With gas on rise and pay checks not, everyone is looking for some way to save a buck. We all know how cars just drain your money, but we love them so much we keep paying. Damn these expensive fetishes. Here is a list of the best cars for your money put out by CNN Money.com.

Best Small Car - Mini Cooper

Best Fuel Miser - Toyota Prius

Best for Small Families - Toyota Avalon

Best for Big Families - Chevrolet Tahoe

Best for Midlife Crisis - Chevrolet Corvette

Of all of these the only one I would consider buying is the Mini Cooper. I recently had a chance to test drive the new Mini Cooper Clubman S and I must say I am in love…….

  

We have been seriuosly slacking here due to vacations, busy work loads and traveling, but we are back and will continue to keep the fetishing going.  We were hoping the less you get it the more you will want it, isn’t that how fetishes work?  Anyway we will start with some good news.  Ford is making money.

In big earnings surprise, Ford reports a $100 million net income in first quarter Ford Motor Company is profitable, and Alan Mulally, the company’s chief executive officer, has beat expectations again as he drives the auto manufacturer’s turnaround faster than expected. Today, the firm reported net income of US$100 million for the first three months of 2008.

Ford has not reported a quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2007.(Detroit Free Press)

I know one of the big contributers to this is the Focus which has just increased production.  Some how consumers love those tacky chrome fender vents decals. Ford’s future is looking bright with the announcement that the Euro inspired styling will take the lead for the new global design language.  The spy shot of the possible new Taurus is also promising.  And the Flex will be here soon.  This will be an interesting one to watch.  Sink or float will be the question.  Its styling and proportions are unique but will the consumers be drawn to it?  One car I am looking forward to is the Verve concepts from Detroit which will be here in a year or two.  While we are talking about all these Euro cars how about the Kuga, I’ll take one of those to.

If Ford does it right they could have a fresh new lineup much like Saturn does.  Only I am sure Ford will do a better job of selling them after they are out.  The future is looking bright, but only if consumers can afford to drive these new fancy cars….

Spring time is here so that means the student shows are starting up. The Cleveland Institute of Art is running their show from April 23-25. The Industrial Design Dept. and other disciplines (Drawing, Painting, Glass, Sculpture, Jewelry & Metals….) will also be showing through the weekend until the29th. If you are in Cleveland check it out and see the future talent. We will take photos and give you the download after.

Leave it up to Karim Rashid to come up with inventive, creative concepts for typically mundane objects.

This time, it’s the champagne chiller. Rashid’s Globalight design for Veuve-Clicquot is absolutely stunning, albeit not the most practical. It is, in all effects, a pure study in the beauty and art of product design.

The giant “hoop” contains the champagne cool and provides a handle to carry it with. The LED-lighted inner ring glows from bright to dull, depending on how cold your champagne is. And… well, that’s it. There really isn’t much to this study in beautiful exorbitance.

For more info, and a great synopsis (with photos) on the project, visit Notcot.com

The James Dyson Foundation Student’s Design Award is an annual competition taking place in the UK as part of the New Designers expo. Each year, several thousand students showcase their creativity at the expo, and Dyson selects a winning piece of student work. From Dyson’s own site, an explanation of the award:

The award presents an exciting opportunity for an emerging design engineer whose work best demonstrates the ability to think differently and create products that work better.

This year’s award winner was Reactiv by Michael Chen. The concept is based around the Wii idea of motion-sensing accelerometers built into sleeves of a jacket. As a bicyclist rides, LEDs in the sleeves react to speeding up and slowing down by changing colors, allowing vehicles or other riders behind the user to see if they are breaking or accelerating.

For more info and other creative entries, check out the Dyson Awards site.

Red Bull Air Race—Think pod racer but in the year 2008. That gives you the jist of it. Pilots navigate through an aerial race track flying between inflatable pylons as fast as possible. How can you miss this event. I won’t since it will be in Detroit on May31-June1. The show will also be in San Diego in 2 weeks.

This is the first I have heard of this event, which is surprising since it has been going on for a few years. The prior years it was only held in Cali but now they are moving east. San Diego and Detroit will be the only 2 US stops on the 10 race tour.

Red Bull does an amazing job with their events so I have high expectations for a great time. Pics after the jump… Read more

We need a shirt! Actually, we need a design for a shirt. Actually-er, CDf needs the design for a t-shirt that we will be using for promotional means, and we are looking to the community to design it.

What we’re looking for is anything, really. A CDf tagline would be great (funny, memorable, etc) or a graphic if you are so inclined.

Post your ideas in the COMMENTS, or send graphic ideas to cardesignfetish [at] gmail [dot] com

Winner gets a free shirt with their design on it, and immortalization via the internet.

We don’t have a due date at the moment, so we’ll shoot for a week or two.

Now the question will finally be answered….will Lightning and Sally make a little Thunder?

We will have to wait awhile though, the sequel is not slated to come out until 2012.  Until then we have “Wall-e”,  “Up and Newt”, and “Toy Story 3″ to look forward to.    My only worry is that John Lasseter who did an amazing job on Cars will not be directing the sequel.  Instead Brad Lewis who produced the hit Ratatouille will be taking on the challenge.  Don’t let us down we have some high expectations for the second dose of Cars.  Any thoughts on where they will take the story?

Ahh, the college days… Sniffing markers, all-nighters, and 4 AM Mario Kart races on the N64. I’ve got to hand it to CCS… packing 5 students in a tiny dorm room sure made it easy to make friends on the tracks… and enemies.

As we begin a new feature on CDf, we plan on examining those things we Designers do when we’re not… designering.

The least of which is the rampant addiction to video games almost all designers have. And rightfully so: many of our classmates have gone on to work for companies in the game industry doing design, Alias & Maya, and sketching. While the current gen of consoles has its fair share of graphically divine games the best times can often be had with the simple pleasures (read: shooting green shells at Princess Peach).

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Yes we know… Geneva was, like, a month ago. But, it can take time to let concepts sink in.

The following is our third and final part in the Geneva 08 series of reports: The CDF Choice Awards.

And it all starts with…

BEST CONCEPT

Renault Megane

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