Innehållsförteckning för March 2009 från MotorTrend

■ Here Come the Hybrids For the past several years, Toyota—in large part on the strength of the Prius—has ruled the hybrid roost, but all that’s about to change. Honda, with its new Insight (along with a sport-themed model coming later this year), and Ford, with its well-received Fusion Hybrid, are poised to snare a big chunk of green in 2009 with their green machines. We’ve expanded our coverage online to include a duel between the Fusion Hybrid and the Camry Hybrid at www.motortrend.com/roadtests, and we also have video and more photos to go with our Insight coverage www.motortrend.com/multimedia/videos/roadtests.…

VERY LATE prototypes of the new “small” Rolls-Royce, known internally as RR4, are now cruising the streets of Munich, giving scoop snappers an easy lunch. “Small” is a relative word: RR4’s wheelbase is six inches longer than the BMW 7 Series on which it’s based, and it’s far taller. As with the Phantom, the huge tires are half the height of the car. The official sketch released months ago is pretty true to the design, although there will be a Phantom-like style line on the lower body, like the wake playing along the side of a boat. The nose is smoother and the grille smaller and more curved than on any Rolls so far. The RR4—real name to be revealed at the Geneva show—has a twin-turbo V-12, kicking out 550-plus…

THE SWEDISH government has pledged $3.4 billion in credit guarantees and loans to Saab and Volvo, which are for sale by General Motors and Ford Motor, respectively. So what about Saab’s version of the new Cadillac SRX unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January? It’s on the way, says Steve Shannon, Saab’s executive director in the U.S. Launch cadence is four or five months behind the Caddy’s, which means a late 2009 on-sale date and no plans for a U.S. auto show debut. And Shannon says Saab continues work on a new version of its 9-5 flagship. “It’s about a year-ish away,” he says.…

AS WE WENT to press with the February issue and its fifth annual Power List, then-President George W. Bush “bailed out” General Motors and Chrysler LLC with up to $17.4 billion in loan guarantees. This was even more of a surprise than it might seem. Remember how hard it was for leaders of the Detroit Three to even get a meeting with Bush a few years back? If his last-minute deal, granted about 10 days before GM was to run out of cash, had landed him in our Power List, it would have placed him probably fifth among “The Five People Detroit Needs Most.” Bush got involved when Senate Republicans voted down cloture on a bill already approved in the House to provide short-term loans to GM and Chrysler from…

THE SO-CALLED “Efficiency Leaves” display on the dash of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid is a real charmer, one of those brilliant interactive creations that, like the touchscreen of the Apple iPhone, proves as user-friendly as it is delightful. Drive the Fusion Hybrid frugally, and watch as the display’s leaves and vines grow (when the virtual branches become truly lush you’re doing especially well). On the other hand, make jackrabbit starts, drive too fast, brake late and hard (producing little regen), and you’ll start dropping leaves like a Vermont sugar maple in October. Sounds silly, perhaps, but from behind the wheel it’s a remarkably effective motivator. After all, who wants to be the earth-thug who hears from the back seat, “Daddy! You’ve lost all the leaves!” “We didn’t simply want…

“THE RX IS arguably our most iconic vehicle.” Those are the words of Lexus group vice president and general manager Mark Templin, who made the claim at the 2010 RX’s press preview in Northern California. More symbolic than the IS, the GS, and even the LS, the lux sedan that spearheaded Lexus’s U.S. launch in 1989 and sent the Europeans back to the drawing boards? According to Templin, it’s entirely possible. Perhaps he’s right; since the RX 300 created the luxury-crossover segment in 1998 and the RX 400h—the first hybrid luxury crossover—turned gas pumps cold in 2005, consumers have often referred to the RX as the Lexus SUV or the Lexus hybrid, despite the fact that there are other notable sport/utes and hybrids in Lexus’s lineup. Plus, RX sales numbers…

