Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2012 i MotorTrend

AS THIS ISSUE goes to press, our video team is feverishly putting the final touches on a series of new shows set to air on Motor Trend’s newly relaunched YouTube channel. As you may know, in the last couple years we’ve made online video a top priority at Motor Trend, along with our tablet and mobile applications. This new joint venture with YouTube is both an acknowledgment of we’ve accomplished so far (150,000 channel subscribers and counting!) and an opportunity to reach even greater heights. To that end, we’ve invested heavily in our video team and have partnered up with several of the industry’s top auto, moto, and tuning publications, including Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, Lowrider, Super Street, 4Wheeler, Automobile, Car Craft, Dirt Rider, Import Tuner, Modified, and Super Street Bike.…

YOU’VE SEEN CONCEPT CARS BEFORE. They’re automakers’ one-off statements intended to capture the imagination, the results of design teams challenged to inspire their brands with just a single vehicle. Many concepts are an exhibited idea destined to never leave the show floor. Many more are used to prepare the buying public for a future cars’ styling or purpose. Pitched as a turbo four-cylinder all-wheel-drive sports car, the Kia Track’ster concept is very much like a child. As you’ve deduced from the photography, it’s based on the production Soul, the Korean automaker’s second-best-selling vehicle of 2011, with 102,267 sold. The seeds of the Track’ster’s life were first planted in late June 2011, culminating in its unveiling at the 2012 Chicago auto show in February. Its place of birth? The master-planned Southern…

With a hip new design team in place and a reported $1 billion pledged to ffx the ailing luxury brand, Ford is confident Lincoln’s slide can be reversed. In Detroit, Lincoln rolled out the MKZ Concept, a car Ford claims is the vanguard for the brand’s resurgence. It features a front grille inspired by the split-wing mug from the iconic 1938 Lincoln-Zephyr. Both the head- and full-width taillamps employ LED technology and slick chrome trim. The all-new Fusion platform underpins the MKZ Concept, supporting both front- and all-wheel-drive configurations, with an aluminum and boron steel body reducing weight and increasing strength. No word on powertrain configurations, but we can assume the production MKZ will mirror Fusion powertrain options. The Concept also makes use of Lincoln Drive Control, which touts a…

Three years after its introduction, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe receives a big refresh for 2013, highlighted by an all-new front fascia, new 18- and 19-inch wheels, LED taillamps, and available LED daytime running lamps. Under the reworked hood lies the biggest news: a standard 274-hp, 275-lb-ft 2.0-liter turbo I-4 or an available 348-hp, 295-lb-ft 3.8-liter V-6. The 2.0-liter benefits from a new twin-scroll turbocharger and larger intercooler, while the 3.8 gets direct injection. Both engines come with a standard six-speed manual, or, new for ’13, an optional eight-speed automatic. Fuel economy improves to 20-21 city/30-31 highway for the 2.0 and 18 city/27-28 highway for the 3.8. Not to be outdone by its rear-drive sibling, the Veloster Turbo adds some front-drive excitement to the lineup. As its name suggests, the forcefed…

“SLOW DOWN, JONNY. I can’t keep up with you.” So said Scott Evans to moi as we raced around a corner. One of us was in a 2012 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Coupe; the other behind the wheel of a 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S. Well, perhaps the word “raced” is a bit of macho hyperbole, because when I looked down, all I saw was 42 mph on the speedo. I mention this not to poke fun at Scott. He basically grew up on Laguna Seca and is a much better driver than I. No, I mention that Mr. Evans couldn’t keep up with the car I was driving to illustrate the difference between the red car and the yellow one. The inclement weather—rain and snow—had turned our idyllic California…

