Archive for July 17th, 2010

DiRT 2 (PC) – Robby Gordon, Custom Livery, Hummer H3 Dakar 2010

DiRT 2 (PC) – Robby Gordon, Custom Livery, Hummer H3 Dakar 2010, livery available at colinmcrae.110mb.com go to the new cars section, also available the VW Race Touareg 2 driven by Giniel de Villiers.

Hummer Off Road Hill Climb

A couple of H3 ????playing on the hills of the back country. Here are some links for the music in the video: www.youtube.com www.youtube.com www.jamendo.com www.jamendo.com www.jamendo.com www.jamendo.com

How to Choose a Limo Service for Hire

How to Choose a Limo Service for Hire

Limousines are considered fun and luxurious.   There are many reasons why people choose to hire a limo service.  Whether, it’s for prom, a wedding, a funeral, or just plain riding in style, people love to have the luxurious of riding in a Limo.

There are many limo services that you can hire.  However, when it comes to hiring a limo service, it comes down to a few things; the quality of the limo, the price, and the service of the limo service itself.

What Type of Limo to Choose?

It really depends on the occasion when you choose a limo.  There are many styles to choose from.   For instance, if you were a business executive, most likely you would need a simple town car limo, however, if you were attending a prom or wedding, most likely, a SUV stretch limousine would be best.   Yet, there are regular town car stretch limos that will perfectly for a group setting just as well.

What’s the Limo Drivers Track Record?

No matter the occasion or size of the party, there is a limousine that is right for you.   Not only that, most limo drivers are trained to deal with special groups such as junior proms, and over the top wedding parties.   Most limo drivers are trained to deal with special occasions where drinking and unruly conduct will be involved.  That’s why when you are choosing a limo for hire; you should check the background of the driver.   Check how long they have been a driver, have they had a DUI’s or a clean driving record.  You want to make sure the limo service you hire is legit and has no allegations against them.

What Limo Packages are Best for You?

Once you clear the air, and figure out what limo you want and the driver’s good history, it will be time to choose the best package.    When it comes to limo for hire, special events are usually booked in advance to ensure that you limo will be reserved and ready for that special date.    Most limo services have packages where you can rent a limo for a certain block of hours.  For example, you can rent the limo for 3 hours or the full day.    They usually have specific contracts outlining the details of the package and the insurance that will be covered.    So, this way you can’t go wrong with a package that you choose.

When it comes to hiring a limo service, make sure you choose the one with a great track record.  There’s nothing like riding in style, and hiring a limo service is a perfect way to do just that.

An Overview of New York Limo Services

These service providers have fleets of limousines which range from sedans to stretch limos and even buses which seat 24 to 32 passengers. Their limos may be Cadillac Escalade SUVs, Lincoln Navigators, or a S550 Mercedes Benz Sedans, Lincoln Town Cars, a Maybach 62, or even a Rolls-Royce Phantom, or Bentley, along with the various other models of vehicles for 6,8,10 or more people.

Services are available for airport transfers, weddings, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, prom nights, romance packages or any other special occasion. Customized limos are also available.

Before hiring a limousine company be sure to note the following about their services.

1. You need to know the full cost of the included services before booking a NY limo service provider.
2. Ensure that you are getting the services included in the package.
3. You need to book through a licensed service provider.
4. An airport limo service costs less than a taxi.

NY limo services include many names such as Gotham limousine which provides an SUV and a uniformed chauffeur. Gotham Limousine, is a premium limousine service that provides services for sightseeing, business functions, social events, long distance trips along with airport transfers and have rates which are reasonable. Their fleet consists of sedans, deluxe stretch limousines for 6, 8 or 10 passengers and all their chauffeurs are licensed. Carmel Limo, Starcity Limo, Strussers, SilverStar, Eilat, Tristar Limo and NY Limousine are all limo services along with many more that can provide you with a limo in NY City.

