Innehållsförteckning för August 2012 från MotorTrend

AUTOMAKERS pitch new small cars, from the Fiat 500 to the Ford Fiesta and Chevrolet Sonic to the Acura ILX, as models designed to appeal to America’s urban-oriented Generation Y. Marketing experts fill product presentations with statistics and anecdotes of how tuned-in youth fetishize smartphones, the Internet, and keeping in touch with friends via Facebook from their loft apartments in “walkable” cities. Cars? Not so much. The problem begins with the assumption that youth moving back to the cities want A-or B-segment hatchbacks, when they’re more likely to spend the money on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and $2000-plus bikes. Gen Y has car enthusiasts, of course, just like every other age group. As always, car enthusiasts are a minority. Today’s young people appear to have less interest in driving and owning…

EVER SINCE Hyundai launched its RWD Genesis sedan as a 2009 model in 2008, we’ve been waiting for Kia to get a share of the platform. Peter Schreyer became Kia design chief shortly afterward, and we’ve been eager to see him work on a car with what the South Korean brand calls the “prestige distance” RWD dash-to-axle relationship. We saw that car in the form of the Kia GT concept from last fall’s Frankfurt auto show. Meanwhile, there has been a lot of confusion between that car and the Kia K9, a large RWD sedan just launched in its home market. Kia plans to extend the K9 to other markets by the end of 2012, though it hasn’t named the markets, and certainly hasn’t mentioned North America. The K9 is…

SMART STUDENT I’m writing this letter as an assignment for my sixth grade English class. I subscribe to your digital edition of Motor Trend, and I love it! I really enjoy the reviews on vehicles that are ridiculously overpriced. It’s cool to see what comes with the vehicles that makes them so overpriced. I had a question regarding your comparison, “The More Things Change” (May 2012). I was reading the list of vehicles that were tested. All the cars were luxury-sport-type vehicles. This made me wonder why a Jaguar wasn’t included? Thank you for reading my letter. Bryce GraysonJacksonville, Florida An astute observation, young Bryce. Jaguar doesn’t yet have a player that competes with the 3 Series in terms of size, but rumor has it one is coming in 2016.…

“ THE BEAUTY, THE MAGNIFICENCE, THE SINUOUS ASPHALT—IT ALL SEEMED UNREAL. BEST ROUTE EVER? NO QUESTION.” “YOU GOTTA come to France to drive the BRZ,” said Subaru PR guy Dominick Infante, referring to the international press event for his brand’s all-new coupe. “I just got back from scouting, and we found the most amazing route ever.” “Like, how amazing?” I asked. “Close your eyes and imagine your favorite road in California,” he said. “Now imagine that road never ending,” Click. Dominick was referring to the Route Napoleon, a 200-mile string of switchbacks and sweepers that stretches from Cannes on the French Riviera to Grenoble at the base of the Alps. Named after French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the route, which opened in 1932, signifies the course the diminutive leader took back…

Carroll Shelby’s story is quintessentially American. He was a rural Texan, a World War II pilot and flight instructor, an oil-field laborer, and a chicken farmer in bib overalls who some say turned to racing when all his chickens died. Whatever the catalyst, Shelby demonstrated a natural knack for road racing from the moment he took the wheel of a wheezy MG TC in 1952, seeking the adrenaline rush of speed he’d become addicted to while flying in the war. He managed to outperform many more powerful cars in that teetering MG and soon matriculated to a “real” race car, a Cadillac-powered Allard J2, and won an SCCA event in Caddo Mills, Texas. From that moment on, he was hooked on the big Yankee V-8/lithe British chassis formula. In 1954,…

THE GREAT PONYCAR War has been raging longer than many of us have been alive, with countless skirmishes between Chevrolet and Ford over the last 40-plus years. The latest battle began with the arrival of Chevy’s new 580-hp Camaro ZL1. But Ford has quickly regained the high ground with its all-new 2013 Ford Shelby GT500. Boasting 662 hp and 631 lb-ft of torque, the GT500 is the most powerful production car made in America and a fitting tribute to the late Carroll Shelby—one of the leading generals in Ford’s decades-long war against Chevy. For our first official drive of the 2013 GT500, we headed to Atlanta, where we sampled the latest super ’Stang at the track and on the open road. Rolling along on the highway, the GT500’s extra…

