People will go to any length in the pursuit of happiness. Sometimes this involves blood, sweat, and tears. But more often, it involves the easiest, quickest, and usually the least-cost-effective path. Legs too skinny, get some calve implants! Feel old and getting sad, just buy that droptop red Miata (and get those frosted tips in your hair too)!

Regular readers will recall that we took a first look at Chevrolet’s Camaro in our July issue, but interest is so high in this new car that I chose to use my week with the car to gauge the reaction of the public to GM’s latest hope, a car that really needs to succeed to help rebuild the company’s bruised reputation in the marketplace.

The evidence is now clear: drivers of Mercedes-Benz vehicles are safer on the road than drivers of other car brands, says a study conducted by Mercedes-Benz. The accident research is based on official, anonymous data samples from the Federal Office of Statistics. Having looked at 18,748 accidents resulting in personal injury during the period from 2003 to 2007, the study found that the risk of being seriously or fatally injured as the driver of an E-Class, is 10.4 percent lower than for comparable vehicles of other brands. The study did not even allow for the fact that Mercedes-Benz vehicles are involved in accidents less frequently than the vehicles of other brands

There are few industries that can top the auto industry for coming up with crazy marketing schemes to get you to buy their products or service. Furniture is maybe at par with its fair share of nutty characters and schemes like Crazy Jack Roberts who “takes a chainsaw to high prices” or any of the chain stores where, during their “biggest sale of this week,” no payment is required either until you buy your next couch twenty years from now or the springs start pinching your backside.

Can a diesel car be a performance car, too? That is not a question that has been posed very often, at least not in North America. Somewhere like Europe, where two-thirds of the fleet of cars are diesels, and speed is a way of life, oil-burners are pushed to perform every day.

La GTS Sportback (MSRP $23,498) – For just $500 more than its four-door counterpart, the GTS can also be had in a more functional five-door body style called Sportback with 60/40-split rear seats and adjustable floor that combine to yield 1,492 litres of space for cargo. That’s more space than top-selling five-doors – Mazda3 GT (1,229L), Subaru Impreza 2.5i (1,257L) and Toyota Matrix S (1,385L).

There is something deliciously decadent about a car that lets you “have your cake and eat it too.” The “cake,” more than ever these days, is a level of value, utility and economy that one can find in a compact car, but of course, the enthusiast always wants to “eat” a higher level of overall performance than most compact cars can deliver.

When Ford rolled out the fifth-generation Mustang for model year 2005, its retro good looks and huge improvements with regards to both fit and finish had customers lining up to leave deposits. Fast forward to 2009, and most of the lustre was gone from the Blue Oval’s fabled muscle car. Dodge dealers now had the menacing-looking Challenger on the lot, and Chevrolet’s reborn (and much hyped) Camaro was entering production channels and hogging the spotlight. Something had to be done, and in short order, so Ford

BMW’s last version of the Z4 had two different variants, a ragtop roadster and a hardtop coupe. With the second iteration of the Z4 now upon us, BMW has taken a slightly different path. The two different versions have now been merged into one. A hardtop roadster that can be a coupe when the weather turns nasty, or an open-top roadster when cruising under the sun.

Our next great road was suggested to us by the Head of Testing for the new Mercedes S-Class, Uwe Hörnig. Mr. Hörnig’s favourite strip of tarmac is the San Bernardino Pass in southern Switzerland that links the Hinterrhein and the Mesolcina valleys, offering great challenges to both driver and car while driving through some of the most beautiful scenery and spectacular countryside in the Southern Alps.