yep. MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

So... what color is the 300? The man never had a chance did he?

Aren't cars more than transportation in the Hollywood entertainment industry? Remember the people making decisions wouldn't know "good" and "quality" if they bit them on the ass.

The Lexus is already the "entry level" luxury car with the Hollywood crowd. Owning one says you might have a restrained, practical side. A Lexus means you may be down to Earth. The 300 means you're down and out. People that can't recognize quality rely on other "tells." They hire who they think are already successful-- less explaining to do if the project falls flat. In a 'bidness' where $200/week waiters/actor-wannabees lease a Mercedes or BMW, I'd give this a lot of consideration. Perceived success begets more success.

"Entry-level" and "luxury" go together like "budget" and "caviar." Maybe it's important in Hollywood to pay $40k for what is essentially a Camry with a better stereo; I continue to believe that an ounce of performance is worth a kilogram of image.

The 300C AWD does have adjustable pedals and pedal memory...Bet that would benefit somebody.

I'm shocked at the implication, here.

:-) Just saying. . .

That does benefit BOTH of you, after all. I'm sure Suze Orman recommends using somebody else's car as a coping mechanism for those pesky high-gas prices.

Or to get even with punks that can deliver in those freeway competitions.

At this exact moment, I think we're even in terms of overpaying for gas--or we would be, if I didn't make a point of driving the Saturn once or twice a week in order to keep it running well enough to sell.

In terms of performance, I seem to hold the winning hand, though the husband's car SHOULD win. I've decided it isn't a question of the time it takes to access the power in a V6; I think that the first round of engineering on the Saturn LS was performed by dorks who had just finished working on Tauruses, or whatever. That is, they targeted the car to a different demographic.

The trick is to remedy that when the husband trades up. He's likely to still go for a sedan, and he'll probably want a large-ish one. And since he doesn't care what his cohorts in the entertainment industry think, he won't be getting a Prius or an SUV (unless we get a cabin in the woods this year or something).

So it's a balance of safety, reliability, reasonable fuel economy, and a bit of actual, you know—power.

I'm going to handle this. All he has to do is write brilliant scripts, and I'll do the rest. Then I'll decide what he wants, and go through the tedious process of persuading him that it was all his idea to begin with.

The burdens we bear on the distaff side . . .!

I hope all that is in the State of the Patriarchy Report for 2007. And women wonder why men rent exotic cars when they are on the road. . .