Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2011 i MotorTrend

MT Top 10 Online Vid Ads Patrick Warburton (Puddy from "Seinfeld”) and Craig Robinson ("The Office”) debut as Duramax and Allison for a series of Chevrolet ads. Did they fight over who would be Duramax? The twee couple in Hyundai’s holiday ads are YouTube sensation Pomplamoose, in a campaign catchy (grating?) enough to lure 1.4 million viewers. And BMW literally burned its logo into retinas with a Flash Projection ad. Yikes. Source: Visible Measures (www.vislblemeasures.com) The Motor Trend Top 10 Online Video Auto Ads Chart focuses on brand-driven viral video ads that appear on online video sharing destinations. Each campaign is measured on a True Reach basis. which includes viewership of brand-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements.…

THIS is the Ford dealership of the near future: If you find a big-city showroom in which every car is smaller than a Mustang and every truck or crossover is smaller than an Edge, you might think you’ve stepped into a European store. The automaker’s C-platform takes centre, uh, center stage, as Ford believes compacts like the Focus eventually will replace midsize sedans like the Fusion as the volume passenger car. (Even if that doesn't happen, the 2013 Fusion converges with the European Mondeo’s design.) Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, near Dearborn, has been converted from truck production to build the new 2012 Focus sedan and hatchback. It’s also the factory for the electric Focus and both hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Focus-based C-Max multipurpose vehicle. Ford…

THE NEXT Mini hatchback has yet to be styled, though much of its technical and platform basis is set. The first version, the two-door; hatchback, is due as a 2014 car. Mini will switch to a new platform that also will spawn a compact front-drive BMW. This is not the next generation 1 Series, which remains rear drive and related to the 3 Series. A full model change for the 1 Series four - door hatchback, not sold in the U.S., is due in summer 2011, and two years later the two door coupe and cabriolet get the same makeover. “We are working on front-drive BMWs,” sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson recently confirmed to Motor Trend. They will be a more space-efficient alternative to the 1 Series, by virtue…

FORD IS QUICK to point out that the Explorer is the third-most-recognized nameplate in its lineup, after F-Series and Mustang. But that doesn't tell the whole story. As recently as five years ago, the Ford Explorer (as a single model—we don't consider the F-150 and F-250/350 the same model) was the best-selling vehicle in the Ford stable. In fact, it was the best-seller in the segment it created back in 1991. But when the Firestone tire debacle occurred and sales fell off a cliff, the Explorer name and brand were left to stagnate. The rise of gas prices and crossovers, compounded by the global economic upheaval, signaled the end of the Explorer as we knew it. When Ford CEO Mulally called for a return to nameplates with name recognition, Taurus…

WITH THE SLS Amc E-Cell's drive-select-mode knob in C, you get only 60 percent of the available torque. There is a bit of ‘‘we don't really know yet’’-type ambivalence about what C stands for. The knob, familiar to all AMG fans, has detents for C, S, S+ and M, which normally correspond to Comfort, Sport, Sport plus, and Manual. However, in the all-electric prototype E-Cell, C may very well stand for City. Or, as the test engineers explained, it could stand for Cruising. Regardless, it cuts power and extends the battery life, yet offers no brake regenerative battery-charging of any sort. Flip the knob into S and you get 80 percent of the torque. Of course, I traveled all the way out to the Circuit de Valencia in Spain to…

FOR 2011, none of the improvements to the Wrangler involves its capability, onor off-road. Returning unchanged is the 3.8-liter V-6, six-speed manual and four speed automatic, and two or four doors, in Sport, Sahara, and Rubicon trims. A new Sahara option is a removable body-color hardtop. It's made of composite material, just like the black top, but gives the Wrangler a higher-quality look. Because it’s the same material underneath the paint job, it doesn't add any weight. The interior got more sound-deadening material, so the cabin is quieter for 2011. The Wrangler could use a new engine, or at least an update to the current one. A new transmission is overdue, too. While rumors suggest the JK will benefit from the new Pentastar engine, that hasn't arrived for 2011. The…

