Innehållsförteckning för October 2006 från MotorTrend

■ Three engines: 241- and 261-horse, 3.6-liter V-6; 362-horse, 6.0-liter V-8 ■ Five transmissions: four-speed automatic, five-speed manual, five-speed auto, six-speed manual, six-speed automatic ■ Four-wheel discs with ABS; stability control standard on all models ■ Dual front, side, and curtain airbags standard ■ 16-inch wheels on base models; SS-V gets 19s; 17s and 18s on others ■ MacPherson-strut front suspension ■ ZF rack-and-pinion power steering ■ Four-link independent rear suspension ■ Fuel tank ahead of rear axle to meet GM rear-impact standard ■ Engineered for right- and left-hand drive…

AUDI WILL equipits new TT coupe with one half of the Gallardo’s 513-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-10 to create a car being developed under the working name TT-Lambo. The resulting 2.5-liter five-cylinder is already being used, sort of, in the 150-horsepower Volkswagen Golf and Jetta. But the quattro TT-Lambo gets a bespoke cylinder head and a turbocharger said to be capable of making it the most powerful TT ever—at more than 350 horsepower. When will we see it? That’s unknown right now, but 2009 is a well-educated guess for release date. What does it replace? Nothing. The hard-core TT Quattrosport, a 240-horsepower, 1.8-liter turbo with no rear seat, built near the end of the old TT’s production run and never imported to the U.S., is the only thing that comes close. Apart…

GET A GOOD box at this partially disguised Lexus IS at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife. Note the pumped front end, the 19-inch BBS alloys, the monster brakes, and the massive, stacked quad pipes at the rear. This is the long rumored Lexus |S 500, the 5.0-liter V-8-powered sport sedan aimed squarely at BMW’s forthcoming V-8 M3, plus the V-8 AMG Mercedes C-Class and Audi RS4. Word out of Japan is the 5.0-liter V-8 is based on the 380-horse-power, 4.6-liter unit in the newly launched Lexus LS 460. With a claimed 0-to-60 of 5.4 seconds, the big Lexus is no slouch and with what sources say is well north of 400 horses under the hood, the IS 500 ought to easily be the fastest production car ever built by Toyota. An…

IN THE FIELD of motorsport journalism, Chris Economaki is in a class all his own. This should come as no surprise, as he practically invented the term. Racetrack P.A. announcer, reporter, broadcaster, and newspaper publisher, the Brooklyn-born Economaki has been in the game for nearly 60 years. Long before the Internet, race hounds learned event results from Economaki’s “National Speed Sport News.” Who could ever forget ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” groundbreaking live broadcasts of the Indy and Daytona 500s, Economaki bringing us the action from the pits or the winner’s circle? Name a great post-WWII driver, and Economaki has interviewed him (or her). Name an historic win, or a tragic moment, and the chances are good Economaki was there. He treats people with respect and does his homework. His…

WHETHER you're looking for Wrangler capability in a more accommodating package, or more cargo room than FJ Cruiser, H3, and Xterra, or you simply want the only production four-door convertible currently on the market, Jeep’s new four-door Unlimited has your name on it. The new Unlimited replaces last year’s stretched two-door (all 2007 Unlimiteds are four-doors). The Unlimited’s hardware mirrors the standard Wrangler’s (like the two-door, the Unlimited is offered in X, Sahara, and Rubicon trims), including the new 3.8-liter V-6 and all the available electronic conveniences and rock-crawling goodies. But thanks to a 20.6-inch wheelbase stretch, the Unlimited boasts spaciousness the two-door can only dream about. Rear-seat legroom is up by 1.6 inches, and there’s a full foot of added hiproom, meaning three adults can now fit in back.…

JOHN COOPER, a British outfit run by the son of the eponymous Grand Prix car constructor and original-Mini hopper-upper, takes a standard Mini Cooper S and transforms it from 168 horsepower to a snorting 214, with commensurate suspension and brakes. The resulting car is so good BMW. adopts it, adds another seven ponies, and removes around 100 pounds of reflex-dulling body fat. Oh, and it’s still factory warranted. The name reflects the convolutions of its genesis: Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP kit. The sheer weight of badging must negate some of the effort that went into losing mass elsewhere. They've swapped out steel rear-suspension trailing arms for bespoke cast-aluminum items and used ultralight wheels. More drastically, it’s now a two-passenger machine as the entire back seat is…

