The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently named the thirty-four 2008 model year vehicles which were given their highest safety rating. Called the Top Safety Pick award, the system is developed to name the best vehicles in the market in terms of protecting its occupants in the unfortunate event of a crash. The IIHS tests vehicles for their adequacy in protecting motorists during, frontal, side, and rear crashes. Vehicles should be rated highly at the said tests before they could be given the Top Safety Pick award.

"For 2008, consumers have the widest selection of vehicles they've ever had that afford the best protection in the most common kinds of crashes," said Adrian Lund, the president of the IIHS. Since safety is one of the major concerns of auto buyers, the Top Safety Pick rating will help them in their decision of which new vehicle to buy.

Lund pointed out that an ESC can be of great help to keep motorists away from accidents. "Vehicles should be designed to provide good occupant protection when crashes occur, but now with ESC we have the possibility of preventing many crashes altogether," he said. "If all vehicles were equipped with ESC, as many as 10,000 fatal crashes could be avoided each year."

ESC comes in various names as automakers have different names for this system. Chevrolet vehicles with StabiliTrak are actually equipped with ESC. StabiliTrak is Chevrolet’s name for the ESC. For Nissan, it goes by the name of Vehicle Dynamic Control. Ford calls it the Advance Trac with Roll Stability Control or RSC.

Some of the vehicles included in the list are the Honda Accord, Audi A3, Subaru Impreza, BMW X5, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Tundra, Ford Taurus, and the Volvo XC90.

For the first time, a woman has won the MediaCorp Radio Subaru Impreza Challenge. And Sandra Yeow is the name behind that valiant woman.

Yeow was declared Tuesday the ultimate winner after she kept her hand on the car for 77 hours and 13 minutes, Channel NewsAsia reported. That sets a new record for the event. To note, the record is over an hour longer than the male winner, Kevin Lee.

Abdul Hamid Jonid thought he had won the men's challenge 73 hours and 55 minutes after the competition had started. But his joy was short-lived.

Dahlia Z, the Assistant Vice-President for English Programming, MediaCorp Radio, has this to say: "The last two... usually it's pretty crucial and contestants are irrational, they have not had that much sleep and one of the contestants had clenched his fist so he was disqualified, but he thought he had won so he lifted up his hands in glee." But Hamid's family could not be more proud of him, for remaining as the final two.

The last man standing, however, was 30-year-old Kevin Lee. He won the Brand New Subaru Impreza 1.5R, worth $58,000. But he was aspiring for the fancier car - the MI Rally Team version. He faced tough competition from the remaining women.

The prior record of 74 hours and 59 minutes was set by the 2004 winner Ian Lee. That was conked out at 4 in the afternoon when there were still three women and one man left in the competition. After 76 hours, Kevin Lee threw in the towel to claim his car, leaving the three women to battle it out.

Ian Lee said that the worst moment came at the 42nd hour. He said, "In fact I cried, I cried and cried but after that, I pulled out from that... I went to the lowest bottom out then managed to bounce back."

Finally, after 77 hours and 13 minutes, the ultimate winner was named – the 25-year-old Sandra Yeow, winning for herself the MI Rally Team version of the Brand New Subaru Impreza 1.5R, worth $68,000. This was Yeow's third attempt at the challenge.

After spending four days and three nights outdoors, she has just one thing on her mind. She said, "To go home and bathe because houseflies seem to like me a lot right now, so I guess I need to go home and change and bathe and be clean again."

Japanese automaker Subaru recently honored seventeen of its dealerships in the United States for their 25 years of marketing Subaru vehicles in the country. The seventeen dealerships recognized at the event have been marketing Subaru vehicles for more than two decades. Reliability is also a trademark for Subaru.

Tim Colbeck, the vice president of sales for Subaru of America, congratulated the dealerships saying: “On behalf of Subaru of America, I'd like to congratulate our twenty-fifth anniversary dealers. We appreciate the commitment and investment that our dealers have made in the Subaru brand over the years, and we know that they will continue to lead the charge in enabling us to reach new levels of success.”

The Earthtimes reported that the seventeen Subaru dealerships celebrating their 25th anniversary are: Lamb Subaru, Prescott, Ariz.; Downtown Subaru, Oakland, Calif.; Schaller Subaru, Middletown, Conn.; Classic Subaru, Atlanta, Ga.; Subaru of Countryside, Countryside, Ill.; Tom Wood Subaru, Indianapolis, Ind.; Dwyer & Sons Subaru, Commerce Twp., Mich.; Clements Subaru, Rochester, Minn.; Jim Armstrong Subaru, Hickory, N.C.; Lynnes Subaru, Bloomfield, N.J.; Miller Subaru, Lumberton, N.J.; Stocker Subaru, State College, Penn.; LaRiche Subaru, Findlay, Ohio; Gentry Subaru, Ontario, Ore.; Hanson Subaru, Olympia, Wash.; Roy Robinson Subaru, Marysville, Wash.; and Dahl Subaru, La Crosse, Wis.

These seventeen dealerships along with other Subaru dealerships will soon be marketing the newest models of Subaru vehicles. Included in the lineup of the Japanese automaker for the 2008 model year is the refined Legacy. The Subaru Outback will also be hitting showrooms soon. The legendary Subaru Impreza and its WRX have also been upgraded for the new model year.