IF YOU HAVE to haul 10,000 pounds of potatoes, you use a heavy-duty truck. If you have to fly around a racetrack, you get yourself a sports car. If you have to take six children to soccer practice, you get a minivan. And if you have to bop around the city running errands that don't require much storage space, Smart would like you to consider its Fortwo Electric Drive. But should you? Featuring a tiny 40-horsepower, 89-pound-foot traction motor where the internal-combustion engine usually resides, the electric Smart beats walking. It’s also faster than a Segway and much more weatherproof than a moped. I would go so far as to say that, if you really do keep the battery-powered Fortwo on the streets of a major metropolis, it’s a perfectly…

NEW 200s and 300s are arriving at Chrysler dealerships alongside the 500, the first new Fiat sold here since 1983. With 101 horsepower on tap, the Fiat probably shouldn't have a bigger name than the two Chryslers. So translate it into Italian, and the stylishly Spartan Fiat becomes "Cinquecento? A quick drive of a rear-engine, 499cc two-cylinder 1969 Fiat 500 turned up as few similarities as the VW Beetle versus New Beetle, though you can replicate the Italian bus-driving position in the new 500. Like the original, la nucva 500 is tall for its overall length. If you're 6 feet tall and want to see the whole speedometer, tilt the wheel to its top position, fold down the North American-spec driver's-only right-elbow armrest, and with your elbows out, you'll feel…

EXTRATERRESTRIALS and Amazonian natives weighing the merits of these seven cars absent any prejudice for automotive history, brand name cachet, resale value, and myriad other psychographic factors that influence luxedan purchases will find Hyundai's new flagship compelling. Its creamy-smoothV-8 produces the same 385 horses as the Jaguar from less displacement (there's less torque, too). Its interior volume matches the Mercedes-Benz S-Class'. It’s nearly as quiet as the Lexus. Its back seat reclines and provides remote controls for the climate, audio, front-passenger seat position, and sunshades—and our Equus test car was the base S58.900 Signature model. The 565,400 Ultimate variant is even more gilded. Hyundai sweetens the deal further, giving owners something to brag about at cocktail parties when the name fails to impress. "Oh, yeah? Well, does Mercedes-Benz come to…

BAD BOY genes must be migrating up the Lexus line from the IS-F, or down from the LFA. Mind you, they're as hidden as Lex Luthor's lairs, but don't let that staid facade of introverted Asian design fool you. Press the super-secret TRAC button on the console and this Sport-package-equipped short-wheelbase luxury liner will oblige the right foot with enough throttle oversteer to make your innocent drive up Mulholland Highway feel like Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya nailing a Touge run. With each successive generation of LS. the Sport package becomes less oxymoronic (try, try again, Hyundai!). Now it includes Brembo brakes, foiged 19-inch wheels, summer tires, sport suspension tuning, and quick, matched-rev shifting of the eight-speed automatic. All this helps it feel more athletic than its fifth-place numbers suggest. Neglect…

LEGIONS OF YOU will assert the fix was in. That the congenital BMWphilia that afflicts ah car-mag writers struck again. Or that our 740i's 14.0-cubic-foot trunk arrived filled with unmarked $20s. Quite the contrary. The senior Bimmer showed up as an underdog. Its twin-turbo V-8 750i sibling didn’t even make the finals in our 2010 Car of the Year competition, nor did its 550i stepbrother this year. In fact, when we began deliberations on the finishing order in this test, most expected the 740i to finish in the upper middle of the ranking because it didn't seem to excel at any one thing. Then we started discussing the priorities for this class of car. Spacious, comfortable seating? Front-seat room ranks second to the Hyundai’s, and rear space nearly matches it,…

