The e-voting booths are closed and the votes are in. You've selected TTAC's Ten Best Automobiles for 2008. Five of the ten are repeat winners from last year– but only one of them stayed in the same slot. Three of our winners slipped in the ratings, and one moved up. GM, Mazda, Nissan and BMW all have two winners on the list. Honda and Audi each have one. There are sedans, sports cars and econoboxes. In fact, the only thing that seems to bind this group of cars together is the "fun to drive" factor (anyone who doesn't think that's important can click here). The rest of you can make the jump and help celebrate/kvetch about TTAC's Ten Best for 2008

If you want your brain to melt, ask a car designer to explain… anything. When it comes to torturing the English language and obfuscating meaning, these guys are the masters (these are not the Hoffmeister kinks you want). Ralph Gilles is different. Chrysler's freshly-anointed Design Chief is a man of the [Canadian] streets. OK, yes and an Art School grad. But when Ralph talked to Automotive News [sub] about his employer's new design direction (they have vehicles to design?), all we got, thankfully, was "We're done with the 'Edge' look." So it's in with "organic shapes." Like… the 300? Or those two-day-old moldering vegetables I no longer buy? I kid. Anyway, meanwhile, good luck getting that "monkey off our backs on interiors." And the following pledge (as reported by The Detroit Free Press): "With the Nissan project we're working on, we've got designers stationed there… and you'd never know it was based on a Nissan." Oops! I guess that cat's out of the bag!

As Reuters notes, 90 percent of the vehicles Ford builds in Canada end-up in the U.S. So, despite the fact that the Ford F-series is still the best-selling vehicle north of the border, Ford Canada is suffering. All of which leads to the suprise (really?) resignation of Barry Engle, Ford of Canada's president. Though Engle has served for several years for Ford and Chrysler, working in several capacities around the globe, he decided to exit the auto industry just six months after assuming FoMoCo Canada's top job. Engle's new job will be in his native Pennsylvania, working for an agricultural equipment company; IMHO he's using "family time" as a smokescreen. Time for a Lilly Pulitzer: did he fall or was he pushed? And why?

Ye Olde Wiktionary defines "gee-up" as an English/Australian expression meaning "to excite in order to try to achieve a desired result." Ken Elias has never knowingly geed-up anyone about anything. But it's still true that his Ford Death Watch identified one of FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally's most important jobs: getting the [remaining] executives lathered-up about the company's forthcoming products and, thus, the automaker's chances of survival. Yahoo! Finance reports that The Blue Oval Boyz have arranged seat time for the suits. "Last week, Ford started pulling around 4,000 workers from their desks at sites near the Dearborn headquarters and onto a test track for a few hours of driving and learning about how Ford hopes to set its vehicles apart from other automakers." So, how did they like the European Fiesta and Focus? Uh, well… "Most of the vehicles the workers were able to drive were 2009 or 2010 models of cars and trucks currently on the market, a vehicle lineup that for the most part hasn't sold well this year." A turbo-MKS was as good as it got. 

I know I [once again] risk the wrath of those who view me as GM's bête noir (I prefer to think of myself as an enfant terrible, but I'm way too old for that action). Even so, the news [via Reuters] that The General is upping the warranty on its Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles– from 3 months/3k miles miles to 12 months/12k miles– should be seen in context. It comes on the same day that GM announced it's pulling back on Buick, Pontiac and GMC leasing. Pulling back as in no longer offering leasing on any of the brands' models save the Pontiac G6 (go figure, fleet fans). With more brands to follow (suffer the little Cadillacs). Folks, it's all about the residuals– and I don't mean the customer's residual values. I'm talking about the multi-billion dollar hammering GM's taking on lease returns. And so is GM spokesman John McDonald, to The Detroit Free Press. "Leases, for a long time, have been supported at below-market rates. We're not able to financially support leases at below-market rates when the residuals have eroded as much as they have." So the CPO deal and the leasing no deal are designed to put a tourniquet on GM's self-inflicted wounds of lousy products, weak brands, the wrong products, chronic over-production, fleet sales and, I think that's it. Who can remember any more?

