Innehållsförteckning för December 2012 från Car and Driver

By the time this issue hits newsstands, the presidential campaign will be over and we can begin the important work of healing friendships injured on the battlefields of Facebook. At least I hope this will happen—too many people I sort of know dared to challenge my assertion that the only American fit to be president is Roger Penske, and I await their apologies. It is also my hope that whoever has the misfortune of sitting in the Oval Office for the next four years likes to read car magazines on the john, because I have some advice: 1. Stop with the moving targets: Pick a safety standard and stick with it. Pick a fuel-economy standard and stick with it. Allow carmakers the time to reconcile the two. That whole "54.5…

AS FAR AS WE'RE CONCERNED, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL was the first supercar. Why the 300SL? Funny doors, of course—plus a tricky mix of brawn and performance with intangibles such as outlandishness and rarity. It was a wobbly road from that 220-hp, 138-mph gullwing coupe to today's aluminum-and-carbon-fiber wedges, but we've mapped the progression of the defining exotic-car stats here with data from our test archives. THREE QUESTIONS FOR: LORIS BICOCCHI Loris Bicocchi, 54, worked his way up from mechanic's assistant to test driver at Lamborghini before leaving to help develop the Bugatti EB110. He went on to become a test pilot for cars such as the Pagani Zonda, the Koenigsegg CCR, and the KTM X-Bow. C/D: Is it scary to be in a prototype car from a small manufacturer? LB:…

Dumpster diving yields better results when it's done in the correct dumpster. Kevin Thomas, a regular bloke living near Brighton, England, is surrounded by fantastic dumpsters. In his garden shed, Thomas is slowly putting together his own Formula 1 car based on parts from a 2001 British American Racing 003. The idea came to him after seeing an F1 car in a Renault showroom. Not long after, he saw an F1 tub listed on eBay. The auction ended with no bidders, so he sent the lister an e-mail. It worked. Thomas told Racecar Engineering magazine: "[The seller] turned up on my doorstep with a Reynard BAR 01 and a BAR 003. I paid him cash for the pair." Thomas isn't an engineer; his expertise is merely that of a hard-core…

Of the six cars currently in the Robinson household, none seems more perfectly suited to its designated role than our 1995 Mitsubishi Montero. Bought in pristine condition for $4500 back in 2007, the big Monty spends much of its time casting long, rectangular shadows on our driveway. But when saddled up for an off-road expedition, this astoundingly comfortable and verifiably indestructible frigate of the desert never fails to produce owner satisfaction. If I could buy a brand-new one, I would, but Mitsubishi doesn't sell anything like it anymore. In fact, you'd be forgiven for believing that Mitsubishi doesn't sell anything at all. The lights haven't gone dark over at the house of the three diamonds, but Mitsubishi's U.S. employees are getting around by the glow of their cellphones. Through September…

STEERING ASSIST BY TYPE, 2005* ELECTRIC 25.8% UNASSISTED OR ELECTROHYDRAULIC 17.9% HYDRAULIC 56.3% * CARS PRODUCED IN EUROPE,JAPAN, KOREA, AND NORTH AMERICA. SOURCE: IHS AUTOMOTIVE STEERING ASSIST BY TYPE, 2011* ELECTRIC 58.2% UNASSISTED OR ELECTROHYDRAULIC 10.9% HYDRAULIC 30.9% Technology is a fickle friend, nudging us forward with one hand while charging exorbitant tolls with the other. Modern engines that impress us with power and efficiency are being decoupled from the manual transmissions that help them sing. Stout body structures guard us from peril in a crash but are so heavy and hard to see out of that we're more liable to bump into hazards easily avoided by truly wieldy cars. Electronic stability and traction aids are wonderful except when there's no way to disable them. Electrically assisted power steering (EPS)…

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, we published our first Civilian Bear Spotter's Guide: a rundown of state police vehicles we hope never gave you the rundown. The double-nickel speed limit is now dark history, but there's a new reality: Menacing Dodge Chargers patrol highways, while the 355-hp police-only Chevy Caprice PPV (descendant of the late, great Pontiac G8) gives cops the unfair advantage. The nation's troopers are marinating in automotive testosterone. Our new guide can't help you avoid tickets—that's up to your right foot—but it will help you spot the approaching trooper who needs a clear lane. Keep your eyes up and your detectors on, people. ALABAMA PRIMARY: Crown Victoria • SECONDARY: Caprice, Charger, Tahoe Unmarked: CHARGER, CROWN VIC, TAHOE • Radar/Laser: BOTH ARKANSAS PRIMARY: Charger • SECONDARY: Crown Vic, Tahoe Unmarked:…