IT’S TIME to dig out the torches and pitchforks. A Trail Rated Compass? Heresy! That's unfair, really, because the 2011 Jeep Compass is, well, pretty decent. As has been the trend recently. Jeep spent what little money it had on fixing the bits that needed it most. The first thing to go was the old mug. Where the styling of the original Compass was something of a caricature of Jeeps of old that exacerbated its lacking off-road credibility, the 2011 actually looks pretty good with its mini-Grand Cherokee face. Unfortunately, Jeep didn't make it much past the A-pillars, and the rest looks about the same, save new LED taillights. The maker didn't get far inside, either, where most of the Rubbermaid interior remains, augmented by new seat cloth and some…

IF YOU’VE followed the Legacy since it joined the Motor Trend long-term fleet, you may recall that at first, most of the comments were positive. Editors praised the ride/handling compromise, noting that the suspension absorbs ruts and irregularities, and that it handles well in turns. As time has passed, though, little flaws are becoming more noticeable. Copy chief Emiliana Sandoval found the navigation and satellite controls counterintuitive. “I drove to dance class from work and needed directions how to get home. I entered the address, then the nav asked me for a city, and 1 chose Show 5 Nearest Cities. It replied that there were no cities near me—while I was sitting in a parking lot in Santa Monica. So I tried to enter Los Angeles, and after the L,…

THE OUTLANDER GT is another value-minded crossover in the garage, this one with Evo-like personality and styling. It's also one of the very few vehicles on the market today with a tailgate that uses a flipdown bottom half-door, making it easy to load gear. But editors are not thrilled with the head unit. Why can't Mitsubishi use knobs? The buttons that are there don't seem well organized. In addition, the iPod system is unpredictable; sometimes it isn’t able to read the iPod, sometimes it takes 15-20 minutes to start playing music, and sometimes it works just fine after about a minute of "reading"—but when you get back in the vehicle after it has been shut off, the system has to start reading all over again. ■ Months/ml In service 11/19,310…

WHEN ASSOCIATE online editor Scott Evans got behind the wheel of the Kizashi for a trip to Laguna Seca, he was impressed. "The ride is comfortable and the interior is well isolated, especially for the price. Steering feel is pretty good and the brakes bite well. The shifter isn't my favorite; it's a bit ropey, and second gear is temperamental, but it's far from the worst I've driven. The quality of build, design, and materials all around is great considering the price tag. It's hard to believe this car costs only $24,000. A competitor would easily add several thousand dollars onto that. I'd love it if Suzuki would offer a real sport model with just a little more power. This is so close to being a legitimate compact sport sedan,…

IF GENERAL Motors had sold 10,000 Chevrolet Volts last year, the car would have bumped the automaker’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy number by 0.3 mpg. That’s a serious increase for a company that sold more than 2.1 million cars and light trucks in 2010. Why should you care? Because a higher CAFE number means GM could keep more high-horsepower, low-mpg performance cars in the mix. The 0.3-mpg boost is a back-of-the napkin estimate of the Volt’s effect on GM’s car CAFE number from an insider. Since its inception in calendar year 1980, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s CAFE estimates amount to a black art. It was never about selling X high-mileage cars to offset Y tow-mileage trucks, and each manufacturer has its own goal based on the 2016 total-fleet…

JAGUAR’S XF sports car and a new, small sedan are in the pipeline. "Jaguar should be able to generate the investment internally to make it a five-car company," says Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover’s parent Tata Motors. The five cars are the XJ sedan, XF (a wagon will be added for Europe, at least, this year), the XK sports car, a compact sports car in Porsche Boxster/Cayman price territory, and a small sedan. The 2013 sports car is front-engined, using both V-6 and turbocharged four-cylinder engines. Jaguar will eventually put a four-cylinder into even the XJ, Forster told Motor Trend. The four-pot is likely to be a version of the Ford Ecoboost, as used by the Land Rover Evoque, adapted for longitudinal installation. The V-6 will be derived…