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And here it is: the love child of a BMW Z3 and a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. The fact that this Gorgon-on-wheels is trust fund-busting expensive is just icing on the pie-in-the-poseur's-face (a la Three Stooges). As for Autoblog's irony-free report on this monstrosity, someone needs to take Noah Joseph out and get him, well, you know. Drunk. High. Laid. Something. "The Pininfarina Hyperion was unveiled just this past weekend at Pebble Beach, and our man Drew was on hand to bring you the best shots of the one-off coachbuilt special from the show stand as it was unveiled and from the fairway where it was displayed in all its glory." I know, I know: Jay Leno's Tank Car– which he actually drove to Pebble Beach. But c'mon, there's nothing more ridiculous than looking ridiculous when you're trying SO hard to look suave. 

Hang around Herr Farago long enough and you'll eventually hear, "The Brand isn't everything; it's the only thing." Of course I've made a pretty good career out of disagreeing with Farago about nearly everything. See, I believe that products trump brand. Case in point, Porsche. The Cayenne was a brand killer, right? A travesty of all that Porsche stands for and all that Porschephiles believe in. And I agree with them totally. Except for the Turbo model, a vehicle so good in so many ways that I want one. And remember, to the brand faithful, the mid-engined (and therefor sacrilegious) Boxster is just as terrible as the Cayenne, even if the little roadster is more fun to drive than big daddy 911. Or how about Volkswagen. Personally, I've never cared for many VWs. Sure, I like GTIs just fine but aside from (some of) those, pass. However, I loved the brand defying Touraeg V10 TDI and I lust after a Phaeton. The latter being one of the best cars ever made, badge be damned. And I'm fine with that. And how about Buick? They've got their brand down pat (old people and old people who golf) but I'm not interested in any of their products, even as loaner press cars. But what about Jaguar? A friend of mine asked for my advice on a car. Turned out he decided his 12-year-old Plymouth Breeze just wasn't saying all the right things about him, and he wanted a vehicle that broadcast his socio-economic achievements to the world. "So I'm thinking something upmarket, like an Audi A4 or a Jaguar X-Type." I was taken aback. Jaguar X-Type? Why on earth would he want one of those? "It's a Jaguar, they're classy." Really?

"(Americans see it as) their God-given right to buy the largest vehicle they possibly can, own as many vehicles as they can, trade them for new vehicles as often as they can, drive them as much as they want and wherever they want." The idea that the average American is a stupid, selfish, size-obsessed planet-killer is an intellectual conceit, created and perpetuated by intellectually-conceited members of the European chattering class. In truth, Americans are no or more less politically, socially or environmentally aware than their European equivalents. But analyst Dennis DesRosiers isn't entirely off-base when he says there's only one "real" reason Americans aren't continuing their fuelish ways: they're broke. "If gas prices come back down to earth… Americans are going to go back to larger vehicles and watch out, there may just be a shortage of capacity." IF gas prices stay level for five years AND people can get out of their loans, maybe. Meanwhile, not. And a shortage of capacity? Only if you define "too much" as "not enough." But is there anything really fundamentally wrong with wanting a large, comfortable vehicle? See? We're already engaged in that debate. All of us. 

With Chrysler’s slide well underway, it’s only a matter of time before Honda becomes America’s fourth largest automaker (behind Toyota, GM and Ford). Honda will then hold the same rank stateside as it occupies in Japan– behind Toyota, Nissan, and Suzuki. While Honda’s relative success in its home territory may surprise some American industry watchers, the automaker’s contrasting strategy in the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) reveals a hidden “secret” to their U.S. success.

Around the Key Largo portion of my escape from Tropical Storm Fay, the belt squeal from the engine bay of our rented Dodge Caravan reached epic proportions. The van limped and shuddered into Homestead AFB for the night. The next day, we discovered that a rear tire was low, most likely due to a pothole impact. The spare was deflated as well. Thrifty roadside assistance routed us into rain-soaked Miami International, to exchange cars. As I unloaded the van (which held my luggage and about 300lbs of stuff to be delivered to Warner-Robbins AFB), I asked the porter queuing the cars if I could move it over to the far left to expedite unloading. "What?!? You want me to make a special concession for you?" I guess not. I tracked down several carts to haul everything. I was berated again for not moving the car further down to make more space (despite the ample opening in the six spaces beside me). As Monica emerged from the rental counter with keys in hand, the porter took off with the car, and the rest of our luggage, to the nether regions of the lot. Much arguing later on who takes priority– the customer exchanging a broken van, or the porter who wants his lane clear– we were off in a beige Caravan. The dirt-covered interior had boogers smeared on the dashboard, and it smelled bad. Like the previous Caravan, it also had been in a noticeable front-end accident. The things you learn from adversity…

