Does anyone really know how jump starting works?

Question: Who taught you how to jump start a car? Or maybe I should ask this question first: do you know HOW to jump start a car? It’s okay. There are a lot of people out there who don’t know, and I’m sure a good majority of those people (possibly men, ha!) are afraid to admit that they have no clue how to do it. [insert requisite:"That's what she said."]

A press release popped up the other day for these Michelin-branded “smart” jumper cables. What makes them “smart” is that now, one does not need to know the fancy connection sequence of connecting the batteries to safely jump start a vehicle. All one has to do is connect two leads to one battery, and connect two leads to the other battery; a computer that resides inline between the connection leads will automatically sense if the polarities are correct. If they are incorrect, the computer switches them.  You have to trust the cable computer, because those connection leads? They aren’t even labeled positive or negative. No red. No black. All clamp leads are blue.

Recently, MIchelle, brought up the topic of these particular jumper cables on her live webcast show on minglemediatv.com. She was discussing her 16 year-old daughter learning to drive, and recalling all the things one must know in order to drive a car, in addition to  knowing traffic laws and vehicle operation. Drivers must also know how to pump gas, how to change a tire, what to do in case of an accident, and how to jump start a car. Michelle asked her online chat audience if they knew how to jump start a car with normal cables. Most of the participants adamantly stated that “of course” they knew how to jump start a vehicle properly. [Keep in mind that the majority of MissMotorMouth's audience consists of bona fide "car geeks."] Obviously, no one, car geek or not, willfully admits when they can’t do something, and especially not to a large internet audience. [Fact: I am not good at ironing clothes. It's okay, I don't have a large internet audience. It's just between you and me.]

I was in that webcast show audience, and I suppose I am a car geek. [Although, don't tell Michelle; to her, I try to remain a 'novice auto enthusiast.'] I also have a degree in physics. I’ve worked with electricity and electronics for nearly half my life. I know the ins and outs of electricity. Yet, I will honestly admit that jump starting one car with another makes my head hurt. Why? Let me illustrate.

I’m going to pretend I’m you: “you” being someone with possibly no scientific background whatsoever. What do you know about electricity? You know that batteries have a + (positive) side and a - (negative) side. You also know that if you connect a wire between positive and negative, and maybe on that wire is a light bulb, then electricity flows between the two sides, and lights up the light bulb. All that is very true. From that, we can assume that to make electricity flow, you connect + to – , right? Right. I mean, this sort of thing also works with magnets: you know that there’s a North pole and a South pole on a magnet. The North pole sticks to the South pole; conversely, North repels North, South repels South. That’s just like + and – , right? Positive repels positive, negative repels negative. Opposites attract. We all know that. Hell, even Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat knows this fact.

Now let’s think about that car battery. We have a dead car battery, and we have a charged car battery. We want to somehow get the car with the dead battery started. How do we do it? All we know about electricity –which is not much, because remember, we have no background in science–is that [sing along with me now] “We go together cuz opposites attract!” That makes sense. How do we connect the dead battery and the good battery together? Positive to negative, right?

*BZZZZZ*

Nope.

“But, isn’t that how we get electricity to flow? Positive to negative?” Yes, that’s how we do it, but do we *want* electricity to flow to this battery? This is where it gets complicated, and this is where one needs a better understanding of what is going on with electricity. Electricity is the flow of electrons. [Uh oh. Now it's getting infinitely more complicated.] We need that electron flow (also known as ‘current’) to start our car. The charged battery has plenty of electrons to start the dead car. And as soon as the car starts, the dead car’s alternator will run, and cram more electrons into the dead battery (also called ‘charging’). We need current to flow so we can start the engine, which will in turn run the alternator, which will then charge the dead battery.

What do we do? We have to know a little something about electric circuits and diagraming them. And you, person who said “Of course I know how to jump start a car!”, thought this wasn’t rocket science! I’m going to skip the physics/electrical engineering lesson and just say “We want to put the charged battery and the dead battery in parallel in our circuit.” That is what we are doing when we jump start a car. And how do we put two batteries in a parallel circuit? Positive connects to positive, negative connects to negative. You’re saying to yourself “But…electricity flows between a positive and a negative, how does it flow here?” Oh, it’s flowing, but you have a much more complicated circuit diagram than just a light bulb on a wire connecting + and – . See? It IS rocket science. Well, not really. It’s just counterintuitive to what we know or have been taught about electricity.