THE ONLY thing “wrong” with the old Elantra, really, was that it was about as interesting to look at as a bar of soap. That didn't stop Hyundai from completely reworking the car, and the result is an impressive pole vault from forgettable to formidable. Where the old car was, shall we say, conservatively styled, the new Elantra pulls no punches. A liberal helping of Hyundai's new "scoopy and swoopy” bodywork, as one Hyundai employee put it, makes the Elantra unmistakable, while still drawing influence from and making a familial connection to the Tucson and Sonata. It may seem odd that the headlights nearly touch the A-pillars now, but like many individual styling elements, the whole car comes together nicely into a sort of shrink-wrapped Tucson, but better. In the…

ALTHOUGH MOST of the media have focused on the decontented $16,000 2.0-liter Jetta, Volkswagen expects to sell substantially more of the well-equipped 2.5-liter SE and SEL Sports. Our 2011 SEL Sport tester showed up loaded to the lederhosen with 17-inch wheels, Bluetooth, navigation, and iPod integration. Predictably, the sticker price reflected its bevy of standard equipment, coming in at a substantially higher $23,765. When launched just a few months ago, the new Jetta’s styling received a harsh reception from VW fans. This is becoming commonplace for VW as its style has wavered from decidedly German to generic, and now it's found middle ground for its big-volume small sedan. The 2011 Jetta was penned by Walter DeSilva, who is responsible for such recent standouts as the A5 and R8 and is…

ABSENT FOR 2010, the 2011 Quest hails from Kyushu, Japan, rather than Canton, Mississippi, and measures 200.8 inches long, 77.6 inches wide, and 71.5 inches tall, making it 0.6 inch longer than the Toyota Sienna, 1.1 inches narrower than the Chrysler Town & Country, and 3.1 inches taller than the Honda Odyssey. As is the case with many a V-6-powered Nissan, the Quest uses a CVT paired with a 3.5-liter VQ-series engine, tuned to 260 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque. For this 4485-pound hauler, that brawn equates to 0 to 60 in 8.3 seconds. The Nissan's second and third rows offer roomy dimensions and fold-flat capability, but they don't drop down into wells, as with the Chrysler's Sto'n Go second row and the others’ third rows. Thus, the Quest's…

THE EXISTENCE of the CTS-V Sport Wagon—a brazen, wonderful, and bewildering thing—is a miracle. A manual transmission? Yeah, we got that. Room for the wife, kids, and the groceries, too? You bet. This 556-horsepower Cadillac offers 58 cubic feet of cargo volume with the second row folded, 25 with it up. That’s smaller than a Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon, but the Caddy’s power means you can do the same journey twice in the time it takes the Benz to go once. Maybe three times, actually. Acceleration results suggest the Cadillac doesn't realize (or care) it's carrying 110 pounds more than the Coupe. Sixty mph arrives in 4.2 seconds. Five-and-a-half seconds later, you're doing 100 mph. At 114.4 mph, you pass a quarter mile, a distance that requires 12.5 seconds to travel.…

PRELUDE Any Australian can tell you where the Outback is. It’s out there, somewhere beyond the coastal fringe of the country where most of the population lives, beyond the chic cafe society of sophisticated cities like Sydney and Melbourne and Perth, beyond the green halo of productive farmland that surrounds them. But the Outback is more than just a place. It’s a state of mind. The first Europeans didn't settle in Australia until 1788, and their exploration of Australia’s dry, desolate heartland produced heroic tales of hope and courage, triumph and tragedy. I saw for myself how remote and challenging the outback was in the fuzzy black-and-white photos and faded Kodachromes my parents took when they drove a 1937 Dodge Coupe right across the country, from Adelaide on the south…

“YOU ALWAYS feel as if you’re in the best car here;1 said test director Kim Reynolds of driving the granite-hewn bank-vault S-Class, adding that it'd be his choice of these cars in which to slam into a wall. At $88,825, the S400 Hybrid wears the priciest base sticker in the group, and in fact an off-lease used S550 is the true price/performance competitor for our new BMW/Audi/Jaguar mainstreamers, so this mild hybrid is kind of in a class of its own. Most of what the Hyundai lacks, the Mercedes overflows with. Technical innovation? Benz invented the car 125 years ago and has pioneered countless now ubiquitous technologies on the S-Class (crumple zones, seatbelt pretensioners, electronic stability control). This one was among the first hybrids to use a lithium-ion battery. Credibility?…