“SURE ARE A LOT of Altimas around here,” said I to Trevor Lai and Shinichi Oikawa as we navigated a cozy neighborhood in Southern California. Both gentlemen are Nissan product planning managers and were riding along as I sampled the considerably revised 2013 Altima at its press introduction. During 30 minutes of driving, I noticed Altimas of all generations were everywhere: trundling alongside us, waiting at stop signs, parked in driveways. “We didn’t plant them here,” a grinning Lai responded. I believe him—it’s unlikely Nissan needs assistance. The brand’s breadwinner has sold more than 3.8 million units in 20 years and four generations. In midsize sedan sales last year, the Altima played second fiddle to the persistently top-selling Toyota Camry. How? Incentives flowed free, and natural catastrophes limited its…

DRIVING IMPRESSIONS for the Audi S7 apply to the S6, without exception. You can’t feel the S7’s 110 extra pounds or the S6’s resulting 0.1-second-quicker 0-60-mph time. Oh, and like the A6, the S6 lacks the A7/S7’s power rear spoiler and four-passenger seating. Unlike the S7, the S6 has a predecessor with a Lamborghini-based 5.2-liter V-10. The new S6 comes with 9 fewer horses, but weighs 88 pounds less, so Audi says it performs better and consumes 25 percent less fuel. EPA figures won’t be ready until closer to launch. Europeans also get the S6 Avant, which Audi has wisely decided not to import, because its ultra-low niche volumes would never pay for U.S. certification costs. If these few differences aren’t enough to help you choose between S6 and S7,…

EVERY ONCE IN a while, an advertising claim comes along that strikes a nerve. It makes you stop and glance up at the TV screen, or flip back to that previous newspaper page to contemplate its meaning. For me, it’s usually a hair-loss treatment. However, for most people, it’s probably something that impacts their pocket book, and a pretty good example of that in the car business recently has been the claim of “40 mpg!” Never mind the footnote that the “40” referenced is the EPA’s “highway”mpg, rather than the typically lower “city” or, more meaningful, combined mileage. That doesn’t really matter. An advertisement bannering any variant of “40 mpg” gets your absolute attention if you’ve just witnessed $65 on the gas pump when the dispenser clicked. It's a…

Theoretical mileage: 53.0 mpg Actual mileage: 39.7 mpg Percent lower: 25 Fuel cost/mile: 9.5¢ You have to wonder if, before our testing began, our cars might have had a brief conversation in the Fairfield Hotel parking lot: “So,” starts off the Civic HF, breaking the ice, “this is your first high-mileage rodeo, huh? Well, relax, kids, I’ve been doing these things for years. You’ll be just fine.” Iterations of the Civic HF have been around so long that it’s a quasi-cult car now. Even when gas was cheap, there were guys who’d corner you at parties and talk your ear off about how their HF, with cardboard spats taped over their rear wheel housings, once got 67 mpg on a midnight drive down the Extraterrestrial Highway. Under a full moon.…

Theoretical mileage: 50.9 mpg Actual mileage: 38.4 mpg Percent lower: 25 Fuel cost/mile: 9.9¢ Cars with day-glo “Eco” or “mpg’”badges slapped on their fenders are as often as not automotive empty suits: little more than a tall top gear ratio sitting on a set of skinny tires. But in the case of the Mazda3’s Skyactiv engine technology, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Its 2.0-liter inline-4 is a state-of-the-argument case for advanced-technology gasoline engines, a Bach fugue of interweaving smart ideas with its engineering keystone being an eyebrow-raising 12.0:1 compression ratio. High compression ratios like this are good for efficiency, but bad for knock. To make it work, the Mazda3’s compressed intake charge is cooled by 3000psi, six-hole, direct fuel injection. The next heat countermeasure is that the ensuing…

“According to reports, hypermiling involves going ‘under the speed limit.’ I think that’s a Laotian phrase meaning ‘life is gray and joyless.’” @MT_Loverman MY END of a CTS-V Sport Wagon conversation typically sounds like this: “I love it. It’s fantastic. One of the best cars ever built. Just incredible. Be warned, though, it gets 1! mpg.” To be fair to Cadillac, after just about 35,000 miles, our black wagon’s lifetime average is 14.9 mpg. Terrible, any way you slice it. But what if it’s driver error, and not the car’s fault? I decided that, for one single tank of gas, I’d be a good citizen. I would behave. My plan lasted for all of four minutes. Then, someone in front of me was going 43 mph in a 45 mph,…

