This is a Fiat 500.  Want one?  If Fiat ends up mating with Chrysler you just might be able to buy one.

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This is the new Ford Fiesta.  It has a 1.6 liter ECOnetic clean diesel engine that gets 76.3 mpg in the combined cycle. The available performance engine makes 113 horsepower yet gets mileage in the mid-forties.  The Fiesta has side-curtain airbags as well as bags for your knees.  It’s a well built, safe, and economical car.

And you can’t have one.

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Since Mistress Cynica likes Inspector Morse’s Jag, here’s a bit of Richard Hammond driving one that’s been race prepped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIw6NGQ85ig

The great British marques aren’t what they once were.  Who owns Bentley?  The Germans.  Rolls Royce?  The Germans. Mini Cooper?  The Germans. Jaguar? The Indians (but before that it was owned by a company known for its fondness for Germans). Same with Land Rover.

But should this English failure of will be used as an excuse to turn pretty decent British cars into rolling horror shows?  Exhibit B:

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This is a Bentley GTC.  It has a six liter, twelve cylinder engine.  It gets twelve miles per gallon. It costs around $197,500, and it will go from zero to sixty miles per hour in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. It’s one impressive Volkswagen.

And this one is really really ugly.

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Good thing Dick Cheney didn’t get hold of one of these while he was in power:

Jinguan Auto, a popular Chinese ambulance manufacturer, has developed a rolling execution studio. Convicts are strapped to a power sliding stretcher that extends out of the rear of the bus as it’s allegedly “too brutal” to haul people on board for their final cocktail. The executions are broadcast to local law enforcement authorities to make sure they are conducted up to code.

Too brutal?

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Jalopnik has their choices for 11 Best Superbowl Car Commercials here.  And here’s my favorite – it made me laugh then, and it makes me laugh now.