[Note: I can hear a few of you whispering (or shouting) "It's not positive to positive, negative to negative! It's positive to positive, negative to solid metal grounding material on the engine!" That's right, that's what they tell you. But the negative battery terminal is connected to the chassis; the engine is connected to that same chassis. Most everything metal in the car is connected to the negative terminal of the battery. So why do they tell you to connect the negative end to ground? It's mainly to reduce sparks when connecting  the clamp. That's all.]

Back to the question: What about these “smart” jumper cables? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? As a person who has a science background, and knows all this stuff, I agree with Martha Stewart. I know how to connect batteries; I know how to make complicated circuits; I know how to make grapes spark in a microwave oven; I know lots of complicated and weird science
things. But I tell you honestly that whenever I need to jump start a car, I have to stop and think for a minute, and run the circuit diagrams in my head. For people with no circuit diagrams in their head, it’s a game of chance. And that game can have some deadly consequences.

Jump starting a car is complicated; it’s usually during an emergency when we need to do it. In emergencies, one should be able to do what they have to do quickly, and they should not be required to stop to think long and hard “Am I doing this correctly?” I’m sure there will be people arguing “Drivers should know how to do this with regular cables!”, and I completely agree. Parents/Guardians: teach your 16 year-old how to properly jump start a car with regular cables; explain to them (if you can, maybe with help from the interwebs) about positive and negative. And electron flow and current. And series and parallel circuits. Make them jump start a car with regular cables. Watch them freak out when they see sparks. Then…go get them these cables, and put them in the trunk of their car. That’s how most of life works. You learn something the hard way, just so you know/experience it, then later, someone shows you the easy way. That’s how we learn. It reminds me of how I learned to take a derivative in calculus by calculating using a limit, then learned the “easy way” of moving the exponent…what, you don’t know how to do that? A new, exciting blog post coming right up!

Carl Acampado is a product+graphic designer/physicist/cookie baker/road cyclist/novice auto enthusiast who wastes lots of time on Twitter and seems to write a lot of posts about design and Apple products on his blog. No one knows why.

Oh, how fast this has changed in a mere few months! Granted, I think this was coming for a while but the onset of reality- traditional financing and planning has organically shifted to be a whole new beast which we must all learn- is truly making me think of cars and houses in an entirely new way.

It may have been a Porsche dealer tapdancing the concept of “Buy a house, lease your car” a couple of weeks back to me (as a writer, not a buyer) over a beautiful Boxster leasing for $329 a month in a deserted, sparkling new showroom that made me start thinking about this old cliche. It probably didn’t help matters when several friends decided to put their homes on the market almost on an emergency schedule a few days later so they could sell and rent something before they ended upside down in their equity. (Same friends would never lease and drive cars that are paid for, by the way.)

Then I re-read an article in GQ magazine called “The American Dream, No Money Down” (Don’t ask why I have GQ in my house! That is not polite!) by Joel Lovell from February 2008 and I have to say that while this article raised my killer-mommy-nesting-hackles a year ago, I get what he was not only saying but predicting.

Is this problem really just geographic, as in those on the coasts are the only ones who really need to be concerned about falling housing values? How about stagnating housing prices combined with finance companies completely dropping financing or reducing potential customers to only “A” level credit (scores of 700 and above) only for cars? Or mortgage companies completely stopping all stated income which is refusing home finance to people who want to put 50% down on their homes, but because employers are increasingly turning employees into consultants, are unable to show 2 years of 1099 tax returns?

A lot of people are in a pickle or nearing the looming pickle of having to make these decisions.

Own, rent, house, car, bag it all and try corporate housing a la Grapes of Wrath with a dash of public transportation? Let me know what you think.

