These are wildly impractical cars whose premieres might have seemed inappropriate, to say the least, at auto shows during the last two recession-scarred years.
Carroll Shelby, the racecar and sports-car builder, was heavily involved in the original design, which improbably advanced from auto-show styling exercise to a wildly impractical road car.
Cherry thinks that the practical addition of a back seat -- to the most impractical of car designs -- will close the sale with Buick's target audience of 30- and 40-something parents by giving them "permission" to buy.
AN unnerving summer that has included a debt ceiling standoff, extreme volatility in the financial markets and fears of a double-dip recession might seem a poor time to buy or sell expensive, impractical collectible cars.
The most trenchant criticism aimed at these impractical little cars concerns what they don't have: much torque, the pulling power that you feel in your gut when you mash the accelerator.
Between anxious consumers and a flight from impractical sports cars that began well before the recession bushwhacked the economy, what J. D. Power calls the "premium sporty" class — two-seaters, coupes and convertibles above $40,000 — withered to a paltry 89,000 sales last year from 230,000 in 2003.
Here's the deal: We like the Cayenne and think it's the perfect second-car for the household that already owns a Porsche or any other equally zippy-yet-impractical sports car.
But there's a slight lag after you hit the gas, and it gets worse as the engine gets smaller, making the technology impractical for economy cars.
Covering the underbody completely would be expensive and impractical, but some cars, including the Nissan GT-R and Ferrari California, cover parts of the underbody for smoother airflow.
Its completely impractical to manufacture cars that are very difficult to open.
