CHICAGO — Automakers are introducing plenty of luxury vehicles at this year's Chicago Auto Show, from the $78,000 Yes! roadster to Porsche's performance-oriented Cayenne GTS.

But the models may be met by empty wallets. Analysts and some automakers predict luxury sales will fall this year as the nation's economic woes put a pinch on high-end buyers.

"Typically in a declining market, you usually don't see luxury vehicles drop off. The drop-off in luxury sales is at a rate much slower than the overall market, and that is because of the wealth factor," said Joe Barker, senior manager of North American vehicle sales forecasting for CSM Worldwide.

"But in recent months it appears even the affluent car buyers are even pulling back a bit on auto purchases."

Peter Schwarzenbauer, president and chief executive of Porsche Cars North America, said Thursday that Porsche has seen a downturn in U.S.

Need for Speed: ProStreet Porsche demo

Need for Speed: Pro Street lets you design and build a car, then compete in iconic locations around the globe, battling in four distinct racing styles--grip, drag, drift and the all-new speed challenge. The atmosphere is complete with energetic crowds, photo-realistic vehicles, and billowing smoke, all designed to embody the pressure and intensity of the gladiatorial challenge known as Show Down.

Feds: Man's guilty plea reveals two-state auto theft ring

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - Federal authorities say a man who pleaded guilty to transporting stolen cars is helping authorities expose a multimillion-dollar auto-theft ring involving hundreds of victims across Indiana and Illinois.

Thirty-nine-year-old Mahmoud Yusef Nassar of Schererville was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hammond to 37 months in federal prison.

Court records say Nassar pleaded guilty to transporting two stolen cars - a Porsche and a Kia - across state lines after he paid dealership employees to give him the car keys.

Nassar's sentencing memorandum states that he gave up names and organizational details on the inner workings of an auto-theft ring involving hundreds of victims. Court records say that information already has led to search warrants and statements from others.

Alternative-Energy Vehicles Added Spark To Detroit Auto Show

When the North American International Auto Show opened in January 2000, a dozen alternative fuel cars were on display.

Still, cars that run on something other than gasoline remain a small portion of the market. While consumer research firm J.D. Power estimates that 77% of car shoppers ask about alternative fuel vehicles, fewer than 2% of them actually buy one. Fewer than 400,000 alternative vehicles are on the road, about the same number of cars that cross New York's Brooklyn Bridge every day.

Bloom's Hit-and-Run Case Wilts

Orlando Bloom won't be parked in court for his motoring mishap.

According to the D.A.'s charge evaluation worksheet, Bloom was being shadowed by four paparazzo-filled cars and one car full of fans in the early morning hours. The report indicates that two of the camera-wielding pursuers attempted to cut off the black 2003 Toyota Matrix being driven by Bloom, causing him to swerve into a Porsche Cayenne parked on the side of the street.

Jaguar XK wins 'Car of the Year' and 'Best Coupe' awards

The XK Coupe also topped all cars in its category as the 'Best Coupe', out-beating competitors in the BMW 6 Series and the Porsche 911. The launch of the new XK earlier this year marked the beginning of an exciting era for Jaguar in terms of design and engineering which further extenuates the brand's reputation for building beautiful, fast cars that are thrilling to drive and gorgeous to look at. This award is yet another feather in Jaguar's cap as the new XK was awarded the 'Most exciting car to be launched in 2006' awarded by What Car? Magazine, the 'Engineering and Technology Award' at the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards and the 'World Traffic Safety Symposium's Traffic Safety Achievement' Award in the Automaker category. It has been recognized for an all-new industry-leading feature - the pedestrian deployable bonnet which is designed to help mitigate the severity of injuries to pedestrians in the event of a collision with a car.

Bloody awful

Might and Magic on their computers.

Disclaimer: I may have grown up watching the All-Night Horror Spectaculars that ran on North Carolina's Channel 5 on Friday nights, but these comprised Boris Karloff fare - tame stuff, and blood was hard to distinguish from Indian ink in the old black-and-whites. Since then, I've not kept up with horror films per se, though violence is hardly exclusive to the genre. So I've seen my share of gore - in Seven or Braveheart. On the yuck scale, I'd place myself in the middle. I can stick a variety of special effects (severed heads sailing through the air - yawn), and I'm bored by ketchup. On the other hand, I can't bear to watch dental torture, and I'm quixotically phobic about needles.

For our purposes here, my greatest claim to authority is having now survived six films back to back, all recently unbanned by Britain's benevolent overseers; the exercise was something like those Friday-night marathons when I was 10.