AUDI’S LOW, wide, menacing A8 was the going-in favorite of many voters who had been smitten by its faultless interior and exterior aesthetics and its strong showing in our Car of the Year exercises. Indeed, it looks formidable on paper. With all four of the biggest footprints in this test clawing for traction, it came as no surprise that the A8 relished scrabbling up through our test route’s twisty Mulholland Highway switchbacks, putting the power down effectively with little or no electronic intervention. Our handling test results reflect this reality with a figure-eight lap time (25.8 seconds) and peak lateral grip (0.95 g) that are second only to the nimbler and 426-pound lighter Porsche. Boasting the widest gear-ratio spread and the shortest, most closely spaced lower ratios among the torque-converter…

IGNORE THE FOLLOWING advice if you listen to nothing but the chattering classes on talk radio 24/7: You must spring for the premium sound system. You'll get it for free in the value leader, Hyundai Equus Signature, which comes with a Lexicon 7.1 system standard. It’s very good, though in Harman Industries' hierarchy, Lexicon plays Buick to Mark Levinson's Cadillac, and sure enough, the Hyundai’s system doesn’t have the depth or complexity of the Lexus’ Levinson setup. The base Audi, BMW and Mercedes systems and the entry-level ($1440) Porsche/Bose system all delivered considerable medium-to-high-volume distortion. These lower-investment systems all sound muddy next to the premium-brand setups. Though I’m no audiophile, I come closest among staffers on this compare to acting like one, so I lent my 52-year-old ears to a…

SOON after the highly revised 2009 Subaru Forester arrived in 2008, it took top honors in our Frugal Five comparison. A few months later, we crowned it our 2009 Sport/Utitity of the Year. Last year, however, its luster began to wane. We again compared the Forester against other cute-utes, and it finished dead last. Why? In a nutshell, we were disappointed with its less than frugal powertrain, composed of a languid 170-horsepower, 25-liter flat-four and archaic four speed automatic Fast-forward two years, and a new, naturally aspirated flat-four cylinder motivates our top-tier 2.5X Touring, though it still has a four-speed auto. At 2498 cc (versus the older 2457 cc), the boxer is truer to its 25-liter-displacement designation. Bore shrinks and stroke grows, while compression increases to 105:1 (from 102:1) and…

WHILE NOT the most exciting vehicle, it's a good crossover alternative. Testing director Kim Reynolds logs, "This car's only problem is its design—specifically, exterior design. It's amazing that, when many manufacturers can only dream of building cars of Honda’s quality and excellence, Honda is struggling. For damn sake, Honda, hire designers!" The wagon that isn't a wagon went in for service at a little over 17,000 miles. The dealership changed the oil, drained and refilled the rear differential fluid, checked all major fluids, rotated the tires, and checked tire pressures. We'd noted a shimmy while braking; the techs determined the best thing to do was replace the front pads and resurface the rotors. ■ Months/ml In service 9/17,724 ■ Avg econ/CO2 20.9 mpg/0.93 lb/ml ■ Unresolved problems None ■ Maintenance…

DEFINITELY a great value for the money, the Tucson is replete with features like Bluetooth audio controls, satellite radio, and navigation included at its affordable $29,590 as-tested price (not bad for the topline model with all the goodies). Around town, there's plenty of power available, but some staffers are of the opinion the engine lacks the oomph needed to easily pass cutthroat drivers on California freeways, and the engine note sounds increasingly coarse above 60 mph. Seats are comfortable, and controls and features in the cabin are easy to use. Associate online editor Zach Gale logged that the Tucson's cousin, the Kia Sportage, has most of the same characteristics as the Hyundai, but they're wrapped in a more attractive package. ■ Months/mi in service 9/15,083 ■ Avg econ/CO2 21.5 mpg/0.90…