Leasing vs. Buying
The recent financial crisis may have reduced the availability of great new-car leasing programs, but some are still available.  This weekend’s newspaper, for example, includes an advertisement for the hot Mazda3 5-door (with automatic transmission) for a lease payment of $219 per month for three years.  This sounds like a very affordable payment for a new car.
I believe it’s fair to say, however, that there is still quite a bit of mystery around auto leasing.  Many consumers are simply scared of such programs and I think a lot of this has to do with a lack of knowledge about how these programs work.  Unlike traditional car loans, the detailed financial terms of an auto lease don’t have to be (and as a result often are not) disclosed.  In order to decide whether a lease is good for you or not, let’s review some of the basics.
What is a lease?
In simple terms, when you lease a car you are paying to use the car for a certain amount of time rather than paying for the entire purchase of the vehicle.  In the example above, Mazda is offering the car for three years for a payment of $219/month (plus a down-payment of $2,814).  This means that aside from taxes and other state fees, the lessee of this car will pay a total of $10,698 to drive the car for 36 months and 36,000 miles.
The terms of the lease are determined by a few things.  First is the price of the car.  This is called the “capitalized cost” in leases versus “purchase price” in regular financing.  In the case of the Mazda, the base MSRP of a Mazda3 5-door automatic is $19,945.  Note, however, that the capitalized cost for your lease doesn’t need to be MSRP.  While many buyers are lured by the advertised payment and don’t ask many questions, if you negotiate the purchase price of the car, trade-in a vehicle on which you have equity, or take advantage of other discounts, the capitalized cost can go down… and thus your payments will as well.  Of course, payments will also rise if you choose a car with more options than the one used to advertise the program or trade in a car on which you owe more than it is worth.
The second item is the amount the car is worth (or more accurately, projected to be worth) at the end of the lease term which is called the “residual value.”  The small print on this Mazda lease offer indicates that the residual value will be $11,169 or roughly 55% of the MSRP of this car new.  This residual value should not change because you negotiated down the capitalized cost… it’s based on a percentage of the MSRP of the car you chose.
The third component is financing cost.  Unlike a regular loan in which we are all familiar with the idea of the annual percentage rate (APR) the finance cost on a lease doesn’t have to be disclosed by law.  To further complicate matters, even if you do ask you will be quoted a “money factor” rather than a straight APR.  This will look like some bizarre number taken down to eight to ten decimal places (e.g. 0.00001625).  If you want a full description of how this cost is calculated, check out this site: http://www.leaseguide.com/lease08.htm.  If you aren’t as interested, simply know that you can multiply the money factor by 2,400 and you will have the approximate APR (the number above works out to 3.9%, for example).  Also note that while you are making payments on the portion of the car you use you will be paying interest on the entire amount… after all, you are tying up the bank’s money for the full capitalized value for three years.
Your payment is then the value of the car lost during the time you drive it (capitalized cost – residual value) plus the financing fees.
Are there advantages to leasing?
In most states, there is an additional savings for lessees versus buyers – taxes.  If you finance the car normally you will need to pay sales tax on the full value of the car up front.  So buying a $20,000 car in a state with 6% sales tax will require you to add $1,200 to your cost up front (or included in your loan).  On a lease one typically pays this sales tax only on the monthly payment… or in our example 6% of $219 or roughly $13/month or $473 over the term of the lease.  If you don’t plan to keep the car for more than three years anyway, the additional taxes are a loss.
Perhaps the biggest advantage to leasing is a lower monthly payment.  For this example I am comparing this lease program to financing offered on the same car by Mazda at 3.9% over 5 years.  I’m assuming that if you qualify for the lease you will also qualify for the best available finance rate.  I’m also assuming, for calculations sake that sales tax is 6% in your state and I am ignoring registration and title fees which would need to be paid regardless of your purchase method.  I’m keeping the cash down payment (called the “capitalized cost reduction” in leasing) equal between the two methods.

