
This isn't exactly what the recording industry had in mind when The Beatles went gold for the first time. But then, who would have predicted back then that the Iron Curtain would fall and that Eastern Europe would grow into one of the world's largest markets for tasteless luxury items.
This 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, unveiled at this year's Luxury Show in Bucharest, Romania, is covered in tiles made of glass and 18-karat gold. We'd say if you have to ask, you can't afford it, but it strikes us that the whole point of building or buying something this perversely ostentatious is to flaunt to the world just how much it's worth. In this case, the figure is actually just $88,000.
If you're thinking that eighty-eight grand will buy you a well-equipped Porsche 911, we're not far behind you. But then, whoever would even consider buying something this ridiculous probably has a couple of "ordinary" Porsches lying around the grounds already.
[Source: Luxurylaunches.com]



Getting around Capitol Hill in Washington, DC can be a tricky venture, but getting around the Parliament Palace in Bucharest, Romania, has gotten considerably easier. Not because the local politics are any less entangled, but because the Romanian legislature is being surrounded by a race track.
You just don't meet many girls named Mercedes these days. The German handle has undoubtedly dwindled in popularity as the car brand became a household name, but that apparently hasn't fazed Dumitru Caldara. The Romanian man, evidently an enthusiast of Teutonic automobiles, took it a step further: he didn't name his newborn daughter Mercedes, he named her SLK. Seriously.