WHEN KIA initially developed the body-on-frame Borrego, it would have made perfect sense to see it in a comparison with the Ford Explorer, Jeep Commander, and Dodge Durango, as they all were three-row, truck-based sport/utilities. But by the time the Borrego entered production in 2008 as a 2009 model, crossovers were starting to take over the SUV market, and the Borrego was too late to the party. In fact, the Explorer and Durango are now crossovers, and the Commander and Borrego have been discontinued as the market shifts away from body-on-frame SUVs. We were impressed that Kia was dabbling in the truck-based vehicle arena, and spent more than a year testing every aspect of what the Borrego was built to do: provide transportation on-road for seven people; carry gear in…

ALAN Mulally insisted Ford resurrect the Taurus namplate, then turned the Explorer into a midsize crossover sport/utility. Can he, will he, name the sleek new Vertrek—an obvious hint for the 2013 Escape replacement—the Escape? The Vertrek concept, unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in January, goes on sale in early 2012 and is Escape in size and European Kuga in its use of Martin Smith’s sleek "kinetic design" language. Like the Focus and C-Max with which it will share its front-drive platform, the Vertrek’s profile features a "Zorro Flip" with converging Z-shaped accents between the front quarter-panel, the doors, and the rear quarter-panel. The hood’s center bulge, with its unusual cutout pattern just ahead of the windshield, is said to be production-ready, though the skylight-style glass roof panel…

CHARLES M. JORDAN was General Motors' fourth design chief, having served as the department’s vice president from 1986 to 1992. A longtime Ferrari owner and enthusiast, his legacy is better represented by what he did under the first two GM design chiefs, Harley Earl and Chuck Mitchell. Chuck Jordan designed the Aerotrain locomotive, the 1956 Buick Centurion Motorama concept, the Wide Track Pontiac, and the fin d'siecle 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. Jordan died December 9, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 83. The cause was lymphoma, his wife, Sally, told The New York Times. Born in Whittier, California, in 1927, Jordan began drawing cars and making scale models as a young boy. He entered the GM Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild model car competition while a sophomore studying…

THREE months after announcing a trio of supercars using a supercharged version of the Lexus-Yamaha V-8, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar says the company is looking at designing its own engine instead. “I believe that if you're selling a $160,000-plus sports car, not having your own engine is a disadvantage," he says. "So we're doing a feasibility study to see if we can do our own road-car engine. The Lexus engine is ready for the Esprit, the first of our new cars to launch, but we still have the choice." Lotus' engineering division certainly has the ability to do engines, and has done several high-profile ones for clients over the years. Bahar stressed that Lotus' overall investment budget in its five-model turnaround plan is fixed. The new engine can be funded…

OH COME, ye armchair engineers. Tell us that removing a stressed member as important as the roof is bad. Regale us with stories of chassis flex and cowl shake. We will listen. Then we will politely disagree and point to the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible as evidence. Counterintuitive though it may be to the number crunchers, cutting off the roof has made this Camaro a better car. Of course, Chevrolet didn’t simply Sawzall-off the roof and lack the Camaro to the showroom. If you'll recall, the original Camaro Convertible Concept debuted four years ago, a year to the day after the original Camaro Concept. A topless car was always in the cards, but then, so was bankruptcy. After multiple delays, sun worshipers will finally be able to buy Camaro Convertibles…

THE LIGHTS ARE back on and factory floors are buzzing. Hot metal is pouring out of car companies that are leaner, greener, and meaner than ever. We've driven many of their offerings, tested a few; and looked ahead to the next 18 months for the rest. What’s now? What’s next? It all starts right here… ACURA NSX The on-again, off-again, on-again saga of the NSX continues. You may recall Honda had been testing a V-8 powered, rear-drive prototype expected to be the NSX, but killed the project when the economy imploded. Now we hear from our man in Japan that the NSX is back on, but in a much greener, V-6-hybrid form with all-wheel drive, coming by 2014. Just build it, and keep it an Acura, please. mike floyd BUGATTI…