Built in 1975, Prototipo Nardo Technical Center, or the Nardo Ring, is the epicenter of high-speed research and development, 363 days per year. Taking its name from the nearby seaside town, Nardo contains a variety of vehicle dynamics testing areas, including a near-perfect 7.9-mile circle track, the largest in Europe. When I visited, Audi sedans lapped alongside Ducatis. An eerily silent Porsche 918 prototype clad in an ill-fitting Carrera GT fascia and a 991 rear bumper putted around the pits. Ferrari’s 599 replacement, ominous in black camouflage, shrieked its way around the circle track. While we were unable to try a top-speed run (Lamborghini understandably has strict rules about letting jet-lagged journalists drive $400,000 cars to Vmax), we did sample the larger of the two road courses. Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini’s…

“Who buys these things?” This question keeps rattling around the press launch of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz ML63. No rational person can make an argument for buying a 525-hp SUV. The fact that AMG offers a performance package that bumps the power up to 557 hp makes me believe there aren’t a lot of rational people responsible for building them, either. Have we mentioned we love AMG? The refreshed 2012 ML put in a strong showing at Motor Trend’s SUV of the Year. Judges loved the smooth ride and quiet, composed cruising of both the diesel and gas versions of the midsize SUV. The AMG-tuned version has many of the same qualities, with the performance muscle of a sports sedan. The AMG Speedshift 7G-Tronic transmission has tall gearing and is always…

THE 2012 Hyundai Equus Ultimate is a reasonably executed flagship luxury sedan—but should anyone care? Flagship luxury and sound financial sense just don’t go together, and that’s what makes this car tough to review. In terms of price, the $66,650 Equus Ultimate—the more expensive of two trims—competes with midsize luxury sedans, but no one will cross-shop those vehicles. That leaves the Equus up against the Lexus LS 460 and Mercedes-Benz S550, vehicles that, even in their old age, can stifle the Equus’ rational luxury arguments on a price-independent level. Hyundai’s first attempt at improving the Equus starts with the new 5.0-liter direct-injection V-8 producing 429 hp and 376 lb-ft of torque. It’s mated to an eight-speed automatic (the 2011 Equus employed a six-speed automatic and a 385-hp, 4.6-liter V-8) that…

ACURA BROUGHT us a wagon variant of its strapping TSX sedan. It's a great alternative to similarly priced crossovers, yet delivers more handling and performance than bulkier rigs. Acura has aimed the Sport Wagon at Gen X buyers who are slightly older than TSX sedan owners with young families. The car is stuffed with such conveniences as a power-actuated tailgate that can be electronically operated with the key fob, a button on the driver’s door panel, or a button mounted on the bottom edge of the tailgate. All three options are handy when your hands are filled with a Starbucks cups or bags from an REI sale. ■ Months/mi in service 11/20,737 ■ Avg econ/CO2 25.0 mpg/0.78 lb/mi ■ Energy cons 135 kW-hr/100 mi ■ Unresolved problems None ■ Maintenance…

FOR ME, an emotional connection with a car is critical, especially if you intend to keep a car for many years. With the Outlander Sport, I haven’t quite made that bond between man and car. The Outlander isn’t a bad vehicle, and it does a lot of things well. However, during a recent road trip from Hermosa Beach south along Pacific Coast Highway, after about 80 miles I came to the conclusion that this was pretty much an uninvolving experience. On this trip, I had a little taste of the straights and a few twisty roads with some town driving, and with all that I was emotionally flat-lining with the Mitsubishi. It doesn’t feel special. I think the overwhelming negative is the noisy, underpowered engine. It really does affect how…

AS YOU’VE NO doubt surmised by now, the Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon ain’t exactly your typical long-term tester. I even told our photographers, “I don’t want any healthy-looking Abercrombie & Fitch model-wannabes loading a kayak into the hatch or anything like that. Don’t shoot this near a mountain or a stream. I want it shot at either bars or fireworks factories.” The CTS-V Wagon is not just straight-line fast. She’s a dancer, too, as I learned when we used the evil black Caddy to lay down a route for the Targa Trophy. What’s the Targa Trophy? It’s a lifestyle driving event where fabulous people in hot cars descend on a location to do some fast grand touring and canyon-carving before partying their well-tanned butts off at a posh hotel. Think…

