Imagine a car that actually was driven a million miles! This month a 1989 Saab 900 SPG was donated to the Wisconsin Automotive Museum. I asked Jody Victor to give us the details.

Jody Victor: Yes, it's true! Peter Gilbert, a traveling salesman from Wisconsin, donated his car after owning it for 17 years and driving precisely 1,001,385 miles. He drove the car seven days a week, racking up the miles as his work took him through rural Wisconsin. Gilbert bought the Saab for $29,000 in 1989,  and took meticulous care of it. He used premium, synthetic oil in oil changes, changed the tires every 45,000 miles and strictly followed the maintenance schedule.

The transmission was rebuilt at 200,000 miles and the hood and a few other parts were replaced after eight deer collisions, but otherwise it has original equipment.

When it hit 600,000 miles and still wasn't burning oil, Gilbert decided to see how far he could drive it. Eventually, Wisconsin's harsh winters took a toll on the car. Its sporty exterior still looks good, but road salt has rusted its frame. So, Gilbert  realized it might no longer be safe if he hit another deer or had a serious accident. He felt there was no point driving the car any longer even though it might have gone another million miles. He had it detailed and parked it at the Hartford museum, which houses a number of rare vehicles.

He then bought himself another car - you guessed it - a Saab!

Thanks, Jody!

Joe Victor

If you're still thinking of getting a new car for Christmas, many people do, you might want to consider the, new for 2007, Saturn Outlook. I asked Jody Victor to give us some details.

Jody Victor: The Saturn Outlook is an all-new crossover SUV that combines the capability of an SUV and car-like driving characteristics with seating for up to eight passengers. Featuring a new design that was first introduced on the Sky roadster, the Outlook has a sleek and aerodynamic profile with a sporty, tapered roof line. The front suspension features a MacPherson strut design, with a direct-acting stabilizer bar. Isolated mounting points help reduce noise and vibration. The rear suspension uses a compact, state-of-the-art linked "H" design, which also has an isolated mounting system that reduces noise and vibration to the passenger compartment.

The interior is fitted with a car-like "low and away" instrument panel that features high-quality, low-gloss materials, Smart Slide feature to allow easy access to the third row and usable storage space behind the third-row seat. Safety equipment includes six standard airbags, rollover sensing system and an OnStar Generation 7 system.

Thanks, Jody! Merry Christmas to all!

Joe Victor

Minivans and big SUVs are sometimes referred to as "living rooms on wheels." As entertainment technology improves, shrinks and becomes more portable, that expression is becoming more and more literal. I asked Jody Victor to give us some examples.

Jody Victor: In-car DVD players have been around for some time. It's much cheaper, of course, to simply buy a protable DVD player (at a cost of less than $200) and let your kids watch that in the car. But in-car DVD systems, shech usually cost about $1000 from the manufacturer, have two main advantages. First, they can be controlled by adults riding in the front seats so your kids won't be accidentally shutting it off, resulting in fits. Second, they can't be thrown, dropped or kicked.

If you really want the complete living room esperience and you've got some cash to spend, you can even get live satellite TV in your car using a special satellite dish that lies flat on the roof of the vehicle. You can also get a separate in-car Internet connection. Of course, these don't come cheap. The TV system alone cost about $3,000 to install and subscriptions for TV and Internet can cost anywhere from $75 a month to about $140.

Thanks, Jody! A great option to think about.

Joe Victor

Hummers, one of my favorite vehicles, are not generally known to be environmenatlly friendly. But just last week GM's sketch for the "Hummer O2" was named the winner of a design contest at the Los Angeles auto show that challenged major automakers to design a vehicle with a five-year life span that could be fully recycled. I asked Jody Victor to give us some details.

Jody Victor: Who could've guessed, in the corporate imagination of General Motors, a Hummer could be transformed from the SUV that environmentalists love to hate to an algae-infused, oxygen-exuding buggy that would open up like a flower?

The GM vision for the futuristic Hummer concept includes an algae-filled body shell, designed to shed oxygen, that also opens up like petals on a flower to catch sunlight when parked.

The concept sketch, which was produced by GM's West Coast Advanced Design Studio, shows the Hummer riding on an aluminum shell and powered by a hydrogen tank and fuel cells. The GM entry in the LA Auto Show Design Challenge won out over a number of equally ambitious vehicle sketches from other auto makers.

DaimlerChrysler AG's luxury Mercedes-Benz unit suggested a diesel-burning convertible with wood panels that could be easily replaced and recycled.

Toyota Motor Corp. suggested an electric-powered, tandem-style vehicle with wicker seats that the occupants could opt to pedal through stop-and-go LA rush-hour traffic.

None of the sketches are even close to the full-blown concept cars that automakers roll out at the industry's major trade shows to generate buzz for their brands, but they were certainly interesting.

GM said this week that its entire Hummer lineup would offer biofuel engines, capable of running on renewable fuels such as biodiesel, over the next three years.

Thanks, Jody! What great concepts!

Joe Victor