Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2008 i MotorTrend

Try Our New Online Buyer’s Guide So far, 2008 is turning out to be a major bummer for U.S. automakers and consumers alike. But if you happen to be in the market for a new car, we can help. Once you’ve flipped through our Buyer’s Guide and picked your new ride, click your way over to our redesigned New Cars section of motortrend.com at motortrend.com/new_cars, where you can research vehicles and get a new car quote through our easy-to-navigate five-step process. The New Cars section has all the tools you’ll need to help you get into the car you’re looking for.…

THE REMAINS of Ford’s tuner group, SVT, plans the anticipated Fusion GT for release in late 2009 or early 2010. The Fusion GT will be the fourth in the Ford Motor Company lineup, after Lincoln MKS, Ford Flex, and Lincoln MKR (the Enclave-fighting Flex) to get an EcoBoost gas direct-injection, turbo engine. EcoBoost is designed primarily to “downsize” engines—that is, GDI turbo fours in place of V-6s, GDI turbo V-6s where there would normally be V-8s. The Fusion GT’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 will make about 340 horsepower, about the same as the coming MKS turbo, but well below the engine’s 415-horse capabilities. To handle a prodigious torque number, the Fusion GT will be equipped with a Haldex part-time AWD differential. The target is to make the car an affordable Audi…

YES, DEADHEADS, there is an MkII New Beetle. It’s being developed on the sixth-generation Golf platform and may appear as a 2011 model. And Volkswagen’s strategy for the iconic retromobile may extend even to adapting the Beetle’s distinctive style to a North American version of the Up! minicar. First, Volkswagen of America has confirmed it will import a version of the sixth-generation Golf. We’ll have two models. The “base” Golf becomes the Golf GT, indicating VW plans to go upmarket again and get out of the $15,000 entry-car business here, at least for models imported from Europe. VW also will import the MkVI GTI, with both versions headed here about 2010. The new New Beetle will come off that platform, in the 2010, or more likely, the 2011 calendar year…

“I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THIS IS AN IDEA THE PERFORMANCE ENGINEERS AT FORD, GM, OR CHRYSLER SHOULD LICENSE AND DEVELOP.” WHY CAN’T a car tell you exactly how much power and torque it’s making in real time? Those of us who’ve been around cars and test equipment forever shrug and respond, “because that sort of thing requires giant stationary roller drums and megabuck machinery.” But 16-year-old Taylor Blackwood of Germantown, Tennessee, was unsatisfied with that line of adult reasoning. He wanted to quantify the power bump he was getting from each modification made to his Mustang GT without schlepping down to a speed shop and renting pricey dynamometer time and risking potential variability from one dyno or operator to another. He reckoned there had to be a way to…

REMEMBER that Mitsubishi SUV commercial where the guy working out in the gym leaves his lights on in the parking lot, and he’s embarrassed when he’s paged as the owner of a minivan? Well, who’s embarrassed now? Crossovers don’t have to apologize for being more glorified minivan and less soft off-roader. If you need minivan versatility and space but don’t want to get that page at the gym, or get caught at the local gas ’n’ milk minimart with $100-plus weekly refills, the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse could be the ticket. No need to spring for all-wheel drive in this“value-priced” Saturn Outlook/GMC Acadia/Buick Enclave sibling. You’re not going camping or off-roading this weekend. Its interior capacity is about carrying half a high school soccer team or the proverbial Home Depot load…

WHO REALLY NEEDS A V-6 OR V-8 ENGINE? UPON INITIAL review, Volkswagen’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Just as gas is approaching a Lincoln per gallon, the German brand introduces the Tiguan, its first compact crossover in the U.S. and one with a miserly 2.0-liter engine that achieves combined fuel economy of up to 21 mpg. Prospective buyers of mid- and full-size sport/utilities, who know deep down that a smaller vehicle will suffice, are taking notice. In its first month of sale, for instance, the Tiguan enticed 179 more buyers than did its larger, thirstier sibling, the Touareg. And with no end in sight for the rise of fuel costs, the discrepancy is bound to become more severe. After all, who really needs aV-6 orV-8 engine, certainly when a…