LO AND BEHOLD, our Volt has passed the 25,000-mile mark without a single battery fire—not even a tiny whiff of smoke. No doubt you’ve heard about NHTSA testing incidents that resulted in battery fires, and we’re waiting to hear from GM about bringing our car in for its precautionary updates. Meanwhile, NHTSA has dropped the issue, and declared the car safe after all. Per NHTSA: “Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.” The NHTSA has just presented a remarkably frank and thorough final report on the whole episode; there are even pictures of the original fire scene and the specific damage done to the battery. For a government report, it’s interesting stuff.…

HYUNDAI CONTINUES to set sales records virtually every month, and last year it sold 186,361 Elantras, fourth among compacts in the U.S. The Elantra beat the VW Jetta and Ford Focus, but sales lagged behind Toyota Corolla, Chevy Cruze, and Honda Civic, even though Japanese and Thai natural disasters caused parts shortages for the Toyota and Honda. Civic outsold Elantra by 34,874 units last year, even with the inventory shortages, and Honda sold about 35,400 Civic coupes last year. In a normal year, coupe sales would account for 60,000 to 75,000. So Hyundai is entering the compact coupe market with a two-door version of its “Fluidic Sculpture” Elantra sedan it unveiled last year, and is replacing the old Elantra Touring wagon with a four-door hatchback, called Elantra GT. The Elantra…

LAW ENFORCEMENT cannot attach a Global Positioning System tracking device to a privately owned car without a search warrant, the United States Supreme Court has ruled. In a 1-9 ruling on United States v. Jones, the Court upheld a District of Columbia Circuit Court, which overturned the conviction of the owner of a Washington nightclub on drug charges. A joint FBI-D.C. police task force tracked Antoine Jones for 70 days in 7994, by attaching a GPS device to his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Police were granted a search warrant set to expire in 69 days, but agents attached a device on the 66th day, and not in D.C., but in Maryland. The District Court suppressed GPS data collected while the Jeep was parked at Jones’ residence, but convicted Jones, saying he…

Help Wanted I’ve seen and read a good many things in your magazine that have made me take pause, be it to laugh over a funny article or stew over a “best of” decision. This is the first time I’ve been compelled to write—over a reader-submitted letter, no less. In your January 2012 issue, a reader wrote in to complain about your using the word “freakin’” in an article. His diatribe on the word and its origins immediately made me picture an 80-year-old man standing in the middle of his yard, holding a streaming garden hose in one hand and shaking his fist at a young punk driving the Mustang described in the article he referenced. I would ask that you please hire this individual immediately, so that he may…

ACURA’S 1991 NSX put an end to the era when sexy supercars could be unreliable, ill-handling, ergonomic disasters. The all-aluminum mid-engine marvel delivered laser-sharp handling and high-revving acceleration suffused with Japanese quality, while advancing the state of the production-car art with firsts like four-channel ABS, titanium con-rods, and electric power steering. Since NSX production ended in 2005, the world has eagerly awaited its replacement. A front-engine V-10 layout was proposed and developed by Acura Design as the Advanced Sports Car Concept. Everyone involved agreed that it was cool, but it wasn’t an NSX. So the next NSX, expected by 2015, will employ a mid-mounted V-6, complete with titanium connecting rods coupled to a wet twin-clutch seven-speed transmission and hybridized with an electric motor driving the rear wheels. Two more electric…

Meet the LF-LC Concept, which, by the very dint of its long hood, short deck, and low stance registers as sexy—proportionally, the LF-LC ticks all the right boxes. According to the folks at Calty who designed the concept, the LF-LC was inspired by a leaf. I think what they’re trying to say is that, from a distance, the car’s shape is smooth and flowing, yet up close, hidden complexities come to light. It looks like a future-think version of the LFA. It’s easy to spot where the otherwise uniform shape “branches” out into pockets of flair. Take the slim-fft tailoring on the chainmail grille. Or the dimpled metal below the triple-projector beam headlamps. The word “Hybrid” appears on the LF-LC’s sill, so it’s safe to say a production version would…

