RF just shot me a press release that claims a Peugeot survey discovered that drivers use their owner's manuals now more than ever. According to their findings, 79 percent of customers have consulted their handbook and learned about features on their cars that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Some 93 percent of drivers have read or do read their handbook. Fully 82 percent feel it necessary to have a paper copy of the handbook rather than access the info electronically. The entire story sent alarm bells off in my head. I mean, the last time I used an owner's manual was when my 2000 Nissan Sentra's engine warning light started flashing at me (it meant my gas cap was loose). And, that's it. OK, in the interest of Truth, I did thumb through the Jeep Wrangler's book to try and figure out how to remove the top, the doors and the windscreen. But I put it down when I came across an image of a rubber mallet. You?

A friend of mine works for the GAO (Government Accountability Office) out here in the City of Angels. As cracking the traffic nut in Los Angeles is the Gordian Knot of our time, he hears a lot of supposed "solutions." Sadly, most involve toll roads. However, one we've discussed that I like is the idea of separate roads for semi trucks. More specifically, all cargo coming into San Pedro and Long Beach gets trained up to near Union station where it is then picked up by waiting trailers that then drive off on rig-only roads. With no passenger cars to get in their way, the semis could haul three trailers. Flipside: with no big rigs clogging the freeways, traffic would roll. Furthermore, as 100 percent of all non-weather road damage is caused by 18-wheelers, public roads would last much, much longer and be shuttered less often for repairs. Win/win, if you ask me. Though, there is that up front cost… Still, I think it's a fantastic plan. Now, we just get another series of roads in place for anything with two-wheels and we're in business. What do you think?

Here's a QOTD that doesn't involve me pumping gas… Yesterday we heard news that Ford and the General are talking about collaborating on an engine. Today we see that there's a 95 percent chance that one of 'em will go bust sooner than later. They already work together (to some extent) on transmissions and they all share suppliers. So why not just make like Ze Germans and merge? Take VW/Porsche as an example. Volkswagen owns Audi as well as every other non-French make in Europe. And while the whole story is murky, Porsche now owns Volkswagen. So, if Porsche wants a V6 or an SUV they just take what they need. Simple. With Detroit in a perpetual game of chase the Japanese, wouldn't it make sense to own up to their failings (stop laughing), pool their collective resources and start really competing on a worldwide scale? Instead of three full-size pickups, offer just one. Fusion, Malibu, Sebring (OK, you can laugh at that last one)– none are as good as the Camcord and they only steal sales from each other. Besides, the Fusion and Sebring are essentially rebadged Japanese cars anyhow. With one big Detroit taking its A game to the world stage, at least they'd have a chance. Right?

I was pumping gas into my WRX this morning when a man in a Ford F-350 yelled, "I had a 1983 Subaru GL. I drove it until 1992, sold it to a friend who drove it for another 5 or 6 years. Then he gave it to his son. Still on the road, with over 400,000 miles.Your car will never die." I responded that in the 160,000+ miles I'd put on my two WRXs I've replaced a battery and a headlight (though a buddy of mine burnt a clutch — let's not count that). Then there's my girlfriend's 2001 Ford Focus. She barely drives it. At 73,000 miles we replaced the radiator puke tank, thermostat housing and cooling fan and then discovered that all the engine mounts are shot. And those are just the iceberg tips in terms of crap that's malfunctioning. I give the transmission 5,000 more miles, tops. And we're not alone. Google "Ford Focus Radiator Overflow Tank" to meet our compatriots. And my question is why are some makes (or even some years within a make) so very much more reliable than others?

A few weekends back, while putting a few (hundred) miles on an Audi Q7, my wife and I went into the Blue Ridge Mountains in north Georgia. When I programmed our address into the GPS for the return trip, it directed us down the Unicoi Turnpike (part of Georgia Highway 75), which turned out to be full of switchbacks, twists, hairpins and everything else that makes a road fun, along with some beautiful scenery.  The map showed other roads in the area that looked even more fun. We didn't have time to explore them then, but we're already planning a trip back to check them out. So what about you? What is your favorite road for becoming one with your car and having pure unadulterated fun while driving?

