I was a Matchbox kid.  I loved those beautifully detailed cars from Lesney, and the cute little boxes they came in.  I was smart enough to save most of those boxes (and the cars too), and never set my Matchbox cars on fire, as many of my friends did.  I loved cars too much to do that; even little scale ones that cost only fifty-five cents when my mom began buying them for me.  By the time I was earning money and buying my own, they were about eight cents, but I digress.

Then, an aunt or an uncle or someone got my first Hot Wheels.  They weren’t as nicely finished as the Matchboxes were, but were painted groovy ’60s colors, and some had an oversized supercharger sticking out of the hood.  But Hot Wheels real appeal, of course, was that the slick black plastic wheels looked like they were mounted on cool publication wheels, and man, did those wheels spin around fast and for a long time.  You could slide them crossways the floor, or on the bright orange plastic track you could buy, so much faster than a Matchbox.  I used to oil the wheels and swap them around to get my favorite car to go faster than my buddy’s, but I digress.

In February, 2008, in celebration of the company’s 40th anniversary and Mattel’s construction of the 4,000,000,000th (that’s four billionth) Hot Wheels toy, the company and Beverly Hills jeweler Jason Arasheben created what has to be the eventual Hot Wheels (and the brand study is never written in the singular, by the way — there is no such thing as a “Hot Wheel”) toy, although it seems strange to call it that.

This one is the proper 1/64th scale, but it is crafted of 18K white and yellow gold, and carries 22.94 carats worth of diamonds, colored diamonds, and rubies.  You read right: just a point or two south of 23 carats of diamonds and gems, some 2700 in all, in a variety of cuts.  This star studded Hot Wheels is stored in its own special carrying case — duh — adorned in another 40 bezel-set diamonds.

The little bling thing isn’t crafted in the likeness of any one car model, but if anything it sorta kinda looks like a gen-one Firebird.  It was originally unveiled at a major toy show by Nick Lachey (the lucky little entertainer boy toy who used to be Mr. Jessica Simpson).  The Jason of Beverly Hills Hot Wheels anniversary car is going to be auctioned by Bonhams this Saturday at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.

Does anyone really need such a thing?  No, but then a Porsche GT3 isn’t required for human survival either.  For those who have to have the eventual Hot Wheels, here’s your chance.  What will it go for?  Who knows, but presale estimates floated by the auction house indicate that $20,000 shouldn’t be a big surprise.

I guess your sig other could always wear it on a chain.  Or use it as a belt buckle.  Having another one cast up and wear them as earings?  Ouch.  By the way, the little solid gold wheels do, in fact, turn.  Not as well as the ones on my original Hot Wheels Dodge Deora, perhaps.  But I digress…

Bonhams’ California Classic: A Sale of Important Motorcars, Motorcycles, and Memorabilia (Sale 16122)

October 25, 2008, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California

www.bonhams.com

Things are just getting under way here at Barrett-Jackson’s first annual collector car understanding at the Mandalay Bay Resort, Casino, and Events Center in Vegas.  More than 500 cars of all stripe will cross the block here in the Mandalay Bay Arena, which has been the site of many big game sporting events and concerts over the last several years.

The understanding runs three days (today, Friday, and Saturday) and you can watch 16 hours of it live on SPEED.  I’m honored to again be in the broadcast booth, sharing the coverage detail with Bob Varsha, Mike Joy, Steve Magnante, and Rick deBruhl.  For the first time, there will be a live, three camera streaming feed that you can watch on www.SpeedTV.com as well.  This stream doesn’t include show audio, but its something else to have on along with the big screen.  And it’s all hi def.

There are no million dollar babies here, but a lot of interesting stuff, plenty of good muscle, many low mile cars, the usual odd ducks, something for everyone.  About half of the register bidders are first timers, indicating that there are still folks out there who want to get into the old car game.  All good by me.