THE FIFTH-GEN Golf, renamed Rabbit, rides on a stout platform with 80 percent more rigidity than the previous generation, fitting a fully independent multilink rear suspension on all models for the first time. Also for the first time, the Rabbit has a standard electromechanical steering system. A standard 2.5-liter five-cylinder generates 150 horsepower at 5000 rpm and 170 pound-feet of torque at 3750. Transmissions include a standard five-speed manual or an optional six-speed automatic with adaptive programming and Tiptronic controls. On the road, the Rabbit is nimble and fun to drive with a solid feel, handling with sharp turn-in. The 2.5-liter powerplant is lively but not quick off the line. Available in two- and four-door hatchback configurations at a starting base price of $15,620, the U.S.-market Rabbit is larger in…

JUST IN TIME, Suzuki has replaced its crude, truck-based extended-compact seven-passenger SUV with a GM Theta-based midsize crossover. With gas breaching $3 per gallon, the market for body-on-frame midsize sport/utilities like the Ford Explorer is dead. The XL7’s rear overhang is nine inches longer than those of the Chevy Equinox and Pontiac Torrent with which it shares an Ontario assembly plant making space for an optional third-row seat large enough for small children. While the Equinox/Torrent suffer GM’s crude pushrod 3.5-liter V-6, the XL7 gets GM’s “high-feature" 3.6 with variable valve timing, built in Japan under license with a Suzuki engine control unit and shipped to Ontario. This makes the XL7 a crossover with Theta’s Novocain constant-ratio power steering, floaty ride, and okay handling, but with a refined, responsive engine…

THOUGH Toyota is currently number one by a large margin in hybrid sales, General Motors is determined to short-circuit that lead by offering 13 hybrids, with three different types of gas/electric tech, by the end of the decade. We recently sampled the simplest of those systems in the Saturn Vue Green Line. Its belt-driven electric motor is basically an oversized alternator, and it makes this front-driver the lowest-cost hybrid SUV on the market at a base price of $22,995—55000 over the base Vue. The Green Line’s 2.4-llter, 170-horse gas engine is more powerful than the 22-liter in the conventional Vue, and its nickel-metal hydride battery pack gives it 20-percent-better overall fuel economy and gains of five mpg compared with a gas-powered Vue automatic. This hybrid system shuts down the engine…

VOLKSWAGEN made its SEMA Show debut in Las Vegas this year. To make a splash, VW’s covert American think tank, known as Moonraker, worked undercover for months with HPA Motorsports to build three autobahn-burners to wow the SEMA crowd. Although the tuner toys aren't slated for immediate production, VW’s goal was to judge public perception of the tuned Jetta, Passat, and Touareg and possibly apply the best-received aspects to future production models. The most extreme of the HPA-built VWs is the 600 horsepower twin-turbo Jetta RGT pictured here. It includes twin turbochargers, radical KW coll-over suspension, beefed DSG gearbox, reworked Haldex 4-Motion AWD. real WRC-spec brakes, one-off CNC-machined wheels, a full rollcage. interior replete with quad race bucket seats, and even built-in air-lift jacks. Although you won't be able to…

2006 BMW 330i Total mileage 8933 OPPOSING opinions fight for attention in the 330i logbook. One of our younger staff members writes, “The 3 Series is still the definition of perfection in the small-sport-sedan market.” Another staffer disagrees: “BMW builds a great car. But either the 3 Series isn’t pushing the performance-and-fun envelope as much as it once did or, more likely, the competitive set is getting that much better.” Both editors feel it’s a superb piece, but BMW is behind in the horsepower war, and the rest of the pack has worked hard to catch up. That soon won't be a problem, however, as BMW’s new 300-horsepower, twin-turbo I-6 will be offered in the 3 Series sedan next year. Average fuel econ 20.1 mpg Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost…

WHILE THE 24 Hours of Le Mans, Daytona, and the Nurburgring are grueling enough to make race cars bleed and race drivers crumble, imagine what an 84-hour enduro would be like. That was the premise behind the Marathon de la Route, which was run at Germany’s famous ‘Ring. After decades of ear-piercing RX7 racers and Spec Miata fields of up to 75 cars, it’s too often forgotten that Mazda’s racing history began with a tuned-up version of the Cosmo Sport, the swoopy little rotary-powered coupe that was produced from 1967 to 1972. Mazda supported this modified Cosmo in the 1968 running of the Marathon, and it finished an amazing fourth place overall. Twenty-three years later, another Mazda—this one a bit bigger and a lot faster—achieved the overall victory at Le…

