hotness

Happy New Year everyone! I've been relatively busy at work and there's lots of new gadgety goodness for me to talk about, but right now I wanted to focus on some new automotive hotness coming out of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where many of the world's carmakers show off their new models and concepts.

The first car that caught my eye was the ultra-sleek and very green Fisker Karma, which is a premium luxury hybrid sports sedan. If you've never heard of Fisker before, it's because they're a fairly small coachbuilder which is a fancy way of saying they take other manufacturer's cars like the BMW 6-series or the Mercedes SL-class and completely restyle them, with new bodies and new interiors but the same mechanical underpinnings. But this is a bold new step for them, partnering with a high tech company to develop this all-new hybrid design. The car has an electric motor that can run in "Stealth Drive" mode, or lay some smack down when paired up with a 4-cylinder engine for more oomph. Me likey! And it will arrive on our roadways in late 2009 at a price of $80,000, which doesn't really sound too bad when you consider the very compact and all-electric 2-seater Tesla Roadster will go on sale for around $100,000. And with the limited production of the Karma, you will be sure to have a very unique ride -- after all isn't exclusivity a big part of the idea of premium luxury?



Fisker Karma website

Fisker's Karma Hybrid unveiled at Detroit show


Autoblog's Final Wrap-Up of the Detroit Auto Show