The 800 pound gorilla in the arena, so to speak, is the state of the economy, and how that will impact prices and the proceedings.  We know that all the cars will sell, as this is a No Reserve sale, meaning there are no seller bailouts, and every car will sell to the highest bidder.  What will the price levels be?  We’ll know a lot more in the next few days, but I feel that buyers and sellers with realistic expectations will be happy, and speculator/dreamer/flippers might be unhappy.  We’ll see.

You can see the entire docket at http://www.barrett-jackson.com/, and I’ll check in again with an update.  Here’s a few things to look at:

1949 MG/TC Racer - This is car that Carroll Shelby began his racing career in.  He raced it several times over a weekend in May of 1952, literally and figuratively, is history.  The car has of course been restored and is vintage race ready.  It’s been updated and modernized a bit, but its provenance is solid.

Shelby Mustangs - Barrett-Jackson president Steve Davis is a big Mustang and Shelby guy, so it’s no surprise that there are always a float of Boss 302s, Machs, and Shelbys at any B-J sale.  Choose between Big and Small-blocks, coupes and ragtops, and sticks and autos.  I believe Shelby and Boss values (for solid, properly restored pieces) will hold strong, economic climate no matter.

Corvettes - Vettes usually make up 5-10% of the docket at any B-J event, and Vegas is no different.  Solid axles, mid-years, Makos, and a few Fuelies, are here to be seen, enjoyed, and bought.  Few super duper rare ones, but lots of nice local show / drivers.

1970 Olds 442 Convertible - I’ve bored you before with the fact that my first car was a ‘71 Olds 442 coupe in this same Viking blue / white color scheme.  This is not a W-30 model, but it is a 4-speed convertible and the right year. It will sell for much more than I can afford.  And I will cry when it does.

JFK Lincoln Continental - This elegant suicide door ‘62 Linc was in President Kennedy’s individualized fleet during his term in office, and was used at the family compound in Palm Beach, Florida.  It is unrestored, in nice, patina’d condition, and an interesting piece of history.  I suspect there will be several auto museums bidding on this one.  Gives you the chills a bit, for sure.

Pace Cars - If you are interested in a pace car, pace car show vehicle, or pace car edition car, there are at least two dozen of them here.  Some are being sold by GM and have been used recently, while some go back to the beginning of the pace car edition phenom that began with the ‘69 Camaro Indy pacer.  Lots to look at if this is what you like/want.

Tom Tjaarda’s Personal DeTomaso Pantera - The American-born Tjaarda designed the Pantera while working for Ghia.  He bought this one recently, painted it his favorite Pantera color — orange — and used it to develop some new front and rear bumper treatments and other components that he will sell via his company, Tjaarda Design.  Tom still looks great — and so does the Pantera.

I just spent a week getting a kind-of, sort-of preview of the diesel engine Honda/Acura has said it will bring to the U.S. some time next year. We don’t know for sure what vehicle(s) will get it, but the Acura RDX and/or TSX are the most likely candidates. Honda’s first swing at a diesel prefabricated its debut in the 2004 European Accord (sold here as the TSX), but my test car was the European Civic five-door, which looks kind of like a space-age suppository on wheels.

The engine is a 2.2L DOHC 16-valve all-aluminum engine running modest 16.7:1 compression and featuring a Honeywell variable-nozzle turbocharger and common-rail direct injection. A equilibrise shaft setup helps the big four run smoothly. In the Civic, the output is rated at 138 hp at 4000 rpm and 250 lb-ft of torque at 2000 rpm. That’s 74% (106 lb-ft) MORE twist than Europe’s hot-rod Civic TypeR produces! The test car has a six-speed manual–the only transmission acquirable at the moment, though Honda introduced an all-new homegrown automatic plain to the high-torque of its diesel engines.