About the only Fusion variants not covered during Ford’s gala debut at the 2012 Detroit auto show were the ones we’re probably not getting in the U.S.: the wagon and the hatch. A high-performance ST is a long shot, too, but it has the best chance of making it stateside. Since the wagon has about a zero chance, we'll start with the hatch, which is Ford’s possible take on the “four-door coupe” concept, a la the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class and Audi A7. The sloping, coupelike roof would strike a balance between style and rear-seat headroom, and would likely hide a large hatch encompassing the trunklid and rear window, like the A7. With this styling trend showing up on everything from the CLS to the Hyundai Sonata, we’d say there’s an outside…

Following the clearest trend in the market today, the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder is becoming less rugged and more regal. Its hard, blocky styling has been smoothed and caressed to be more attractive and aerodynamic. Beneath the skin, it’s switched back from body-on-frame to unibody construction using Nissan’s D-Platform, which underpins the Murano, Quest, and Maxima, and saves 500 pounds in curb weight. More to the point, it also underpins the new Infiniti JX35, the Pathfinder’s luxury twin. Like the JX, the Pathfinder will launch with one engine and one transmission option, a 3.5-liter V-6 expected to produce 265 hp and 248 lb-ft of torque. It will power Nissan’s next-generation continuously variable transmission and a front-drive-based intelligent all-wheel-drive system. The system has three modes: intelligent all-wheel drive, where power is constantly…

STEVE JOBS ONCE SAID, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” The Porsche 911 predates this pearl of wisdom by several decades, but it’s a perfect example. Every three to five years, the engineers in Weissach show people what they didn’t know they wanted by “ruining” the then-greatest 911 ever. Lengthened wheelbase, semi-automatic transmissions, water-cooling—customers didn’t ask for or want any of these things, yet in hindsight every change has improved the car. The tension between Porsche and its devotees is at its highest point in the ongoing ebb and flow. The 991, at least by Porsche standards, is a radical departure from the outgoing 997. To the outsider, things like a new center console, electric power steering, and moving the engine forward may seem…

POP QUIZ: Name the rarest model Mercedes-Benz sells. I’m thinking most of you hotshots will have answered SLS AMG Gullwing. Nope. A few of you might think it’s one of the V-12-powered CL coupes, as Mercedes-Benz makes two, the CL600 and CL65 AMG. You’d be wrong. What about that new Black Series Coupe? Well, AMG is going build only around 1000 of those over the next year, which is about twice the number of E63 AMG Wagons to be constructed over the entire production run. We are talking exclusive—Mercedes-speak for rare. But is this wagon actually exclusive, or just a slow seller? Remember, Mercedes is in the process of “sunsetting” Maybach, not euthanizing it. As far as this wagon goes, you can’t even walk into a dealer to buy one.…

ONCE UPON A TIME, not all that long ago, if you were in the market for a small, five-door economy hatchback, you were swimming in cheap-infested waters. Automakers seemed to think of the buyers of small, inexpensive cars as nothing more than an inconvenience, a market that had to be pacified through the cheapest means possible. Well, no longer. Today’s economy car market has grown by leaps and bounds, especially in the past five years. The Honda Fit had something to do with that, showing consumers and other automakers that an economy car need not be a penalty box. Predictably, the Fit achieved meteoric sales, and the rest of the industry was forced to catch up. Today, the Fit is several years into its second iteration, and the industry is,…

HONDA CIVICS, especially the performance Si versions, have always found fans in the Motor Trend offices. The mix of sport-tuned suspension, light curb weight, slick six-speed manual transmission, and a high-revving four-banger has been a welcome alternative to the Civic’s comparatively wheezy forced-induction engine competitors. However, what the Civic has always lacked in comparison with its turbocharged peers is a praiseworthy torque figure. For the 2012 model year, Honda has tried—maybe to the detriment of the Civic’s soul—to rectify the situation with the introduction of the larger, less-willing-to-rev 2.4-liter engine. To see if Honda bettered its baby, we recently took delivery of a shiny new Si sedan long-termer. Standard equipment for all Civic Sis are 17x7.0-inch alloy wheels, body-color rear spoiler, chrome exhaust tip, LED center brake light, and a…