“Shuddering aside, the Mini continues to perform well. The service experience was a good one, and the rep was friendly.”@MT_Floyd WHEN IT’S time for a car’s service, the age-old question usually arises: To dealer, or not to dealer? With Mini, the dealer is the place to be for routine maintenance, as it’s covered as part of the brand’s no-cost maintenance program. So, as our 2011 Mini Countryman’s odometer was pushing close to the 15K mark, it was time to get it in and get the oil changed. Two other items on the agenda needed attention: a cracked windscreen and an intermittent shuddering issue. The windshield replacement was a case in point as to why you probably shouldn’t go to a dealer for certain issues. The glass itself wasn’t exactly an…

“You can’t just take the NV to any Nissan dealership for servicing. You have to find one that’s NV certified, and that can be a bit inconvenient.” WHILE THE NV appears to be the size of a small house, it’s quite manageable in and around Los Angeles. The turning radius is tighter than you might imagine, and with the help of the rearview camera, it has no trouble fitting into any standard parking space. On a recent outing, I bet a friend the tall NV wouldn’t fit inside his structure. As I approached the low-hanging horizontal bar indicating the max entry height, I stopped, put the van in park and climbed out the window a bit to check the clearance. I had about four fingers to spare. “That bar can’t…

“ DOES MERCEDES REALLY NEED TO GET DOWN IN THE TRENCHES AND INDULGE IN HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT WITH ENTRY-LEVEL LEXUS AND UPPER-END VOLKSWAGEN MODELS IN AMERICA? ” WE’RE CHEAPSKATES. We want the world, but we don’t want to pay top dollar for it. We want cheap clothes, cheap food, cheap gas—cheap anything as long as we get a lot of it for our money. Never mind the quality, feel the width. So you’d figure the svelte new Mercedes-Benz CLA, which reportedly will have a base price of just under $30,000, is a no-brainer: a stylish Mercedes for not much more than a well-equipped Chevy Malibu? Duh, yeah. But, ironically, a cheap Benz may not be a good idea for America. Mercedes-Benz is the world’s most versatile automotive brand; outside of the…

ASTON MARTIN’S new DBS successor is renamed Vanquish and borrows heavily from the spectacular One-77 coupe. It takes the very limited-edition (77 copies made) One-77’s radical use of construction materials a step further. Carbon fiber makes up 99 percent of the Vanquish’s body panels and it’s used to construct the chassis, with the exception of part of the front structure. The new Aston goes on sale in Europe late this year and in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2013, as a 2014 model. Aston Martin has made great strides in using and manufacturing carbon-fiber chassis structures and body panels. The One-77 also has a carbon fiber chassis, but its body panels are a mix of carbon fiber and aluminum. The new DBS weighs about 3700 pounds, about 50…

BMW CONTINUES to increase the size of its range. Late this year, the company unveils another variant of its 3 Series, the Gran Turismo. This version will provide extra space, with a versatile split between passengers and luggage. It won’t be a smaller echo of the 5 Series Gran Turismo, which insiders now acknowledge as one of Munich’s rare missteps. The smaller car is lower, sleeker, and less compromised. Like the 5 Series GT, the 3 Series Gran Turismo is a five-door hatchback. It must fit in between the 3 Series Touring wagon just announced for U.S. shipment and the X3. One major difference between the X cars and the 3 Series GT is that the latter won’t use crossover design cues. Our insider says its elegance surprised him when…

“I HOPE FUNDING MATERIALIZES TO CONTINUE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTRIGUING DOYLE ROTORY ENGINE” ENGINEERING IS an occupation for optimists, and each spring, the automotively inclined among them gather in Detroit for an event I never miss: the SAE World Congress. It’s impossible to leave the show floor fearing for the future of automobility, even in the face of daunting fuel economy, emissions, and safety regs. Despite loads of recent news about advances on the battery and hybrid fronts, there was an entire aisle dedicated to dreamers intent on completely reimagining the internal-combustion engine—or at least reinterpreting great vintage concepts. Two of these draw inspiration from the wacky World War I Gnome rotary aircraft engine. In those days, rotary meant the pistons and cylinders rotated about a fixed crankshaft. Felix Wankel…