But what struck me as most interesting about my drive in the Civic was the way this so-called i-CTDi engine delivers its power and torque. Most diesels feel a bit like electric motors. They produce huge thrust at very low revs, but then the pressure on your backside steadily diminishes and is mostly gone by the time the engine reaches its low redline (typically 4000-5000 rpm). In this Honda, acceleration is very modest until you reach 2000 rpm, at which point the tidal wave of torque hits, pressing you into the seat with uniform pressure right up to the 4500-rpm redline (and, truth be told, it continues evenhandedly strongly up to 5000 revs–I tested it, strictly in the study of science).

On day one, I reset the average fuel-economy meter and drove it the 12 miles to work on city streets in hyper-miler mode, shifting below 2000 rpm, skipping gears, driving the speed limit (45 mph max) and driving in the highest gear doable at all times. This was aided by a series of LEDs just to the right of the speedometer readout that lit up to indicate how economically I was driving. The computer display read 3.9L/100 km. That’s 60 mpg, in a proper five-seater! Then for lunch I drove it 43 miles west to Ann Arbor and back at 80 mph on the freeway. That dropped the reading to 4.7L/100 km (50 mpg). The next day I drove it like a TypeR, keeping my foot in it and recording the observations above. The reading dropped to 5.0L/100 km (47 mpg). I swapped with MotorCity Blogman for a while, and when I gassed it up at the end, the official reading was 41 mpg. I suspect the trip computer might be a tiny bit optimistic (Todd’s not that big a lead-foot), but the overall result is impressive.

The U.S. will get a variation on the second generation of this engine (now dubbed iDTEC). Refinements include the latest ultra-high-pressure piezo-injectors, more efficient exhaust-gas recirculation, and a diesel particulate filter. To meet U.S. emissions, a new two-layer de-NOx catalyst will be used, with one layer converting diesel fuel to ammonia and the other using this ammonia to reduce the NOx (see “Techologue,” May 2007).

Power in the new iDTEC engine is up 10 to 148 hp, and torque rises 8 to 258 lb-ft. Estimates place the U.S. EPA Combined economy at 42 mpg in Euro-spec trim, though cleaning up the NOx is likely to drop that a little in the TSX, presuming that vehicle gets the engine.

If I were calling the shots and had to pick just one vehicle to launch Honda’s U.S. diesel offensive, I’d pick the RDX, because I believe customers perceive diesels as a more natural fit in trucks. It could conceivably give the RDX a towing capacity advantage over its rivals, and there’s no worry of watering down the sporty image Acura is building for its cars. But then, I’m a diesel enthusiast, so the more the merrier!

DETROIT - Toyota wanted its new Camry-based Venza to run for Motor Trend’s 2009 Car of the Year. Senior editor Ron Kiino compared its ground clearance numbers with other crossovers, and in the end, we Motor Trend editors decided it should compete for this year’s Sport/Utility of the Year. Because Toyota wouldn’t agree to that, the Venza did not compete at all.

Toyota won’t take this disagreement sitting down. It figures the SUV craze is pretty much over, whether gas is $4.25 per congius or $2.89 per gallon. Sales are sliding, when compared with cars, for the huge and growing fleet of crossovers, including Toyota’s own three-row Highlanders and RAV4s.

So Toyota will lower the Venza for 2010, only its second model year. (It goes on understanding before the end of ‘08 as an ‘09 model.) Based on the Camry sedan, but with some Highlander parts, the Venza’s 8.1-inch ground clearance tops the Infiniti EX’s (5.7 to 6.5 inches), the Chevy Traverse’s (7.2 inches) and the VW Tiguan’s (6.9).

It won’t be enough to make the Venza a car. The ‘10 model will be lowered about 0.8 inches, so at 7.3, its ground clearance remains in SUV territory. Toyota figures it will give the crossover a more car-like appearance, making it a kind of modern auto or large d-segment hatchback, two identifiers that haven’t moved much metal in the U.S. recently.