EXCLUSIVE! COVER STORY EXCLUSIVE! THE NEW Commodore has been engineered from the get-go to be left-hand drive and comply with all world safety standards. Even the fuel tank is ahead of the rear axle—changing that for the GTO was one of the reasons GM couldn’t spend more money giving the Monaro coupe more Pontiac style. The new Commodore is a clean-sheet car, so it looks fresh, contemporary, and muscular. GM’s head of North American car design, Mike Simcoe, knows the vehicle intimately: An Aussie, he oversaw all the initial work on the new Commodore in GM’s Melbourne, Australia, design studio before being promoted to Detroit. A relatively simple front fascia change incorporating the Pontiac split grille, plus the usual Pontiac branding details and official U.S. safety certification and emissions calibration…

THE LANCER has been about the only successful car line to come from Mitsubishi in recent years, due in no small part to the fanatical enthusiast following generated by the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive, rally-bred Evo models. The all-new Evo X is one of the most anticipated new cars from Japan (along with the Nissan GT-R). Mitsubishi sources are confirming that regular Iterations of the next Lancer will share a lot more Evo DNA in a bid to boost sales. The turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Lancer Ralliart shown above is intended to be more mild-mannered than the Evo X and has been designed to compete with Subaru’s WRX. It’s meant to be a halfway step between the regular Lancer sedans and the all-out performance version to give Mitsubishi a car line with broader appeal.…

ALFA ROMEO will build a 500-unit run of the beautiful 8C Competizione show car and use it to spearhead the marque’s reentry to the U.S. in 2008. Its engine is based on Maserati’s 4.2-liter V-8, but uses Alfa-designed cylinder heads and gets an increase in capacity to 4.7 liters. It drives 20-inch rear wheels through a six-speed rear-mounted gearbox. The bodywork is mostly carbon fiber. The two-seat coupe was first exhibited as a concept at the Frankfurt International Auto Show in 2003. It was designed by Wolfgang Egger, chief of Alfa’s in-house studios and recalls the era of coachbuilt track-biased Alfas. “We remembered the 2000 Sportiva, the 33 Stradale, and the TZ,” Egger says. The production version will make its debut at the September Paris show.…

cattle drive Having made round trips all over the country, I can relate to MacKenzie’s appreciation of our country’s wide-open spaces (“Thunder Road,” July). My most memorable moment? The summer of 1967 on a winding two-lane road in the mountains of Wyoming, driving a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II two-door hardtop and coming upon cowboys driving a herd of cattle down the road. The cowboys said, “Just tap your horn and drive slowly, they'll move out of your way.” I drove into a sea of cattle, wondering if! was still on the road. When the last cow was out of the way, a cowboy tipped his hat. Either he was admiring the wheels or thinking what the heck that kid in a car with Maryland tags was doing way out here.…

INFINITI WAS arguably adrift when the dashing G35 sedan and coupe arrived in late 2002 to chart a new course for the brand. In addition to earning Motor Trend’s coveted Car of the Year calipers, the sedan also managed the seemingly impossible: It defeated the almighty BMW 3 Series in a three-way comparison. Many fretted that this marked a Sign of the Apocalypse. Some drank sake and Suntory whiskey until the wee hours; others sharpened their pencils and retreated to their drawing boards. Infiniti wore its crown proudly for three years, easily defending its title in 2004 against rivals from Acura, Cadillac, and Ss 5 and then late last year the inevitable happened: A new BMW 3 arrived. The propeller-brand faithful were relieved to find that it design hadn't been…

IT DELIVERS THE ELUSIVE FEEL OF DEDICATED DRIVER’S MACHINE ITS CREDENTIALS are imposing: 263 horsepower at 5500 rpm, 280 pound-feet of torque at 3000, 0 to 60 in less than six seconds, and a top speed of 155 mph. Reads more like the résumé of a $45,000 BMW or Audi sport sedan than a $23,000 Mazda hatchback. Armed with those qualifications, the all new Mazdaspeed3 gives the term" bang for the buck” an inferiority complex. Of course, numbers never tell the whole story. The AWD Mazdaspeed6, which utilizes the same 2.3-liter direct-injection turbocharged four-cylinder engine (albeit with 274 horses) and six-speed manual, looks like a ringer on the spec sheet. On the road, however, its portly 3574-pound curb weight and front-drive feel tarnish some of its promise on paper. A…