“I HOPE the Jag has aged better than those of us going to my high-school reunion tonight,” snickers Jay Leno from across the black marble bar bisecting the kitchen of his family home in Andover, Massachusetts—20 minutes north of Boston. Tonight he and a childhood friend will head to a local country club to join the class of 1968 for a trip down teenage memory lane. The question on Leno’s and buddy Lou’s lips: Will childhood sweethearts still be head-turners, or will 40 years have taken their toll? They fear the worst. Leno is more optimistic and, on the face of it, more excited about the other reunion he plans today. For the first time in 49 years, he will lay his eyes and hands on the car that ignited…

A NEW WAVE of diesel SUVs is coming to the United States. This isn’t the first time diesel-powered sport/utilities have been here, but these new vehicles are 50-state legal and could represent a mainstream acceptance of diesel technology. The Touareg itself, revised for 2008, remains the same; what’s new here is the 3.0-liter diesel option. This V-6 is smaller than the first diesel offered in a Touareg (the fantastic V-10 with 310 horses and 553 pound-feet of torque), but that engine was big, expensive (a V10 TDI cost nearly $70,000), heavy, and was only 45-state legal. While the 50-state-legal V-6 doesn’t have the same shocking torque numbers, its 407 pound-feet of torque is more than enough to pull this vehicle along. Plus, the engine’s smaller packaging will make it much…

TOYOTA’S GT-R-fighter, the Formula 1-inspired 500-horsepower, all-wheel-drive V-10 Lexus LF-1, is on hold. Same goes for the forthcoming Lexus GS-F sedan, powered by the LF-1’s engine and designed to take on the BMW M5, Cadillac CTS-v, and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. It’s too early to tell whether Toyota, which posted its first operating loss in 71 years, will ever revive these two Lexus projects, but sources indicate the company may reconsider both if the global economy is in better shape in 2010. Toyota’s announcement follows Honda’s sudden axing of the long-awaited Acura NSX replacement, also because of the worsening economy. Killing the NSX puts a question mark over plans for the 2011 Acura RL, too. Both cars were joined at the hip as development projects. The RL was expected to go…

letter of the month fresh start Why Detroit matters? I very much agree with you that it does, and this country needs more of a manufacturing sector than it’s had in recent decades. However, it’s a hard pill to swallow, bailing them out, especially coming on the heels of bailing out banks and financial firms. Both of these industries failed for the same reason, a culture where executives make the fastest buck possible, rather than doing what’s right. Where is the pride in not only doing a job, but doing it well? Detroit hasn’t given us anything to be proud of in a long time. Here’s hoping President Obama can put millions of Americans to work, helping Detroit stay alive to manufacture green cars, thereby creating jobs manufacturing the components…

FIRST OFF, let us all recognize the 2800 pound, leaf-eating pachyderm in the room. Though the 2009 Insight is Honda’s latest hybrid, it looks suspiciously like the Toyota Prius. It’s not hard to understand why. The Prius has been a massive hit for Toyota in sales and image greenification. It’s won car of the year awards in Japan, Europe, and North America, as well as our own COTY award back in 2004. It’s the world’s number-one-selling hybrid vehicle, but more important is who’s bought them. Early adopters included such Hollywood royalty as Cameron Diaz, Leonardo di Caprio, Susan Sarandon, Sting, and Billy Crystal. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this celebrity buzz did for sales, but you know it had to be mahvelous. Naturally, Honda spinmeisters strenuously reject the notion…

LITHE ON THE ROAD, FLUIDLY SEDUCTIVE IN APPEARANCE, POSITIVELY ALIVE IN YOUR HANDS — IT’S THE BEST SPORTS CAR IN THE WORLD. AS THE formal press introduction for the revamped Porsche Cayman S broke up and the international mix of scribes (including some Russians for the first time in my experience) clicked off their interpreter headsets, it was time to mingle and ask some questions. First stop: the cut-away display of the new doppelkupplung transmission. Or for those of us stumped by words that appear to have come out of the operating manual of a U-boat, the Porsche double-clutch gearbox, or just PDK for short. Pointing to the PDK’s various exposed innards, I kept trying to cajole a Porsche engineer, through an interpreter, into explaining what’s really so different here…

