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We’ve all done it, or rather, had to do it – and some of us more than others.  We may have started our careers scouring burnt pudding off of nursing home kitchen equipment; we may have even been forced to serve time in a half-way house for a little run-in with Johnny Law, either way we’ve all had to pay our dues in one capacity or another.  This week on RoundAbout we invite you to pay up or shut up with a lineup of stories ranging from absurd to astounding.  An English woman flips her driver’s training car on her second time out on the road motorway.  One unfortunate man gets socked with a $200 fine for being the victim of a rear-end collision.  And a group of youngsters has to serve some time for an innocent car-to-car paintball fight that turns tragic, sort of.  We also go all Battlestar Galactica in our Blind Spot story of the week, plus we chat about what we’ve been driving In The Garage. 

With RoAb-regular Jeffrey Ross out of action (he’s getting married, finally) we invited muscle-car fanatic and blogger Dave Braddock to take his place.  Also making the rounds is the auto mainstremist himself, Eric Trytko, as well as Miss Motor Mouth, played by Michelle Naranjo.  Autoblog writer Zach Bowman, Producer Ben Sanders and host, Craig Cole are also on hand.

Play RoundAbout Episode 31

 
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This week our own Zach Bowman goes from the frying pan into the bubbling cauldron as he grabs the reigns from Craig Cole and dutifully attempts to steer RoAb in the right direction. But it turns out that Mr. Bowman isn't the only one In Hot Water this week. A mysterious driver (or is he?) destroys a Zonda incurring nearly half a million in damage--and it's still not totaled. Toyota, already feeling the heat over some gas pedal thingy, decides to go scuba diving in the bubbly depths when it decides to cheat in racing. A driver gets absolutely steamed when he sees an Obama bumper sticker and attempts to remove it the hard way. All that and more, plus our Blind Spot brings us a story of crocodile-skinned Bentleys, Zach and Steven Ewing pit VW Golf gasoline and diesel versions head-to-head, and it's time once again for your favorite game show--this week, the West Coast edition!

 
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Well, the North American International Auto Show--otherwise known as the Detroit Auto Show--has made all the news it's going to make for this year. It was a rocky year for the Motor City, and in a way, it really showed at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The digs might have been better than last year (Chrysler was a series of unadorned cars on beige carpet in 2009), but the product reveals were notably less exciting. With the patient on the slab, we called in the best team of doctors we know ... our ... selves. Well, anyway, we're here with the official RoAb postmortem of NAIAS.

Is the new Cadillac XTS worthy of being the luxury brand's new flagship? Does the Volkswagen NCC bring anything new and exciting to the German marque? Will the Honda CR-Z finally be a hybrid that's fun to drive? We debate all these and more. Plus we've got another installment of our new Meet Your Roadmates segment, a Stupid Car Trick and the triumphant return of the long lost Psy-car-logy.

Play RoundAbout Episode 19

 
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Here is a slide show of some of the sights from Day 1 of the NAIAS

We will have a much more in depth review of the day later tonight, but wanted to give you some quick thoughts so far today.

Ford had a nice production for their Focus intro of which you can see a quick blurb here on the blog below, general reaction form the jaded press corps was good.

GMC brought you the Granite, what they call an "Urban Utility Vehicle", what also could be know as yet another Xb copy.  1.4 liter turbo motor and suicide doors.  Interior looks good, this is one of those prototype not announced for production cars.

Buick showed off the new Regal and also the GS "Concept"  Look for that to be announced for production shortly.  Some big power numbers announced for the GS Regal, 255HP and 290TQ out of a 2 liter turbo motor.

As a side note GM needs to hire some new writers for Mark and Susan, the fake conversation they had to begin the presser was corny and awkward.

We skipped the Toyota presser and by all accounts it was a good thing, reports are people were falling asleep there, also Toyota needs some new writers as well, the jokes wouldn't have made it at amateur night at the comedy club.

VW showed off a highbrid coupe which has been tagged as the next Jetta and Mercedes touted it's highbrids, then showed off a Convertible E Class which has a spoiler that comes out over the windshield header to direct air over the back seat passengers.  Seems like engineering for engineering sake.

We are taking a break, and will post notes later in the day, pictures to come as well.