You can see that the monthly payment is about $79 higher for a traditional purchase (34% higher than the lease) even with the great financing APR.
Is leasing a good idea for me?
Whether leasing is a good idea for you depends on a number of factors.
First, do you plan to get a new car every few years anyway?  If so, leasing may save you money in taxes and reduces your monthly payment.  If you live in a state with higher taxes than my example the advantage is even greater.  There is definitely something positive to be said for the idea of always driving a car with a factory warranty.
Can you live with the mileage limitations of the lease?  The Mazda lease is limited to 36,000 miles during the lease period (12k miles per year is considered average for an American driver, by the way).  Be sure to note the mileage allowance and the fee you must pay if you exceed this amount.  In the old days, the overage fees could be exorbitant (25 to 50 cents per mile, for example).  Mazda’s lease program charges 15 cents per mile over, so an extra 1,000 miles/year for three years would cost you $450… pretty fair.  However, if you commute 100 miles each day or plan to take numerous cross-country road trips you would be advised to think twice about leasing or ask about a lease with more miles included… this will usually lower the residual value.
Are you comfortable knowing that you will need to make another car buying decision again in two or three years?  When your lease is up you will need to turn the car back in and buy another or decide whether you want to buy the car you just leased.  Typically you can purchase the car for the agreed-upon residual value.  If you find that the residual value is lower than the cost of a comparable car on the used-car market this might be a good deal for you.  If it’s higher, you can just turn it back in and let the leasing company take the hit.  In fact, it’s this latter example which is partly responsible for the decline in available leasing programs.  The banks and captive finance companies (like GMAC and Ford Motor Credit) used lease programs to move a lot of iron over the past decade.  The recent sudden decline in the resale value of SUVs, as one example, means that they were left with a lot of lease returns worth considerably less than they planned for.  Of course, if you were the lessee of a Chevy Tahoe this would seem like a blessing to you… the bank was left holding the risk, you met your obligations by making the monthly payments on the lease and now just walk away from the vehicle.
How important are monthly payments to your budget?  In our example above for a moderately priced car with a very low 60-month finance rate the payments are lower for leasing… probably enough to cover the average monthly cable and telephone bill.  Alternatively, some people choose to lease so they can drive a nicer car than they could otherwise afford for the same monthly payment.
In terms of long-term cost, however, leasing isn’t necessarily the most cost-effective choice.  Assuming that you keep the car for a long time and make your payments for five years you will actually own the car.  If you leased you don’t own a thing.  No matter what the used Mazda will be worth in 5 years it’s safe to say that it won’t be zero.  Cars do eventually wear out and get recycled, but even then there is some value to the raw materials!  For comparison sake, the KBB private party value for a 2003 Mazda Protege5 (which was replaced by the Mazda3 Hatchback in Mazda’s lineup) with 60,000 miles is roughly $8,500.  Assuming this Mazda 3 is worth around the same amount (though it does cost more new than the Protege5 did in its day) the cost to finance and drive the same car for 5 years then sell is only $1,800 higher than leasing it for only 3.
The outright least expensive way to own a car is to buy it and keep it until repair costs start to outweigh its value.  Or, as many people prefer, to buy a car when it is already a couple of years old (perhaps being sold by the finance company after someone’s lease has ended) and it has already experienced its largest depreciation hit.  However, many of us have limited budgets and lack the desire to deal with the inevitable inconveniences that come with older cars.  If this describes you, leasing may provide a convenient and cost effect option now that you understand how they work.

In our relevant tale of the 2001 Honda Civic Type R vs. the 2007 Honda Civic Type R, the 2007 did well in terms of its power, speed, etc but had some flaws in handling & finish. The 2007 was about £17,000.00 while its 2001 predecessor could be had for a handy £10,000.00 with reasonable mileage. Considering that the spoiler on the 2007 was right in the line if sight in the rear view mirror (just like the 2009 Nissan 350Z NIZMO’s spoiler), that could be a deal breaker for some buyers looking for a sporty car. Also, a 2001 has gone through the biggest loss in depreciation while the 2007 will dump about 40% in the first 18 months. So… buy the 2001, right?

Well, don’t be so fast, Speedracer! There are many things to consider when buying used and especially with cars that have a tendency (ahem- just speculating here) to be involved in street racing.

Newer cars that tend to be tuners like the Type R may appear to be well cared for on the surface but often they are driven hard regardless of the age of the previous owner (but lets be real- they tend towards the younger and younger thinking crowd).

• Accidents will be found
• Original parts will be checked
• Non-original parts will be listed

Lets put it like this:

You find a gorgeous 350z that (you could almost swear) the seller had you in mind when they customized it.

• Your insurance company won’t cover your injuries because of the aftermarket seat belts!

That Scion Xb looks like the perfect price and the thing to keep your tuner heart humming!

• But they neglected to mention the wreck. And the insurance fraud.

And that darling CRX has a modified system to die for!

• And your car may not be street legal.

Just buy smart and enjoy your ride.

Originally posted here

Pop quiz hotshot, how do you find that right car that’s going to make you get down on your knees and go, “Oh yeah!!” Take this little quiz in order to get on the road to driving!

QUESTION #1: What kind of car should you look into?