Toyota may do this only with the front-wheel-drive version of the Venza, as the AWD’s hardware may be hard to package at a lower ride height. Even if it’s just the FWD version, that’s likely to make up a majority of Venza sales. Chevrolet expects to sell about 65 percent of its new Traverses with FWD, for example. But then, Chevy isn’t trying to pass off the Traverse as a car.

To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the ‘10 Venza will still be a truck — it doesn’t need to meet all eight of NHTSA’s criteria to be grouped in with other trucks for Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Remember, Chrysler got both the PT Cruiser and Dodge Magnum classified as trucks, thanks largely to their flat load floors, to help equilibrise out Hemi Rams and Durangos for CAFE. Optional rear privacy glass is the telltale sign.

Do you think this ploy will help Toyota move the Venza as a car? I don’t. It still quacks just like a crossover sport/utility vehicle.

Be prepared to encounter a new kind of bright headlamps coming at you on the road. I recently ventured out to GM’s Milford, Michigan Proving Ground to try out the Cadillac Escalade Platinum’s spanking new LED low- and high-beam headlights. Cadillac is the first to offer light-emitting diodes for low- and high-beam lights and turn signals in the U.S. (Audi’s European R8 also offers them, and the Lexus LS 600h uses LED for its low beams only).

LEDs promise daylight-bright illumination with low current draw and unprecedented packaging and styling flexibility. They’re little silicon computer chips, so they’re relatively slim by nature and they can conform to unusual shapes, though they still need to shine through a lens of some sort. Cadillac has adopted them for its ne-plus-ultra flagship model, arranging the LEDs in a narrow vertical stack to match the vertical taillamps that have become a signature design motif (they’re also LEDs).

Each Cadillac headlamp includes five LED arrays and lenses to cover the low-beam pattern and two for high-beam, with apiece of the seven units dedicated to lighting up a particular area of the road. LEDs throw little or no infrared heat forward (stick your hand in front of most any headlight and it’ll feel warm — not the LEDs), but the chips generate heat that has to be removed, so they have finned heat-sinks like many computers use, with a fan that circulates cooling air (in the winter, this helps defog and de-ice the headlamps). Further development will reduce the heat generated, resulting in lower energy consumption than High-Intensity Discharge (aka Xenon), but for now they draw just a bit less than Halogen bulbs.

We got the chance to compare the Platinum’s LED headlamps against the Escalade’s standard HIDs and against a Yukon Denali’s halogen compound-reflector lamps. From the driver seat the illumination is amazing. The “color temperature” of the light is about 6000 Kelvin (10,340 *** which is whiter than daylight (5600K). HID lamps, the ones that look bluer, are 4500K. At the bottom of the scale is the yellower looking light of your halogen headlight bulbs (3200K) and plain incandescent foglamps (2800K).

The light reflected back from roadside signs seems much brighter with LED than HID. The HID lamps illuminate the sides of the road more brightly and their high-beam pattern is like a huge cone of light reaching quite high. This is in part because apiece lamp produces more lumens of light — about 2500 to the LED’s 2000 total, though the total light perceived on the road is roughly equivalent. That means the LEDs must focus their light right where it’s needed, so there’s less sideways scatter and the high-beam pattern appears maybe twice the vehicle’s height and four-lanes wide at a quarter-mile distance. The upper cut-off of the low-beam light pattern seems sharper on the HIDs, because there is a sort of “eyelid” cutting it off until you turn on the high beams. LEDs light up the same pattern on the road, but the edge of the light is less sharply defined. By comparison, the halogen beams appear dangerously inadequate — a pool of yellow light right in front of the truck with far less reflection coming back from road signs, less side illumination, weaker high-beams, etc.