VEHMICLES LIKE the Audi Q7 TDI have done a lot to change the perception that diesel vehicles are crude, stinky, black-smoke spewers, and the company’s lone turbodiesel gets even better for 2011. When it comes to performance, the biggest difference is the use of an eight-speed automatic in place of last year’s six-speed. This new transmission provides seamless, smooth shifts. The TDI's engine remains unchanged from last year, and is still a pleasure to drive. Upon cold start, diesel noise is barely noticeable, and gets even quieter as the engine warms up. Thanks to the 406 pound-feet of torque at a low, low 1750 rpm, it takes very little throttle to accelerate or to pass in traffic. The brakes respond seemingly instantly to driver input. Steering is typical Audi: plenty…

BMWs RECENTLY have been plagued by the perception that the brand caters more to wealthy pretenders than real enthusiasts. Consider multi-adjustable electronic suspension settings that give the driver final chassis tuning duties, and a not-fully-cooked switch to electric power assisted steering systems. While BMW's EPAS still needs work, the brand is regaining our confidence with an unlikely model, the X3, which recaptures BMW's uncanny ability to combine sharp, sports car handling with supple, comfortable ride quality. You still can't tell engine size from model designation. The base X3 xDrive 28i has a naturally aspirated 240-horsepower, 3.0-liter six under the hood, while the xDrive 35i gets the twin-scroll 3.0-liter turbo six. BMW provided the turbo, with its wonderfully raspy note under full throttle, for our first drive and test. Its 0-60-mph…

ACCORDING TO Acura, 15 percent of TSX sedan “leavers”—customers who replace their TSX with something other than another TSX—shift to SUVs. So, as Acura sees it, there’s an opportunity to keep them in the TSX fold with a vehicle offering SUV-like versatility. To attract these leavers as well as other buyers looking for a greener alternative to the more fuel-thirsty crossover, Acura is introducing the 30-mpg-highway TSX wagon. Compared with the TSX sedan on which it's based, the wagon adds 3.6 inches of length and 1.2 inches of height, making it dimensionally larger than the Audi A4 Avant, BMW 328i Sport Wagon, and Volvo V50. With 60.5 cubic feet behind the front row and 25.8 aft the second, the TSX wagon delivers capacity on par with its competitors, and offers…

EACH IS IMBUDED WITH SUCH A UNIQUE CHARACTER AND PERSONALITY THAT OUR VOTERS ALL RANKED THEM DIFFERENTLY. ALL THESE WORDS are pecked out, the American economy is barely turning over with the slow wuhn-wuhn-wuhn of an 11-year-old DieHard after a three-week cold-soak at the Minneapolis airport. But last November, we threw a bunch of those 'hopey-changey' bums out, and the lame-duck 2010 Congress has set the trickledown wheels in motion by extending the Bush tax cuts for all. So surely by the time this is printed, our economic engine will be ticking over smoothly, and all you business owners and top-bracket investors who have been hoarding your cash will be spreading it around, right? We hear the extension saves you rich folks $103,835 per million of annual taxable income. What…

RIGHT-BRAIN thinkers may be excused for disregarding everything we write about the other six cars and simply rushing out and grabbing one of these, so strong is its emotional appeal—or repulsion. Reynolds loathes this car almost as much as some of us adore it. Jaguar offers a Babette’s feast for all the senses in this XJL. Every line, curve, and surface inside and out engages the eye as something fresh and new Love or hate the black C-pillars, nobody can ignore them. Ditto the gigantic chrome eyeball air vents and book-matched and mirror-matched matte-finish wood trim inside. The base V-8 serenades the ears with an old-money melody like that of a mahogany Chris-Craft inboard. Twin-needle-stitched leather covers practically everything that’s not chrome or wood inside, delighting the senses of touch…

