Innehållsförteckning för Dec-15 från Car and Driver

HOW TO TELL TIME LIKE A MAN Your watch should look and feel like a power tool and not a piece of bling. The multiple features and digital-analog displays give the Centurion watch a hybrid ability. Stauer Centurion Hybrid Watch–$59 + S&P. Call (800) 333-2057 with Promotional Code: CNW417-03 or visit www.stauer.com fore more information. THE PULSE OF PERFORMANCE Specially formulated to keep high-performance engines cool and clean. AMSOIL premium synthetic motor oils deliver the power and performance you demand. Formulated, blended and packaged in the USA. Call (800) 777-8491 or visit www.amsoil.com/about for more information. RAPID PUMP® 1.5 TON ALUMINUM RACING JACK This jack has the Pit Crew in mind. Constructed of durable aluminum, it lifts your vehicle in 3-1/2 pumps with a range of 3-12” to 12-1/8”. Use…

Two such celebrated automotive events could hardly be more different than Monterey Car Week and the Woodward Dream Cruise, but both take place every year on the third weekend in August. To help you decide which to attend, we’ve put together this handy decision guide. —JARED GALL 1. Beluga or Sterlet? Beluga. There is no true caviar but Caspian Beluga sturgeon. (-1) Sterlet? Nah, what’s the one with the horn? Narwahl! (+1) 2. Look down. What color are your socks? White (+1) Beluga (-1) 3. Do you know how much those socks cost? Yes (-1) No (+1) 4. Seersucker is . . . Not normally what I wear on formal occasions, but I make an exception for this weekend. (-1) A lot lizard you can stand to look at. (+1)…

Grams-per-Mile Credit, Car/Truck Reduced cabin thermal loads: up to 3.0/4.3 Solar-reflective glass and paint are very effective at lowering interior temperatures and reducing HVAC system loads. Battery charging with a 75-watt solar panel: 3.3/3.3 Engine stop-start with cabin-heater operation: 2.5/4.4 Toyota currently uses a system that stores heat in an insulated vessel for use in cold climates, to be released when the engine is shut down, which winds up saving fuel. Engine stop-start without cabinheater operation: 1.5/2.9 This nets fewer credits because drivers are more likely to disable stopstart if occupant comfort suffers. Active engine warm-up: 1.5/3.2 Preheating engine coolant significantly trims consumption and emissions after a cold start. Active transmission warm-up: 1.5/3.2 Warming powertrain fluids diminishes friction losses and smooths upshifts. Some Ram trucks already use this technology. Waste-exhaust…

The driver’s seat in my Toyota Tundra is covered in a snowwhite Merino sheepskin I bought in New Zealand. Of late, I’ve been finding it peppered with black seeds. “These aren’t mouse turds, are they?” I asked my wife, who studied one of the seeds as you might study a small emerald. “Not turds,” she flatly confirmed, putting me in a good mood until the debris returned the next morning. I placed one of the offending specks on a napkin and took it inside for further forensic servicing. “What you’ve got there is a turd,” she stated confidently, which made me want to question her previous finding, but I let it go. “Look for a nest,” she suggested. Between the truck’s intake manifold and the firewall was a bed of…

Honda Civic Touring Honda will undoubtedly look back on the ninth-generation Civic, that unlovable lump of cheapness, as a lesson in continuous improvement. In so repeatedly flexing its renowned rapid-product-development muscle— overhauling the all-new 2012 Civic just a year later and then adding substantial equipment including a new transmission for 2014—Honda has surely grown stronger. It certainly righted the ship from a business standpoint. Civic sales boomed over the past three years, even if enthusiasts, ourselves included, haven’t much praised the product of Honda’s facesaving efforts. Yet this is not the sort of company to content itself with popularity. Honda has traditionally sought critical acclaim as well, with cars that are more like Spielberg films than blockbusters from Michael Bay. Fade in, then, on the 10th-generation Civic. Resembling nothing so…