NY limo services all include a nicely upholstered interior, a glass privacy screen to separate the driver from the passenger area and a refrigerator which is well stocked with the best of wines and other beverages. NY limo services also have the amenities such as sliding roofs and cellular phones. They also provide color TV, VCR, and a music system. With wedding packages a bottle of champagne is included at no cost.

For airport services, the operators can get you to the airport or from it from any spot in the city of New York. You can inform them of the flight number and airline so that they are waiting in for you at the airport when you land. Rates of the NY limo services are similar no matter the service you hire due to competition. These vehicles are hired by the hour.  To provide you a general idea of pricing; a 40 passenger Limo bus with shower, bathroom, and microwave for a period of 4 hours costs about $300 whereas a 25 seat limo bus costs $220 for 4 hours. A 10 passenger Jaguar limo costs $1500 for 3 hours in NY City.  A Cadillac Escalade SUV costs $65 for 3 hours in comparison to a Maybach 62 which costs $450 for 3 hours. Rolls Royce Phantom is in a similar range as the Maybach, whereas the Bentley costs about a $100 more than either the Maybach or the Benltly. SUV limo trucks such as the H2 Fantasy JET door Hummer or Escalade Lasanti can also be found in the fleets of NY limo services.

Airport transfers to and from Manhattan to La Guardia or JFK airports can cost between $140 to $600 depending on the amenities requested and number of passengers. NY limo services offer a wide range of amenities and vehicles along with top notch services to make your trip to this city memorable. Optimum comfort levels are provided so as to ensure the best services available to the client.

Vintage is the Way Forward for Limos

Do you have a passion for ‘vintage’…love the movie Gone With The Wind…love the sound of vintage cars for weddings and other special & beautiful occasions. Take a break from the norm, by driving a vintage limousine and stand out from the crowd, make those heads turn.

Vintage limousines are perfect for the couple that is a vintage collector, loves classic cars and that movie star feel from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and lives in a vintage world…think Classic Hollywood style!

Vintage limousines are perfect also for the couple that is celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, since the vehicle would remind them of the era in which they first fell in love….

Now day’s vintage is the new fashion, it is so on trend…vintage clothing, vintage home style, vintage interiors, vintage movies the list is endless. Vintage cars are now becoming even more of a very popular choice for weddings and many other special occasions.

Vintage classic cars are so on trend even Chris Evans, the radio disc jockey spent over 5millon on a classic vintage car formerly owned by Hollywood actor James Coburn in vintage classic car auction which took place in Italy.

Chauffeurs also offer first class professional service and have had training specifically tailored for Wedding events, they are also dressed in a vintage suits, shirts, tie, hats if required and the full vintage uniform if need be.

Additional vintage services may include decorating your vintage car with ribbons and bows, make the most of photographic opportunities and open and pour champagne to toast the marriage of the happy couple.

Be proud of yourself in one of your chosen vintage cars and feel like a star.

A popular choice is the Queen’s Silver Wraith, this is a type of Rolls Royce this car generally comes in a navy blue exterior with a leather interior.

A Queen’s Silver Wraith Rolls Royce from the 1950s is the epitome of a high-class vintage limousine. Such a car generally comes with a navy blue and a comfortable leather interior. It can hold up to four people, a privacy window separating the driver from the passengers, a great vintage limousine especially for the summer months.

The Rolls Royce Bentley S1 from the 1950s is a great choice for those who love the look of a luxury car with a white exterior and a leather interior.

For those who want a vintage limousine with a more casual feel, the Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible from the 1960s is an excellent choice.

Vintage limousines are expensive to hire but regardless of the price, a vintage limousine is a memorable and romantic way to drive in style. When you think of events like weddings, people generally think of using a very special vehicle such as a limousine as a means of transportation, since it is a special way to go to and from a special event. While one could rent the standard limousine, renting a vintage limousine would be a classic and special way to attend any romantic event.

Why not have pink limo hire, stretch limo hire or hummer limo hire.

