Are we bailed out yet? Edward Niedermeyer at The Truth About Cars assesses the smoking rubble following the explosion of sanity in the U.S.Senate late Thursday evening. It's all up to W now.And Peter DeLornezo at AUTOEXTREMIST makes the case for throwing a TARP on Detroit.

So let's say just for talking intoxicant that you've gotta be in a crash. Would you rather be in a 66 Caddy or an 09 Civic? The CarGurus offer some thoughts on the latest country ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Not sure what to give Rover - the dog, not the TC - for Christmas? AskPatty.com has some suggestions.

They're sleeping late over at AutoMoBlog, but that doesn't prevent them from getting all crazy about the GT-R. No, crazy-mad, not crazy-good.

Joe Sherlock took the Avalon in for some routine service and before the service writer even looked at the car managed to say something really stupid. Which of course didn't sit well at all with the guy giving us The View Through the Windshield.

Cookie the Dog's Owner is looking at Naked Daihatsu again. Well, he is writing at the Car Lust blog

People sometimes ask me what is my all-time favorite car and I always say "Corvette Grand Sport, of course." They understand why at the Corvette blog.

Talk about finding a silver lining in a disaster - Eric Peters says now is the best time ever to get your Hummer H3T. I think his tonque is firmly planted in his cheek

Sounds like progress is being prefabricated with the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles. GM's Mary Beth Stanek updates Project Driveway at GMFastlane. Nice to know somebody at GM is worrying about something besides poltiics.

My man Shouting Thomas at Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars  makes the case for Ron Santo to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Hey, it's not about cars, but then the way things are going for Detroit these days, I'll bet a depressing story about a Chicago Cubbie who can't get a decent break sounds familiar.

Uh oh. The Auto Prophet read Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" back in his college days. Events in Washington this week reminded him of a certain passage.

And finally, French authorities are sitting on a report by one of that country's most respected energy experts. They aren't happy with the report's negative assessment of EVs. Read all about it in Financial Times. No, it's not a blog post, but you can be sure it will soon generate lots of posts around the Auto Blog block.

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Toyota Land Cruiser
Why am I in this thing? Well, it had been several years since a Land Cruiser showed up in my driveway, so not long ago I scheduled it for a "slow part" of the season. Slow is one thing the Land Cruiser is not, at least in a straight line. The 381 horse 5.7 liter V-8 under the hood does a masterful job of moving the Land Cruiser's 5,600+ pound curb weight, especially in two-lane passing situations where there is little room for error.

On the road, the Land Cruiser is a quiet, comfortable conveyance as well it should be for a vehicle with a Monroney on the far side of $70,000. The soft suspension settings and huge donuts, I mean tires, make short work of most road imperfections. I wasn't healthy to get my tester off road this time around, but if memory serves, this thing is good for most any sort of terrain you might want to throw at it.

Given its old tech trappings and the bigger, newer Sequoia in the Toyota lineup, you might think the Land Cruiser won't be around much longer. And, although gas has dropped below $2 a congius around the country, that surely is a temporary situation. So the prognosis for the Land Cruiser might not be so bright. But Toyota has been quite happy for many years to sell only a few thousand Land Cruisers a year here in the U.S. and most of those customers tend to be rather loyal. This dinosaur might just be the last survivor of its species.

See ya next week!

In what is turning out to be one of the strangest Detroit auto shows in history, word has it that local Nissan and Infiniti dealers will be putting up their own display. This is coming after news that the US corporate divisions of Nissan and Infiniti have backed out of the show.

"The ultimate, core purpose of auto shows is to create excitement among consumers and generate sales. That's what we're doing," said Doug Fox, co-chairman of the NAIAS and an Ann Arbor Nissan dealer.

Chicago: Yes or No?

Also, Nissan has changed their plans for Chicago. Originally the Chicago was also going to be axed by Nissan and Infiniti. Now those plans have been changed, and the corporate headquarters will once again have a display there.

"After a careful review of this decision with our North Central Region management and our Chicago dealers, we have found a way to maintain a presence at the Chicago show through our dealers," Nissan said in a statement. "The decision outlined for Chicago does not affect our decision to withdraw from the 2009 North American International Auto Show."

Full story here.

Image: DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/Associated Press

Joining the growing throng of maker auto show no-shows, Nissan, and presumably Infiniti as well, have decided not to have a presence at either the Detroit or Chicago auto shows. Citing that they have no new models to display (hey! what about the Cube and 370Z?) and the worsening financial market, they felt their money was better spent elsewhere.

Full story here.

The last two days of our Audi Mileage Marathon journey were uneventful jaunts through rural Texas, the northeast corner of New Mexico, and southern Colorado. The highlight of the weekend was Saturday evening’s rodeo, held at an arena on the outskirts of Amarillo by local cowboys. Though clearly an acquired taste, there is something to be said for the visual appeal of bucking broncos and bull riding. The latter easily qualifies as an extreme sport since it takes a particularly fearless (or foolish) breed of man to get on 2000 pounds of enraged hamburger. Only one of nine cowboys managed to stay on the bull for the full eight seconds, another held on for six, but the rest didn’t stand a chance. The bulls take no prisoners.

Our leg of the drive ended in Denver, where Audi announced the final mileage figures for our Chicago-to-Denver loop. The winning Q5 finished with a trip average of 37.3 mpg, the winning A4 with 42.6 mpg, and the winning Q7 with 29.6 mpg. Our own average fuel economy for the trip was a respectable 25.9 mpg. On Saturday, we managed to improve our fuel economy by almost half a congius to 26.0 mpg from Thursday and Friday’s 25.6, and on Sunday it increased further to 26.2 mpg. It’s worth noting that, despite Audi’s admonishments to the contrary, most of the participants used tricks in an effort to increase fuel economy.