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles isn’t screwing around. “Selling a vehicle can put a person in violation of the law and subject to criminal prosecution,” an agency spokesman tells C/D. That’s even if you never tamper with an odometer, misrepresent ownership of a vehicle, or otherwise half-assedly cobble together some junk to sell as safe-and-sound machinery. In California, if you sell even one car for a profit you fall under the definition of a dealer as described in Section 285 of the state’s Vehicle Code. And if you are not excluded amid the word salad in Section 286, you need a license. Without a license, or the requirements demanded by it such as dealer insurance, you’re a curbstoner. Laws vary from state to state, of course. But used-car-dealer lobbying groups…

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com COPING WITH LOSS Your September issue’s cover states, “We have full details on every make and model.” Yet, I could not find a single word about the Chevy SS. I just purchased one six weeks ago from my local Chevy dealer (six-speed stick), and I was led to believe that it still will be sold for a few more years. Or did I somehow miss it? BRUCE NYQUIST MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN You forgot to mention the Chevy SS in your 2016 New Cars issue. SETH BIELEFELD SOLOMON, KANSAS As a (very satisfied) Pontiac G8 GXP owner, I couldn’t help but notice that your “New Cars for 2016” did not mention the status of the Chevy SS for 2016.…

IT’S AMUSING to watch the mainstream press sink its fangs into an auto scandal. Business-page reporters hurriedly scan the releases and the statements—quickly now, the home page needs updating every 17 seconds—and distill a basic, highly superficial narrative. Press agents for experts in all manner of non-automotive subjects, from business ethics to crisis management to consumer advocacy, flood the email inboxes of the news outlets, their clients desperate for the exposure that comes from getting a rote observation into quotes. The flames of public outrage get fanned for a few days with hyperbolic and often-inaccurate punditry. Granted, Volkswagen’s diesel doomsday is not a simple story, rife as it is with technical inside-baseball. Basically, VW programmed an algorithmic routine into the controllers of its model-year 2009–2015 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engines that recognized…

181 Average number of seconds it took to serve customers at drivethrough restaurants last year, according to QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) magazine. THE DRIVE-THROUGH and drive-in are distinctly American creations. Henry Ford and the Model T started motorizing the masses in 1908, and by 1921 you could park your touring car and have someone bring you a Tennessee-style BBQ Pig Sandwich at Kirby’s Pig Stand in Dallas, Texas, the country’s first drive-in. Soon after, the pursuit of convenience took off, and the drive-in became the “drive-thru” (no more having to back out!), first at banks, then at fast-food restaurants. Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri, is commonly recognized as the first drive-through hamburger joint. Since then, there has been no shortage of creativity when it comes to the services that…

I write this on an airliner headed west from London. If you haven’t seen a couple of D-type Jags powerslide out of a corner in hot pursuit of a crackling Ferrari 246S Dino, then you need to go to the Goodwood Revival in September. If you haven’t seen 150,000 people glammed up in vintage tweed and gabardine and taffeta, been buzzed by a dozen Spitfires at once, applauded the riders of a pair of Norton Manxes for dicing from the green to the checkered, gawped at a 427 Cobra cornering on three wheels, or felt proud to be a Yankee as a Ford Fairlane bellowed through a picket line of Alfas and Cortinas to kick ass on foreign soil, then you need to get to Goodwood. For me, the Revival…

Let’s get this out of the way up front: The litany of breakdowns suffered by our long-term 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 (C7) was simply appalling. Yes, we know a car is a machine made up of thousands of components, and that despite massive leaps in technology and manufacturing that make cars far more reliable today than they were just a couple of product cycles ago, things can and do go wrong. But sheesh. Things were fine at first, starting with our coupe’s base price of $51,995, which is nearly 30 grand less than the base price of another popular way to go fast, the Porsche 911. Among the C7’s standard features are its rigid aluminum space frame and lightweight Batman bodywork that always grabs attention, even in our test…

