If my car is my castle, I live in a rabbit hutch.

Once again, Natalie Neff's being raked over the coals for her latest column on AutoWeek.com; the forum posters over there make The Car Lounge look tame by comparison. Her piece, a lighthearted bit advising her brother to evaluate prospective tenants by their cars, is being criticized for being irrelevant.

Point A: Perhaps, in the context of AutoWeek's usual content, this is true. That's why the story's on the web and not in the print issue.

Point B: The more pressing issue is that Neff's argument is entirely relevant. How often do we judge fellow motorists based on their vehicles, and how often are those assumptions correct? When my husband and I lived in Milwaukee, we spent a few hours at the laundromat every weekend, and passed the time by trying to match each laundromat patron with a car in the parking lot. Our track record was scarily accurate.

Bear with me, if you will, and check out the cars parked at the local Wal-Mart. Go inside, if you can stand it, and watch the customers. I will never be convinced that these cars, usually comprised of rusty Toyota minivans, early '90s Civics riding on cut springs and spinner hubcaps, and the famous periwinkle blue Plymouth Neon that shed paint in Frisbee-sized sheets, are not indicative of Wal-Mart consumers' average economic and physical health. Take a trip down the road to the closest Target, and bask in the brighter, cleaner, friendlier, and more pleasant atmosphere .

I know where I prefer to park my cars. How about you?

Such observations are, indeed, a part of automotive culture. The market research geniuses have known this for decades.

I had a rolling start, and then I stalled.

Thanks are due to my lovely Katherine; you've done quite the job keeping this alive while I've been stressed the hell out doing other things.

The uninformed often tell me they want my life. Today, several of my coworkers (all male) gathered in my cubicle to gawk at the glossy 8x10s shot by my husband during my first track excursion this weekend (for which yet another huge thanks goes out to Katherine). My friend Jkrew told me via AIM that he was jealous that I had another unique driving experience this weekend, a sunny afternoon with the Polo BlueMotion.

But therein lies the problem. Here I sit on the couch with 14-hour-old mascara flaking off my lashes as I struggle to recall the minutae of my weekend. Facts and figures swirl through my head; km/h and mph conversions are confusing the hell out of me. I have no idea how to make a story from these numbers, but rest assured, the Polo BlueMotion is a hell of a lil' car.

Now I know why Jkrew laughed at me, back when he was working on VW.com and I gushed constantly about my jealousy.

Do I buy a racing helmet, or do I buy an iPhone?