Cheap and Cool enough for Clubbin(g).

Gas mileage is on everyone's mind right now. But, realistically, if you spend $23K on a Prius, it'll take years of driving (and only in the city) to make up the money compared to a cheap V8. A V8 is cheap to fix and cheap to buy it's just not cheap to run. Plus, if you care at all about 'our dependence on foreign oil' you should probably go visit another blog right now. At the end of the day, Bush and the Saudis are friends - so get a V8 - since, we'll always buy their sweet dinasaur juice.

If you're like most people, you like to go to the club and shake you ass with something pimpy parked right out front. This is because, when you walk out of the club, you want all the hot members of the opposite sex to see you get into something sexy, something that explains quickly exactly how cool you are.

You could, of course, go spend $66K plus tax, licence and registation, on an Escalade. By the way, the build-quality of the new one is absolutely appalling. Or, you can read Cool Cheap Cars and think about this.

A police chevrolet SUV will end up costing you around ten grand. Though do choose carefully. A kit to convert your chevy truck into an Escalade (remember, it already has the same engine and most other parts) will be costing you around ten grand. An Escalade conversion kit will cost you a couple more. Finally, things like rims, nice paint, airbags and a system will cost you 5 to 1o more. Depending on how loud you like to bump and how hard you want to roll. So, for $20K - spread out over a while - you get an Escalade-like club cruiser, though not as nice or new as the Dub Edition Escalade pictured here. Still, that's about the same you'll spend on a Mazda 6 or year-old Nissan Maxima. Forget about resale value but you'll have the satisfaction of looking like a drug dealer while driving a cop car.