Think twice before coughing for a built-in satnav in your new car...

Following is a rant. Feel free to bypass it if it isn't your thing.

Just received an email from WhereIs - the makers of the satnav software in out pretty new Subaru Forester.

They want $300 for the latest update for the Subaru satnav! The notes show just one road in the ACT that's been upgraded - just 20 roads upgrades across the entire nation. But there've been tens of thousands of new "points of interest" added... By which I assume they mean paid inclusions from businesses to get themselves listed. So you have the pleasure of paying (a lot) for something that has already been paid for by the advertisers.

Nicely integrated - about the only good thing
you can say about the Subaru Forester satnav!

I'm still gobsmacked that we fell for getting charged $3000 extra for what could just be the worst satnav on the market...

Not even the simplest basics like speed limits. Surely this is the most important and useful inclusion a satnav could have?

BMW evoke Tron in their new hybrid spyder

There's not a not to dislike about this new convertible from BMW.

Except maybe those Tron-style blue trimmings...Looked good in a movie, but for real life it could get old.

It's a 1.5 litre turbocharged hybrid, with a twist: the electric motor feeds the front wheels, and the petrol engine does the rear. What's that about?

There's a little bit of the old Lamborghini Countach in the upswinging doors.

Check out more deliciousness over at Design Boom.

Electric, and oh so sexy...

What else can you say but...WOW!

Since when does a Renault look so filthy gorgeous? Since when does an electric car look so filthy fast?

Yes the Tesla is pretty neat, but it has always been battery job wedged into a Lotus Elise.

This is a ground-up new design, kevlar shell, with top speed of 180kph, and amazingly an 80% charge in just 20 minutes.

You've got to love the direction cars are finally moving towards.

Source: dVice.

A Hummer commute??

My tiny 20yo 320,000 km Paseo was feeling a little nervous even being near one of these monsters again, after being literally run over by the last one it was anywhere near - because the driver couldn't even see us...

This was stopped at lights in the morning commute along Canberra's Northborne Avenue. Just one body on board. Compare it to the bus - it was up above the bottom of the bus windows and around one third the length.

So this person is commuting from over the border in a Hummer???

Perhaps it's a good thing for the planet that GM's sale of the Hummer division to a Chinese company has fallen through, and they are instead winding it up.

Plug-in Porsche perfection

Porsche vehicle design has always been a matter of personal taste - you either like 'em or despise 'em.

But Porsche have finally designed a car that most supercar fans will love. It's a 918 Spyder (meaning two seats and no roof), and it's filthy!

And it's a plug-in hybrid to boot.

With design undertones of the McLaren F1, it seems this concept car has really taken a step away from the usual Porsche design guide.

It is supposed to be able to do 0 to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds, and get 78 mpg - that's just 3.02 litres/100kms - but I seriously doubt that would be at the same time... That's better than Prius territory.

Some may disagree with the underlying premise of 'sustainability' and 'supercar' in the same sentence, but the simple reality is that prestige car development and motor-racing are where all cutting edge technology is trialled and fine-tuned. Rich people are therefore unwittingly funding research into better cars for all of us. And there are so few of them (supercars - not rich people) that they really don't do that much damage in the bigger scheme of things.