A BIZ-ZET among limos. That's what this feels like, literally. The cockpit's intimidating rows of buttons lining the center and overhead consoles and its high-tech gauges appear equipped to control the Rolls BR710 jet engines of a Gulfstream G500 instead of a mere 300-horseV-6. Likewise the four firm, narrow bucket seats offer minimal adjustment and no shoulder support, but heighten the airy, intimate private-plane feel. Although the numbers look middling (at 13.1 pounds per pony, only the BMW and Mercedes horses pull more weight), that magical seven-speed PDK trans makes the most of all 295 pound-feet of twist. Its gear ratio spread ofl0.12is43 percent wider than the next-best Audi eight-speed’s, allowing a super-short first gear to compensate for the lack of a torque converter. No-loss twin-clutch shifting further contributes to…

IT’S A GOOD thing the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec doesn't need to go to the gas station often, because people will stare when you put that green diesel nozzle into your shiny new Benz, at least here in California, a land in which diesels almost went extinct in after 2001 due to emissions regulations. Would-be Good Samaritans might even inform you that you're about to put diesel into a car. Alternatively, you might run into diesel enthusiasts, who'll immediately want to interrogate you. To impress these fellas, start talking numbers. These numbers: The EPA rates the 850 Blue Tee at 22 mpg city and 33 mpg highway. In our lead-footed hands, over the course of a week and 871 .8 miles of mixed driving, the oil-burning Benz achieved an average…

DOES THE world need a better Cadillac Escalade? That's the question we'll ask ourselves for the next 12 months as we run around the country in our newest long termer, the 2011 Infiniti QX56. While the latest and largest from Infiniti didn't win our SUV of the Year calipers, it did well enough in the competition for us to hound Infiniti into giving us one for a year. In other words, we like it. But do we need it? Turn the dial back about 18 months to the days of $5/gallon gas here in Southern California, and the idea of a vehicle with an observed fuel economy of 122 mpg would have been obscene. But now, in 2011, with gas prices lower and stabilized, such figures register as only borderline…

THUS FAR, the subcompact addition to the Motor Trend long-term fleet has been a supersized hit. Despite the Mazda's miniscule footprint, even the tallest of staffers have had no problems fitting into this car, and even being comfortable while driving. The value is also impressive. As associate online editor Kirill Ougarov noted, 'It's well appointed, although it could use an armrest or two. I like the drivetrain. The small four-banger is nice and peppy while the five-speed manual is fun to play with. The steering and chassis are the sort we expect from Mazda, and this will surely be a fun one to blast through the twisties in, driving the wheels off the car while going at sane speeds. Can't wait to get more seat time in the 2." Associate…

WHEN STYLING comparisons are made between a vehicle and the Pontiac Aztek, that's trouble. Executive editor Edward Loh fantasized that, if the Aztek had survived for two more generations, the third-gen might have looked like the 5351 GT. He also found that the GT was easy to drive, but lacking some of the traditional BMW tightness, rigidity, and steering feel: "At least it drives well, right? Well, not so much. Prodding the chassis dynamic button to Sport+ doesn't do much to improve things, either. In fact, it appears to add a bit of graininess to the driving character—a raspier engine note and heavier steering, which conspire to make the car feel, well, crotchety." On the plus side, the sound system is excellent, as are the instrument and steering-wheel control upgrades.…

WITH THIS pint-sized city car, dubbed Flashback, Ford and Ghia—the famous design house and coachbuilder based in Turin, Italy—explored the concept of a premium luxury subcompact that packed in as many 1930s-and '40s-era design touches as its little body could hold. Note the formal grille, stand-up hood ornament, podded headlights, knockoff wire wheels, glass roof, side vents in the front fenders, hood louvers, and (not visible here) faux leather luggage straps on its bustled trunk panel. We can't imagine that this little guy would perform too well in rear-end crash testing. It appears to be just a two-seater, with an upholstered package shelf in back. There was no talk of powertrains or performance at the time of its reveal, as the goal was luxury and classic ethos crammed into a…