Autoblog has an article about Azentek adding a navigation system to the rear view mirror. My car has a factory navigation system in the center console which I never use. It is too complicated, and to be truthful, the $80 GPS/Nav system that sit on top of the dashboard are better than the factory one.

Additionally, I am more likely to use maps.google on my iPhone for last minute refined directions than anything else these days. When-ever I rent a car I always get the dashboard nav-system for the extra $9 a day.

The most useful visual system on my car is the Heads Up Display [HUD] which sits perfectly in my field of view. I don't look at the dials in the dashboard any longer. If any system should be expanded it is probably the HUD. (reply)
Via Kicking Tires, the Smart FourTwo now has a waiting list of fifteen months in parts of the United States. I have seen them being sold at the Mercedes dealership in Chandler, AZ. There are also more of the Smart cars appearing on US roads. Phoenix is a good city for them as the big highways ring the city and the interior is a network of traffic lights in a geometric square grid. I suspect it would be harder to sell them in New Jersey where the traffic system is the inter-states.

Image via priusforums.com

I first saw the Smart cars in Germany. Ironically they sell them there with a 'top speed of 125 kmh" emblazoned across the windshield. Where horsepower is a selling point in the US, because of the autobahn's the top speed is a selling point in Germany.

When I was in Nurenberg I saw the Smart cars parked perpendicular to the curve where other cars - even the small ones - were parked parallel. Which I thought was a pretty nifty innovation. Especially as the Nurenberg Alt Stadt streets were paved and dated back to Medieval times. (reply)
Chrysler is no longer offering leases for their cars: "The company basically is unable to get credit to back leases based on the predicted value - or residual value - of its products when the leases end. Lease payments are supposed to pay for the car's depreciation, but the banks don't trust that a 3-year-old Chrysler will be worth enough at the end of the lease." (reply)
The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette has a new color and the Z06 has new wheels. The colors for the Corvette are pretty limited, sticking mainly with primary and conservative colors. I like this middle gray though.

My first Corvette was silver, not quite as dark as this, but pretty close. My last two have been black which is not very suitable for the Arizona climate. No color is really suitable for Phoenix. (more)
Hummer sales down 61.7% this month. (more)
There can be only one; or three or four, or so. (more)
Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.