A) One that you need.
B) One that you want.
C) One that talks to you like in the Stephan King movie Christine and eliminates your enemies.
D) Both B&C

QUESTION #2: HOW MUCH YOU SPEND ON A CAR?
A) What you can afford determined by payments at 20% of your monthly take home pay.
B) On par with what you spend each month on crack.
C) On par what you spend on crack and hookers
D) All of the above

QUESTIONS #3: WHICH ISN’T ADVANTAGES OF LEASE YOUR NEXT CAR?
A) You can drive a better car for less money
B) No trade-in hassles
C) You can drive a new car few years.
D) You are not hassled with owning commodity

QUESTION #4: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF BUYING OVER LEASING
A) It makes financial sense when interest rates are low over leasing.
B) No miles penality
C) You don’t have to worry about anyone spray-painting “Honky Lips” on the side of your vehicle.
D) Both A & B
QUESTION #5: WHAT ARE OTHER COSTS OF OWNERSHIP TO CONSIDER?

A) The deprecation rate of specific models.
B) The amount of investment needed for the upkeep of fuzzy dice to hang from the review mirror.
C) Insurance rates for the model.
D) Costs of hydrolic jacks for your tires
E) Both A & C

QUESTIONS #6:IS IT IMPORTANT TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT VIA PHONE BEFORE YOU GO FOR A TEST DRIVE?

A) Yes. This will give you an idea of the business atmosphere.
B) Hell no. Show up in last year’s Halloween costume and scream, “It’s party time.”
C) All of the above.
D) None of the above.

QUESTION #7: Should you let the salesman’s pitch distract you while you test drive.
A) Absolutely. Show the man some respect. He’s got some stories to tell.
B) No, so turn up the radio as loud as you can on the Spanish language station.
C) No. Listen for the sound of the car and try to drive on a terrain similar to your normal driving route.
D) ALL OF THE ABOVE

QUESTIONS: #8: WHERE ARE GOOD PLACES TO RESEARCH YOUR FUTURE VEHICLE?
A) The Internet
B) Newspapers
C) Dealerships
D) A meeting of the Ron Howard fan club.
E) All but D.

ANSWERS
1) A
2) A
3) D
4) D
5) E
6) A
7) C
E

CONGRATULATIONS! AND GOOD LUCK IN FINDING THE RIGHT CAR FOR YOU! ]]> http://missmotormouth.com/2008/11/find-the-right-car-that-will-make-you-go-%e2%80%9coh-yeah%e2%80%9d-quiz/feed/ 0 http://missmotormouth.com/2008/09/greening-of-car-manufacturing-and-more-about-pzev/ http://missmotormouth.com/2008/09/greening-of-car-manufacturing-and-more-about-pzev/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:04:19 +0000 admin http://missmotormouth.com/?p=63 [[Continue reading]]]]> So you have a cell phone plan and you go over minutes every month for years but the phone company never charges you…sounds like a dream come true, right?

Well, that will never happen and that kind of monitoring has a reason! It costs them (mostly man hours) to maintain their systems. The way the government is monitoring the environment is kind of the same way.

Car manufacturing is not environmentally friendly usually although Ford and Subaru are reaching in the right direction. Add to all of that the federal and state governments monitoring carbon emissions from not only the activities of the car manufacturing process but also the environmental effect that their cars cause.

In an effort to reduce emissions dramatically the State of California created a new category for Partial Zero Emission Vehicles based on an agreement between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the manufacturers who sell cars in California. What CARB would have really loved to have done is passed a mandate that a growing percentage of vehicles being produced were Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEVs) but that would occur at a huge cost to the automotive manufacturers because it would require huge advances very quickly in systems such as hydrogen or electric fuel cells. I think that we all know that the recent fuel crunch and the current economy is having drastic reprecussions to the auto manufacturers sales.

By current PZEV standards, the cars are required to have a 15 year/15,000 mile warranty on emission-control components, have zero evaporative emissions on its fuel system and fall under the SULEV category. These cars are only available in the 5 “clean car states” California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, or Vermont and will soon be available in Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. All of these states have adopted California’s pollution control rules.

Some other facts about PZEV:

• It has been said that a PZEV driving through Los Angeles County during times of high smog actually releases cleaner air out of its exhaust than it took into its system because it literally cleans the air.
• In the 15 year warrantied life of a PZEV emission sytem, it will emit less harmfull emissions than if you spilled a pint of gasoline on the pavement once. (see the picture of a gas spill at NASCAR- QUICK make another PZEV!!)
• There is a rumor about the amount of low carbon monoxide emissions from PZEVs but because this one is potentially dangerous and I do not have the facts, I am not going to publish it for now.

I wrote in my other details about PZEV in an article specifically about the Ford Focus PZEV yesterday and these emissions controls are pretty incredible and welcome in our smoggy city of Los Angeles.

