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Land Rover is a funny brand. Its flagship Range Rover doesn't sell in astounding numbers, but the company surely rakes in a healthy profit each time a Master of the Manor purchases one, and its customers are incredibly loyal. The LR3 is a very nice SUV, and the Range Rover Sport might be the coolest-looking sporty SUV around.

Automobile Magazine's annual All-Stars test inevitably features a few predictable outcomes. For instance, I fully expected the Chevy Corvette ZR1 to rip my face off, and indeed I am now faceless. And I wasn't even driving it at the time. I was in the Jaguar XF, following executive editor Joe DeMatio, who floored the throttle and nearly triggered the Jag's air bags with the concussive boom of the ZR1's exhaust.

The Lotus Elise and fixed-roof Exige define sports car purity, but with the recently unveiled new Evora, due here late this year, Lotus will live a bit larger. The Evora retains the brand's trademark aluminum tub structure and mid-engine layout, but the former is stretched to squeeze in an (optional) pair of kid-sized rear seats while the latter switches from four- to six-cylinder Toyota power. Adapted from the Camry, the 3.5-liter V-6 puts out 276 hp and 252 lb-ft of torque, enough to zip the luxe Lotus from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds (the company claims) on the way to a top speed of 160 mph. This despite the Evora's 2976 pounds, a full 50 percent more than the featherweight Elise. Of course, the Elise, with its bare-aluminum interior, makes zero concessions to comfort, whereas the Evora promises to be a veritable Maybach by comparison. It sports such unimaginable luxuries as navigation, an optional paddleshift automatic transmission, power steering, and - gasp! - cupholders. Not only that, but Lotus promises that entering and exiting the Evora will be "a less athletic undertaking," thanks to narrower sills, wider-opening doors, and a taller roof, all of which perhaps explains the brand's sudden embrace by the Hollywood glitterati, who have signed up for early test drives. Either that, or they think it's a hybrid.

I'll be damned if I'm going to waste precious space trying to explain to anyone who doesn't get it, why we think America's precious Detroit-based manufacturing assets deserve a hand in the form of loans from the government. Why we think that Congress is full of self-righteous poseurs with double standards, hidden agendas, and heavily subsidized foreign automakers building cars in their (Southern, nonunion) home states.

President Barack Hussein Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.



Dear Mr. President,

I have a hard time with SUVs. I can understand drivers who appreciate a high seating position, although it gives no advantage when everyone else drives tall vehicles, too. I can understand wanting to give the impression that you're ready to tackle the Serengeti, not just the drive to the grocery store. Signifying that you might be something more than you actually are seems to be important to many people. I understand that experience with rough-riding, truck-based SUVs made many people flee to car-based crossovers that provide the same signs of tough capability without the concomitant discomfort. What I can't understand is the widespread willingness to push a tall, square-cornered box through the air at the cost of unnecessary fuel bills when an aerodynamic vehicle would do the same job more efficiently. But there clearly is a market for small luxury SUVs, and Mercedes-Benz thinks it needs an entrant, thus the GLK.