THE VERY RICH, as F scott Fitzgerald noted, are very different from you and me. Most of us would look at the $346,650 Rolls-Royce Phantom and the $250,230 Bentley Arnage R on these pages and wonder how you can spend as much on a car as you could on the average house. The very rich, however, merely wonder where their checkbooks are. The overwhelming majority of Phantoms and Arnages sold in this country, you see, are bought and paid for with cold, hard cash. Rolls-Royce moved more than 350 Phantoms in the U.S. last year and Bentley some 295 Arnages. That’s somewhere north of $180 million of very rich folks’ loose change. The very rich are like you and me in one way, however: They like their cars. The average…

BESIDES THE driver’s seat, the best vantage point from which to enjoy Jaguar’s supercharged XKR may be from behind it. All the better to admire the sinuousness of its arching fenders and tapered rump, this vantage point puts you front and center for a guttural blast from the XKR’s four exhaust pipes. Jaguar designers, engineers, and product types have given the marque’s “Grace, Pace, Space” mantra a shot of protein powder and sent the XK model to a spin class. She’s fitter, trimmer, lighter, and hotter for sure—yet elegant as ever. We've lauded the aluminum-structured and dressed XK in previous reviews, and it was with great anticipation we flogged the amped-up R version through the south of France (forget, by the way. any talk of champagne, chateaus, or political disagreements—this…

THIS IS saturn’s most important new car, ever. Scratch that. This is GM’s most important new car, ever. This week, anyway, Rick Wagoner is looking down from the top floor of that big glass cylinder in the background. He must recognize the car’s importance, even if he’s been preoccupied with Kirk Kerkorian and a certain Franco-Japanese automaker’s chief. Now that sales of the new full-size SUVs have settled, and now that that highly profitable segment has the same future as the compact disc, the Aura is the best indication of whether GM can finally stem market-share loss and claw its way back to profitability. Saturn’s Aura is a slightly Americanized Opel Vectra (so slight, even the Euro-style fender turn-signal repeaters remain). It Is on an updated Epsilon platform, the first…

FOR ITS 1oth year on the market, the CR-V has shed its boxy sport/utility wrappings to reveal its true crossover identity. It’s always been car-based, with little off-road capability, but as sales trends move toward smaller, lighter vehicles, the Honda is now free to be itself. The 2007 model looks elongated and squashed down, but the dimensions haven't changed much: It’s shorter (by 3.0 inches; the spare’s now underneath), wider (1.4 inches), lower (0.1 inch), and rides on a shorter wheelbase (0.2 inch). Also gone is the left-to-right side-swinging cargo door, which forced you to walk into traffic to retrieve groceries. The rear door’s now hinged on top. Last year’s 16-valve i-VTEC DOHC four has been upgraded, with 166 horsepower instead of 156, and with one more pound-foot of torque,…

THE BIGEST change for the 2007 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT spec.B is Subaru Intelligent Drive, allowing the driver to select from three modes of performance. In Intelligent mode, the spec.B is smoother in traffic, While torque and maximum power are reduced, making the Subaru feel slower than in the other modes, fuel efficiency can be boosted by up to 10 percent. Sport mode, designed for use on freeways or suburban streets, provides a quicker throttle response and powerful, linear acceleration. Sport Sharp is Subaru’s high-perf mode for the spec.B, modifying the engine’s electronic throttle mapping and providing an even quicker response than Sport mode and full use of all 243 ponies. This mode is ideal for a quick run through the canyons or helping you merge and overtake on the…

WHILE SUZUKI has built its U.S. business on affordable sport/utilities, cars like this AWD four-door hatchback are what make the tiny automaker stand out. The SX4 sure is fun. Its thrashy four-banger, while making a claimed best-in-class horsepower, is saddled with nearly 2900 pounds of car and a 6400-rpm redline. 600 revs north of peak horsepower. (The all-wheel-drive system has a button for full-time front drive for fuel economy, all-wheel drive on demand, or locked all-wheel drive.) But the stiff suspension, quick steering, and precise, positive five-speed manual translate into slow fun on twisty tabletop Southern California mountain drives. The ride may prove rough on less-perfect Rustbelt roads. And the strange A-pillar quarter-window treatment doesn't mitigate the blind spot by much. Still, the SX4 has enough versatility, distinctiveness, and entertainment…