MY PREVIOUS long-termer was the Mazda2, so sliding into our fleet’s stylish little Italian subcompact should have been like switching from a grocery store Red Delicious apple to a perfectly dappled Pink Lady from Whole Foods—a step up. But while I’m wowed by the 500’s cute looks, I don’t yet love the car to its core. The 500 is a delightful Pistachio Green, one of 14—yes, 14—available exterior paint colors, and the soothing hue is carried through on the two-tone dashboard. The clean interior design manages to be both retro and modern, and, aside from the seat position, ergonomics are good. As for overall vehicle quality, so far, so good. The car’s small size is a plus and a minus. It’s easy to fit into tight parking spots, but cargo…

OVER THE seven months and 18,000 miles I’ve spent with my Quest LE, I’ve grown to love all its pros (easy ingress, great cargo flexibility, and blind-spot monitor) and excuse its few cons (OK fuel economy, big doors low to the curb, and slow turn-in). But for a recent road trip, I decided to pass on my Quest and spend time in our long-term Honda Odyssey Touring Elite, to see how the two compare. Head-to-head foes, the $44,030 Odyssey TE costs a smidge more than my $43,790 Quest LE, but offers similar features. The main differences are the top-spec Odyssey uses a six-speed automatic (to the Quest’s CVT) and, well, it looks a whole lot different. ■ Months/mi in service 7/17,391 ■ Avg econ/CO2 20.5 mpg/0.95 lb/mi ■ Energy cons…

RAINFALL IN Los Angeles is rare. Heavy downpour is even more rare. So when one of L.A.’s storms passes through, drenching the city’s oil-stained highways and byways, I’m always happy to be piloting our Juke SV with all-wheel drive. Nissan’s AWD system is one big reason why the Juke has been such a huge success in regions like Russia and Europe, where city-dwelling drivers face inclement weather on a regular basis. Buyers are attracted to the Nissan’s smallness, fuel efficiency, and, unlike the Fiat 500 or Mini Cooper, its uncanny surefootedness when roads turn into mini-rivers. Aside from the GT-R supercar with its ATTESA ET-S system, the Juke is the only North American model that has its intuitive torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system mated to a turbocharged powerplant. This setup can send…

AFTER MUCH INDECISION, Volkswagen has elected to replace the Phaeton, a senior marketer tells Motor Trend. But that’s still about three years away. “There will be a show car first, then we will build it,” our source says, “when Hackenberg and Winterkorn retire. The car will be their legacy.” Martin Winterkorn, VW Group CEO, has had his contract extended to 2016, and Ulrich Hackenberg, VW product development chief, will be 65 in 2015. Our source admits VW didn’t intend to replace the Phaeton, but the burgeoning car market may be its savior. “The new one will have the same positioning: a straightforward sedan for the person who’s successful but doesn’t feel the need to show it. Volkswagen doesn’t change course between generations of a car. It’s always easier to keep…

To help revive its stock price, Cadillac has put the coupe version of the ATS sedan on hold. GM worries variable costs of building a coupe version of the ATS sedan won’t pay off in added volume. Most coupes are fashion statements, and don’t sell well compared with their four-door sedan counterparts. The ATS revealed at the Detroit auto show will compete with the BMW 6 Series, Mercedes C-Class, and Audi A3, each of which has a two-door, a convertible, and a wagon version. GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson has said he wants Cadillac to regain its title as Standard of the World, and part of his strategy is to make the brand a viable competitor in Western Europe. Cadillac can’t do that without a full range of ATS…

