Hummer heads to the scrap heap

Hummer: R.I.P.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

In 1998, AM General, which had been making the HumVee for military uses, sold the brand name to General Motors. GM saw it as a way to get hip quick and turn attention away from dying brands like Pontiac and Buick.

"Few brands in the last ten years have made the impact and created the kind of focused marketing excitement as MORE

Talkback: Health-care reform

Has the recession caused you to cut back on health-care spending? Post your thoughts here and see follow-up responses from C-Suite editor, Geoff Colvin.

BMW's Boattail Bavarian: The 2010 535i GT

As a luxury car maker with a narrowly-defined brand, BMW faces a perennial dilemma: how to expand its product line without diluting its image.

Pickup trucks and people movers are out of the question, so it must search for more creative answers that still fit under the rubric of "ultimate driving machine."

Some of these line extensions have been successful, like the X-5 and X-3 sports activity vehicles that managed to maintain MORE

SHO-time at Ford

My friend the Car Fanatic was impressed. "This car rocks," he declared after we cruised briskly over our usual trooper-free test route in a 2010 Taurus SHO.

Car Fanatic is worth listening to. He maintains a portfolio of half-dozen cars that he trades like baseball cards, and he harbors deeply held opinions about automobiles based on personal experience.

Did I mention that he is also a Ford Fanatic who once owned an MORE