UP TWO HORSEPOWER OVER THE SPEED3, THE WRX HITS 60 0.8 SEC SOONER, THANKS TO AWD. SMELL THAT? That’s spring in the air. The flowers are beginning to bloom. The snowmelt is swelling lakes and rivers. And, most important, those curvy, mountain roads, after a winter of dormancy, are aching for a hot set of squealing tires. So, what are you waiting for? Can’t you hear the switchbacks calling? Stop dillydallying—shift gears and go. But wait… we’re talking chicken before egg, here. First, we need some wheels, a car that gets the heart pounding and the adrenaline flowing, yet is frugal and practical to keep the stress down. Let’s set the parameters: Given that the economy is in the dumps, this car must possess a pricetag that doesn’t depress the…

AS A STAFF, we love fast four-doors. From BMW’s M5 to Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo to Chevy’s Cobalt SS, if it has room for at least four and some pretense of speed, you can bet it never gets left overnight in our parking garage. This is why when Nissan announced that its seventh-generation Maxima signaled the return of the “four-door sports car,” we knew we had to have one. So we put in a call to Nissan H.Q. in Nashville, Tennessee, and selected a 2009 Maxima 3.5 SV in Tuscan Sun red with a charcoal interior. The optional $2300 Sport Package added such performance goodies as 19-inch alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, paddle shifters, leather seating surfaces, and a firmer suspension. For another $2250, we picked up the Sport Technology package,…

GENERALLY, our staff is like-minded to the point that we hardly ever view one vehicle in two entirely different lights. Sure, we’ll disagree on a car’s nuances, its levels of significance, superiority, or value, but rarely do we take opposite sides. Yet, there are instances when a vehicle proves as polarizing as a pair of Vuarnets. Take our long-term Acura RDX, whose stiffly sprung suspension and edgy turbo engine had the team reminiscing about our love/hate relationship with the long-term 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR SE. As with the rigid and raucous Evo, some staffers adored the RDX’s quick reflexes and force-fed power, while others came away sick and tired of its harsh ride and noticeable turbo lag. Styling? Several found the RDX’s sheetmetal cute, handsome, or chic; others saw…

THE MERCEDES-BENZ SLR McLaren has never been the world-beater the folks in Stuttgart hoped it would be. Despite an impeccable pedigree that included the fanatical attention to detail of Ron Dennis’s McLaren Cars and the engineering genius of Gordon Murray, the surprisingly clumsy-to-drive SLR has run in the shadow of Ferrari’s Enzo and Bugatti’s Veyron. For the SLR’s finale, however, Mercedes has gone for broke. The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss (whew!) is a dramatically reworked version of the car that features all-new, carbon-fiber, open-topped bodywork and the imprimatur of Britain’s Sir Stirling Moss, whose record-breaking win in the 1955 Mille Miglia at the wheel of a Mercedes 300SLR remains one of the greatest drives of all time. Just 75 will be built, and if you have to ask the…

WITH CHEVROLET, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac named as GM’s “core” North American brands, the Internet is rampant with all sorts of speculation about what General Motors plans to do with its “Excitement Division.” Fact is, GM isn’t there, yet. GM can’t develop a plan until its finances are certain enough to take all its projects from being on hold, and then it has future corporate average fuel economy standards to consider. However, GM has said Pontiac is to become a “specialty” brand, while Saturn and Saab are under strategic review and Hummer is up for sale. For Pontiac, short-term “specialization” will likely mean completing the G8’s five-year cycle. The Pontiac Solstice would continue past 2012. If GM doesn’t cancel its Alpha small rear-drive program for a BMW 3 Series-size Cadillac,…

VOLKSWAGEN will unveil its new sub-Golf-size Polo small car at the Geneva show in March. Development chief Ulrich Hackenberg recently revealed that VW is considering selling the vehicle in the U.S. It would compete with the Ford Fiesta, which comes to the States in 2010. Hackenberg was eager to point out the growth in this segment in the U.S., although with recent oil price falls and the general economic crash, that growth is stalling temporarily. Hackenberg said it would be no small commitment to sell the car in America. “If we build it in Mexico, we could afford to sell it [in the U.S.].” The car will look and feel like a slightly smaller MkVI Golf, about 160 inches long. Expect VW’s new wide grille, with teardrop headlamps. The hatchback…