JUST THE CARFAX Carfax has so effectively marketed itself that some used-car dealers now preemptively offer these vehicle-history reports before a customer asks for it. But the reports have their limitations. Carfax gathers its information using databases from state motor-vehicle departments, used-car auctions, insurance companies, dealers, body shops, and other sources. But not all accidents are reported and not all incidents result in an insurance claim. Carfax’s own disclaimer explains its limitations: “Other information about this vehicle, including problems, may not have been reported to Carfax.” That said, having a Carfax report never hurts as it can also point to odometer inconsistencies and hidden damage from events such as floods. If a car has a clean report, it’s not a bad start. —JPH The trouble with wrecked cars isn’t that…

I’m probably out here all alone on this one, but I believe that the most important car redesign of the decade, now that we’re midway through it, is the current Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan’s. I take little pleasure in claiming credit for this—let’s admit—staggeringly brilliant observation. I take equally little pleasure in the incrementalism of the car’s new form, pretty as it is. No more leaping from stylistic peak to peak, from W116 to W126 to W140, as was Mercedes’ wont long ago; today’s big Benz barely seems different than the car it replaced. It essentially carried over its powertrains and suspension hardware. It has the same wheelbase as its predecessor, casting virtually the same shadow on the ground. It’s what’s inside that counts now. Mercedes-Benz apparently spent all its S-class–development…

THE EPA AND carmakers used to square off like two grunting NFL squads. The EPA fights to curb energy consumption and reduce air pollution, while carmakers want to score customers, whose wish lists only occasionally include high mpg ratings. But four and a half years ago, after huddling with the 13 largest manufacturers, the UAW, and the state of California, President Obama blew the whistle on this old government-industry rivalry. Now these former foes have a common goal: a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) target of 54.5 mpg by the 2025 model year. According to the EPA, reaching it will save consumers more than $1.7 trillion in fuel costs while curbing greenhouse-gas emissions by 6 billion metric tons throughout the life of vehicles produced from 2012 to 2025. After the…

SITUATED JUST 61 MILES NORTH of Columbus, the state capital, Mid-Ohio is a great road-racing track for three reasons. First and foremost, it’s challenging, combining undulating terrain with deviously interrelated corners. Second, Mid-Ohio is an excellent facility, with practical garages, lush green lawns, and clean and comfortable restrooms. Many tracks provide these amenities today, but Mid-Ohio had them decades ago, when most tracks were still using outhouses. Third, at Mid-Ohio, an amateur can experience the same track used by the top road racers in the country. When has anyone ever gotten their Mk2 Volkswagen GTI sideways at Spa? HISTORY Mid-Ohio was constructed in 1962 on a couple hundred acres of rolling hills near Lexington, Ohio, by Les Griebling, a successful local farmer who personally drove the road grader that laid…

Car launches follow a standard template: Fly somewhere, check into a hotel, spend a day driving, and then regale your fellow gout-ridden hacks with bawdy lies while an attentive waitstaff discreetly sweeps the crumbs of aged Beemster from your tablecloth and/or beard. I usually feel bad for the PR people, who typically face several cycles of this process, a tedious Groundhog Day where every dinner conversation eventually turns to winter tires or motor-oil detergents. So when the Lincoln people told me they wanted to do a different kind of launch, one where they’d hand me the car and I’d go where I wanted, that sounded appealing. I’d drive somewhere and they’d pick up the hotel, as they would on a normal launch. I’d have more time to drive the car…

2015 VOLKSWAGEN GTI 17,919 MILES 30 OBSERVED MPG So few are our gripes that we have sunk to new depths trying to criticize the GTI. “Feels like the flywheel is heavier than it needs to be,” is as negative as the comments get. Positives include the descriptors “perfect,” “amazing,” “fantastic,” and “perfect” (again). Apply those to chassis, powertrain, value, and comfort however you like; all adjectives suit all nouns. But there is a consensus that the radio interface feels a bit dated compared with the Mazda 3’s. Through nearly half its tenure, the GTI has delivered 30 mpg with a flawless mechanical record. Flawless: another apt descriptor. 2014 PORSCHE CAYMAN S 33,096 MILES 23 OBSERVED MPG We’ve been joyously piling miles onto our Guards Red Cayman S for a year…