The police in North Wales [UK] aren't horsing around. Literally. They're using an SUV hauling an empty horse trailer to hide a speed camera to fatten the civic coffers catch miscreants brazen enough to flaunt the law by exceeding the posted speed limit. The video shows the setup in action and the police scurrying to move it to a different location when they realize they're being watched. And if that wasn't sneaky enough, the Welsh po-po also deploy a pair of high-performance motorcycles for the same purpose. The unmarked bikes sit by the side of the road until a group of bikers pass. Then they join at the rear of the pack. They just wait for the bikes ahead to start speeding so the camera can start printing money photographing lawbreakers. At £60 each ($120), it hasn't taken long for these to become part of the revenue machine. TheNewspaper.com reports "local speed camera partnerships collected £10 million (US $20 million) from 160,126 automated tickets issued in 2006 with North Wales accounting for more than a third of the total."

I mean, Holy Jesus, look at the thing! This could be the one example of a concept car whose drama shouldn't make it to production. Automobile Mag has Brenda Priddy's spy shots of the camo prototype, whose see-through bra reveals that the model's most hideous aspect– the cetacean snout– will be offending eyeballs everywhere. Well, not everywhere; the three-row Flex-based luxury CUV is bound to be a sales disaster. Once again, the "Reach Higher" brand has reached deeper into Ford's parts bin to devise a low-cost (for them) alternative to a "real" Lincoln. What is a "real Lincoln" you ask? Whatever it is, it's not an alphanumerically-named vehicle with about as much suave sophistication as Hooters' Bikini Contest 2008– only with a lot less aesthetic appeal. And does this MKT step all over the MKX? Yes. And does Lincoln sell six vehicles? Yes. And did I, a professional automotive journalist, have to visit the Lincoln website to make sure I remembered them all and got the nomenclature correct? Yes. 

Starting with 2009 models, the California Air Resources Board will require all new vehicles sold in the Golden State to carry a sticker which shows a CARB-determined "Smog Score" and "Global Warming Score." The Toyota Open Road Blog's editor Jon Thompson is all excited over this "because our Prius Hybrid is listed by CARB as one of its top 10 cleanest cars" and "Camry and Camry Hybrid are right behind Prius with scores of 9, and Highlander Hybrid follows closely along with a score of 8." Funny thing, though, he doesn't mention where Land Cruiser, Sequoia, Tundra, Tacoma or any of their other large trucks fall in those ratings. And all he says about the Global Warming score is that it's "based in part on the vehicle's greenhouse gas emissions." The part he doesn't mention, according to the CARB EP Label Fact Sheet (click here to view): the greenhouse gases resulting from "fuel production." So when the Prius PHEV hits the market, will the score reflect the coal and other fuels burned to produce the electricity to recharge it? That could be an eye-opening addition to what Thompson terms the "growing amount of information that's available to help you make a studied automotive choice." So I put Thompson's closing question to our Best and Brightest: "Should this sort of labeling be adopted by all the states?"

Thanks to Kia-World.net (those fellas are supremely on top of their Kia game), we can have a good look at the interior of the new Forte sedan. The Forte, you might recall, is Kia's upcoming entry into what used to be called the compact class, alongside cars like the Civic, Corolla, and Mazda3. The Forte's exterior design is sharp, albeit derivative. And now we can see a nice, clean interior (at least until the kids get inside). None of this is especially groundbreaking, but that's now how Kia operates. Now, so, why does Hyundai– the mainstream luxury brand– get the rear wheel-drive sedans and coupes while Kia– the youthful sporty brand– has front wheel drivers like this? Answers on a post card below.