Eye Forward

At just 161inches, sporting a wedge profile and up-to-the-minute styling, this three-door hatch/coupé 'concept' is actually a thinly veiled preview of the production version coming early next year. First shown as a real concept at the 2007 Tokyo Auto Show, this high-MPG hybrid should help establish a unique identity for Honda's hybrid efforts, which right now are overshadowed, like everybody else's, by Toyota's mother-of-all hybrids, the Prius.

The styling isn't exactly drool-worthy, but it is sporty, taut, wedge-y, and edgy. With the skimpier wheels and rubber it will actually be sold with, I suspect a lot of the pizazz seen here will diminish. I like it anyways. But you'll never catch me in one.

It looks neat but it sure doesn't seem intuitive. While I am sure that anyone who bought one could eventually pick up on the library of key gestures, tools and features, it still appears to have a number of tricks that could be learned only after extensive time spent with tutorials - things that you'd be likely to remember only after extended use of the device.

Also, whatever it's gee-whiz factor, the Courier appears to have a fairly focused set of uses - not at all a general use product, in the way that the Apple tablet is expected to be. At least after watching the first couple of videos, it looks highly targeted at creative professionals and art students. Not a tiny niche, but a niche nonetheless.

Land Rover has confirmed the 2008 LRX Concept is headed for production, [and] it will definitely be wearing a Range Rover badge and therefore likely be marketed as a premium vehicle.

No details are given about the coupe-like SUV's powertrain, but Land Rover does say the it "will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced." Previous reports have suggested the production LRX will share underpinnings with the LR2 (a.k.a. the Freelander) and will be offered with an optional all-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain that may use an electric motor to power the rear wheels and a transverse engine underhood driving the front wheels.

Judging from the lone rendering released with this announcement, the basic shape from the LRX Concept should survive mostly intact, perhaps gaining a slightly more pronounced front fascia to go along with the production-necessary external door handles.

This is the car for me. First of all, who doesn't love Range Rovers? I do, you do, everybody does. Second of all, if this rendering is at all accurate, the 2-door SUV is going to look almost identical to the original concept, a design that pushed all my buttons. (I'm a sucker for premium 2-doors). Thirdly, I think in 2011 when this puppy is rolling out, I'll be in the market for my first New-new car. Yep.

The best way to graduate from beginner is to get in way over your head. Nothing makes you better faster.

After 2023!? Ahem. I suppose that for some markets, like say the Inland Empire, San Joaquin Valley and such, that may be true. But There is no way in hell that desirable places - San Diego, Orange County, or, say, Walnut Creek, will take more than 6 or 7 years to rise back to the stratosphere. (IMHO).