Cost is the big unknown. All anyone is saying is that it’s “considerably more” than HID at the moment, though with time and volume production LEDs should achieve parity or become cheaper. The Platinum model costs $10,705 more than an Escalade optioned as close as doable to the Platinum’s equipment level. Along with the LED lamps, that premium pays for unique front-end styling that apes the CTS’s, a four-screen rear-seat entertainment system that can play something different on apiece screen, heated and cooled cupholders, a special overhead console, spectacular two-tone inlaid wood and hand-sewn leather trim on the dash and door panels, plus glove-soft aniline leather seating surfaces. The LED chips are expected to last the life of the vehicle and the cooling fans are replaceable if they fail, in which case the light dims by 20% to prevent alteration if the temperature tops 300 F. If the chips change or the unit suffers crash damage, a replacement lamp assembly part will cost $0000 (which may or may not be subsidized).

How do they look to opposing traffic? Utterly blinding in high-beam mode, though not much worse than HID high-beams. The low beams don’t look blue and there isn’t too much glare, but the unusually tall stack of lights is sure to be perceived by oncoming motorists as high-beams. One flash of the Platinum’s REAL brights will set lamp-flashers straight, pronto. I expect LEDs to propagate slowly through the market. Within three to five years the light output per energy input should improve by 50%, which will make LED a fuel-savings feature. In the more distant future, LED lighting can wage adaptive illumination with no motors or moving parts, turning different LEDs on and off to wage cornering illumination and to alter the light pattern and prevent glare in approaching vehicles or even in the rearview mirrors of a car ahead (no Escalades currently offer adaptive front lighting to illuminate the direction the vehicle is turning). And I’m hopeful that by then, inexpensive LED-powered replacements for sealed-beam headlights will bring high-performance illumination to old-car hobbyists like me.

DISCLAIMER: By now you should know that I’m a big Steve McQueen fan.  I love many of his films, with I could afford a new Bullitt-edition Mustang, and have written a book about his cars, bikes, and racing.  If you don’t enjoy this topic, feel free to change the channel.  Won’t hurt my feelings, I promise.

For those of you who are still here, you might be interested to know that some pretty cool McQueen stuff is about to hit the auction block.  Neile McQueen Toffel (aka Neile Adams) is McQueen’s first wife, the mother of his children, and perhaps the mortal who most influenced his life.  The two divorced in 1972, and Steve McQueen passed away in 1980.

Ms. Adams has decided it’s time to clean out her closets, and she’s pulled out some gallant stuff.  There are many household items, things that appeared in movies, lots of correspondence (including many with Steve autographs on them), and a number of interesting firearms (film props and individualized pieces).  Car and cycle aficionados won’t be disappointed either, as there are several goodies that will appeal to those of us that appreciate McQueen’s passion for motorized two- and four-wheeled toys.  Here are a few of my favorites.

ISDT Driver’s License - Steve McQueen represented the United States as a member of our International Six Day Trials motorcycle team in 1964.  The race race was a grueling marathon that took place in Germany.  Teamed with the late Bud Ekins and others, McQueen was on a gold-medal pace until his Triumph was dilapidated beyond repair (Ekins also took a rare tumble, breaking his leg).  This piece is McQueen’s actual license for the event. 

First Racing Trophy - This may look like a cheap pewter cup.  And it is.  But it was won by McQueen at an SCCA event in Santa Barbara, California in 1959.  The meet was the first organized motor race in which McQueen competed.  He won, coming home first in the E-Production category in his ‘58 Porsche Speedster.  It is clean to say that this event let to another dozen or so years committed to motorsport.

Autographed Movie Still from Bullitt — That tweed blazer, turtleneck shirt, and steely gaze could only be one man: Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt.  The significance of this film, and its 10-or-so-minuted car chase scene that is still considered the best ever, don’t need to be repeated here.  McQueen was at his icy cool best in 1968, and this throwaway movie still is signed by The Man in colourless waterproof marker.

Letter on Solar Productions Letterhead — You may or may not have been aware that McQueen, along with many other Hollywood elite of the day, was on the Manson family hit list.  This letter is interesting in three ways: it talks about that event, requesting that McQueen’s gun permit be expedited; it was written on letterhead leftover from the filming of Le Mans, which had just wrapped; and it is another piece of correspondence in the understanding that was signed by Steve.