SURELY MAKE you lose your mind, no? Well, assuming that a year with Lexus’s new bad-boy would give us the answer, we ordered one for our long-term fleet. Plus, as the first Lexus production car to wear the“F” badge—a designation that will adorn future high-performance Lexi aimed at Audi’s S, BMW’s M, and Mercedes-Benz’s AMG models—the IS F, with its exclusive powertrain and chassis, seemed an ideal candidate for a year of flogging. We say flogging because, with a 416-horse, 5.0-liter V-8, an eight-speed auto that can shift gears in as little as 0.1 second, and a sport-tuned suspension, the IS F won’t be driven like any other Lexus. The F’s 2UR-GSE engine, based on the LS 600h L’s 2UR-FSE V-8, utilizes unique aluminum cylinder heads (from Yamaha) as well…

WITH THE Formula season in full bloom (traction control out, FIA sex scandal in), it bears unfortunate mention that the sport is, once again, without an American pilot. Colin Chapman’s revolutionary Lotus 79, resplendent in black-and-gold JPS livery, is one of the most important cogs in the wheel of motorsport innovation history, as it made the notion of “ground effects" really work and translate to race wins. Mario Andretti nearly won the championship in 1977 and came into the 1978 season determined. The new Lotus was runaway fast, also thanks to its Cosworth V-8 engine, by then a proven power source for more than a decade. In the end, it came down to Andretti and mega-talented Ronnie Peterson for the title. It was a bittersweet achievement for Mario, who won…

“MOTOWN’S LONG BEEN A BOOM-AND-BUST TOWN, BUT THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT” IT’S BEEN decades since Detroit was the car capital of the world. Instead, it’s become the world’s truck capital. Motown’s made millions of ’em, growing fat and happy on the juicy profit margins afforded by selling simple, low-tech pickups and SUVs to folks who never really used them the way they were designed to be used. As a result, the U.S. auto industry—and by that, I mean the combined engineering, design, and manufacturing capability of the Big Three here in America—quietly drove itself down a dead-end road to global irrelevance. How did that happen? Thirty years of CAFE and cheap gas, that’s how. Let me explain. The first go ‘round of CAFE in the 1970s meant American cars, which…

WHO WANTS to buy Hummer? Hot rumor at press time is that India’s Mahindra & Mahindra is looking at General Motors’ militaristic SUV division. No doubt, GM chairman Rick Wagoner is thinking about private equity or well-heeled and well-oiled investors like Aston Martin’s current owners as possible buyers. In announcing that GM is conducting a “strategic review of the Hummer brand,” Wagoner says it could include “a complete revamp of the product lineup to a partial or complete sale of the brand.” Wagoner deserves credit for making a decision to do something about this albatross, which GM established about a decade ago under the short sighted leadership of Ron Zarrella, who more recently has been blamed for running Bausch & Lomb into the ground. Three questions facing GM right now…

READERS of motortrend.com have been begging for importation of the Ford Mondeo for about a year. That car wasn’t protected for U.S. standards and, anyway, the Mondeo sells for about 50 percent more in the European market than it would sell for here in the United States. Nevertheless, the Mondeo EUCD platform and the Fusion CD1 platform converge in time for an all-new 2012 U.S. Fusion. The convergence will result in a variable-size platform, making the Fusion-Mondeo relationship similar to the American Honda Accord-European Accord (Acura TSX), or the new U.S. Mazda6 versus the smaller, European version. Meanwhile, the Fusion gets a facelift (pictured) for 2010.…

AMERICAN enthusiasts may be anticipating this car, but the fact is it’s planned mostly for Cadillac’s assault on Mercedes, BMW, and Audi in Europe. Rumor is GM plans to build only 10,000 to 12,000 per year of the CTS wagon, which will use the 3.6-liter direct gas-injection V-6 here, but also the 2.8-liter V-6 and 2.9-liter turbodiesel in Europe. With total volume that low, the U.S. is likely to get Saab 9-3 Sport Combi volumes, about 3000 to 4000 per year. It will probably launch shortly after the CTS Coupe’s late 2009 debut.…

thinking aloud Is it just me, or… …Is Pontiac about to make another mistake in the form of the G8 ST? (Aztec syndrome, anyone?) …Is Saab on steroids? …Can it be the GT-R is a visual letdown? (Mr. Ricer, please don’t shoot me!) …Do I need help? This Ford girl wants a 2010 Camaro. …Is Audi really gonna stuff a V-10 into the R8? …Are four doors allowed to look that good? (Rapide fire on the AM!) …Can Ford really have another Fiesta? …Is Maser sneaking up on Ferrari? …Do baby ‘utes keep getting uglier? …Isn’t it about time they make a hybrid I can afford? …Can Mercedes legally make the C230 any sexier? Jessica Huff Via the Internet It can! By making it the C300/C350, the current configuration, as…