Time for a pop quiz. A diesel-powered Porsche in America is as unlikely as: A) Dodge announcing that it will withdraw from NASCAR following this season; B) Mini introducing yet another variation on its already-ubiquitous theme; or C) 26,942 persons applying for 877 job openings at Hyundai's Alabama plant last May. Trick question, ja. All those things have already happened, and so has a diesel-powered Cayenne, which has been sold in Europe since 2009. Its appearance in America is thus no big surprise. For one thing, Porsche marketed a diesel here in the early '60s, although it was a farm tractor that didn't catch on. Some five decades later, the company couldn't resist another diesel, given such easy corporate access to the thing—it's the turbocharged and intercooled 3.0-liter V-6 that…

+ A squirming bundle of wondrous joy. – Examine the price tag and acceleration numbers at separate sittings. This hasn't happened be-fore, so it's worth noting: Porsche's best car is now its entry-level one. All of Porsche's kinesthetic achievements, all the decades of road and race engineering that have sustained the brand are now distilled in its Boxster and Boxster S, and you are free to share this information with anyone who denigrates your baby Porsche. It feels as though all the Boxster's constituent parts are made of equal-diameter, equal-weight, equal-length aluminum rods, each one sheathed in a quarter-inch of silicone. Every action is perfectly weighted, uncannily efficient, and supremely damped. There is no wasted motion here—not from your hand to the shifter, not from the brake to the throttle…

George Barris, 87, has been the King of Kustomizers for at least 60 years. From his Southern California shops have come groundbreaking hot rods and iconic movie and TV cars. The 1966 Batmobile? That one's pure Barris. C/D: So what are you working on today? GB: The latest and the newest thing I'm working on—and that's with Galpin Ford—I'm taking the challenge of solar energizing the Ford Focus electric car. I want to lengthen the time that your battery keeps going. So solar energizing with sheets [of solar cells] on the top. I've got way more mileage on the car with the solar cells charging the battery. I'm playing with that idea. C/D: You and your brother, Sam, came up together, right? GB: No, I really started when I was…

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@CARandDRIVER.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com THE NEWEST IN NEW I was cruising along in the September issue, enjoying the sights, when all of a sudden I came to the start of the new-car list and saw the Acura ILX 2.4. Whoa!! Who had the drunken insight to put that big metal band at the top of the grille? It's tantamount to putting a bra on Angelina Jolie, for God's sake! No matter how many times I see it, that vomit-inducing band is like a tractor beam that pulls the eyes away from an otherwise great car. Too bad, Acura—you lost me with that travesty. JOHN ASPRELLI SEYMOUR, CONNECTICUT Really? You'd turn down Angelina Jolie because she's wearing a…

THANKS, WORLDWIDE SUPER-RICH, for buying enough wildly impractical cars to support their continued manufacture. Below, we've mapped the global distribution of the 7673 Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren cars sold in 2011 with help from the automotive-data specialists at Polk. VAPORWARE THE LONG SHOTS Successful small-timers such as Koenigsegg and Pagani are fueling an unprecedented explosion of never-gonna-happen automotive vaporware. Here we've corralled a selection of the most outlandish proposals, each with its country of origin, claimed engine and output, expected price, and—for our friends in the Vegas odds-making business—our ranking (from 0 to 5) of its likelihood of coming to fruition. Place your bets! Arrinera Hussarya, Poland 6.2-liter V-8, 650 hp, $160,000 Probability Rimac Concept_One, Croatia four electric motors, 1088 hp, $1,300,000 Probability…

SUPERCARS ARE EXPENSIVE; buying used is the schlub's way to get previously unattainable stuff at a reasonable price. Take, for example, the Acura NSX. Prices when new ranged from $60,000 in 1991 to just shy of $90,000 by the time production stopped in 2005. Now, though, this mid-engined exotic—with the reliability, comfort, and everyday drivability of, well, a Honda—is considerably cheaper. You can pick up a good one for the cost of a new Accord. But be wary—and by all means, get a pre-purchase inspection—because, while it's no Lamborghini or Ferrari, parts and repairs for an NSX can be expensive. —michael lamm ALLOY EVERYWHERE The thing that most distinguished the NSX from its peers was its extensive use of aluminum, which formed the unibody, engine, transaxle housing, suspension, wheels, and…