Originally posted here

If the car being donated is valued at more than $5000 then an appraisal needs to be done by a qualified appraiser no more than 60 days before your tax deadline (including any extensions). Whether the car is worth more than $5000 or less, the charity will provide you with the amount that the car sold for and that can be itemized on your Schedule A of your From 1040. It is important to remember that deductions cannot be more than 50% of your adjusted gross income. In the case of the Corvette Z1 that was recently sold at RM Auctions in Pebble Beach to benefit GRACE Charity, the sellers/donors would, in theory, be able to deduct the appraised fair market value (FMV), in this case the MSRP, of $118,000 while the buyer was able to deduct the amount that they bid over FMV (the high bid was $151,252.oo) minus the buyer’s premium which was paid to RM Auctions except in this case the sellers had stipulated that only the amount over the MSRP would be donated to GRACE and therefore the only portion which was deductible.

If the amount if the car exceeds $500 then Section A of Form 8283 must also be completed and you must have a written acknowledgment from the charitable association on or before your taxes are due. Publication 526 on the IRS website has the qualifications for charitable organizations. Once the charity sells the car they have 2 years to notify the IRS of the sale and provide you with a copy of the form it sends to the IRS notifying them of the sale and the amount that it sold for.

Because they have 2 years however, it is often easier for you to sell your car yourself and donate cash to the charity directly. Your charity will often benefit more by making a donation this way because in most cases charities use third party services to sell the car on their behalf at wholesale auctions where the deductible amount can end up being less than FMV. Selling a car private party will bring more money and establishes a documented FMV while your charity gets more money and you get to deduct more.

For more information, always talk to your accountant before you decide to take the charitable plunge and make sure that you do all of the steps correctly. It will be worthwhile for everyone!

What most of us Joes and Jills miss is that the collector car culture is centered around rare examples of design, most often European based to date, (but I will argue that will change in the next several years) and the restorations often cost more in labor and love than any auction hammer will bring. What countless wanna-be collectors do not understand is that garage or back yard full of common, vintage VW Bugs does not an investment make. (Apologies in advance to all who have the heart to want to preserve those Buggers!)

Point of all of this is a moment had while at Pebble Beach in the Gooding Auction Preview. I was sent to the week’s events in an Infiniti FX50-S ( a superb car that was perfect design at conception about 4 years ago) that was so kitted out, that car told me when I needed another Diet Coke. Apparently the version that I was given for the test week drive was a pre-production version with tucked leather seats, all the electro-gadgets anyone could ever want and all encased this gorgeous orange/gold/copper/new baby born poo color that reminded me of the cars of my 70′s childhood. Okay- maybe that color was on LowRiders but here is where this story gets a little convoluted for a minute so please, I ask your patience!

The LowRiders of the 70′s used a lot of bright gold/copper on the bodies of their work because that was a luxury color in the 50′s and even into the 60′s- the era that inspired the makes, models and years of their dreams. I am used to seeing that color on American makes of that era but what surprised me was seeing a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 (sorry, reg required ’til I get permission to use that photo but the catalog is worth it) in the main tent at the Gooding Auction. How retro of Infiniti is that to use the same Nocciola (Technically that is Ferrari Italian for copper/gold)?

The Ferrari is an incredible bit of design. I see the early Datsun Z, Volvo P1800ES, some Lancia’s (many of these designs were “informing” one another at the time) but looking at the images, I also see that the Ferrari is the Infiniti FX50 gone done and crossed over. From just the snorkels on the side (probably breathers on the Infiniti and proper snorkels on the Ferrari), the shape of the encased headlamps and the lamp wells, you see that like most movies at the cineplex, not much is not being re-purposed or re-used from vintage eras.

So while the Infiniti got a lot of comments about sexy design that I thought a bit crazy at first, I get it now. Most cars are informed by other designers and other eras. Heck- a lot of the designers at Kia moved there from one of the big Japanese companies which is why Kia got all pretty one year!

I would offer up this challenge to anyone who loves car design: check out the used cars anywhere and show me one that isn’t somehow derived from a great idea by another designer or manufacturer.

Oh- and the sticker on the Infiniti FX50 is a lot less than the $1.3-1.6 million dollar estimate on that ’67 Ferrari. And, I am betting that the Ferrari would blow the doors off the V8 Infiniti. Just sayin’.