Baskets, boxes and racks

We love to take "stuff" with us when we travel, so we load up our SUV or minivan inside and then we also attach bike racks, roof luggage racks and assorted other storage gizmos to take along even more gear. So, as Autoanything.com urges, "Go ahead –take the kitchen sink." Indeed the shopping website has a full array of roof baskets, racks, hard boxes and soft bags, enabling you to take along just about everything including... well you get the point. Visit Autoanything.com.

Honda S2000 CR

Car and Driver had mostly good things to say recently about Honda's S2000 CR sports car, lauding the vehicle for having "grip galore, unerringly predictable handling, no frills." As the magazine explained, CR stands for "club racer," which conjures up "the good old days when guys drove their sports cars to the track, raced them and then, if the racing gods were smiling, drove them home again." In other words, this version of the S2000 is a more performance-oriented package than the regular version. The vehicle comes with a six-speed manual transmission and is powered by an inline-four-cylinder engine. Price is just under $37,000.

Look for more Euro-styled small cars

As the Detroit News recently reported, American carmakers are moving ahead with plans to bring smaller, European versions of its cars to North America. Ford is moving ahead with production plans for its new Fiesta subcompact, which was designed in Europe and which, aside from the name, bears no relation to the Fiesta "econo-boxes" sold briefly in the United States in the late 1970s. Plus, GM looks to potentially produce a compact Saab. Given the price of gas, this trend makes a lot of sense. As the newspaper also reported, "High gas prices have fueled a surge in U.S. sales of sub-compacts, or B-cars, a small category dominated by inexpensive Asian-built or Asian-brand cars such as the Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo."