Innehållsförteckning för August 2008 från MotorTrend

■ Four-Cylinder Sedans Duke It Out Our epic four-cylinder sedan shootout on page 122 started with 10 cars on the grid and was whittled to five finalists and, finally, one winner. When you’re done pouring over which of the final five was crowned, head over to motortrend.com for the complete report on all 10 sedans in our comprehensive test. We have multiple video features, more photos, and reports on the also-rans, along with special instrumented testing that goes beyond the usual performance figures to measure NVH factors such as interior cabin noise.…

BMW’S 3.0-liter twin-turbo six won International Engine of the Year for the second year in a row, beating engines from Toyota, Porsche, Volkswagen/Audi, Subaru, and others. Green, small-displacement turbo engines took seven of the 11 categories, but the 11 categories’ total output is nevertheless a healthy 3376 horsepower. Judges on the international panel include Motor TrendÕs own Frank Markus and Paul Horrell. Following are winners in the 11 individual categories. They competed against each other for the Engine of the Year title. BEST NEW ENGINE BMW 2.0L twin-turbodiesel (123D) GREEN ENGINE Toyota 1.5L Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius) PERFORMANCE ENGINE Porsche 3.6L turbo (911 Turbo, 911 GT2) SUB-1.0L Toyota 1.0L 67-hp 3-cyl gas (Toyota Aygo/Citroën C1/Peugeot 107/Subaru Justy, et al.) 1.0-1.4L BMW-PSA 1.6L Turbo (Mini Cooper S, et al.) 1.8-2.0L VW/Audi…

PORSCHE plans a 1-2 punch wth this 2010 Cayenne receiving major changes, ahead of the more fuel-mileage-friendly 2011 Roxster. The smaller model will have 4WD, a longitudinal engine, and overall length of 185 inches on an 111-inch wheelbase. Despite the use of Audi Q5 platform parts and the increasing fiscal closeness of the two companies, Porsche wants to widen the differentiation more than it did with the Cayenne-Touareg pair. So the Roxster has its own sheetmetal and greenhouse, and interior, and it doesn’t share powerplants, as it’s engineered for the same V-6 as in the Cayenne and Porsche’s own naturally aspirated V-8. The Audi version will offer a seven-speed DSG transmission, and since Porsche will soon have its own DSG in the 911, it’s likely the Audi gearbox will be…

WHILE EVERYONE’S waiting for Ford’s new EcoBoost engine to make its debut with the 2009 Lincoln MKS, the company’s more conventional, naturally aspirated engines are getting upgrades for better performance and fuel mileage. The 2009 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner are good examples of this interim improvement. The old 153-horsepower, 2.3-liter four has been bored and stroked (among other upgrades) to a 171-horsepower, 2.5-liter, and the 3.0-liter V-6 gets new cylinder heads, injectors, intake and exhaust cams, manifolds and pistons, and a compression-ratio bump from 10.0:1 to 10.3:1. So now the V-6 actually has a V-6-like horsepower number, up 40 ponies to 240, keeping significant space between it and the four. Both engines get intelligent variable valve timing. The hybrid gets the new 2.5-liter, too, and for 2009 runs on…

SAAB’S NEW 9-4X crossover (pictured, right) is big news, the first genuinely all-new Saab model in years, even though under the sheetmetal it shares a lot of hardware with Cadillac’s similar-size crossover. Then there’s the new 2010 9-5, based on the same Epsilon II hardware as the Opel Insignia and next-gen Saturn Aura. By the time the new 9-5 arrives, the current car will be 12 years old. The new 9-5 was designed in GM Europe’s studios in Rüsselsheim, Germany, rather than in Sweden, but incorporates many of the well-received new Saab design cues. The nose will bear a strong resemblance to those of the 9-4X crossover and 9-X Biohybrid concept vehicles. So will the greenhouse, with its blackout A-pillars, simple four-sided glass outline, strong C-pillars, and capped roof. Several…

“THE TRANSITION TO METHANOL REQUIRES NO RADICAL RETHINKING OF OUR VEHICLES AND HOW WE REFUEL THEM.” WHAT IF we could have our hydrogen economy and keep our filling stations and fuel tanks, too? We’d save about a trillion bucks in infrastructure costs. How can this be done? By taking a couple of hydrogen molecules and sneaking a carbon-monoxide in between them to produce CH3-OH, aka methanol. Liquid at room temperature, it pours, stores, and travels almost as easily as gasoline. Sure, it’s corrosive, slightly toxic, and has half the energy density of gasoline, but compared with the challenges of handling the lightest element in the universe, those challenges seem zeptoscopic. And like hydrogen, you can choose to burn methanol or run it through a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell to produce electricity,…

WHAT DO YOU see when you look at this vehicle? A 4/3-scale Mini Clubman? An overinflated Scion xB? A long wagon? A low minivan? Ford wants you to see a 1986 Taurus, a 1965 Mustang, or a 1956 T-Bird. A design icon. Whether or not you can squint that hard, the new Flex will never sell in numbers like some of those earlier icons, but its sleek, striking design and execution seem likely to propel it to more auspicious sales than the last“game-changing” low-roof three-row GrandTourer to come down the pike—Chrysler’s Pacifica. Part of that vehicle’s problem was that its foundation was a high, flat minivan floorpan and firewall, which imposed some serious design constraints. Ford started with the Taurus/Taurus X foundation—footwells, center hump, and all—and moved the rear wheels…

NUMBERS. It’s all about the numbers. Longer and wider, with a longer wheelbase and shorter turning radius than BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E-Class, and Lexus ES. Lower coefficient of drag, 0.27, and better fuel economy than most. A stiffer body than those of the Bimmer, Benz, and the Lexus LS 430 (Hyundai sees much of the Lexus range as its competition). Its optionalTauV-8 is “best-in-class,” making more horses (375) thanV-8s in the 550i, E550, GS 460, or Infiniti M45 and does 0-to-60 mph in well under six seconds. It’s built in the world’s largest auto factory, Hyundai’s 1.62-million unit-per-year Ulsan plant. 7 Series size, 5 Series performance, 3 Series price, Hyundai says. Hyundai’s first indigenous rear-drive sedan and in-house-developed V-8 comes 41 years after the company began assembling knock-down Ford…

NOT MANY cars become motoring metaphors. The 3 Series, for instance, is shorthand for a small sporting sedan. The 7 Series is still known as“BMW’s S-Class,” so powerful is the brand of the top-drawer Benz. And if Motor Trend ran a headline talking about Kia’s Corvette, we’d know what sort of car the Koreans had in mind. So when Land Rover discreetly referred to its LRX concept car at the Detroit show as “our TT,” we knew precisely what they meant. TT is shorthand for distinctive, design-led, jewel-like, small, and sporty. One of the best and most original pieces of product styling of the 1990s—and we’re not just talking about automobiles—the TT has done wonders for the sale of small sports cars and for Audi’s sport standing. And yet the…

THIS LITTLE Subaru wagon will beat a Shelby GT Mustang to before dropping it like a bad habit around the nearest corner. Jump on the brakes at the same speed, and it’ll stop in a retina-detaching 98 feet—as short as a $200,000 Porsche 911 GT2. Surprising? Only slightly. These days, stories of tuned-up Japanese rally sedans breaking off sports cars costing tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars more, are hardly news. The real story is how Salt Lake City’s COBB Tuning balanced performance and practicality in its STI. The big surprise is what COBB hasn’t done. Along with a new shifter ($165), shifter bushings ($35), redesigned air box ($125), and turbo heat shield ($), COBB only added its Stage + Power Package ($2360), which includes a 3.0-inch downpipe with…

YOU HAVE no idea what a relief it is to introduce you to the latest addition to our long-term fleet—an “inferno red” Chrysler Town & Country Limited minivan. Since our trusty Kia Sedona completed its tour and went off the books a while back, the frequent people-shuttlers among us have been making do with a couple of very nice crossovers—a Mazda CX-, and more recently, a Hyundai Veracruz. But as good as they are (the former is Motor Trend’s SUV of the year, remember), they’re not minivans. No, you really have to repeat this with me, it’s important: “crossovers are not minivans.” Splitting hairs? It’s not splitting hairs when your rather large crossover is jam-packed for a week-long family vacation and you’ve still got a third of the stuff you…

“CARS LIKE THE TESLA ROADSTER AND CHEVY VOLT ARE ONE REASON I THINK THE AUTO INDUSTRY IS ENTERING ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING DECADES IN ITS HISTORY.” NEVER MIND the fact New York had a fleet of electric taxis running in Manhattan in 1897: If you believed the hype surrounding the launch of the Tesla Roadster from some sections of the media, you’d almost think this Silicon Valley startup invented the electric car. Don’t get me wrong: We like the Tesla Roadster. It’s fast and fun, a world away from the po-faced automotive muesli most modern electric cars tend to be. We understand that, despite its innovative battery technology, the Tesla has its limitations—claimed range is just 220 miles, though until we test one further, we don’t know how slowly…

WHILE other automakers race to bring smaller cars to the U.S., longtime small-car specialist Suzuki is moving into the midsize and pickup truck segments. Bad timing? Or just another clever zig while the others zag by one of Japan’s most quietly successful low-profile automakers? First, Suzuki gets a pickup truck, although the 2009 Equator is a compact pickup, based on the Nissan Frontier and built by that automaker in the U.S. Suzuki’s 2010 midsize car, based on the Kizashi concept, will enter the most competitive auto segment in the business, battling Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, and Chevy Malibu with the Malibu’s own 3.6-liter “high-feature” V-6 as an option. The Kizashi-cake’s icing (Suzuki may hold a contest to name the car for North America) is that it one-ups the…

letter of the month sorry about that, chief I owe you an apology. I got so angry while reading your articles about how great diesel vehicles have become (“Over the Top,” May) and how amazing their gas mileage is. And the torque. The reliability. Oh, and of course, the carbon footprint. I’m sick and tired of it all! Come on! The amazing Land Rover LR diesel! Is that not one of the greatest things ever? And I can’t have one. So stop teasing me. But then, I let my anger subside. I stopped yelling at my girlfriend about all the diesel injustices in the world. And I thought, hey, maybe it’s a good thing that you’re talking about it. Maybe it’s a good thing people are learning about it. And…

THAT’S RIGHT. The 430 Scuderia, a V-8-powered, aluminum “volume-sales” model we all kind of assumed was just another lightened, midcycle riff on the F430 turns out to be one serious supercar. It may be Ferrari’s best-performing GT car ever, despite its fire-sale $272,306 price. It is unquestionably the Ferrari that mere owners—not factory test drivers or F1 world champions—will be able to drive the fastest on demanding roads or race circuits without winding up on wreckedexotics.com. Granted, the 503-horse 430 carries 18-percent-more weight per filly than does the 651-horse Enzo and it lacks the Enzo’s exotic pushrod-actuated suspension, active aero-gear, and a few other racy touches. And yet with Michael Schumacher at the helm, the 430 Scuderia circulated the fast track at Fiorano in 1:25.0, equaling test driver Dario Benuzzi’s…

IS NISSAN PERHAPS ALSO PLANNING TO LAND A MAXIMA ON MARS? IF ANY CAR in the Nissan lineup qualifies as a “cult” vehicle, it’s the maker’s four-door Maxima sedan. Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of cross-carline product strategy, says the Maxima ranks as the maker’s strongest loyalty product, while purely empirical evidence suggests Maxima owners do indeed speak about their cars with a reverence unique in the segment. Yet Perry also admits that the outgoing, six-generation Maxima had strayed from the winning formula. “It was a softer athlete,” he says. Thus the mission for the new, seventh-gen car: Reinject the DNA from the cult-building “four-door sports car” first sold for 1989. In fact, this time around Nissan raised the bar even higher, aiming to make the Maxima nothing less than“the best-performing…

TRUE STRENGTH comes from knowing your own weaknesses. While that type of insight can cause short-term pain, it also fine-tunes your focus when you need to fix what’s broken. Our first encounter with the all-new 2009 Mazda6 made it clear that plenty of high-level corporate soul searching had been part of its comprehensive development brief. After soldiering on bravely since mid-2002 with a car that, by Mazda’s own admission, lacked the size, power, and perceived quality of its prime competitors in the midsize arena, the automaker is set to launch a replacement that could level the playing field. If production versions match the promise of the prototypes we drove, this engaging four-door could well move to the head of its class, in spirit if not in absolute sales numbers. While…

THIS YEAR’S high-performance headlines are all about Nissan’s gigantus GT-R, a two-ton nuke lobbed at Newton’s laws of physics. Meanwhile, way below the fold in mouse type, we read that Lotus has quietly strengthened its longstanding alliance with fellow Brit, Sir Isaac, by introducing an Elise with Exige S power and fewer pounds worth of “resistance to motion.” Granted, a lightened Lotus is no news flash, but there’s a bit more to this one than appears at first blush. For one thing, the engine is quite different from the Exige S’s. Both start off as Toyota ZZ-GE. -liters, butyou’llnoteright off there’s no inter cooler and air scoop blocking the rear window of this one. Instead, an entirely new intake manifold by Magnuson incorporatesan Eaton M Roots-type supercharger that blows a…

TRUCK TREND art director Thomas Voehringer notes, “My youngest daughter likes the Rondo a lot.” For perspective, he adds, “She also likes Pokemon.” Voehringer himself assesses the Rondo’s styling this way: “Kia touts that the Rondo has Cabinosity and Giddy upedness, but fails to declare it also has Fuglytude.” While he doesn’t care for the looks from the outside, he finds little to fault from behind the wheel. “There’s plenty of giddy up here, with the front end lifting like Lone Ranger’s Silver every time you give it the gas.” Back in the saddle, Voehringer continues: “Once the Rondo settles down into commuting mode, it doesn’t nag you with many problematic issues. It’s actually quite comfortable to cruise in. Its blah visual persona makes it almost invisible to traffic on…

FORD’S NEW Flex crossover is comfortable and luxurious enough to take out on the town. The same can be said of a generation of Ford woodies, particularly those produced from 1946 to 1948. While the vinyl appliqués plastered to the sides of 1960s and 1970s station wagons reduced to caricature the notion of a woodbodied vehicle, this was the real stuff. Depending on the manufacturer, doors, window frames, even the headliners were handcrafted out of ash, maple, and other woods, more in the idiom of fine furniture and sporting watercraft than mass-produced automobiles. The top was made of a hard, black vinyl-like material, stretched over wood bows. This 1947 example was officially called a Super Deluxe Station Wagon. Wood was hardly ideal for automotive use. It rotted and was subject…

FORCED in part by the regulation that automakers produce some zero-emissions vehicles or advanced technology partial-emissions vehicles for California by 2012, BMW has begun work on electric cars. “An electric motor is an option we are looking into,” chairman Norbert Reithofer says. It isn’t just the zero-emissions requirement that’s motivating BMW, he goes on. The high-torque nature of these vehicles makes them fun to drive, provided the battery is efficient. “It doesn’t only work at zero-emissions level. The technology isn’t sophisticated enough to offer sheer driving pleasure. This is one of the reasons we’re evaluating the option of launching a battery-powered car.” BMW will decide on production by the end of 2008, he says. The same base vehicle also could be used with a small, conventional powertrain. The company has…

IT’S A “classic” Ferrari with a gas direct-injection 4.3-liter V-8 up front and a convertible-only body. The new Ferrari California makes its debut in October at the Paris auto show and then goes on sale at a price rumored to be north of the mid-engine F430’s base $210,000. The Net has been calling this“ the new Dino” for more than a year now, despite denials from Ferrari brass all the way up to Fiat Auto’s Luca di Montezemolo. This is what it is: a less-expensive, more relaxed grand tourer that complements Ferrari’s 612 Scaglietti, which is a car you’d feel comfortable driving around town even if you’ve never driven anything more serious than a Toyota Camry. You’ll recognize the 4.3-liter engine size as that of the Maserati GranTurismo. Word is…

FORD IS working on two new, smaller-than-F-150 pickup trucks, one based on the F-Series and the other a replacement for the aged Ranger compact, which was unchanged, save for facelifts, since the 1998 model year. The smaller F-150 is codenamed P525 and may be badged F-100, the name of the F-150’s predecessor from the 1950s. At one point, P525 and the Ranger replacement were competing proposals, but with growing need for higher-fuel-mileage trucks, both projects will become reality in 2010 or 2011. The P525 won’t be offered with V-8 power, but instead will come with fourcylinder and V-6 EcoBoost (gas direct injection and turbocharging) options, the engines’ fuel economy and torque optimized for interim Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards expected to kick in for the 2011 model year. The Ranger…

TOO FEW car buyers know, or care, what General Motors’s import-fighting division, Saturn, has become. Efforts to move it slightly upmarket haven’t worked so well, with the midsize Aura and crossover Outlook foundering in the market even as siblings like the Chevy Malibu and the Buick Enclave/GMC Acadia succeed. Then there’s the Astra compact, a car far superior to the Ion it marginally replaced. It’s also significantly more expensive to buyers and GM (Opel builds it in Ghent, Belgium), and it’s not selling, either. Plus, Opel/Vauxhall has a new Astra coming for 2010, just three model years into the Saturn version. So it’s time for a new entry-level Saturn. Enter the second-generation Meriva, a kind of tall hatchback/MPV on the Gamma small-car platform (which it shares with the Corsa hatchback).…

“AS FOR THE REST OF THE LINEUP… WHERE ARE THE SUPERSTARS?” WE CAR journalists are suckers for BMWs. Every model the Bavarian brand produces is an engineering masterwork, manna for driving enthusiasts, an internal-combustion mallet for pummeling comparison-test rivals into humiliated awe. Why even bother to conduct such tests? We’ll choose the machine with the blue-and-white propeller on the nose every time. Right? That’s the cliché. And, indeed, there are some on this staff (I won’t Brian Vance mention any names) who believe BMW can do no wrong. But the reality is this: BMW supremacy is a myth, one based in part on some historical validity but sustained in recent years largely by a single model, the 3 Series (okay, the new 1 Series seems strong, too). As for the…

