First thing, use a tripod.  That's the best way to get nice night shots.  A good light tripod to take everywhere is a must.  THEN you can play with low speeds. 

I also use a high power fill flash in an old tripod, it helps a lot sometimes. Some small light sources could help detach the car from the floor in this picture: one coming under and in the back of the car for instance, would stop the bumper and the hood from merging with the background.  It could also show more wheel detail.

Just my .02c.

I'm assuming you will be using your DSLR now...?

First rule...
no on camera flash!

As far as settings go I LOVE "P" mode... (program I believe) this is my day to day mode as its pretty much auto so its ready to shoot at an instant but still allows you to change the aperture with your index finger (if you want a faster or slower shutter speed and or DoF) while leaving the thumb knob to adjust exposure.  So say your shooting away and you look at the screen to find... hmmm... thats a little dark, I want to brighten that up a bit.  A couple clicks of the thumb and off you go.  It does only allow up to two stops in either direction but that is usually enough for day to day stuff.  One thing that is easy to forget is that each setting (on my 20D anyway) P, Ts, M etc have different quality settings.  Make sure you set each setting to RAW if that is what you normally shoot.  Otherwise you could shoot some in JPEG and some in RAW if you find yourself changing.  The last couple times I did night photography I just kept it in P and closed the aperature down, the best way? Probably would be just as easy to do it in M but I didn't bring the tripod with me, I just was balancing it on a railing.  Have you tried playing with your DSLR at night yet?

this is exactly the type of basic reply I wanted!!!!  I actually saw a video and started playing last night with the P and M modes adjusting the ISO and aperture using different settings, same subject, etc. and just kept shooting and erase to see what it could do.... I also noticed that screen on the top of the canon has that scale to use, also the thumb knob, etc.  So I was finally able to start using "manual" mode... started with the M and P.  i did not even know what to start with so that video I saw was great and this post Turbo was the kind of "dumb for me" info I needed...hehehehe step by step basics!!!

thanks

some night ones...