VOLKSWAGEN AG is trying to wrap up its three-year effort to “merge” with Porsche SE, the holding company Porsche established in 2008 in order to try to buy VW. Volkswagen already owns 31.4 percent of Porsche’s automaking business and apparently will take over the rest of it without completing the merger with the SE. Lawsuits in Germany and the U.S. scuttled plans for a full merger by the end of last year. If VW sets up a holding company to temporarily take control of the Porsche automaking unit, it will avoid having to pay the equivalent of $1.3 billion in taxes, Der Spiegel reports. ELECTRIC-powered cars such as the Chevrolet Volt pose no greater risk of fire than cars powered primarily by internal combustion gasoline engines, the National Highway Traffic…

Strip away garish bits like the chrome foglight surrounds and 20-inch wheels, and what's left is a decidedly evolutionary reboot of the Accord coupe, but fear not—substantial differences lie just beneath the skin. The volume-selling Accord now comes with an all-new direct-injected 2.4-liter, 16-valve, DOHC inline-four that comes paired to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Output is claimed to be more than 181 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque. Honda's venerable 3.5-liter 24-valve SOHC VTEC V-6 has been reengineered for more power and torque and better fuel economy. It mates to Accord's first-ever six-speed automatic transmission, and has features like Variable Cylinder Management and an Eco drive mode that should help it beat the outgoing model's EPA estimated 20 city and 30 highway mpg. The biggest news is the all-new…

While edgy and fast-looking, the Tru 140S concept, which debuted in Detroit alongside the Code 130R, excites us a bit less than its rear-drive counterpart. Why? Because Honda, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Chrysler, Volkswagen—just about any automaker with a front-drive C-segment platform in its product portfolio—could develop a swoopy two-door like the 140S. But there aren’t many that could build an affordable, sporty rear-drive coupe like the 130R. They simply don’t have the hardware. That said, we do like the 140S for its 150 hp, 40-mpg highway, room for four, projected sub- $20,000 price tag, and sleek, cab-forward design that hints at the next-gen Cruze. Here’s an idea, Chevy: Build ’em both.…

The Toyota NS4 concept is Toyota’s vision of the plug-in hybrid sedan circa 2015, with emphasis on four core values: safety, environmental impact, connectivity, and design. That last one impresses us most. The NS4 is the best-looking Toyota sedan we’ve seen in some time, and we’re told many of its cues will find their way onto the next Camry. Powered by the next-generation of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive, the NS4 boasts smaller and lighter components, improved fuel economy, better acceleration, longer all-electric range, and a shorter charge time, but does not adapt a Volt-style drive system. Connectivity is said to be elevated to a higher level, with a user interface that includes a multitouch screen that looks and feels like a smartphone. Other interesting features include doors that swing up…

Although the Dart has just been released to great acclaim, you know Ralph Gilles and his SRT team are already honing a fine tip on the SRT4 performance variant. Here’s what you can expect: The base Dart borrows heavily from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta platform, so expect an upgraded version of the Giulietta Cloverleaf’s dual-clutch, six-speed transmission to find its way into the Dart SRT4. The Cloverleaf’s 1.7-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder probably won’t come with it, as it makes only 230 hp. The Dart SRT4 needs to aim higher, since by summer, Ford’s Focus ST will hit the streets with a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder making at least 247 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque. The last-generation Caliber SRT4 made 285 hp and 265 lb-ft from a turbo 2.4-liter, so for the…

Acura’s compact crossover is going mainstream. When the first-gen RDX debuted for 2007, we called it “the Evo of crossovers,” what with its turbo four-cylinder and so-called super-handling all-wheel drive. The second-gen RDX you see here drops the force-fed 240-hp, 2.3-liter I-4, five-speed automatic, and SH-AWD in favor of a 273-hp, 3.5-liter V-6, six-speed auto, and a lighter AWD system. Launching about the time you read this, the 2013 RDX gets up to 20/28 mpg city/highway fuel economy (2WD), which puts it above the outgoing model’s 19/24, a feat partly attributable to a weight loss of up to 104 pounds. Despite the weight loss, the RDX has grown 1.0 inch in length, 0.1 inch in width, and 1.4 inches in wheelbase but stands lower by an inch. For improved ride…

