Nissan Automobile

I know what you want from me. You think I'm just your little word slut, that I'm here just to arouse you with steamy descriptions of the new and instantly legendary Nissan GT-R. You want me to parade around in frilly verbiage, like: "The acceleration of the twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive, 480-hp GT-R is much like a 50-yard field goal in the NFL, wherein your butt is the football." Sigh. I feel so used. But I'm not going to do that, see?

According to our friends at Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research, you can tell which presidential candidate a person supports by looking at what kind of car they drive. Republican Sen. John McCain has the support of 66% of full-size pickup truck drivers; not surprisingly, perhaps, hybrid drivers are more inclined toward Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin scores very high with drivers of Zambonis. Supporters of Sen.

The heel-and-toe downshift -- whereby drivers "blip" the gas pedal with the blade of their right foot, revving the engine, while keeping pressure on the brake pedal with the ball of the same foot -- is becoming a lost art, a performance-driving shibboleth known to few and practiced by fewer.

Nissan North America has a warning for customers: Placing your electronic key too close to your cellphone could leave you stranded. The automaker is asking customers driving new models of two of its flagship sedans to keep their car keys and cellphones at least an inch apart to avoid disabling the "intelligent keys."

Call it the monkey-see, monkey-do approach. If Chrysler brings out a minivan and it sells, everyone in the auto industry rushes to bring out a minivan, hoping to grab a piece of the market. Another monkey-see, monkey-do strategy finds automakers adding a coupe to their mid-size lineups. Enter the two-door 2008 Nissan Altima. Nissan redesigned the mid-size Altima sedan last October and added its first Altima Coupe in May. The obvious reason was that Toyota and Honda have one.

There's something about the Nissan GT-R that brings out the hype in people. "It's been like anticipating an asteroid hitting the Earth," said Chad Glass, a 37-year-old North Hollywood storyboard artist who moderates a forum at www.nagtroc.com, a website dedicated to the high-performance sports car. Glass was talking about the debut of the new GT-R, a vehicle most Americans have never heard of and most likely won't be able to afford when it shows up in the U.S.

Those nostalgic for a time when men were men and trucks rode like trucks might find the redesigned Nissan Xterra to your liking. It offers distinctively aggressive looks, lots of power and a trip back to before the car-based sport utility vehicle began dominating the market. The new Xterra is unlikely ever to be confused with a station wagon, any more than its predecessor could be.