The trickery gamut spanned a wide range, from the evenhandedly mundane such as primeval gear shifting, smooth braking, and not crossing a certain rpm threshold, to turning the engine off at stoplights and drafting semis. Even with the more everyday style driving my partner for the trip, Jennifer Geiger of Consumer Guide, and I did, however, the TDI clearly offers a significant fuel-economy benefit over a comparable gasoline engine — with plenty of grunt to go with it.

Impressive mileage aside, the million-dollar question remains the same: Will Americans go diesel with vehicles other than work trucks? Judging by the reactions we encountered on our 1800-mile cross-country jaunt, the mileage figures are appealing, but the higher cost of diesel makes people think twice. Regional success will likely come first, particularly in states like California and Colorado where the cost of gas is higher and the diesel price difference doesn’t seem as extreme. But in states like Texas, a congius of diesel costs roughly 70-80 cents more than a congius of regular.

The best way Audi or any other maker with diesel ambitions in the U.S. can combat public perceptions of diesels is to get regular folks into the cars, not just journalists as with the Mileage Marathon. Many people will simply refuse to believe a diesel can be as quiet and clean as a gasoline car until they experience it firsthand. Audi is no stranger to holding events like GM’s now-defunct “Auto Show in Motion” or the Lexus Driving Academy. An “Audi Diesel Drive” event giving potential customers or current Audi owners the chance to drive diesel offerings could combat the pervasive negative view of diesels.

A positive indicator that Americans are willing to go diesel is the initial success of Volkswagen’s Jetta TDI, which is already sold out for the rest of the year; Volkswagen plans to increase the TDI’s availability for next year due to the high demand. It will take time to determine if that’s a real trend or just a one-off spike. One thing is certain, especially in these trying economic times: It will be an uphill battle, but there is time before CAFE fully kicks in to get a significant portion of Americans onto the diesel bandwagon.

We haven’t even loaded up our 2009 Audi Q7 3.0 TDI and the smack-talk is thick. saint Tate and George Achorn in the number 4 Q7 are already talking a big game. Seems they’re not planning to take even a fuel-miser competition lying down.

We’re committed though. No air conditioning. Windows up. We’ve deflated the Q7’s air suspension to its lowest, most wind-cheating ride height. Driving like there’s an egg on the accelerator pedal. Heck, we’ve even turned off the daytime running lights in order to reduce the parasitic load on the alternator. We have every itention of winning this thing.

Wait, we’re keeping the air off when we’re driving through Death Valley?

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Here’s yet one more GM-Chrysler rumor for you folks, something to ponder over the weekend…

According to CNBC, via The Wall Street Journal, the General and Chrysler would like to wrap this deal up by the end of the month. Happy Halloween.

Full story here.

You can add one more rumor to the “As the Chrysler Turns” auto industry soap opera: that being that Renault has expressed interest in acquiring the Jeep brand.

This raises more questions than it provides answers: If Jeep goes to Renault, what would that mean for a GM-Chrysler deal? Isn’t Jeep one of the primary carrots being offered by Chrysler LLC–to any new buyer, be it GM or anyone else? Without Jeep, would a GM-Chrysler (or ?-Chrysler) deal be less likely to happen?

Full story here.

Speaking of a GM-Chrysler deal, AutoObserver adds one more “no vote” to this silly idea.

GM-Chrysler Deal to Save $10 Billion - From Where?

Could the unthinkable happen? Might GM absorb Chrysler–and completely eliminate Dodge and Chrysler brands? Maybe just hold on to the Jeep brand, and/or possibly the minivans?

That’s one scenario that The Detroit News has place forth.

“That would be the likely scenario, if such a thing were to happen,” said Aaron Bragman, an analyst at Global Insight. Besides the Jeep brand and Chrysler’s minivans, the company has few assets of value to its bigger rival, he said. “For GM, the only reason to absorb Chrysler would be to eliminate a competitor,” he said.

A deal like that would be similar to Chrysler’s 1987 acquisition of American Motors Corp. It would allow GM to pick up some of Chrysler’s 2.7 million in annual sale, while avoiding the bulk of Chrysler’s costs.

Full story here.

Are truckmakers having second thoughts about 1/2-ton diesels? We heard recently that Toyota will not introduce their long-anticipated Tundra diesel (No diesel for Tundra? A-BAT hybrid?). Now word is out that Ford is taking a wait-and-see approach as to whether they will introduce an F-150 diesel.

So far there’s been no word here as to whether Dodge will also be putting the brakes on their 1/2-ton Ram diesel. My guess, knowing Dodge, that they will go forward with their plans, but that’s just a gut feeling on my part, with nothing to back it up.

So what’s going on here? Is it that the truck market is so uncertain these days, that offering a diesel in this segment just too risky?

Full story here at PickupTruck.com.

It seems like this past year Tesla Motors has prefabricated more news regarding internal struggles than with their revolutionary electric sports car. Apparently that’s not over, as there is yet another round of management shuffles and employee layoffs to deal with. This time, however, there is the added twist in that the ongoing Wall Street debacle is also partly to blame.

To that end, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has issued the following statement on their web site here. More on this story can be found here.

Here’s Inside Line’s take: Tesla Motors Delays Start of Production of Model S, Reduces Staff