2010 Audi S4 vs. 2009 BMW 335i Comparison Test: www.insideline.com 2008 BMW M3 @ the Track Video: www.youtube.com Given all the praise heaped on the BMW 3 Series over the years, we can’t blame you for thinking there’s more to the story. We’ve heard all the conspiracy theories, most of them involving checks in large denominations from Munich. This might seem believable to a certain segment of the population, but there’s a far less interesting truth behind all those wins: The BMW was the best car. Sure, certain rivals often upped their game in one area or another, but the 3 Series always put it all together in a way that made it better. So now the 2010 Audi S4 is here to take another shot. It’s all-new this year and the old V8 is gone. There’s now a supercharged V6 in its place, along with a lower price designed to better align the S4 with the BMW 335i. The BMW 3 Series received a face-lift of its own last year. It was mostly minor trim changes and the like, but we’re told that iDrive thing was tweaked again, too (oh, lovely). Sounds like a fair fight, no?
Among cigar smokers Cuban cigars are always abuzz. However, legalized Cuban cigars aren’t as close as you might think. Though there are many out there that suspect the embargo could be lifted in 2010, you can bet that there are other things that will have to happen before coveted Cubans are going to be legal in the USA.
Since the new administration has taken over, Barack Obama has discussed lifting the Cuban embargo and lovers have salivated at the chance to get all the Cubans they can at reasonable prices. It’s not likely, unfortunately, that this can happen overnight. It is going to have to happen in stages and to quote Rush Limbaugh –“…you have no clue what is ahead of us as cigar smokers. What will happen is that the domestic manufacturers, defined by those who are in the Dominican and in Honduras, Nicaragua, Cameroon, all of the places where elements of cigars are grown, and all the places where they’re assembled, these people have in many cases marketed the brands of the Cuban cigars you’re talking about Hoyo De Monterrey, Punch, Simon Bolivar, all of these great Cuban brands have been marketed by other owners in the United States, and they are going to go to the Commerce Department, and they’re going to say we have made these brands popular, we have invested in the product and in the brand in this country, and they’re gonna ask the Commerce Department to ban the import of competing brand-name cigars from Cuba.”
Though it’s likely that we’re going to have to wait a while for Cuba cigars to be legal in the US I think that once Cubans are legal there will be a huge surge of cigar smokers and cigar smoking. Much like the storm of online poker websites and poker players hit once Texas Hold’em became popular the cigar world will see the biggest cigar boom it has ever seen if Cuban cigars are legalized in the US.
There are also other economic factors that come into play when you’re talking about legalizing the most coveted cigars on the planet. The economies of Honduras, The Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua will be severely affected once legal Cuban cigars are available to the masses. But, as I stated before, these economies will eventually come back to life stronger than ever once everyone realizes that Cuban cigars aren’t really that much different than the cigars produced in the above mentioned countries. Not to mention that once Cuba has to produce cigars for Americans its production will be so overdone that the likelihood of the quality control diminishing is quite strong.
So, if you’re crossing your fingers for 2010 to be the year that you’re able to get all the Cuban cigars you want without having to sneak them in – keep dreaming! We’ve got a long way before stocking up on Cubans will be legal in the US!
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