Buying a car? Dread no more!

Test Drive It aims to change your car buying experience in a radical way over the next few years. Popular setiment declares the car buying process to be one of the most stressful and horrible consumer experiences that exists today. Yet few have really tried to deconstruct the process and improve it.

Test Drive It believes that it has "cracked the code" on the consumer auto purchasing process. Opening a pilot show room in the outskirts of Seattle next month, Test Drive It wants to accomplish one simple thing: to make your car shopping experience a no pressure, one stop experience.

Stocking the top 5 cars in each of the 10 most popular car classes, the team is offering consumers an unbiased and no pressure format for comparing comparable class automobiles side-by-side in the same location! This combined with no haggle price points and on site financiers and insurers from the major players, makes the total experience nothing short of dreamy.

"It is amazing how the experience of buying a car changes when your salesperson does not care if you decide on the BMW, the Audi, or the Lexus," says a regular car buyer and angel investor in the concept, "You make the best choice for you and everyone wins."

One might ask how the auto manufacturers are playing in this new model. They are not - yet. Through some very forward looking deals with local auto dealers and some other high net worth individuals, Test Drive It has the runway it needs to prove out and perfect the model.

What do I think of this? After putting it off for 3 months, I will be first in line to buy an SUV when they open.

myHybrid unleashed

MyHybrid LLC today unveiled their social network for hybrid enthusiasts. The concept is pretty interesting. By forging partnerships with Toyota, myHybrid will be embedding their technology in all 2008/2009 Toyota Hybrid models, allowing the car to upload statistics periodically to the myHybrid network to compare with a broader community of hybrid drivers.

The first feature that is already gaining a lot of momentum is the myHybrid Leaderboard. The Spokane, Washington based company MyHybrid captures the statistics of thousands of commutes each day by hybrid owners, and posts the most efficient to the myHybrid Leaderboard. Drivers can view the leaderboard from their dashboard, and set goals for their commute. Additionally, myHybrid delivers low impact suggestions to the driver on how to make their drive more efficient. To make it even more interesting, drivers can access the network online to create/join groups, as well as narrow their focus to only drivers in their city, or those that share some of their commuting route. The next step for myHybrid is a real-time leaderboard showing cars that are actively commuting around you along with their stats.

Of particular interest is that new Toyota owners will be invited to join the myHybrid community and create their profile from the dashboard of their car when they turn on their navigation system for the first time! The founders of the company believe that this sort of interaction between user and car will spawn an entirely new set of web services centered around the commuter.