What Makes Limousines Different From Other Luxury Cars

Limousines are the most preferred Luxury Transport vehicles all around the world. It is being liked by everybody in the specialized customers segment. Customers who do not like anything less than optimum in terms of style and comfort always prefer Limousines on all prestigious occasions. Although, there are several alternatives in Luxury Transport segment, the range of vehicles in this section is very long and impressive. The list includes several luxury car models by prominent car manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, Honda, Toyota, Maybach and others.

What Exactly Luxury Car Features

It is very tough to define a luxury car, because the definition varies from person to person and global location. For example, rough and tough vehicles like Hummer is also considered as an example of luxury car in True SUV segment, whereas Mercedes Benz is also in same luxury car segment. However, there are certain standards that define a car as a luxury car. Some fundamental facilities includes, high-power engine, luxury and stylish interiors, leather seating, powerful world-class air-conditioning, modern hi-tech entertainment facilities including audio and video devices from best manufacturers.

Popularity of Luxury Cars

There are several car lovers in this world, who love to own and ride the best cars while on road. Even there are two sub sections in luxury cars, one is chauffeur driven cars and another is self-driven cars. For example, most models of Mercedes are Chauffer driven, owning those cars means a different sense of style and maturity. This is favorite car of top business executives in middle ages. Second segment consists of Luxury Sports cars and luxury SUV. BMW, Honda and Bentley are prime manufacturers of cars in this segment. The prime features of these cars are high speed, thrilling driving experience, as well as the class sense with style and luxury. This is the most proffered car of young age professionals or self-made entrepreneurs.

Limousines vs. Luxury Cars

Although people love to own and ride several luxury cars, but there are certain things possessed by Limousines that are unique and no luxury car features those features until they are customized on specific customers demand. The most important and easily identifiable feature is Space provided by Limousines. This is the most important constraints behind popularity of Limousines.

[Continued…]

S & L Limo and Buses takes pride in delivering safe, polite and trustworthy transportation that consistently exceeds customer expectations in New York. For details and reservations, visit: http://www.sllimoandbuses.com/

50% Off

Detail

On December 1, we learned that the economy has been in an official recession since December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The economy lost 533,000 jobs last month, the most in 34 years, which puts the official unemployment figure at 6.7%. The 3-month figure is negative 1.3 million, the third highest 3-month figure since WW II. Two-thirds of the 1.9 million total job loss during this recession has occurred in the last three months. Approximately 1.6 million jobs were destroyed in the 2001 “dot com recession.”

If you look outside, down the street, around the neighborhood, however, things probably still appear little changed. No one who wasn’t already selling pencils has started that low-overhead business. Most people you know still have jobs and drive the same cars.

U-Turn & Round Trip

That’s part of the problem, according to John Bergstrom of Bergstrom Automotive, Wisconsin’s largest auto dealership, with 33 franchises representing 25 brands from BMWs to Buicks, Honda’s to Hummer’s, Prius’ to Porsches. In an interview on CNBC this week, Mr. Bergstrom expressed confusion about why people are not buying new vehicles from Detroit, especially given the high quality products that get an impressive 21 mpg. Bergstrom commented that it now seems “politically incorrect” to spend money.

To correct that misperception, Bergstrom proposed a dual $10,000 stimulus program for willing new car buyers, half underwritten by a rebate from the auto manufacturers and half by federal taxpayers. Bergstrom’s proposal, the Consumer Re-stimulation Assistance Program (CRAP), would be an adjunct to the TARP. Bergstrom is reported to be considering throwing in a free oil change.

We hope Mr. Bergstrom will forgive us for having a little fun at his expense. His $10K proposal is real (the name and the free oil change are not) and he is no doubt sincere and well-meaning, as it would help stimulate the broader economy, not to mention serving as a nice holiday going-away present to the many auto dealers who are likely to lose their franchises next year in the coming bankruptcy and downsizing of the industry. No one can fault Bergstrom for talking his book, but we would not go to industry players for objective analysis. We learned that lesson from Wall Street executives this year, did we not?

