The battle between GM and the NY Times' Tom Friedman has too quickly degenerated into how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Too many arcane details, too little red meat.

The argument should be: Are SUVs a good idea or a bad idea?

David E. has been in and out of the Saturn Sky this week as this is our magazine's first opportunity to drive the little roadster. I had it out for lunch yesterday and one of the things that surprised me was the height of the seats inside the car. It's extremely low, and lower than I prefer. This gives the dashboard a very tall appearance and the doors seem to come up to your eyeballs.

Mercedes-Benz will run 33 diesel-powered E-class vehicles from Paris to Beijing this fall as a way to generate publicity for the company's new sedan. The run will reward the lowest consumption--not speed--of some 300 drivers, which will include M-B company men, journalists, VIPs, dealers, and owners. From the M-B press release:

Autoweek reports that the rumored super Corvette (besting even the Corvette Z06, by adding a supercharger to the 7.0-liter V-8 to create something in the area of 600+ horsepower, which would appear to be the next battleground area given the recent reports of the 20

Winding Road friend Willy Hopkins sent us to this link, showing the new Holden VE Commodore, which might be of little interest to North American car enthusiasts, except for two key reasons:

Chevrolet looks to be prepping a turbo-powered HHR crossover with an "SS" badge, sourcing the Pontiac Soltice GXP's turbocharged, direct-injection in-line four, which was rated at 260 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque (in the Solstice, at least). These shots of the HHR SS mule indicate the bowtie brand engineers are attempting to conceal the intercooler (look at the front bumper).