Anyone of us can make a difference; including the young ones. Being a role model or a great example to the members of the community doesn’t require age limit or whatever. One of the best examples to date is a young girl from Minnesota. Here’s her story…

Natalie Hayford, 16, of Andover, Minn., has been chosen to be the recipient of The Allstate Foundation's inaugural "Teen Activist of the Year Award" for her dedication and leadership role in encourage teens to drive safely.

"I take activism very seriously, and it's a big part of my life. I love helping others and encouraging positive choices in my peers, and I feel very lucky to be rewarded for something I love. The prize is a tribute to the hard working members of my Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapter as well, who worked with me on the activities. I hope to continue to convey safe driving habits for years to come," says the teenager Hayford.

Hayford stood up from a collection of brilliant teen activists from across the country to receive a $10,000 cash award from The Allstate Foundation. The cash prize Hayford won will be placed into a college fund. The honored teen chose the Anoka High School SADD chapter to accept an extra $5,000 grant in her honor offered by The Allstate Foundation to carry on youth safety efforts.

"Teens have the power to positively influence their peers and communities and ultimately curb teen driving deaths. We are so impressed by the meaningful advocacy work America's teens engaged in during 2007, but Hayford truly went above and beyond in working to raise awareness for this critical issue. We hope more teens will follow her lead," says David Prendergast, assistant field vice president of Allstate's Midwest Region.

The hot and best-selling midsize crossover has resurfaced to be even hotter with the latest factory-modified 2009 Ford Edge Sport! A Ford press release reported the Sport model along with the SE, SEL and Limited models in the lineup, makes the Ford Edge the first vehicle in its class to offer a custom-made model. The Edge sport features up to date, athletic design, versatile package and exceptional features such as the VistaRoof™ and SYNC to name a few.

“The new Ford Edge Sport is designed to instantly appeal to crossover customers who want a sportier custom look and feel. This specialty design reflects the growing popularity of personalization and more customers’ interest in industry shows like the annual Hot Import Nights around the country and the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas,” says John Felice, general manager, Ford Division.

“While custom-made to appeal to customers, Edge Sport is smart business,” says Mark Fields, president of The Americas. “The aftermarket industry has grown to a $40 billion annual business, and crossovers are the fastest-growing vehicle segment in the U.S. We want customers who crave something special to know that Ford can customize their Edge – right at the factory.”

Road accidents claim between 5,000 and 6,000 teen lives each year that is according to the survey conducted by the Allstate Insurance. The survey also reveals that a great number of teens do not take personal responsibility for safe driving and still continues to engage in dangerous activities.

Surprisingly 90 percent of the teens surveyed said that they hope their friends will be safe on the road in 2008 while only 11 percent of the teens surveyed included “driving more safely” on their personal New Year’s resolutions. Also one-third of the teens surveyed have reported that they fear riding with careless driver.

And to further help strengthen teen drivers’ commitment to road safety, Allstate has created an Interactive Parent-Teen Driving Contract which is a useful tool for parents and teenagers in developing a more meaningful dialogue on safe and responsible driving.

The contract can also bring accountability to teens and parents in reinforcing their responsibility as passengers and drivers.

The survey was designed and conducted by TRU which is a youth-research specialist that polled 917 teens with age ranging from 16 to 18. The survey was conducted online to refrain from any bias that adult administered surveys usually have. The sample is representative of the online US teen population of whom 93% are online users; the survey has also a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent points in total at the 95% confidence level. The survey runs through December 7 to 14, 2007.

US News & World Report an American magazine has recently released their 2008 rankings of the best cars and trucks in 11 different classes. Honda has a total of five cars that won the awards with three other Japanese brands, three German cars and two American vehicles.

The winners are the following:

• Best Economy Car: Honda Fit
• Best Midsize Car: Honda Accord
• Best Upscale Small Car: Volkswagen GTI
• Best Upscale Midsize Car: BMW 3-Series
• Best Luxury Car: BMW 5-Series
• Best Compact SUV: Honda CR-V
• Best Midsize SUV: Honda Pilot
• Best Large SUV: Chevrolet Tahoe
• Best Luxury Midsize SUV: Lexus RX 350
• Best Full Size Pickup: Chevrolet Silverado 1500
• Best Affordable Sports Car: Honda S2000, Mazda MX-5, Mazda Speed3 (three-way tie)

The US News & World Report does not use its own editorial board to determine the best cars in class but more takes into account the opinions of many automotive experts. The American magazine considers the experts’ thoughts on various vehicles, their safety, and reliability---these are used to rank the vehicles.

Audi AG the luxury division has recently won two prestigious "Red Dot Awards: Communication Design" in the category of dialog marketing Design Zentrum Nordrheim Westfalen in Essen that pays tribute to Audi's creatve agency gingco.net for the outstanding design for the Audi mailings.

The awards were made for the mailing campaigns for the presales of the A5 and S5 and also for the market launch of the Audi R8.

According to Peter Zieten, Head of Communication Germany at Audi AG, "Audi is the leading automobile brand when it comes to design – in choosing an Audi, you're choosing the utmost in design quality. We are pursuing the high demands that we place upon design and the language of form in all aspects of brand management. Winning two 2007 red dot awards once again demonstrates that we are setting the standard in brand communication."

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most prestigious honors on the worldwide design scene and has been given since 1955 by the Design Center in Essen to recognize innovative and quality designs. For this year's awarding 12 international design experts received over 7,000 entries from 34 countries in the categories of "Red Dot Award:  Product Design", "Red Dot Award: Communication Design", and "Red Dot Award: Design Concept."

The winners for this year awarding are to be featured in the "Red Dot Communication Design Yearbook 2007/2008" and will be placed on exhibit at the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen.

Its seems a lot of people in Britain are inflicted with Alzheimer's disease metaphorically speaking of course, this was after a research conducted shows that over five and a half million motorists or one in five say that they lose their car at least once a fortnight with each driver spending at least 5 hours and 13 minutes a year searching for it.  And one out of four drivers has even considered reporting their car as stolen after spending more than hour searching for it.

According to research drivers in the North West are the most forgetful losing their cars at an average of 14 times a year followed by Scottish motorists with 13 times a year, and Londoners with 12 times a year. The motorists from the East Midland are least forgetful losing cars 7 times a year.

According to Susan Kalair of Chevrolet: "Drivers waste so much valuable shopping time searching for their misplaced cars and up until now there hasn't been any real solution to the problem. Hopefully our talking car will solve the problem – and give Christmas shoppers more time to hit the shelves – by helping people remember exactly where they left their car."

The new KITTY is to be tested in a number of cars this coming Christmas shopping period. The device has range of 183 meters. Chevrolet has used MyVoice an independent online research company that surveyed a cross section of 1,000 UK drivers across the country. But for the development of KITTY the automaker has partnered with Loc8tor, a company that specializes in handheld tracking devices.

League of most forgetful motorists (sourced from The Auto Channel):

• North West – average motorist loses their car 13.8 times

• Scotland –13 times London – 12 times

• Midlands – 11 times

• North East – 10 times

• South West – 10 times

• South East – 10 times

• Wales – 8 times

• East Anglia – 7 times