Racing in bib overalls “My chickens all had limberneck, and I was going broke. I’d been vaccinating chickens and was running late, so I drove out to the track in my overalls. It was hot, about 110 degrees, and I decided to leave the overalls on because I thought they’d be cooler to drive in. I won the race in them and everybody giggled and laughed, but they ran my picture in the paper in those overalls. I decided, shoot, this is a pretty good deal, and I kept on doing it.” His bad heart “Lucky I didn’t have a heart attack during a race, because those Grand Prix’s in the ’50s used to be 300 or 400 miles long. You’d lose 15 pounds sweating.” “Then I said, well, enough…

The day after Mortara attends the launch of the Shelby GT500 in Atlanta, Georgia, Motor Trend photographers Brian Vance and Mike Shaffer pick up the keys to the red GT500 you see on these pages and blow out of town. At dawn. Why so early? Our two road warriors need to meet the rest of our crew two days hence, at Chrysler’s Proving Grounds, in Kingman, Arizona. Why there? As mentioned in the preceding pages, Ford claims the GT500 will break the 200-mph barrier, but we want to find out for ourselves. A rep tells us the Shelby needs about 17,000 feet of tarmac to hit top speed, and that the SVT team used one of the world’s largest test tracks, the Nardo Ring in southern Italy, to confirm the…

LEXUS’ VOLUME sedan started life as little more than a Toyota Camry playing dress-up. With this sixth-generation model, it departs the Camry platform (for the related Avalon’s) and matriculates to true baby-LS status. Actually, make that adult son of LS—the key interior and exterior dimensions of the new ES scale to between 96 and 99 percent of the LS 460’s, and the rear legroom is actually greater than that of the short-wheelbase LS. Its coupelike profile and rear-end design ape the big car faithfully, too. Of course, with the carryover 3.5-liter V-6, the power scales at 71 percent, and if you opt for the newly available ES 300h hybrid model, that percentage drops to 53. And, fear not, the base price should remain at just over half that of the…

FORD’S 2.0-LITER EcoBoost is a curious engine. When it’s stuck in the big-boned Explorer, we’re much less than impressed. But place that same 240-hp, direct-injected, turbocharged four-banger into the Range Rover Evoque, and the result is our 2012 SUV of the Year. But how does it fare in the all-new-for-2013 Ford Escape? I’ll save you the suspense: We’re smitten. Ford offers up the 180-degrees-different-looking Escape with a choice of three engines. We haven’t yet gotten our hands on the base 168-hp, 2.5-liter Duratec I-4—so, no comment. Then there’s the surprisingly peppy 173-hp—or 178-hp if you run it on premium—1.6-liter EcoBoost. But today, we’re concentrating on the range-topping 231-hp (or 240-hp, should you shell out for the good gas), 2.0-liter EcoBoost that comes standard with the $31,195 Titanium trim level, $34,735…

Theoretical mileage*: 47.4 mpg Actual mileage: 36.2 mpg Percent lower: 24 Fuel cost/mile: 10.5¢ In the writeups of the following cars, I’ll first examinine the special technicalities that make them their model’s high-mpg iteration. But I can’t here because the Elantra we tested is mechanically just like any other Elantra. There’s no secret-sauce/high-mpg version because they don’t offer a low-mpg version. Indeed, the inscrutable ease with which Hyundai’s engines are delivering impressive mileage has some of their competitors genuinely scratching their heads. Meanwhile, we’re scratching ours as to why this example didn’t fare better amid this six-car crowd. Exactly a year ago, an Elantra, not unlike this one, accepted the bouquet for beating out many of the same competitors (in their standard-mpg trim). To quote Rory Jurnecka at the time:…