According to a Deutsche Bank research analyst, the auto sector has been suffering from a mismatch between what Detroit wants to make (high margin pickups and SUVs) and what consumers want to buy (low margin smaller, more efficient vehicles). If that were the only problem, however, it would be a simple matter of retooling for changing customer demand. Unfortunately, the mismatch in the supply/demand profile is being exacerbated by a serious recession and a credit crisis. As a result, U.S. auto sales, which have averaged 16.8 million units a year over the last decade, are currently annualized at a bit more than half that amount, based on November’s 747,000 unit pace. Auto sales peaked in October of 2007, right along with the equity market and are now at the same level they were when the 25-year secular bull market in equities began in 1982, completing a very sudden and perhaps symbolic U-turn and round trip.

50% Off

Meanwhile, just about everything in America is on sale for 40%-50% off. Equities are the first thing that comes to mind. One can buy shares of the average large-cap, mid-cap or small-cap stock at around half-price compared to its peak markup. Meanwhile, top tier educational and financial institutions are also finding the value of their private equity holdings has been halved, as well. Private equity funds raise capital from, say, the endowment fund of an institution such as Harvard and typically deploy it in leveraged buyouts. The operative word is ‘leveraged.’

The LBO game requires the participation of large banks that assist in the financing, allowing a private equity company to control 5-10 times its cash investment. In good times, that type of deal can produce outsized gains for the LBO partners and a handsome return for the institution over a 3-5 year period. With banks pulling in horns, however, those days are over. Moreover, many existing deals are short-term and require refinancing, which is no longer available. Thus the general writedown.

In the commodity sector, gasoline has fallen to half its peak price in 2008 along with just about every other energy, agricultural or industrial commodity, including silver. Did you assume $45-$50 would be rock bottom for crude? Well, think again. A commodity analyst at Merrill Lynch opines that crude oil could fall below $25 in 2009, if China enters a recession. Crude, perhaps the other commodity with a Ph.D., is forecasting a global recession of Armageddon-like proportions in 2009.

Of course, crude may not have a Ph.D., it may simply be expressing the natural pendulum swing of a speculative bubble deflating. Crude futures are not just economically sensitive; they are also highly liquid (!) trading vehicles. We know that not only hedge funds, but also some institutional funds (retirement and pension funds) were participating in the oil futures market in the last few years, seeking to outperform the comparatively sluggish indices. There was some objection to that practice, of course, as critics believed it was fueling unnecessary price inflation.

We expect that the institutional investors who ventured into the commodity playground with some naivete, are now approaching the point of maximum pain as oil flirts with the $40 area. A temporary plunge below $40 is likely to create a capitulatory event that will shake out all weak hands. Once everyone hates the energy sector as they hated tech in late 2002, conditions will be in place for a final bottom.

On the retail front, the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) index of “non-manufacturing” business fell in November to its lowest level since the data began to be tracked 11 years ago. Gratefully, the post-Thanksgiving weekend proved to be a relief for retailers, however, as sales were brisk, but consumers focused on the heavily discounted items, which were typically marked down 50%.

Bear in a China Shop

We know things are bad here at home, but don’t think for a minute that China is going to escape unscathed. A leading Asian economist expects China’s economy to grow 0% to 4% next year, with a 30% chance of a negative number. His are the lowest estimates we have seen (the World bank estimates 7.5%; while Merrill Lynch expects 8.6%), but we think we should pay attention to the skeptic. During systemic corrections, bad things tend to get worse than expected as the synergistic forces of contraction create self-reinforcing negative spirals. We saw that clearly in the financial sector this year as banks suddenly hit walls no one knew were there.

China has been growing at 10% annually for 30 years, boosting GDP 6900% since 1978, when economic reforms began. A deceleration from 10% to 0% in just a few quarters will produce dangerous G-forces. At such a low level of growth, China is going to have severe civil unrest, pockets of which are already apparent.

