Driving Your Dream Car Ain't A Green Thing

This year, all the gift ideas Hair Balls keeps hearing about are green, green, green: The Chron recently suggested a bamboo hard drive, crocheted purses made from aluminum can tops and used books as environmentally friendly options.

Which is one reason Hair Balls' eyebrows were raised by a recent email with the subject line "Last Minute Gift Idea: Drive 5 Exotic Cars in One Day!" For $697, "he" can take a Drive Your Dream Tour, spending a half day trying out a Ferrari 360 Spider, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Dodge Viper SRT-10, a Corvette Z06 and a Porsche 911 on scenic Texas roads. Each tour includes "full instruction on driving the cars, photo opportunities and unlimited high fives."

So Hair Balls contacted Ron Sturgeon of Drive Your Dream and asked him what he'd say to people going green this Christmas. And Sturgeon valiantly tried to come up with an angle. "Of course those cars are not green cars," he said. "They don't get good gas mileage. Boy, I don't know. I guess if you wanted a green angle, you could say that driving each of the cars for a shorter period of time is certainly better than owning one."
 

Then, refreshingly, Sturgeon gave up: "I don't see a way to make a compelling argument that the cars are green in any way," he said.

But then, an inspiration: Drive Your Dream as the anti-green gift!

"It's just enjoying something that most people don't get to enjoy very often, and it feels - 'naughty' is the wrong word - but you feel special when you get to drive one of those kinds of cars."

Wow. He's almost got us sold.

- Cathy Matusow