Theoretical mileage: 52.4 mpg Actual mileage: 41.6 mpg Percent lower: 21 Fuel cost/mile: 9.8¢ In 1905, Swiss engineer Alfred Buchi not only patented a pinwheel-like contraption called a turbocharger, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it: attach it to a Rudolph Diesel engine. The German’s dizzyingly high-compression cycle produced herculean low-rpm torque, but as the revs rose, the engine’s impressiveness declined. And that’s where the turbocharger comes in: Whenever extra power is needed, the compressor just bellows in the necessary air. Much of the energy to do it is scavenged from the exhaust heat. Unfortunately, Mr. Buchi was ahead of his time. By about 107 years—at least far as the United States is concerned. When future automotive historians conclude when the diesel-powered car finally took off…

THE SOUND IS PART musclecar, part DTM racer, part atomic reaction. It’s a sound that growls, pops, and bangs in rhythm with a car that’s traveling far too quickly on a twisty ribbon of road somewhere in the south of France. It’s an addictive sound, and it’s the sound the SL63 AMG makes when it’s being driven hard. That sound is generated by the SL63’s 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 as it generates its 530 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. If that’s not enough (keep in mind the standard SL550 has “just” 429 hp and 516 lb-ft), there’s an optional performance package that raises top speed to 186 mph and output to a huge 557 hp and 664 lb-ft. Mercedes has paired its Speedshift MCT seven-speed gearbox, a unit that uses…

Brake-checking tailgaters in the GT-R isn’t smart, as few outstop Godzilla. Wiper check works better, and results in better visibility 4 all.”@edloh LAST NIGHT, I let a Dodge Caliber SRT go. The day before, it was a bright yellow, Lamborghini Gallardo. The owner seemed particularly proud of the high, hard howl of his V-10. This is what I get for picking the GT-R as my ride for the year, daily challenges from people I don’t know. It doesn’t bother me anymore, I have fun with it. Tailgate me long enough, and the reward is not a triple-digit throttle blast, but a windshield cleaning. Mine first, forcing you to do yours. When challengers pull up to leer or sneer, I make sure I’m doing something disgusting, like cleaning my teeth. No…

“Compared with the competition, the Civic’s interior feels cheap. That said, the layout is clean, and purposeful.”@MT_DubDub UNFORTUNATELY, I have lately been spending a lot of time behind the wheels of vehicles other than the Civic. A slew of family visits have turned me into tour guide and bus driver in both our long-term Honda Odyssey and Nissan Quest. As far as people-movers go, either option is swell, but, man, was I glad to ratchet through the gears of the Si upon the family’s departure. The feeling of enjoyment I had when returning to the Civic was not foreign to me. Every time I would drive my personal MK4 GTI, I was similarly pleased with the driving experience. In fact, there are a lot of similar aspects in the two…

“Our Sorento is far from a staff favorite, but it does keeps plugging along with zero mechanical issues.”@ MT_MikeFebbo DURING THE Sorento’s last service visit, I mentioned to the service advisor that I wasn’t happy with how the infotainment system operates while using an iPod. He suggested buying Kia’s iPod adapter cable from the parts department and giving that a shot. At $3;, it seemed a small price to pay to make road trips and Southern California commutes much more bearable. The Kia cable plugs into both the USB and the neighboring mini jack located in the center console storage bin in front of the shifter. Unplug it, stick it under the armrest—it’s that easy. So far, functionality is about average with most systems. The interface is fast and pretty…

Porsche released photos of its 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid prototype testing just as the automaker’s CEO, Matthias Mueller, ruled out a sub-Boxster roadster at the other end of the price spectrum. Porsche plans to begin 918 Spyder production in September 2013, with the first U.S. customers getting cars before the end of that year. Initial testing of the 770-horsepower 918 produced fuel economy estimates that convert to 78.4 mpg (European fuel efficiency testing is not as stringent as U.S. EPA testing, however). The business case doesn’t work out for a sub-Boxster Porsche, as far as Mueller is concerned. “We would do no good to the brand if we were to lose traditional Porsche customers,” Mueller told Stuttgarter Zeitung. Porsche has confirmed plans for the Volkswagen Tiguan-based Macan C-segment sport/utility crossover,…