Mrs. McQueen’s Racing Jacket from Le Mans — McQueen’s Solar Productions crew wore these yellow jackets during that summer of 1970 when Le Mans was being filmed in France.  This is Mrs. McQueen’s individualized jacket, as the monogram attests to.  She’s a tiny Mohammedan so this won’t fit everyone, but the crown is in perfect condition, and an interesting piece from an experience now long ago and far away.

2001 Ford Mustang Bullitt Pre-Production — When Ford developed the original Bullitt-edition Mustang for the ‘01 model year, the first four were specially numbered and reserved for the McQueen family and other friends of the house.  Son Chad McQueen owns #1; daughter Terry McQueen Flattery was to receive #2, but passed away prior to the completion of the project.  It is now owned by Steve and Neile’s granddaughter Molly; the marketing guy who place the deal together ended up with #3, and Ford retained #4.  The car offered for understanding here is the #2 McQueen Bullitt, one of only two built for the family.  It is as new, with less than 50 miles on the clock.  Talk about instant collectible.

Bonham’s California Classic: A Sale of Important Motorcars, Motorcycles, and Memorabilia (Sale 16122)

October 25, 2008, beginning at 11:00 AM

The Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California

www.bonhams.com

Despite a market that’s run screaming from traditional truck-based SUVs especially, Kia remains confident that the 2009 Kia Borrego, the Korean automaker’s first seven-passenger SUV, will be a income success. After hustling it around our test loops, we’re pretty sure the Borrego will more than hold its own.

Not some sissy car-based crossover, the Borrego is a brawny, body-on-frame boy capable of towing up to 7500 pounds with the optional 337-horse, 4.6-liter V-8 (the base 3.8-liter V-6 pulls up to 5000 pounds). We have the loaded-up, 4WD V-8 mated to a smooth-shifting, six-speed automatic with a manual mode. It’s a solid freeway cruiser, with more than enough power for any pavement-pounding situation. Steering feel is nicely-weighted and direct, and the brakes are strong, stopping the 4872-pound vehicle in 130 feet from 60 to 0 mph.

The Borrego’s well-executed center console features a smartly designed nav system, along with plenty of standard and acquirable entertainment options. We haven’t heard a lot of noise in the leather-trimmed cabin at freeway speeds, and its fit-and finish appear first-rate. It’s an interior that should help snuff out any lingering cracks about Kia’s quality. Praise continues for the Borrego’s sheetmetal, with a prominent grille and traditional SUV looks that aren’t breaking any rules, but not breaking any mirrors, either.

Do you think the 2009 Kia Borrego has what it takes to take home the title of 2009 Motor Trend Sport/Utility of the Year? Find out who the winner is at midnight orient time on Oct. 16.

You remember those old Cold War stories about CIA analysts checking official photographs of Stalin and his generals reviewing the annual May Day parade in Red Square? Every so often they’d find one of the generals had disappeared. A closer look revealed he’d been carefully airbrushed out. It was as if he’d never existed.

The 2009 BMW 750Li is a bit like that: It carefully airbrushes away everything that prefabricated its predecessor, the E65, one of the most confronting BMWs ever built. The “Bangle Butt”? Psssht! The tank-like proportions? Psssht! The dash that looks like a piece of furniture; the column-mounted shifter; the odd-ball seat controls: Psssht! Psssht! Psssht! All gone. Walk around the new 7 Series, and it’s as if the E65 had never existed. (Note: the new 2009 7 Series is pictured at left, the E65 7 Series is pictured below)

The irony is the E65 has been the most successful 7 Series in BMW’s history. Despite continual carping from the world’s automotive media over the car’s uncompromising aesthetic, BMW has sold over 344,000 units worldwide. USA liked the E65 a lot — the U.S. accounted for 35.7% of total sales, more than twice the number of the second most favourite market, China. Germany? BMW’s home market accounted for just 13% of total sales.