I was recently chatting with a friend whose OCD makes Farago's look like drunken absentmindedness, when she revealed that over the weekend was her 10th time getting pulled over and getting out of it.Sure, she's very pretty and very blond, but even still. That's one Hell of a lucky streak. Running back through my own encounters with Johnny Law I realized that I'm about 50/50. Ironically, the faster and more expensive my ride, the luckier I am. Case in point, when I dumped the GT500's clutch and laid tire tracks for almost an entire block, the officer wanted to know how I liked the overblown Shelby compared to the regular GT. Going 55 in a 35 mph behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer? Not so lucky. Going 135 100 mph in a WRX? Got written up for 85 mph. Going 80 mph in a green Sentra? Traffic school. How about you?

I just spent three hours deducing that a car completely covered in loose fitting vinyl was in fact a Suzuki Kizashi and not a Volkswagen Jetta. Or refreshed Subaru WRX. And we auto scribes do not get paid by the hour. OK, some of us do, but three hours is an insanely long time. Especially if no one cares. You there, sir, do you care about a Suzuki Kizashi? What if I told you it was a 300 hp, AWD Camry competitor? Still not interested in looking at photos of it all wrapped up in line-blurring leather? I'm not shocked. However, I am shocked at the news from last week that a French journalist was hauled off to jail for industrial espionage because he got a hold of photographs of the new Renault Megane. How nutso is that? I say pretty nutso. But I'm being serious — do you really care about spy shots? And if so, why? Or why not?

NPR's Market Place recently featured on an economist who said gas prices don't follow any rational economic pattern. Supply has nothing to do with demand, and vice-versa. Wonderful. TTAC contributor and former Car and Driver ME Stephan Wilkinson emailed me this morning on the same topic. "Opinions, of course, range all the way from simple supply-and-demand to Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, with all sorts of goofball imaginings in between." Personally I like the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy idea, but there's probably more to it than that. But how would I know? Wilkinson goes on, "There's an interesting piece in the new Conde Nast Portfolio, 'Crude Reporting,' on how bad a job simplistic journalists have been doing with the subject, at least in part because newsrooms are staffed by a generation of Reaganomics enthusiasts who believe that the market rules, whereas back in the old days, reporters were 'the redistribuionist children of the New Deal and the AFL-CIO.'" Well, if this is the same "generation of Reaganomics enthusiasts" who didn't once bother to ask Judith Miller if she was, you know, making shit up during our march to war, then a bit more is illuminated. Your thoughts?

My WRX's temperature gauge indicated it was 98 degrees yesterday in Los Angeles. It felt hotter. Muggy, too. I'm at a red light when a beautiful brunette pulls up next to me in a white Camaro, her hair blowing in the wind. Got to love LA, right? Well, the thing is, there wasn't any wind. In fact, she was driving a hard top with windows rolled up. Her hair was blowing because the A/C in that old F-body was so damn mighty. On a race track it's said that a car's only as good as its brakes. Out here in what's essentially an overpopulated desert, the same can be said about a vehicle's air conditioning. At that moment, my rally-bred Subaru was feeling pretty damn poor. In that moment in time, I would have killed for my old Pontiac Station Wagon, whose chiller could keep a side of beef fresh. Say what you want about American cars (and TTAC says a lot ), but USDA Choice A/C is still the envy of the world. So, my dear TTACers, what's your favorite automotive national trait?

Maybe I should put "smart" in quotes. But then again, maybe I shouldn't. I was commiserating with a friend of mine the other night how are respective 401k plans lost a third of their value last quarter. In his case, it was actual money. He commented that he had a lot of money in Blue Chips. I told him that GM's stock is worth less than two gallons of (Los Angeles) gas. He asked why. And I explained that the General had made billions of dollars selling trucks, bought Saab and then redesigned their trucks while losing over 30 percent of their market share in a decade and that Mr. Wagoner got paid $14,000,000 for his troubles, pre-bonus. My friend was incensed. "How is that American? That sounds like some third world, nepatistic despot shit?" He has a point. And what of the Japanese, he asked. Well, I began, Honda now makes the best-selling car in the country, Mazda and Subaru sales are up and Toyota has the ability to shift gears (and production) when they sense a looming great depression crisis. He asked me why, what is it about Japanese culture that lets them succeed where Detroit just falls flat on its face? I have my suspicions. But, I'd rather just ask you.