AUDI’S NEW A3 has already launched as a two-door hatchback (see motortrend.com), which won't be sold in the U.S. We have full details on the versions that will. The mainstream A3 is the sedan previewed by the concept at 2011 Geneva. Its wheelbase stretches by 1.5 inches to 104, and it's slightly wider than the hatchback.The dash and instrument packs are carried over from the new two-door hatchback, but the longer wheelbase gives a better rear package. The sedan body, Audi thinks, is vital to spurring sales of compact cars in the U.S. and Chinese markets. In addition to European production, Audi will build the car in a new Chinese factory coming online in 2014, where it will offer a long-wheelbase version for that chauffeur-intense market. With the new modular…

TOYOTA Motor Corporation lost its status last year as world’s largest automaker, a title it held for three years, until the Japanese earthquake and tsunami blunted production. General Motors took first place in 2011 global sales, and Volkswagen grabbed second place, relegating Toyota to third. For the first three months of 2012, Toyota regained the lead, selling 2.49 million Toyotas, Lexi, Scions, Hinos, and Diahatsus worldwide, to GM’s 2.28 million and VW’s 2.16 million units, according to statistics compiled by Bloomberg. NISSAN ALTIMA sales passed the Accord for second place in America’s all-important midsize segment last year, another result of Japan’s natural disasters, which hit Honda harder than its home-market competitors. Nissan announced it would run three daily assembly shifts of its all-new 2013 Altima to catch the Camry in…

TIMELINE LIFE OF A LEGEND THROUGH THE YEARS One of the unquestioned icons of the automotive age, Carrol Shelby’s story is uniquely American and unparalleled in its scope. His legacy, warts and all, is one all enthusiasts can appreciate. So, as part of our look back at the big Texan’s life, we’ve created this timeline from the Motor Trend archives and other sources that offers up a snapshot of a long and colorful career unlike any other in automotive history. January 11, 1923 Carroll Hall Shelby is born to Warren Hall Shelby, a mail carrier, and Eloise Lawrence Shelby in Leesburg, Texas. November 1941 Shelby begins training at San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (later Lackland Air Force Base) near San Antonio, Texas. While on training missions, Carroll keeps in touch…

MUNICH—If you lust after Audi’s big, sexy A7, you’ll want a V-8 under its hood. To get it, order the new S7. Its twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V-8 replaces the 5.2-liter V-10 from the previous S6, and the 4.2-liter V-8 in the new A8. And while it may not turn the A7 into a Mercedes-Benz CLS55 AMG competitor, it finally makes it a worthy a CLS550 rival. The 4.0T has two twin-scroll turbos in the vee, with the cylinder head inlet on the outside, and exhaust on the inside. Cylinder cut-off shuts down four cylinders at cruising speeds almost imperceptibly. The standard 7S-tronic dual-clutch automatic comes with paddle shifters, though in this car, it’s more satisfying to let the tranny shift itself. The S also adds air suspension, which lowers the car…

Theoretical mileage: 47.9 mpg Actual mileage: 38.0 mpg Percent lower: 20 Fuel cost/mile: 9.9¢ Ford has already gotten the message loud and clear that its twin-(dry)-clutch six-speed automatic transmission has been a technological stubbed toe, producing a brittle shift quality and occasionally incoherent judgments. The future of the automobile resides with its software writers, and in this instance, what’s scripting the tranny’s actions is a good second draft, but far from bestseller-list prose. Opined Markus, “I wonder if this transmission benefits from all the reprogrammed software tweaks recently released? It still seems to display some of the original bad behavior.” And, remarkably, our test car was actually built with the wrong shifter. Markus: “It has a +/-button on it, which is not supposed to be on the SFE; and it’s…

Theoretical mileage: 58.1 mpg Actual mileage: 40.4 mpg Percent lower: 30 Fuel cost/mile: 9.4¢ What if GM took all those great, efficiency-enhancing insights they learned while developing the Volt and applied them to a conventional gasoline-powered sedan? Actually, that’s just about what the Cruze Eco is. It’s no secret the two cars share platforms, but nothing trains the mind on efficiency quite like creating a car that depends on a battery (at least sometimes), and many of the Volt’s teensy and seemingly improbable efficiencies have reappeared on its much better-selling gasoline-only alter ego. For instance, the Eco shares the Volt’s lightweight 17-inch wheels and low-rolling-resistance Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires, and deletes its rear-suspension’s weight-adding Watts linkage. At times, the weight-savings gets almost fanatical—the front anti-roll bar’s drop links are…

