a year for what amounts to a roster update.

Smart people stay a year behind when it comes to sports games. When the new "model year" comes out, the old one is essentially considered worthless. You can get last years sports games for next to nothing and they are almost identical to the current year.

I'm one of the many who are in the process of de-leveraging. If all goes according to plan, I will have zero credit card debt by January 2010.

It will be nice to have my money working FOR me for a change.

Why are none of these so-called experts considering the FairTax?

It would alleviate business of the burden of playing tax collector for the government and instantly make the US more attractive for businesses than any other country in the world.

http://www.fairtax.org

Americans are, as a whole, knee jerk reactionaries who overreact to just about everything. I should know.. I live here.

The odds of getting swine flu are so low, yet you hear about kids being kept in the house, people not flying, etc.

Remember SARS? Same thing. People buying masks and avoiding airplanes. Odds of catching it? About the same as getting struck by lightning.

Remember the incident in the 80's where two people died after taking some Extra Strength Tylenol? What was the solution? Pull every bottle off the shelves nationwide and have everyone throw their away.

Last thing was the supposed assault weapons ban that the Dems wanted to pass. What was the reaction? Buy firearms like they're going to repeal the Second Amendment of the Constitution!

One kid gets run over because they got off the bus and crossed the street without looking. Now all traffic has to stop because of school buses.

Oh.. remember the "killer" Africanized Bees coming up from Mexico? That's all that was on the news for weeks.

People think things are horrible and act like this is worse than the great depression. Guess what? It's nowhere close.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

The problem is that Americans agree that domestic energy production needs to improve. Continued subsidies could have the advantage of making the US a world leader in areas of alternative energy production.

Remember, it takes money to make money.

Farm subsidies have allowed our farms to be the most productive and technologically sophisticated in the world. If anything, I would reduce or end farm subsidies.