about those problems that you are having with max... why not try to unistal it and reinstal it again? It should work only thing different is that the "new" instal starts counting from where the old one left off... might help. Could also try to instal it on the XP :?
oh and don't worry max is so big that IMO no single man knows it 100%
it will always have secrets for us
and about the car yeah it is a funky render, but hey atleast you got windows, I don't even have those on a model I've been working on for the past 4 months