You can tell by my phrasing that I don't like it. Not one bit. In case you haven't been paying attention, first term congressperson Jackie Speier– California's latest offering to the pyre of political lunacy– is proposing a Federally mandated national limit of 60 mph. I'm so angry I could spit. First of all, NO!!!!! Leave me alone! If I want to pay a bit more to get somewhere quicker that's between me and my bank account. Don't tread! Second, will hybrids, ethanol burners, hydrogen fuel cell and electric cars be limited to 60 mph, or just the dino-juice drinkers? And if all cars are limited, why? If I'm getting veggie-diesel from the local Thai joint what possible business is it of the Feds if I'm driving down the road at 80 mph? Can't they just get back to launching unnecessary wars, illegal phone taps and Alaskan bridges? You know, their core competencies. So what do you think?

I was a little taken aback by the new Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series' 661hp. I remember when my M5's 400hp was considered excessive. These days, German uber-brutes' horsepower and torque figures are higher than Jeff Spicoli. Obviously, the numbers have no relevance to anything whatsoever. But the whole "how much power does anyone really need anyway" has never been more important– what with CAFE regulations demanding 35mpg fleet averages by 2020. Tom and Ray addressed the question today, when an F-150 refugee obsessed about the power of a Ford Focus vs. a Nissan Sentra. Ray reckons "If you're like most people, and usually drive alone or with one other passenger, and death-defying highway stunts aren't a regular part of your routine, almost any four-cylinder car will provide adequate power." True?

Doom, gloom, Chapter 11, recession, housing crisis, credit crunch, Iranian missile tests, Dodge Journey — how much more bad news can we take? Well, lots. But that's not the issue. The issue is that I thought of a funny story and I'm going to share it with you and then ask you to do the same. Capiche? A few years ago I was dating a girl. One night some friends were in town and the four of us went out for dinner and drinks in their rented PT Cruiser Convertible. My gal had some fish and chips and perhaps one two many beers, though I think something may have been wrong with the fish. She got sick on the way to the car. Messy sick. Then, she demanded we put the top down, because she was still feeling awful. I got roped into driving because my friends also had too much booze. And then, as George Carlin termed it, the poor thing had an involuntary personal protein spill. At about 50 mph. And her spill got picked up by the wind and flung into the back seat. All over our out of town guests. The funny part is that later that night (after lots and lots of soapy scrubbing by yours truly) she asked, "What does PT stand for?" My friend answered, "Puke Tainer." You?

I'm not talking about Hugo Chavez-style ownership. My question was inspired by the rumor that China's Chery might be buying Volvo. Is this a big deal? Despite Ford's worst efforts, Volvo didn't lose too much of its Volvoness when Ford CEO Jac the Knife won the Swedish automaker in a game of bondtolva. Volvos are still [presumably] safe, boxy and not intended for hoons. Of course, Ford almost bought Ferrari, which surely would have strangled the fabled Italian marque in Dearborn's corporate tentacles. And Saab lost its soul the moment GM breathed on it. But how about Rolls-Royce? I say the company is better than ever under Bimmer's tutelage. Audi's done a bang-up job with Bentley and Lamborghini, too. The world didn't stop turning when India's Tata Motors bought Land Rover and Jaguar. And the fact that a group of Saudi businessmen own Aston is no impediment to the brand, apparently. So what's the big deal about a Chinese automaker buying Volvo? Anything? Everything?

Guess what? SUVs are dead and gone, nearly buried. Goodbye, nice knowing ya! When the future business case histories are completed, the research will show that while some people bought big boys to compensate for small johnsons or to venture off pavement, others purchased SUVs because they were a lot like station wagons. Sure we have CUVs (crossovers) to (kinda) plug the gap. But here's the thing, putting a sedan up on stilts adds weight — a lot of weight. Turning a 4-door into a 5-door? Not so much. A top spec Nissan Murano weighs in at 4,130 pounds whereas a fully optioned Altima sedan is just 3,292 lbs. 838 pounds of flabola. Of course, there's no Altima wagon, but we can look at Subaru. A Legacy 2.5 GT Limited (with auto) weighs 3,490 lbs. Compare that to the essentially identical Outback 2.5 XT Limited's 3,605 lbs. That's just 115 pounds, the weight of a healthy teenage girl. For fun, a Tribeca weighs 4,129 pounds. A slushbox Impreza 4-door weighs 3,131 pounds. The 5-door? The exact same (though… Subaru's website may be mistaken). Long story short, wagons offer the same amount of practical utility as CUV/SUVs and are inherently better on gas. Yet I don't see a single Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Chevy Malibu, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion or Mazda 6 wagon. Not anywhere. Any thoughts?