“WE STOPPED bringing Mustangs on our development rides because they were so far behind us in our rearview mirror,” says Al Oppenheiser, GM’s North American rear-drive vehicle chief engineer and effectively the new Camaro’s father. “It wasn’t even worth taking them anymore,” he continues, with the faintest of smirks. You needn’t be a Blue Oval booster or a soldier in the General’s army to know that them’s fightin’ words. What’s Oppenheiser says his team brought along (and kept) the Dodge Charger, Nissan 350Z, and stretch targets like the Infiniti G37. “We’ve actually challenged ourselves to go upscale in sticker price and performance, to go after anything that could be called this segment—Mustang, Charger, Challenger. We’re shooting for targets a lot higher in terms of sticker price,” he says. Are these…

AT 100 MPH, you can’t hear the clock in the new Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe. That’s because the clock doesn’t tick. But you can’t hear much of anything else, either, apart from the rustle of wind around the A-pillars. It might be the sportiest Rolls-Royce ever—faster than a Porsche Boxster to 60 mph and boasting a myriad of detail changes to suspension, steering, and transmission tune designed to sharpen its responses—but the Phantom Coupe is first and foremost a luxury car. The Phantom Coupe is perhaps not quite as sybaritic as its near-identical convertible sibling, the Phantom Drophead Coupe, though the distinction is a fine one. This is still, after all, a $400,000 two-door that’s about an inch shorter and narrower than a Chevy Suburban, yet barely has enough room in…

SINCE its introduction as a 2006 model, the Bentley Continental Flying Spur has delighted the well-heeled with immense performance, supreme refinement, and boundless customization. Naturally, for 2009, Bentley has done to the Flying Spur what any rational ultra-luxury brand would do: given it more performance, more refinement, more customization, and, at $180,395, more bottom line. That sum represents the standard Flying Spur, which enters 2009 with a new front fascia and rear bumper, a retuned suspension, a new adaptive cruise-control system, acoustic side and rear glass, and trilaminate undertray and wheel-arch liners, the last two combining to achieve a five-decibel reduction in interior noise. Inside, the Flying Spur now offers a rear bench seat with electrically adjustable outboard seats and a $6900 Naim audio system with 15 speakers. Still spurring…

THIS PAST SPRING, Truck Trend Web producer Melissa Spiering, owner of a first-generation Mini Cooper S, took our long-term second-gen Cooper S on a crosscountry road trip to participate in “Minis on the Dragon," an annual event in which around 500 of Britain’s hot-hatches zip through the secluded and serpentine stretch of Highway 129 that dissects the North Carolina/Tennessee border. Commonly referred to as “The Dragon," this span of 129 weaves its way through the Great Smoky Mountains, challenging drivers with over 300 tight turns in only 11 miles. And, as Spiering found out, the Cooper S, a small, light car with a sport suspension and sticky summer tires, is made for the Dragon. “After only a few minutes warming the tires on the cold asphalt, the Mini took to…

CAN DETROIT make money on compact cars? Since General Motors launched the Chevrolet Corvair in the Autumn of 1959, the answer has been a resounding “no.” That may finally change, with GM, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler LLC facing stricter Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards beginning in 2011 (the same year GM expects last fall’s United Auto Workers contract finally to start paying off) and $4-per-gallon gas forcing the issue this year, anyway. The Detroit Three are ready to make more cars than trucks again—the market has already dictated that—and the C-segment (Civic, Corolla, Focus, Golf, etc.) is the next big thing, with more refined, better-equipped models on the way. Leading off this movement is the 2011 Chevrolet compact. Combine the now-signature Chevrolet horizontally split grille with “fierce-eye” headlamps and…

STRONG whisper out of Dearborn is that, in addition to turbochargers, FoMoCo is investing heavily in dual-clutch transmissions. First seen in the small FWD VW Golf and Audi A3, dual-clutch transmissions are now starting to appear hooked up to bigger engines (Audi’s 3.2-liter V-6), and in RWD (BMW M3) and AWD (Nissan GT-R) configurations. Our sources say Ford is planning to go dual clutch across the board, including a transmission designed for the forthcoming global rear-drive platform. Hmmm…A rear-drive 2013 Mustang with a 415-horse EcoBoost twin-turbo V-6, independent rear suspension, and a six- or seven-speed dual-clutch paddleshift transmission. Where do we sign?…

