"Blue Oval Gang, Hyundai NACTOY Winners at Detroit"

Even though we called off our trip because of the weather (no problem with vehicles...but when you drive through Lake Erie Lake Effect snow...one has to be prudent), we'll comment on the 2009 North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards presented at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Hyundai has made it full circle from the low price low quality vehicles they once built--to a world class powerful sedan. The Genesis is a V8 powered luxury car. There's a market for high end vehicles, and Hyundai has the quality and resources to compete in this segment of the auto market--for an attractive price--be assured we will get to drive one for our Radio-Road-Test program in the near future.

Ford needs some good news...and winning the North American Truck of the Year brings a spring to the step in Dearborn World Headquarters. The F-150 is America's best selling truck. That brings cash to Ford--a lot of it. So one makes changes incrementally--or so one would think. Again, it's another vehicle we'll get to wring out in the near future.

"NO Eggnog; Lots of Kielbossa and Time OFF"

We are getting ready for one of the most important visits of 2009--the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. We will need our "A" game for next weekend...so we took it easy over Christmas, and visited our good regional sponsor Frank Kacer in Waymart, PA for a bunch of his homemade, handmade kielbossa. Nothing like a heated piece of Frank's kielbossa on rye with real darker mustard and an adult soda pop--just the thing with which to enjoy football and watch our favorite name in all of sports (Ol' Miss head coach Houston Nutt) put a whuppin' on Texas Tech.

The long knives are out for GM...the talk about GMAC's bowl sponsorship is just the tip of the iceberg...the help for American LeMans, NHRA and of course, NASCAR will likely be next for those with the long knives and Mr. Magoo eyepieces.

Hybrids--my fellow auto journalists aren't doing an effective job in explaining how a hybrid works. And since we will see more of them from the General (GM), the Blue Oval gang (Ford) and the House of Mopar (Chrysler), the basic explanation will have to be repeated. And repeated. Some misconceptions: No, one does not plug in a hybrid. You drive it and it uses regenerative braking (putting on the brakes, coasting in a lower gear down hills) to charge a battery pack, separate from the one that starts the engine, that powers motors at the front or all wheels to drive the car on electric power. The battery pack is OK when it works and the battery has a lot of useful life. The replacement cost of a hybrid motive power battery is more than high...not a lot of aftermarket batteries to help drive down the cost--yet. Hybrids are probably better for around town driving...the mileage you can get is close to what's on the EPA sticker, if you are very careful on how you press the accelerator. The Altima Hybrid can, on level ground, go on battery power at 30 miles an hour...and stay on battery power for a while. That helps get the 35 miles per gallon that the E-P-A estimates. The more a hybrid runs on batteries, the better the mileage.

We'll update here with the name of our 20th anniversary contest winner on January 8, and our final plans for the North American International Auto Show. Here's a link to enter before the contest closes on January 6: http://msrpk.com/20thcontest.html

We're fine tuning our programs for 2009...some changes to the information we provide will begin with our first road test of 2009...the VW GTi which we'll drive later this month. Many of you download our podcasts. We may, from time to time, add some specials (as we did on Grant v NASCAR) on subjects like how hybrids work in the real world...some chat with drivers and newsmakers...and topics that you can suggest by shooting an e-mail to feedback@msrpk.com .

North American Car and Truck of the Year Finalists--Detroit North American International Auto Show 2009

The finalists for the 2009 North American Car of the Year honors are the Ford Flex, Hyundai Genesis and Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Finalists for the 2009 North American Truck of the Year award are the Dodge Ram, Ford F-150 and the Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC. Those finalists were announced at the press luncheon for the North American International Auto Show, biggest in North America, held in Detroit in mid January.

General Motors had two good years in 2007 and 2008, taking the North American Car of the Year both times.

This award is picked by a panel of auto writers and broadcasters who do primary reporting on new cars and trucks. While I do enough reporting on the topic, it's a part of my reporting, not the majority.

It could be a good show for Detroit's Blue Oval gang. Or maybe not. That's one of the reasons we're going.

So much for a break....

NASCAR's Top 12 Drivers--2008

The hoopla is over...and these 12 drivers are on their way to a little longer offseason, except for the driver next to Jimmie Johnson (extreme right). That would be Carl Edwards...who's going to leave his pet duck behind, and represent the United States in the Race of Champions in Europe. To show you how seriously they take this race in Europe, two of the Roush Fenway people told me that even the thread on the driver suits had to be approved so the integrity of the fire resistance would not be compromised--as is done in Formula One Grand Prix Racing.

This business about either/or/all three of the Big Three Automakers going bankrupt spooked the drivers...from Johnson, Edwards, and even to Rookie of the Year Regan Smith. Kevin "Happy" Harvick was concerned, but pointed out to me that there were opportunities available for sponsorships and racing revenue from other businesses that are doing well (and there are some) , if better than routine efforts were made to find them. Fans like "Happy" because he does not mince words (as Juan Pablo Montoya and others will attest).

We'll take a bit of a off season break from the blog (barring major developments) but not from our "Race-Talk" and "Radio-Road-Test" programs. We'll resume with blogging from the North American International Auto Show (probably one of the most important in history) in early January.