GM's Main Street in Motion lets you test drive 70+ new cars, and its coming back next March
I'm sorry, you've missed it this year. But they're coming back 1st Quarter next year. They have everything from honda civics, to massive Denalis, to Corvettes for you to drive on obstacle courses and high performance courses.
I went on the last day, late in the afternoon. It was overcast so there wasn't a whole lot of people there, which meant I only had to wait a few minutes between test drives of most of the cars. The only exception was the high performance course.
While most of the cars I've test driven (I managed to fit over a dozen test drives on the courses) performed as you would expect, there were a few standouts:
1. Acura MDX = Hands down the best performing SUV in its class.
2. 2011 Chevy Traverse handled extremely well as a crossover for it's size.
3. 2011 Ford Explorer was the absolute worst performer on the obstacle course. This was just the road course, no obstacles to climb over, just cones to avoid.
4. Overall most of the big trucks handled pretty well on the work / off road type course and not bad on the highway course.
5. The Chevy Volt: (GM's answer to most people's idea of a commuting car) seems to live up to all the hype as Motor Trend's 2011 Car of the Year.
Be sure to check out my test drive video.
Under the Chevy Volt's hood. Almost looks like a regular car.
The high performance course features the Corvette, Mustang, and Camaro.
I highly recommend registering for this event and attending it when it comes back around. Click here for more details.
The production Chevy Volt test drive
From the test drive it seems that the Chevy Volt lives up to all the hype. They have just about seamlessly fused the electric motor with a gasoline generator to the car so that it fulfills the needs of at least 80% of the population.
My mom can drive the car like a normal car - that's quite an accomplishment for something so advanced.
Anyway, there's lots of information about the car at Chevy's website. I give it thumbs up on the overall first impressions with the car.
Roku now supports Hulu Plus!
Roku announces 1 month Free Month of Hulu Plus with any Roku purchase from $59.99. You can watch every episode, all season long, of Glee, Modern Family, and dozens of other popular TV shows in HD. Find more details on Hulu Plus right here: http://www.roku.com/hulu
$20 Off on your Roku player when you sign up for Netflix today!
Tips from Road Foodie founder Michael Stern
Road Foodie Michael SternMichael Stern, author and founder of the Road Food series of books
1. Roll down your windows and sniff your way to good food.
2. Look for a restaurant full of off-duty police cars, fire trucks. Chances are they serve decent food, at a reasonable price that is safe to eat.
3. Look for places that do only one thing really well.
It's almost not worth printing your own photos - $15 for 150 prints shipped
The $15 includes shipping and handling, plus they have a guarantee that you will like the printouts - can't get that with your own inkjet prints at home. Plus they will cost you more per print.