LONG-AWAITED Acura NSX replacement is looking better than the 2007 Advanced Sports Car Concept that made its debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The real car looks much more brutish, and it is, having ticked off a 7:37 time at the Nürburgring. The sports car uses a rear-drive-based version of Acura’s Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive. It’s on a dedicated platform, powered by a new V-10 engine. Bad news is timing. The NSX replacement has taken so long that it now faces looming new fuel-economy standards and spiking gas prices. Now, a light, mid-engine, rear-drive V-6 similar to the original NSX would make more sense. Honda may be rethinking its plan for a rear-drive Acura sedan based on this platform.…

“HOW MUCH CAR DO YOU REALLY NEED?” AS I WRITE this I’m in Europe—you know, where foreigners come from. If you’d never been here before, you’d probably think most of the vehicles on European roadways had been zapped by the“Fantastic Voyage” shrinking machine. Compared with your typical American ride, most of the cars parked outside my hotel here in Barcelona, Spain, look like party favors. When the occasional Passat rolls by it seems…huge. Sighting the more rare Mercedes S-Class, you half expect it to be surrounded by a formation of destroyers and submarines. “We’re a big country; we need big cars.” So goes the oft-repeated U.S. cliché. The more honest line, though, should go like this: “We’ve got loads of real estate in America, automobiles have always been relatively inexpensive,…

LINCOLN IS up against it. The brand has languished for decades as marketing chiefs and design heads have kept a revolving door spinning at redline. The four-pointed star that once stood for one of the premium American luxury-car nameplates had been denigrated to little more than the top Ford trim level. We kept hearing Ford was committed to Lincoln and that worthy product and yet another new design language were coming. The first evidence of that long-running rumor is here, in the form of the new MKS sedan. And we’re pleased to say that what Ford promised has been delivered, fair and square. The MKS fills a giant chasm in Lincoln’s line-up, in between the midsize-ish MKZ and the Paleolithic Town Car. MKS’s competitors? Think Lexus GS, Acura RL, Cadillac…

PERFECTION is an elusive attribute. Just ask Porsche, whose engineers have spent 60 years trying to transmute the leaden weight balance of a rear-engine layout into the perfect, golden sports car—and they still haven’t got it completely right. Don’t misunderstand. That’s their opinion, not ours. We think the 2009 Porsche 911, outfitted with two new, more powerful engines and the option of a new seven-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission, is as close to perfect as any machine can get. However, the team that crafted its refinements argue otherwise. In their world, the finish line will always be disappearing over the horizon, and to them a new 911 will always be just the beginning of the next 911, an even better 911. There’s little reason to doubt their resolve, because the 2009…

WHAT’S A Lancer Ralliart? Know it by its enemies: Directly in the Ralliart’s cross-hairs are such specimens as Subaru’s Impreza WRX, Volkswagen’s R32, and the frisky Mazdaspeed3. Three big-caliber cars in the bang-for-the-buck arms race, and after an afternoon of driving the Ralliart, all three had better be ready to duck. At a sticker we’d guess to be in the high 20s, the Ralliart employs the GTS’s laudable foundation, meaning conventional-width front and rear tracks (unlike the wide-track Evo), plus a few tweaks like a strut-tower stiffener, a revised rear-suspension link, 215/45 summer-spec 18-inch tires, and its big brother’s aluminum hood. The Ralliart’s face has less mouth-agape-rocket-sled-guy going on, while the rear wing’s smaller scale—punctuated by red-surround rear lamps instead of the Evo’s black—won't require FAA approval. Powering the Ralliart…

WHEN TOYOTA introduced the original Lexus LS back in 1989, it sent shockwaves through the luxury-car world. Here was a sedan that offered Mercedes S-Class comfort and power at an E-Class price; that seemingly wrapped passengers’ ears in noise-canceling headphones once the doors were shut; and whose precision, build quality, and reliability were akin to those of a Rolex Submariner. Europe’s luxury automakers were left scrambling back to the drawing board. In its subsequent generations, though, the LS has remained much the same—quiet, refined, and a strong value—while its competitors have upped their game to the point where Lexus’s flagship is no longer a perennial All-Star. For instance, in our December 2007 comparison test (“Vast & Furious”), the LS h L—cream of the LS crop—finished in last place behind challengers…