2008 Lamborghini Gallardo

The Gallardo is a bit intimidating initially, due to its radical styling, its dimensions, the sound of its highly tuned Italian V10, and advanced features such as its available E-gear electronic gearbox. On the outside, the Gallardo benefits from Italian design. It looks exotic and flamboyant. A closer look reveals high-quality construction with body panels awash in quality paint that fit smartly and evenly.

Gallardo comes in coupe and roadster versions, plus a lighter, more powerful Superleggera model.

The Superleggera is lightning quick and blindingly fast. It grips the road so well that you'll likely work the tires only on a racing circuit. And it has fantastic braking capability. The acceleration performance is truly exhilarating and at full song in the Sport mode the E-gear changes gears like a race driver in anger. Yet, around town, in the automatic or normal manual modes, it shifts smoothly and is quite tractable at low speeds.

The 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo comes in Coupe ($186,250) and Spyder ($217,000) versions. The Superleggera ($222,800) comes only as a coupe. Safety features include seat-mounted side air bags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic stability control, and all-wheel drive. Only about 350 of these cars will be available worldwide, making them instant collector's items.

2008 Audi R8

Audi's first super sports car for the street takes the R8 name, challenging the Ferrari F430 and other competitors. It might be no contest with a price that is at least $70,000 less. The Audi R8 features an exotic aluminum space frame, and a mid-mounted compact V8 engine making 420 horsepower. It has a top speed of 187 miles per hour. It will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. Two transmissions are offered, a six-speed manual and high-tech six-speed R-Tronic, which is a manual transmission with no clutch pedal, that can be shifted either with paddle shifters, a lever, or by automatic mode. This transmission works best when the car is being driven near its maximum; at casual speeds, it's inconsistent and jerky. What makes the R8 exceptional is that it does it all: incredible high performance without making any compromises for civility and comfort.

The 2008 Audi R8 can be ordered with a six-speed manual transmission at $109,000 or the six-speed R-Tronic sequential manual gearbox for $118,000. Some of the safety features include dual-stage front airbags with passenger sensor, side door chest airbags, side door knee airbags, electronic stability control, tire pressure monitor, and cool looking LED taillights as well as daytime running lights, because you might be coming up on traffic kind of fast and the car is real low. LED headlights, the first on any production car, are optional. LED lighting most closely resembles daylight, and is less tiring for the driver.

The best feature of the R8 is the engine under glass. Lexan, to be precise, and it's glowed upon by LED lighting. You can look right down on the compact double-overhead-cam V8, with its carbon fiber and silver-screen components. It's a beautiful installation, a work of art.

The R8 offers every creature comfort and is totally tame around town. It seems almost unkind to point out that it?s not as shapely as its Italian cousin the Lamborghini Gallardo, and its voice isn't as sexy as that of its sister the Audi RS 4. The biggest drawback might be its highest-tech component, the R-Tronic transmission, whose shifts are jerky and inconsistent on the street.

HUMMER H3T

The new hummer truck will be launched sometime in 2009. General Manager Martin Walsh claims the vehicle will have unparalleled off-road capabilities and have a completely different look than the past hummer models. It is no longer going to have that army look. Hummer has learned with the H3 that downsizing its military-inspired macho looks and maintaining above average off-road prowess can equal big sales.

Martin Walsh also mentioned that a hybrid Hummer is not in the product pipeline because it can not demonstrate true off-road capability. Since off-roading usually occurs at speeds less than 35 mph a hybrid would not be able to function properly. Hummer would have to imagine some clever software programming to create just the right throttle response would make for a compelling off-roader propelled by electrons. Either way Hummer does have plans for flex-fuel versions of its vehicles.

SMART Car

The first known development of the SMART car was in 1994. The idea behind this compact vehicle was that it would be very easy to park. The SMART car is short enough to be parked nose-in where a conventionally sized car would need to be parallel parked. The name SMART was arrived at as an acronym for its developers Swatch Mercedes ART.
The SMART was only available in select countries. In June 2006, DaimlerChrysler confirmed that smart will be officially launched in the United States in the first quarter of 2008. The cars will be offered through dealership holding company Penske Automotive Group, which is to create a new U.S. dealership network for the brand under the name smart USA.Initially, only an updated gasoline powered fortwo will be offered, starting around US$12,000.The new model made its debut at European auto shows in November 2006.