Success, Winston Churchill once observed, is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. By that measure, Volkswagen is as successful as they come.

Photo Gallery: Volkswagen Group: Europe’s Largest Manufacturer - Volkswagen Routan - Automobile Magazine

Yes, this is a wooden car. Forget the jokes. Anyone making more than mere decorative use of wood in an automobile has heard them all. And doesn’t care. Wood is a magnificent structural material, “God’s own composite,” proclaimed the late Frank Costin, the brilliant technologist behind the glorious shapes of early Lotus cars, the Vanwall Formula 1 car, and-significantly-the plywood chassis of the Marcos in which a young Jim Clark won some of his first races.

Photo Gallery: Splinter: Wooden Supercar - Renewable Supercar - Automobile Magazine

Make no mistake, the Mazda Kiyora is not a concept car. At least, not as the term is typically used these days, when what is presented as an idea about the future is in fact a hastily restyled upcoming production car, presented to prepare public opinion in advance: “Wow, the new Thingamajig came from the Chimera concept car.” No way will we see versions of the Kiyora on the streets anytime soon. Or ever.

Photo Gallery: 2008 Mazda Kiyora - Mazda Concept Car Design - Automobile Magazine

A rally-racing Cayenne? Porsche factory driver Carles Celma is making a convincing argument for it, a twenty-foot rooster tail of shredded earth spewing from the rear tires as he power-slides down a straightaway. There’s a hard, fast left ahead; the Spaniard left-foot brakes and-magically-the SUV transfers its two-and-a-half tons, sliding just short of a precipice that drops 100 feet into a valley. Celma sends the Cayenne bucking through a dry, sandy wash and then aims the vehicle down a narrow dirt track, blurred tree branches slapping hard at the windows.

Photo Gallery: 2010 Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia - The Transsyberia Rally Race - Automobile Magazine

Excuse me while I duck yet another phone call from a cable television news channel that wants me to predict exactly which day the evil Cerberus will be folding its tent and blowing town, leaving Chrysler in a smoldering heap. Or exactly who, what, when, where, how, and why General Motors will finally be going bankrupt. Well, let me dust off my honorary degree from Kirtland Community College, ponder those mysteries for about three seconds, and leave town via the back roads with the rest of the staff.

Photo Gallery: 2009 Automobile of the Year - Jean Jennings’ Vile Gossip Editorial - Automobile Magazine