FACE IT, coupes are just plain sexy. Who can forget BMW’s stunning 3.0CSi? It was a great performer in its day and, 35 years later, it still looks crisp. In 1971, it was equipped with an inline-six-cylinder engine that cranked out an energetic 200 horsepower. History now repeats itself with BMW selecting the 2007 3 Series coupe as the launch platform for its new twin-turbo, direct-injection inline-six (Motor Trend, September 2006). Displacing 3.0 liters. It spools out 300 horses and just as many pound-feet, a big advance on the base 328i Coupe naturally aspirated 3.0’s 230 horsepower and 200 pound-feet of torque. Those twin turbochargers quell the famed inline-six’s exhaust note, but enhance the creamy smooth engine’s willingness to rev. The result is a turbolag-free 0-to-60 time of 5.1 seconds.…

“IT WAS just so right. And Bob Lutz must get a lot of the credit. He looked at what he had when he got to GM and realized Pontiac needed a rear-drive V-8 coupe. He searched all over the world and could find only one—the Holden Monaro. So he took the folks at Pontiac by the hand, sat ‘em down with the Holden people, and said, ‘You guys work this out.’ “I consulted with the Holden guys on the project and told them what heritage they needed to keep—not too much—but the GM people killed every single suggestion they had. They changed the GTO emblem from that nice stretched vee into that rounded thing, which was the dumbest move ever made. They allowed the hood scoop to get away from…

BMW SELLS 40,000 Minis annually in the United States, nearly as much as in the brand’s top market, the United Kingdom, wildly beyond expectations for our small-hatchback-ata-premium-price adverse market. So designers and engineers have given us much more consideration for the 2008 Mini Cooper launching here around February than it did for the 2002-2007 model. Its new aluminum four-banger, co-built with Peugeot, replaces the iron-block lump shared with DaimlerChrysler. The car is 2.6 inches longer with a taller hood. Its comfortable suspension shows BMW chassis-tuner influences. Will we prefer the new car? The average American buyer might, but the first new Mini appealed most to the enthusiast market in America, people who like hatchbacks with go-kart-stiff suspensions. The Cooper S’s ride feels supple around Zandvoort, Holland’s old F1 circuit, but…

CONDITIONS WERE far from optimal. Our charcoal-gray G35S six-speed contender arrived fresh off the plane with barely 200 miles showing on its odometer. The similarly somber-hued BMW 330i Sport six-speed on hand to defend its hard-earned sport-sedan title had been around the auto journalists’ block some 2900 miles’ worth. A long-threatened weather System promising relief from a 90-degree muggy Michigan heat wave was just about a half day away. Still, at high noon, we mounted our test gear and rang the bell. ROUND 1: ACCELERATION TESTING The benchmark BMW came out swinging first, and the raw numbers showed evidence of power-sapping heat and humidity. The first few passes covered 0-to-60 mph in around seven seconds, with the quarter mile falling in almost 16 seconds at barely 90 mph. But with…

“JEEZ. THAT’S A LONG WAY!” We were staring at Google Earth, figuring the miles we’d need to drive from Willow Springs Raceway to Legoland and then up to the enormous Hale telescope on Mount Palomar. It looked like around 230. Of course, you might be asking what Legoland and a giant observatory have to do with BMW’s revised Z4 3.0si, Nissan’s venerable 350Z Roadster, and Pontiac’s new Solstice GXP in the first place. They're symbols. Reminders that a good sports car needs three basic ingredients to succeed: speed (of the handling sort); a sun-worshipper’s thrall with the sky; and a lighthearted, impractical toyishness. Two of the three characteristics, and you have a different kind of car entirely. Visiting these reminders of the sports car’s trifurcated personality would focus our job—and…

ZAMBIA, AFRICA. So rare are human visitors to these thick green hills in the Luangwa River Valley, we can almost hear the tsetse flies above our heads saying to each other, “You go first.” But as our convoy finally reaches civilization (in the form of a temporary tented camp), one of the local guides waiting there immediately asks, “How do you like Jeep?” This is as unsurprising as it is impressive, Unsurprising because, with a slotted, vertical grille and mil-spec, foot-locker styling that’s soldiered on with only minor deviations since the days of Eisenhower and Patton, the Jeep Wrangler is one of the world’s best-known vehicles—and as unabashedly American as Coca-Cola, John Wayne, and French fries Yet the fact that the locals instantly finger this Wrangler as a Jeep is…

