millen-neo.com || highlight

I was out having dinner once with a boyfriend and a group of his friends, and eventually the conversation turned to cars. The interesting thing was that prior to going out to this particular dinner this boyfriend and I had been discussing environmentally-friendly cars, and I had been vehemently, passionately arguing that ethical cars had both cultural significance and a future. During the dinner conversation, however, the latest Lexus hybrid endeavor of 2007 was mentioned, and it became clear that the people at the table were most discerning. Did not, they demanded to know, speed matter? A full-blown high-end engine, with all the fixings, was paramount. Anything that strayed from these ideals was suspect. It became clear that, at least for the group at the table, luxury cars were appealing for their speed, power, and prestige, among other variables, so regarding Lexus’ product, which lacked clout and precedence, one gentleman at the table exclaimed, “What do they want mean to do next, line it with organic leather?”

It struck me. The appeal of hybrid-luxury cars, at least for me, was that the high-end vehicle market, at the very least, was trying. Horsepower and turbo engine aside, wasn’t it important that the luxury market was trying to tap into the major issue of the environment? Sure, I got the jokes that were thrown around that night, but at the heart of the hilarity were issues that, well, are more horrific than funny. I don’t even know what the hell organic leather means (I just know that furniture and accessories companies are starting to use it) but I’m sure it’s better than regular leather because more than likely a few animals are suffering just a little bit less somewhere. More obviously, fast luxury vehicles generally have incredibly heavy engines which mean extra weight and weight means a whole lotta gas. It costs just as much to fuel a Bentley coupe (a pretty two-door of a vehicle) as it does to fuel a Land Rover Discovery (a square-like behemoth of a four-door utility vehicle).

For the laygirl such as myself, any movement towards a more environmentally-friendly car economy seemed worthwhile, no matter the sacrifice. But while I was asking myself if we couldn’t put our need for speed and half-humor aside to appreciate the attempts to make personal status transportation a little less ridiculous, motor enthusiasts and car-makers were getting busy. In the summer of 2007, an Aston Martin DBRS9 which had been recalibrated to run on bioethanol won a major British racing event.

Check out the full story at http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/1911/.

And now I’m really excited to see that the next several years are hailing some bad-ass cars. Feast on these ten luxury cars which will be available, if not already, then soon.