AFTER MORE THAN TWO YEARS, THE VIPER IS BACK (well, nearly back, as production was due to start around Thanksgiving). The cars seen here are preproduction prototypes that we drove at GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. The Viper shape remains sui generis, owing to the well-endowed hood and carry-over windshield. Other Viper distinctions, however, such as the crude interior and avoidance of nearly all electronic driving aids, have been purged. Heresy? We think not. Call us indulgent, but in a car that costs more than $100,000, a rental-grade cabin seems crazier than building a sports car around a truck-based V-10 (now up 40 all around, by the way, to 640 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque). Interior changes to the fifth iteration of the headlining SRT supercar are indeed…

The quaint villages dotting the countryside are just short Sunday strolls apart, the roads connecting them no wider or smoother than necessary for horse-drawn carts. Ask a woman her weight, and she'll give it to you in stone before slapping you. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that Aston Martin can sometimes seem like the car company that time forgot. Replacing the DBS for 2013 as Aston's sportiest, most expensive offering, the Vanquish wears styling that is directly, obviously traceable to the 1994 DB7. Behind the familiar face rests a 5.9-liter V-12 that debuted in 2000 and a central architecture dating to the 2004 DB9. This is not to suggest, however, that Aston is sitting completely still. While the aluminum structure remains largely the same as the DBS's (and DB9's, and…

2011 HYUNDAI SONATA SE 2.0T Hyundai has made new and beguiling shapes out of sheetmetal and plastic that apparently never occurred to Honda or Toyota, and it has everybody's attention now. But always with this hard-charging brand is the big-Q question: quality. Is it as good as the entrenched competition? We took delivery of a 2011 Sonata, willing to settle for it being as good as our previous long-term Sonata, a 2006 model that finished its 40,000-mile run with zero unscheduled trips to the service department. Those were sizable shoes to fill, and the far sleeker and shapelier 2011 model, well, didn't quite fill them. A few persistent problems, especially a bad front-wheel alignment, dogged our $24,865 Venetian Red SE ($27,600 with the optional sunroof and navigation package, floor mats,…

+ Quicker than a W-12 coupe, more top-grade hide and wood than an Andalusian ox in an Amish furniture shop, improved dynamics. – Lower price means less exclusivity, still sails easily past $200 large. For entry-level—but hardly base—versions of its Continental GT line, Bentley installs a V-8 in place of the usual W-12. Big B says excising four cylinders improves fuel economy, but we suspect its aim is mostly to sell more very expensive cars to more very wealthy people. La Bonnotte po-tay-toes, La Bonnotte po-tah-toes. Either way, the V-8 model is no penalty job—think IWC Schaffhausen case with an ETA Valgranges movement. Like the 12-cylinder, the Audi-derived eight-holer is strapped with two turbos, packs the output of a nuclear sub (500 horsepower and 487 pound-feet), and shoves you in…

+ Engine and steering that seem to enjoy their jobs, styling that's almost standout. There's a but to all of the above. Between Groupon and Living Social, it seems that the golden age of The Deal has arrived. It's not just fancy restaurants and hotels slinging their wares for deep discounts. Now it seems Nissan is getting on board, too. Redesigned for 2013, the compact Sentra comes across like two cars for the low, low price of one. A claimed weight reduction of up to 150 pounds excites people who remember when Sentras were sporty, fun little cars. Buyers simply looking for a comfortable, affordable runabout will appreciate the soft, cushy seats as well as rear-seat legroom now among the best in class due to the new car's additional 0.6…

WITNESS THE P1 CONCEPT, McLAREN'S SUCCESSOR TO THE LEGENDARY F1. When McLaren launched the F1 in 1992, it created an icon—and a supercar benchmark that stands to this day. At a time when the Lamborghini Diablo and the Ferrari F40 were wrestling with the 4.0-second 0-to-60-mph acceleration barrier and top speeds of around 200 mph, the F1 could hit 60 in 3.2 seconds. It also screamed all the way to 221 mph. After years of road-car silence, McLaren again leapfrogged the supercar establishment with its MP4-12C, which we crowned champion in a July 2011 comparison test against a Ferrari 458 Italia and a Porsche 911 GT2 RS. The MP4-12C—McLaren has unofficially changed its moniker to the 57-percent less-cumbersome 12C—outperforms the mighty F1 in almost all regards, except for top speed…

FOUNDING A SPORTS-CAR company is a surefire way to squander one's fortune and reputation. Think of Bricklin, De Tomaso, and DeLorean. The risk might be monumental, but so is the appeal: Be the guy whose creation inspires the next generation of car fanatics. That's a nice headstone inscription. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the concentration of wealth in many such nations, the Second World is emerging as fertile ground for industrialists hoping to be the next Enzo or Ferruccio. While there is no shortage of vaporware being peddled to potential investors worldwide [see bottom of page], the following companies are notable for actually, you know, building cars. (Which isn't to say that they, too, won't go the way of Vector.) —jens meiners MARUSSIA MOTORS HOMELAND: Russia ANNUAL OUTPUT: "Several hundred" CHIEF…