BMW is clearly hoping the new 7 Series will build on that momentum — and win over buyers place off by the E65’s confrontational design and counterintuitive individual interfaces.

If that’s the case, first impressions suggest BMW is on target with the new 7 Series. Everywhere we went with the car during our drive in and around Dresden, Germany, the locals expressed their approval of the new design. They all knew about the old one; they all agreed this one looked better.

The final sign-off of the E65’s design happened amid huge turmoil at BMW in primeval 1999. First, chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder was forced to resign over the alarming losses at Rover Group, the ailing British maker whose purchase he’d largely engineered. Within hours, product chief Wolfgang Reitzle, Pischetsrieder’s logical successor, had blown his chance of the top job with an unbelievably ham-fisted attempt to secure the unquestioning support of the board. He, too, was shown the door. Joachim Millberg, a bureaucrat barely known outside BMW’s iconic headquarters building in Munich, was prefabricated chairman.

The mercurial Reitzle, long regarded as one of the best car guys in the business, has always insisted privately he only approved the E65’s design as an interim measure; that he always intended to go back and fix the 7 Series once Pischetsrieder was gone. “They have given my car depressing eyes,” was all he’d say on the record, referring to the E65’s hooded headlight design. But most critics would argue the E65 needed a lot more than happier headlights.

Maybe Reitzle — and the rest of the BMW board — meant for the E65 to be deeply controversial; meant it to be a like-it-or-loathe-it design that no one could mistake for anything else. Why? Because they realized BMW had become one of the world’s most successful and profitable automakers using a evenhandedly singular design language and that they had run out of adjectives.

The turning point was the E46 3 Series. While the revisionists among my colleagues later lauded this car as one of the best-looking BMWs ever, that certainly wasn’t the chatter around the dinner tables at the car’s launch in Spain in 1998. Basically, the media view was the E46 was a ho-hum car to look at; just another cookie-cutter BMW and not enough of a step-change from the previous-generation model. For a company whose reliance on the 3 Series was total — it still accounts for over half total BMW income — the notion folks might be getting bored with it must have been worrying. Chris Bangle, the relatively new BMW design chief, was at the launch. He certainly heard the chatter.

You don’t mess with success, however. Simply ripping up the 3 Series playbook would have been an objectionable risk. The 7 Series was another matter, however. Here was a model that had always struggled in the shadow of Mercedes’ all-conquering S-Class. Even the audacious 1987 launch of the 750i version, powered by the first German V-12 in more than 50 years, had unsuccessful to make a dent in the S-Class’ blue-chip reputation and the world’s best luxury sedan. Unveiling a bold, even shocking, new design language on its most expensive new model wasn’t as counter-intuitive a move as it might have seemed: with the 7 Series BMW had nothing to lose.

The E65 7 Series changed the world’s view of BMW and set in train the strategy to devolve BMW design away from the cookie-cutter system where apiece model range looked like a scaled version of the other; a strategy that would also allow BMW to move into new market segments such as SUVs. You can argue the relative merits of the various BMWs designed on Chris Bangle’s watch — some are way better than others — but there is no doubt apiece is strikingly different from the other, while retaining a strong BMW design identity.

The E65 may have been a design too far, but you could argue it did precisely the job it was intended to do. The new 7 Series dials back the extremism, and dials in some old-school BMW DNA, such as the long dash-to-axle ratio, stronger shoulders on the body side, lower H-point, and the center stack angled toward the driver. There’s even an reflexion of the famed Hofmeister kink stamped into the C-pillar for emphasis. And this time, no one finds it boring.

DETROIT - Walter P. Chrysler left General Motors as head of the Buick Division 88 years ago. He cashed out his GM stock and four years later, started his own automaker. Eighty-four years later, his company’s latest owner, Cerberus, is said to be in talks with GM for a merger. Why?