THOUGH THEY differ in size, the look of these two hybrids ensure comparisons are as inevitable as Coke versus Pepsi. The Honda people knew it, which is why they made a Prius available at their Arizona launch event. The Insight uses Honda’s fifth-generation Integrated Motor Assist system which mates a 1.3-liter engine to an ultra-thin electric motor. Instead of the 11-module nickel-metal-hydride battery system of the 2006 Civic Hybrid, Insight uses a seven-module setup that’s smaller, lighter, and more powerful. This means the battery, brains, and cooling system can now be positioned beneath the rear load floor (instead of behind the rear seats as in the Civic Hybrid), which allows such features as a split 60/40 rear seat and 1.5 cubic feet more cargo area than in a Prius, for…

THE TOYOTA iQ has won Car of the Year Japan. It beat out the Nissan GT-R, which we just crowned the 2009 Motor Trend Car of the Year. We’d better take it seriously then. Actually, we already have. In our recent preview of the vehicle, we explained how the iQ is one of a whole new generation of Toyota compacts that utilize six major packaging advantages. It will enable the company to build a seven-seater in the footprint of a Yaris. But to demonstrate just how remarkable these innovations are, they’re launched first in the iQ, a four-seater at an unfeasible 117.5 inches long. It goes on sale in Japan about now and in Europe in December. While U.S. sales haven’t yet been officially announced by Toyota, we recently told…

MAYBE FLEX isn’t such a bad name after all. Had Ford’s big, boxy crossover hit the market under its internal code-name (Hamptons) or the name worn by the concept version at the 2005 Detroit show (Fairlane), it would’ve come equipped with all manner of notional baggage as to what it should or shouldn’t be. As the Flex, it’s a cipher, a blank canvas: You can project whatever style or functionality you want onto its coolly restrained yet highly architectural form. So when Ford offered us the chance to create a unique Flex of our own, we jumped at it. The topline vision for the Motor Trend Flex was “ground-based private jet,” providing luxurious transport for two. The exterior would be subtle and elegantly understated; the interior as rich and luxurious…

TRIVIA ALERT: Porsche did not invent the dual-clutch transmission. A French engineer, Adolphe Kegresse, who pioneered the half-track vehicle, envisioned the concept in the 1920s and ’30s. Porsche did become the first automaker to develop a working dual-clutch trans, the PDK (Porsche Dopplkupplung), which it fitted to its 962 group C sport racers in 1985 and ’86. While that original PDK transmission was heavy and not entirely reliable, it’s still difficult to explain why one of the technology’s pioneers has been beaten to the punch by the likes of VW, Mitsubishi, and Nissan in putting a fast-shifting dual-clutch in a road car. The good news is Porsche’s new seven-speed PDK is worth the wait. It’s—mostly—sensational. The PDK helps make the 911 faster. Compared with the regular six speed manual, Porsche…

ONLINE associate editor Kirill Ougarov, who had not been behind the wheel of the Accord for some time, hopped back in the vehicle and found plenty to praise and a few nits to pick. “While the styling of the Accord remains, well, questionable, the car as a whole barely shows any signs of age, despite having over 20,000 miles on the clock. There are no unseemly squeaks, rattles, nor other issues that sometimes develop as a car racks up mileage. Sure, the new-car smell is gone, but the new-car feel is still there.” The Accord’s 3.5-liter V-6 stirred Ougarov so much that he began fantasizing about meeting old musclecars at stoplights. “The potent V-6 impressed me once again with its smoothness and power delivery. It cruises quietly but, when necessary,…

DURING THE ebullient, postwar 1950s, it seemed everything in life would be jet-powered—or at least jet-inspired. That’s why they called it the Jet Age. The nameless design study here was the work of one P.L. Crease, a member of Ford’s Advanced Styling Section, and looks as if it needed only wings to fly. The bomb-shaped front fenders were backed up by rocket-style rears, which Ford’s press release for this concept called “blast tubes.” The two vertical rear fins and double-canopy glass treatment provide more fighter-pilot flavor. Even the conventional steering wheel was replaced by a yoke-style tiller. And look at the radio antenna; it’s little different from those used on many cars today. This beautifully detailed illustration is dated January 1954, and evokes many of the design themes found on…