Ford engineers are developing what they call a "Driver Workload Estimator." It monitors your car's speed (which you previously monitored with a speedometer), density of nearby traffic (which you previously monitored with your eyes), throttle-pedal pressure (which you previously monitored with your right foot), and current level of driver stress (which your mother previously monitored via a Sunday phone call). As it happens, sensors in the steering wheel measure your heart rate and facial temperature—hot lips, perhaps?—even as a sensor in the seatbelt measures your respiration and possibly your chest-hair count. So if you should die at the wheel or, like most U.S. drivers, merely lapse into numerous random daily comas while at stoplights, your steering wheel will be the first to know. Or possibly not. But the point is,…

When we tested the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid against its blended-power brethren (Toyota Camry hybrid, Nissan Altima hybrid, and the weak-sauce "mild-hybrid" Chevrolet Malibu) in early 2009, we gave the nod to Ford, noting that the company "hit all the marks with this hybrid …" This was not a lie. But neither was it the whole truth. True, the Ford achieved the best fuel efficiency over our 300-mile test. And true, it was the only one among the four that we claimed had "car-guy soul." With the first Fusion hybrid, Ford sailed happily past the hybrid king, Toyota, in the race toward normal-car drivability. And it did so using a style of hybrid powertrain made familiar by Toyota. That this variety of blended gas/electric propulsion was conceived by neither Toyota…

VOLKSWAGEN GTI PRICE > $24,790 C/D OBSERVED MPG > 24 POWER > 200 hp TORQUE > 207 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3052 lb FORD FOCUS ST PRICE > $28,170 C/D OBSERVED MPG > 21 POWER > 252 hp TORQUE > 270 lb-ft WEIGHT > 3219 lb Loneliness is never a worry when you're at the top of the hyperkinetic-hatchback class. Every few months, some punk with fat tires and delusional aspirations shows up to pick a fight. But since 2009—when the sixth-generation VW GTI arrived—this paragon of German engineering has not been caught by that succession of hostile pursuers. Over its long run, the GTI has evolved into the slot-car cynosure—the very definition of affordable fun and function—worthy of four straight berths on our 10Best list. Even though this is the…

+ Drives like a real car. – Driving it like a real car yields real-car fuel economy. THIS MONTH Porsche Cayenne Diesel // Bentley Conti GTC V-8 // Nissan Pathfinder // Porsche Boxster // Nissan Sentra SL 1.8 // M-B GL450 We love the Toyota Prius. No, really, we do. And not just as a de facto punch line for our most conventional moments of automotive enthusiasm. Priuses are the fluoride in the automotive water—and we're happy for the upstanding 2 percent of citizens who avail themselves of such superb technology, thus benefitting us all. But as gas prices rise again and cylinder counts continue to drop—and even BMW engines now clatter portentously to a halt at stoplights—we can't help but wonder why another car company has not stepped up…

We're all wusses now. Back in olden times, SUVs carried bold names full of adventure and daring. There were Explorers for venturing where no one had before, TrailBlazers eager to find new routes through the wilderness, and Nissan had the Pathfinder to drop behind enemy lines and set the course for the bulk of the forces to follow. But now everything has been explored, there are no more trails to blaze, and Nissan has, apparently, found all the paths. The name remains, but the new Pathfinder is no rugged adventure junkie. Now it's a carlike, three-row, seven-seat, unibody crossover with the inevitable VQ-series 3.5-liter V-6 transversely mounted under its hood. Coming off the same Tennessee assembly lines that screw together the Infiniti JX35, it's essentially a Nissan-branded version of that…

+ Cushy ride, a useful third row, plenty of tow, lots of go. – Lifeless steering, options push it into the exotisphere. If for any reason the base $64,805 GL450 isn't cushy, flashy, or techy enough, don't worry; you can deploy more than $40,000 in options to spruce it up. Hate parallel parking? Spend $970, and the GL will do it for you. Sick of hearing the third-row passengers whine about your A/C setting? Three-zone climate control costs $1450. Way too busy to check your blind spots? The Driver Assistance package flashes warnings for $2800. Kids smear chocolate on everything? The $4800 Designo Auburn Brown quilted leather seats nearly match Hershey's hue. We could go on: Our tester came with 20 options. A six-digit GL450 is an automotive unicorn since…