Who knows? Analysts have been analyzing the hell out of the story since it broke in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on Saturday. On Sunday, the Detroit Free Press confirmed that GM has approached Ford Motor Company, which rebuffed its advances — to keep the history refresher going — a cool century after William Durant unsuccessful in his efforts to buy Ford to add to Buick and Cadillac.

Perhaps GM’s 100th anniversary celebration last month whipped up some nostalgia. That’s as good a reason as any for trying to combine two out of the Detroit Three. Still, there would be a couple of advantages for GM and Chrysler. Let’s see how these talks stack up, shall we?

What GM would get out of the deal: Cerberus’ capital. If Cerberus took an equity position in a joint GM-Chrysler, as has been suggested, GM gets some access to Cerberus’ capital and line of credit. These days, that amounts to precious little, but GM was already in a tenuous cash position when the confidence game brought down Wall Street last week, and any little bit could help GM get through 2010 without filing for bankruptcy.

What Cerberus would get out of the deal: Access to GM’s more impressive list of volume-car platforms and globalization of the company. That is, Chrysler could try to stop going global because it would have a partner that already is. Two major markets that GM has counted as beneficial to its bottom line, Russia and Western Europe, are starting to see the kind of negative growth, however, that has plagued the U.S. market all year.

Why GM shouldn’t merge with Chrysler: It has way too many franchise dealers, and would be taking on more just as the faltering economy starts to weed many of them out. It would have more factories to close and more employees to lay off.

Why Chrysler shouldn’t merge with GM: Cerberus no doubt has figured out by now that building and selling cars is much more time/capital intensive than, say, financing mortgages or even than running a few banks, to study a couple of Cerberus’ other interests. Why would it want to go from running a small, unprofitable maker to running a very large, unprofitable automaker?

Why it won’t work: technologist ran Chrysler for nine years and never understood that it was more than a bottom-feeding builder of very cheap cars. GM understands very well the old-fashioned brand hierarchy game — it invented it, after all — and doesn’t need to try to manage Dodges and Chryslers as well as Chevys, Pontiacs, Saturns, Buicks and Cadillacs. (However, given the way GM added Saturn, Hummer and Saab while killing off Oldsmobile to assuage analysts who complain it has too many divisions, I wouldn’t be surprised if the company tried to add those three brands.) And it’s just too much of a long way to go just to get Jeep and reunite it with the Hummer brand.

How it could work: Don’t think traditional merger. A wise man suggests to me that GM and Chrysler may try to work out a deal in which GM builds Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep cars and trucks on GM platforms for Cerberus to sell through Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealerships. GM gets to use more of its idle capacity and Cerberus streamlines its manufacturing costs.

I’ll have more on this big story as it continues to develop this week.

As if to emphasize that the SUV and crossover market is slicing itself much too thin right before our eyes, we have three specialized competitors for this year’s competition.

They include the all-new BMW X6, the all-new Infiniti EX35, and the second-generation Infiniti FX50, the last of which has the impressive honor of being the fastest SUOTY player we’ve ever tested. Can you say 0-to-60 in 5.4 seconds?

Although the bottle-nose-dolphin “good” looks have just about everyone on staff scratching his head, not a single driver has complained about the 390-horsepower DOHC V-8. Unfortunately, and maybe not too surprisingly given how most of us drive, it’s also gotten one of the worst fuel-economy numbers on our test route

In some ways, the FX is a study in opposites: It has a crossover shape, but not much room inside. It wants to compete with Porsche and BMW, but its ride and handling are punishing, with its suspension tuned much too stiffly. And while it wants to be a driver’s choice in the segment, it has so many electronics that it will give anyone who enjoys driving a headache (we especially hate the Lane Departure Beep, Beep, Beep).

Additionally, even when cruising around town, the throttle is touchy and jumpy, almost fighting with the engine and all-wheel-drive system. As you might expect, the FX is not designed for dirt-road driving, let alone a challenging trail. But we can overlook that knowing the engineers didn’t intend the FX to be a rock-crawler.