China, not the U.S., is the world’s largest metals buyer, which is why commodity prices have been falling so sharply. It is therefore the global bellwether and catalyst for any commodity recovery. Until China is pronounced healthy, commodities are trash. Property price declines, not commodity deflation, will be at the epicenter of the Chinese contraction, however, just as in the U.S. Real estate prices in Shanghai fell 19% in Q3 on a sequential basis. Real estate corrections are notoriously slow, so we can expect a multi-year global downturn.

We think China will use its healthy balance sheet and $1.9 trillion in foreign currency reserves to cushion the blow from a global recession and downshift the economy to a sustainable level of growth in the 5% range over the next few years. Meanwhile, Western economies are unlikely to be able to grow at anything near that pace, if at all, while they are downsizing, deleveraging and de-risking. That one discrepancy in long-term economic prospects between East and West will have enormous negative impact on equity values in the U.S. over time.

Global Domino Effect

There are a number of Emerging Market dominos likely to fall before we have to deal with the big one, China. Last month Ecuador failed to pay interest on its government bonds. By Monday, December 15th, Ecuador will need to make another payment and make up for the one it missed or it will be in default. Countries like Ecuador are scrambling to get loans from solvent, cash-rich countries, but the handouts are not forthcoming.

There is another potential global credit tsunami on the way, as well, namely the potential default of the debt of emerging market countries. European banks have lent emerging nations about $3.5 trillion, five times more than U.S. banks, according to the Bank for International Settlements. If that debt gets downgraded due to defaults, watch out.

Save or Spend?

Lastly, there are two approaches to heading off the recession, one emphasizes saving and the other spending. The risk of the savings scenario is that consumption falters so much that a deflationary spiral ensues. The risk of the spending stimulus scenario is that it may encourage the same type of irresponsible behavior that caused the crisis in the first place (moral hazard) and simply postpones the inevitable. China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan said this week at an economic summit that China is preparing for the worst case scenario in the U.S. and hopes the U.S. will emphasize savings over consumption.

That said, coordinated stimulus by the world’s central banks and governments is likely to be the primary response. The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate by 3/4 of a point this week, the sharpest reduction ever. The Bank of England slashed another percentage point off its target rate this week, taking it down to 2%, the lowest level since…get this… 1951. David Rosenberg Chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch believes, “Investors should operate under the assumption that the Fed is going to embark on a new course of balance sheet expansion to mitigate the downside risks to the macro outlook and fight the looming deflation battle.”

Bernanke has criticized the Bank of Japan for not taking sufficiently flexible and vigorous measures to stimulate the Japanese economy. Rather the BOJ was overly worried about inflation. Unlike the BOJ, the Fed and Treasury have introduced dozens of new measures aimed at getting the economic heart pumping again on its own again. Specifically, the Fed has more than doubled the size of its balance sheet, which now stands at $2.1 trillion, since the level from September 10, just prior to Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing.

We think the current economic situation has deflationary aspects which may be positive, i.e. a general shift in attitude from consumption to conservation. We think this shift in orientation will eventually affect most aspects of the U.S. economy, muting exuberance and instilling caution as the Great Deleveraging, the Great De-risking and the Great Downsizing continue. This is the necessary and inevitable corrective process for the Great Credit and Consumption Bubble and it will, unfortunately, overshoot to the downside. In the end, however, a new and hopefully more sustainable equilibrium will be achieved.

In the meantime, though, we do not believe the mortgage stimulus now being discussed, which could lower interest rates on new 30-year fixed mortgages to 4.5%, is a fix that will turn around even the housing market, much less the rest of the economy. A fix that is not applied to existing mortgages to head off accelerating foreclosures will be too little, too late. New home buying may be stimulated, but people have less to spend and the supply of existing homes on the market will keep new home prices so low that margins will continue to inhibit building. Just like the fixes applied a year ago, this one, too, will fail.