THE STAGE IS the Nardo Ring, and the star is the Lamborghini Aventador, an impossibly bright neon sign marking new territory in the land of supercar extravagance. Its performance? Extraordinary. At 2.8 seconds to 60 mph and 10.6 seconds to the quarter mile, it’s the second-quickest production car we’ve ever tested, mere tenths off the once unmatchable pace of the Bugatti Veyron. But more impressive is how easily reached the Aventador’s capabilities are; this may be the friendliest mid-engine V-12 supercar in the world. Not that Lamborghini has forsaken its roots. In traditional form, the all-wheel-drive Aventador is named after a bull and styled like a fighter jet. Its centerpiece (mid-piece?) short-stroke 6.5-liter V-12 makes 691 hp at 8250 rpm and 509 lb-ft of torque at 5500 rpm. It features…

Print subscribers can now download Motor Trend magazine iPad issues FREE! If you are a current subscriber to the print edition of Motor Trend, the iPad iMag experience can be downloaded FREE of charge! Simply go to the iTunes store and find the Motor Trend interactive app. If you already have the app, you’re almost there. Launch the app on your iPad, tap the Existing Print Subscriber button and enter your subscription account information. Once your information is validated, you’ll be able to enjoy all the great stories, photos, videos, and more from the award-winning team at Motor Trend. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. ©2011…

EXECUTIVE editor Ron Kiino and I were staring at the 2013 Lexus GS 350 F Sport’s snarling “spindle grille” snout prior to its test session, and, after a silence, he said in a baritone voice: “Luke”—followed by a heaving exhalation—“I am your father.” That sizzling sound you hear is the F Sport/Lord Vader association being branded on my brain. Whatever else I might say about this car—its recalibrated 3.5-liter engine offers better mileage; its suspension has been completely overhauled; and there’s available active rear steering, adjustable shocks, and 0.91 g of grip—it’s all overshadowed by that menacing mug. Why didn’t its grille remind Ron of elegantly folded origami? The problem is that, when a car starts out with a Darth Vader face, what follows it better be able to swing…

I TOOK THE Odyssey on a trip up to the San Francisco Bay area for the holidays, and was pleasantly surprised how much we got out of one tank of fuel. Most trip meter readings in our logbook are in the mid-to-high 300s, but I wanted to test the range of the tank. After cruising for a few hundred miles at about 70 mph, the instant fuel-economy readout gave us 29.9 mpg, so our chances were good. With an EPA fuel-economy rating of 28 mpg on the freeway (19 mpg in town), and a 21-gallon tank, the Odyssey could get as many as 588 miles to a tank of fuel. I watched as the trip meter counted into the high 400s. At the very least, I hoped to break the…

OUR SORENTO has real-time traffic data available within the navigation system. Every day, I pull out of the Motor Trend World Headquarters and Global Command Center to a screen full of red lines tracing my freeway path home. For the uninitiated, red equates to an average speed lower than walking. If I set the nav for my home address, it wants to steer me straight into the heart of the traffic storm. Most navigation systems have a projected time of arrival, as does the Sorento’s. It is, however, wildly inaccurate. At one point, although the previous several miles averaged 10 minutes each, it maintained its glorious optimism and projected that I would cover the final 18 miles in a scant 20 minutes. ■ Months/mi in service 7/13,363 ■ Avg econ/CO2…

IT’S NO SECRET that Volvo doesn’t sell a ton of S60s (compared with, say, the number of 3 Series BMW shifts), but still, I tend to see another one on the road at least once every few days in Los Angeles. More interesting, I’ve been noticing more and more drivers of less interesting vehicles taking note of my Flamenco Red Metallic Volvo as I make my way through our congested city streets. Often, interested faces are scrunched, eyebrows furrowed and eyelids squinting, to catch a glimpse of the trunklid badge and a possible indication of what this car might be. Others seem completely enchanted by the S60's sculpted sheetmetal, gawking, mouth agape, as if their idea of what a sedan has to look like has just been shattered. Sometimes I’ll…