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You usually do not buy an Aston Martin for your commute.

True. Unless it is an Aston Martin Cygnet http://www.astonmartin.com/en/...

Show it to the average consumer and ask them what it is. They won't tell you its an "ultrabook" ( and they wouldn't even if they knew what that was) they'll say "tablet" and compare it to ... other tablets.

Its like porshe comming out with a new model that looks idetnical to a toyota yaris. They need an easy way for consumers to tell where the extra money and reduced fue effiencincy is going. The nameplate of porshe helps, but you could also show them different performance specs and have them test drive it a bit. Microsoft needs to do something to make it easy to explain to people why its differnt than other tablets. Oh wait, they already have an identical looking device that does behavie like a tablet in surface with windows RT. That would be like porshe developing two cars identical to the yaris, one with great performance you'd expect of porshe and antother that has performance on par with the yaris. Basically, MS is screwed. That's too dificult to explain to enough people.

It wasn't a Yaris, and it wasn't Porsche, but you're close on both counts:
http://www.astonmartin.com/cars/cygnet
Hello Scion/Toyota iQ!

Or put another way, imagine if I started a car company and decided that I wanted all of my cars to look exactly like a 2005 Nissan Altima because I'd decided that was the height of style and function. []

I mean, let's be brutally honest. How many people are going to go in a store wanting an iPhone, get confused, and come out with a Galaxy instead? Nobody. I can almost guarantee you that no one has ever gotten home and thought, "Hey waaaait a minute... This isn't an iPhone!"

I doubt the only test is if there is sufficient confusion. If Dodge decided that "The Aston Martin DB9 coupe looks much better than our Viper. Let's copy the complete design of the car, put our engine in it and a Dodge emblem on the bonnet. As we only sell it in Dodge stores, no customer will buy this thinking it is an Aston Martin so we should be safe!", I'm sure Dodge have legal issues anyway despite no actual customers being fooled into buying the Viper instead of the DB9.

Your problem is that you have the budget for a Smart car but the desire for a Aston Martin.

That's not actually an rebuttal, or even an argument.

A 32GB iPod Touch is $299 at the Apple Store. The extra bits that make a smartphone can be added for under $150. That doesn't add up to anywhere near $649.

Your problem is that you have the budget for a Smart car but the desire for a Aston Martin.

A db9. Makes a grown man cry.

I wouldn't say TVR or Aston Martin are "crap" nor are Bentley or Royal Royce, or for that matter Jaguar, or MG/Rover, or Landrover. :)

Things that perform well don't always have to look ugly. Just look at this. I wouldn't cover that with duct tape, either.

- A.P.

Here's my daily ride. Best $180G's I ever spent :-P

Its Aston Martin and Austin Healey, you heathens. Get yer British cars right...geez