><snip>
>When I see cars like the Honda Element or the Pontiac Aztec and then the
>Cadillac ??? 1/2 breed truck; I can't but wonder what the auto manufacturers
>are going to spring on us next. Probably won't be good.
></snip>

Have you seen the ads for the VW Phaeton?

Let's see, they're selling a car almost no one can afford, by running a
cute l'il radio controlled Beetle all around it (the car almost everybody
could afford)... I'll bet it's not very "green" either.

VW seems to have wandered off the mark a bit...

I loved my '73 beetle...

My '85 Westie is the ultimate "road trip", wonderfully quirky design, but
solidly built.
(Edging slowly closer to Vanagon content :-)

My '87 Fox was the most dead-solid reliable car I ever owned/drove/abused...

My '97 Jetta runs great, and is still lots of fun to drive
(almost-but-not-quite as good as that '87 Fox)... but I've had to fix tons
of  little niggling things (including bolting the driver's door back on
two-and-a-half years after leaving the showroom). It's the greenest car
I've ever owned, but that's just the paint color... Workmanship? Marginal
at best. Materials? The vacuum lines under this hood are *already* worse
than the lines I changed out in the Westie last year.

Tim