That's the Way the Tire Bounces.(NEWS)

Byline: Natalie Neff

IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT how the car drives, that review is coming in our next issue. For now, I'll tell you how it crashes.

I never saw it coming. A tire had flown off an Oldsmobile Cutlass heading in the opposite direction on the freeway, rolled past its horrified driver, skipped over the median, bounced at least 20 feet into the air and smashed through my windshield as I emerged from under an overpass. At least, that's what I was told by a witness kind enough to stopand the Cutlass driver, who, after successfully steering his car to the shoulder, sprinted across eight lanes of Memorial Day traffic to make sure he hadn't killed me.

The metallic green Ford Fiesta, one of only a handful brought to the States for us journalist types to test-drive, looked like a squished ash borer, the glass completely breached where the rearview mirror once hung, a skid mark on the hood the telltale sign of the original impact and the roof crumpled where the tire ended its destructive ways. Inside, circuit boards lay scattered about, wires dangled uselessly from the headliner, and every surface glistened under a thick coating of shattered tempered glass.

(Oh, tempered glass! Two days later, still flossing the stuff from between my teeth, I was more grateful for it than ever.)

Had the tire hit just six inches to the left, it might have landed in my lap. Or my brain. Instead, I walked away with little more than a right arm splattered with exploded glass, the tiny droplets of blood twinkling on my ...