“WE HAVE borrowed the Scuderia from Ferrari—we trade officially with them and I have had one for a month,” says Maurizio Reggiani, director of Research and Development for Automobili Lamborghini, S.p.A. “I think the LP560-4 is two times the Ferrari. It is the last, the best. I am relaxed,” he continues, shrugging nonchalantly before taking a bite of his dinner salad. Twice the Scuderia? How is that possible? Or has Signore Reggiani had too much of the red or dry LasVegas heat? I’m left to wonder until we hit the racetrack the next morning. Vvvvvrrrrrrrrrrr Ngngngngngngnggg! Dammit—did it again. The engine snarls angrily, and the LP560-4 bucks until I snap the right-plus paddle. I clench the flat-bottomed steering wheel as the car leaps forward, punching me back into the seat,…

NO DOUBT some of you are already heading for the drop box marked“hate mail.” Front drive versus rear drive? V-6 versus V-8? Why don’t you just compare apples and orangutans? As we see it, if you’ve got around $30,000 to spend on a sport sedan, you want to know your options—and you’ve got important choices to make. At that price, Nissan’s brand-new Maxima proffers a high-outputV-6, an advanced continuously variable transmission, oodles of electronic conveniences, and what’s claimed to be one of the best-performing front-drive chassis in the world. And for roughly the same money, Pontiac’s new G8 GT delivers the thunder of a big-boreV-8, a six-speed automatic, and a fat-tired rear-drive platform. Both are roomy, eye-catching four-doors. Both promise driving thrills far above the common sedan paradigm. One is…

THERE’S nothing like driving an Italian car in Italy. While the United States is the world’s largest market for Maseratis, and they are, more than ever, being conceived and outfitted to compete here, they’re still Italian to the core. Yet, as with pasta, authentic reggiano parmesano cheese, and aceto balsamico tradizionale (balsamic vinegar), macchine Italiani always taste that much better when consumed on the home turf. Great roads, soft sunsets, portico-covered sidewalks, Pavarotti crooning in the background. You know the deal. So it was that we experienced the faster, edgier, and magnifico-sounding GranTurismo S. Editor MacKenzie summarized the standard GranTurismo in his recent test story (June 2008), noting “It is, literally, a grand tourer. It is not a sports car…the big Maserati does not like to be hurried. It’s best…

YOU’D THINK that just gathering up and comparing 10 hugely popular mainstream sedans would be interesting enough without needing to resort to cheesy automotive metaphors. But when metaphors fall into your lap, they shouldn’t go to waste. It’s my understanding that there are children in India starving for metaphors. Or maybe it’s Africa. Well, Africa is like India. Anyhow, a cheesy metaphor I can’t bear to waste relates to efficiency: In the Tehachapi hills, east of Mojave, our real-world drive route took us up among vast stands of sequoia-tall wind-mills. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Big ones, smaller ones, all of them fascinating, though, apparently, if you stare at them too long, their monotonous twirling can put you under some type of spell. There are terrifying signs of it among…

ASTON MARTIN, freshly free of Ford, wants to become the next Porsche, a small, low-volume/high-profit, racing-oriented sports car company—just as Porsche buys up huge chunks of Volkswagen. Take the V8 Vantage, Aston’s 911-competitor. Please. If you have a lot of money and sublime good taste, the Vantage is a worthy alternative to the Best Sports Car Ever. For its fourth model year, the Vantage gets a new 4.7-liter V-8, raising more horses and more pound-feet over the. . The new engine features thinner cylinder liners, a new forged-steel crankshaft and con rods, and a revised dry-sump lubrication system. The added twist gets you up to hyperspeed more quickly in second or third gear on the short straights connecting road twists, with a better chance of keeping up with, or gaining…

IT HAPPENS every year: Once our Truck of the Year winner joins the Motor Trend long-term fleet, it becomes the hardest-working vehicle we have. Knowing it would be the same story for our Silverado, it was outfitted for labor and versatility—and power and comfort. Aha, you say—another topline long-termer with every option box checked, eh? Well, not quite. We needed a crew cab, but, unfortunately, that meant we couldn’t get the maximum trailering package, which would’ve given the half-ton : gears, L four-speed automatic,. -inchrearend, andheavy-duty cooling system. The : s, L, and. -inch rear would suffice. Plus, we knew the Z package came with a locking rear diff. We also opted for the LT group instead of the best-of-the-best LTZ. Without any options above and beyond the basic LT…