INTRODUCED as a 2003 model, the first-gen Outlander came to market with an anemic 140-horse four-cylinder engine (upped to 160 the following year) and a body that could best be described as inoffensive. No surprise, it set the world on fire like a box of wet matches, with sales in the U.S. peaking at just over 34,000 in 2003 and falling below 12,000 in 2005. For the Outlander, a big boost was in order. Throttle into the 2007 model’s 220-horsepower V-6, and it’s evident Mitsubishi has injected that boost. Paired with a six-speed automatic with manual shifting and available steering-wheel-mounted magnesium paddle shifters, the new 3.0-liter, replete with MIVEC variable valve timing, is a refined, robust unit whose 204 pound-feet of torque—of which 90 percent is available at 2000 rpm—brings…

THE FIRST fully designed (from start to finish) Hyundai vehicle, the 2007 Santa Fe, in its Southern California design studio has done away with the humpback whale fins over the front fenders and awkward side-panel curves. The new Santa Fe is more conventional in appearance, melding nicely with an overall shape resembling a cross between the Toyota Highlander or RAV4 with just a hint of Acura RDX. The all-new unibody chassis has been specifically tuned for better on-road handling, and our test drive bore that out. Better balance from the front- and all-wheel-drive models is a significant improvement over the previous gen, due in large part to a crisper steering response. The physical size of the vehicle has grown with the wheelbase stretched over three inches and track width widened…

IN JANUARY when Porsche introduced the Cayman—named after the swift caiman crocodile—it did so with the fat-engine, fat-wallet S version, which boasts a 3.4-liter, 295-horsepower flat-six and a $59,695 price tag. Now comes “the Cayman without the S.’ with an updated 2 J-liter flat-six—higher 11.3:1 compression ratio, five more horses (245), two extra pound-feet of torque (201), and VarioCam Plus, which adjusts intake-valve lift as well as timing - that has the guts to deliver 0-to-60 mph In roughly 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 161 mph Sure it pales in power and performance next to the S, but its S9SCO price advantage and nonetheless impressive numbers arguably make it the better package, especially considering that dynamically it offers the same mid-engine magic. The Cayman gets 17-inch wheels, black…

WHAT’S HAPPENING over at VW? The once frumpy car company is now cranking out power-filled product with more oomph than a beer garden full of drunken patrons belting out oom-pah-pah. The all-new Golf V (aka Rabbit] is here, and soon returning is the potent AWD monster known simply as R32. Although the new R32 doesn't hit American shores until 2008, ace VW tuner HPA Motorsports has already imported a Euro-spec R32 as a development mule for Its upcoming line of turbocharged R32 tuner packages that feature single-turbo FT400 and FT460, and twin-turbo FT525 and FT575. We visited HPA’s Canadian shop for a look at a FT575 package (538,500) that Includes upgrades for power, suspension, brakes, and even unique body fascias. The FT575 modification starts by lowering the compression of the…

SINCE WE at Motor Trend are required to keep the fuel tank of every test vehicle filled to two-thirds full, the arrival of a gas/electric hybrid—especially one that'll be here for a year—is a welcome addition. The reason, naturally, is fewer visits to the gas station, which means fewer instances of being irritated by Angelenos blabbing on their Bluetooths while fueling. In the case of our latest long-termer, the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, there’s a lot more to enjoy than just fewer fill-ups and annoyances. Wearing an as-tested price tag of $27,909, our Titanium Metallic Camry Hybrid came equipped with three useful options: a voice-activated DVD-based navigation system, which includes a booming 440-watt JBL premium stereo with an In-dash four-CD changer. MP3 playback, and Bluetooth compatibility ($1200). the last for…

In fall 2004, Land Rover replaced its Discovery SUV with the all-new LR3. This was no minor update: The LR3 arrived boasting an all-new platform with a Jaguar-sourced, 300-horse V-8; a bold, contemporary exterior (the stylists even pulling design cues from mid-century architecture); a thoroughly reworked cabin with true seven-passenger capability; and, perhaps most important, the debut of Land Rover’s brilliant Terrain Response system, which allows drivers to automatically configure the vehicle’s myriad 4WD systems for different conditions (ie., mud, snow, sand) simply by twisting a dial. The LR3 proved as impressive in the metal as it looked on paper, winning our 2005 Motor Trend Sport/Utility of the Year award. In December 2004, we took delivery of a topline LR3 HSE in striking Zambezi Silver. The miles piled up quickly;…