Paris Hilton is WISE!

Paris Hilton, one of L.A.’s most important, most respected and one of the most influential pillars of our community spoke a couple years ago about hybrids – a statement that was mocked. Those famous words heard throughout The Basin were: “I like hybrids, but a lot of them aren’t that cute.” Now here is a lovely young lady wise beyond her years, but the media hastily spun these insightful words as idiocy. Well your Pap agrees with Miz Hilton; and what a truism her words are!

In L.A., what individual is unable to recognize a truly beautiful car from a hideous one? True, one must train his eyes in order to recognize the difference. If you see enough that is beautiful, you start to recognize the ugly. And in L.A., a veritable concourse of beautiful cars, there’s plenty of opportunity to train the eye. You need only drive on the Sunset Strip; San Vicente Bl. to Ocean Ave.; or LaCienega from Wilshire to Sunset to see a continuous parade of beautiful and expensive cars. So what is there to attack in Miz Hilton’s statement? If anything, this is a plea to produce better looking environmentally friendly vehicles that will appeal to more people. We are sick of those Priuses stigmatizing our eyes, with its infiltration into every damn L.A. neighborhood!

So Paris, here’s something your Pap thinks you might like. It’s the electric-powered Tesla Roadster. A pretty convincing sports car that goes 0-60 in 3.9 seconds…that’s hot! The Tesla has been out for a couple years now and still, we’re not seeing them lined up in front of Sunset Plaza cafes like we see Ferraris and Lamborghinis. And while admittedly we may not rush out to trade in our Ferraris and Lamborghinis, the Tesla isn’t as much a concession as other environmentally friendly cars...and it looks pretty darn good. At around $100k and production numbers of just 1,500 planned for 2009, the Tesla is definitely L.A. Car Couture-approved. So here you have it, Paris. It may not be the Bentley Continental GTC or the Mercedes SLR you’ve been used to, but it sure is a lot cuter than that big ‘ol Chevy Yukon Hybrid we know you’ve purchased.