THE UPDATED 2013 Ferrari California is the kind of car that Robin Masters, the mysterious benefactor from the “Magnum P.I.” television series, would leave for Tom Selleck to drive were the show set in present-day Hawaii. (I see a remake…) That’s not to say the California is akin to a 308. But this is the kind of Ferrari a multi-bazillionaire would likely have tucked away in his Hawaiian hideaway: an absolute pussycat for trundling around Honolulu in comfort mode, but also a big-time performer fully capable of running from and chasing down bad guys on Oahu’s volcanic back roads. If you’ve been scanning the photos of the 2013 California for exterior updates, you can stop now, because there aren’t any, save a trim piece color here and there. So what…

“People ask me: ‘Is the 528i quick enough?’ Yes. But the better question is how well its stop/start function performs.”@MT_Reynolds THIS MAY be a first for a long-term update, but I’m typing this from within the 528i as it sits stranded on the side of Idyllwild Road, high above Palm Springs. Stuck in a sudden snowstorm. In front of me is an immobilized ambulance, and the last car out of this mess was a RWD Ford Expedition whose driver talked me into standing on its rear bumper for grip (holding onto the roof rack). Eventually he found it and drove off—with me still standing there (banging on the roof to get his attention). It’s a sled-dog-eat-sled-dog world out here. The kicker is that the AAA refused to help because I…

”The best part about the Eco button: Once you press it, the car stays in Eco mode. When you turn the car off, it doesn’t revert to normal mode.” TO ECO, or not to Eco? That’s the question with a lot of cars on the market now. It wasn’t that long ago when only a few vehicles had an Eco button that, when pushed, put the vehicle into a fuel-conservation mode. It altered throttle response and/or changed transmission settings; all things that would help you get a little better fuel mileage out of your vehicle. Luckily, our long term Kia Optima SX has said Eco button, and I have tried to keep it in Eco mode as much as possible. I’m not the only person that drives the Optima and…

”Nothing makes a car feel fresh like more power. A $1400 ECU reflash isn’t cheap, but it’s a lot less expensive than a new car.”@RoryJurnecka THE VOLVO has hit 20,000 fairly trouble-free miles. To celebrate, I decided to give it (and myself) a little present: more power. I talked to Polestar, Volvo’s factory-approved tuner, about the ECU ref ash it offers through select Volvo dealerships. With a simple electronic tweak, the turbo 3.0-liter T6 engine in the S60 is bumped by 25 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque to totals of 325 hp and 355 lb-ft—essentially bringing the car up to S60 R specification. Volvo and Polestar say the mod boosts power without a decrease in fuel economy. Volvo’s factory warranty remains intact. The whole process is pretty uneventful and…

EPA City/Hwy/Comb Fuel Econ: 35/40/37 mpg (gas) 95/90/93 mpge (electric) Average Fuel Econ 47.6 mpg AT 26,861 miles and during the very last week of its stay with us, our long-term Chevrolet Volt’s computerized maintenance warning finally illuminated: Time to change the oil. For the First Time. I’d been fretting about whether the remaining oil life display had gone haywire, and was actually headed for the dealer, anyway. Of course, not all those miles had been gasoline-powered. And even then, the little 1.8-liter engine’s workload was fairly low stress—it doesn’t do a lot of revving. Even so, I had an oil sample taken and sent it to Blackstone Laboratories for analysis. Result? Traces of aluminum, copper, and particularly iron, were high. I sent the report on to GM for comment,…

Charging Loss In addition to chargetime disparity, the battery demanded 7-percentmore kW-hrs from 110V power when going from “empty” to full, compared with 220V. The trickle charger—it’s in the cargo hold—suffers more resistance loss. Range Clairvoyant The electric range shown on the techy instrument screen proved eerily accurate, time after time. Reviewing trips where a full battery was exhausted, actual EV travel averaged to be just 0.9 mile less than what’s predicted. Heated Issue “Burn” is a word you don’t want to mention around EVs, but in the Volt’s case, something actually singed. The trickle charger’s three-point prong didn’t last long under constant use, and poor insulation was the culprit. State Lines The Volt’s carbon footprint as an EV depends on where you live, as emissions from generating electricity swing…