BY MARK GILLIES, PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM DREW
Six-packed: Mazda’s new family sedan offers more of everything, except excitement.
No matter how much we liked the old Mazda 6, introduced in 2002 as a 2003 model, it was always at a disadvantage in the mid-size-sedan market because it was a little undersized.
For 2009, Mazda has rectified that matter with the new 6, which is bigger in every dimension. The wheelbase has gone up by 4.5 inches, to 109.8 inches. Overall, the car is 6.9 inches longer and 2.3 inches wider, at 193.7 inches and 72.4 inches, respectively. The maximum interior volume has increased from 96 cubic feet to 102 cubic feet, and the trunk volume is about 10 percent bigger, at 17 cubic feet. From being the minnow of the mid-size pack, the 6 is now one of its whales. (more…)
Posted by admin |
No Comments »
BY PATRICK BEDARD, PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM DREW
Dearborn’s dreamboat was the MKR, a 2007 concept with an unforgettable face, warming the crowd for this near-luxury MKS.
To your list of things that will never happen, you can add one more: The hot-blooded pilotes of this staff will never rank this new Lincoln above a BMW, any BMW, in a comparison test. But the Supreme Court is not the only enclave of divided opinions; the contrarians among us think Ford has something going on here. (more…)
Posted by admin |
No Comments »
BY ALISA PRIDDLE
GM is investing in its Lordstown, Ohio, plant to build the Cobalt replacement.
Here is the first official look at the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, which will both replace the Cobalt compact car in the U.S. and become the company’s new global offering in the volume C-segment. (more…)
Posted by admin |
No Comments »
BY ERIK JOHNSON AND STEVE SILER
The all-new Fit is fun to drive, practical, and pretty cool. So why can’t we agree on it?
We love the Honda Fit. Roomy inside and more fun to drive than a team of coked-up sled dogs, we’ve awarded it a place on our 10Best Cars list two straight years, and it decimated the competition in a seven-car comparison test. Of course, that was the old Fit. There’s now a new model, completely redesigned for 2009, and a few of us in the office have had a chance to take a spin behind the wheel. (more…)
Posted by admin |
2 Comments »
BY JAKE HOLMES, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARPIX AND THE MANUFACTURER
The everyday sports car from Lotus.
Lotus has released full information and photos of its latest sports car, the Evora. Previously known only by its “Eagle” code name, the car was revealed at the British auto show. (more…)
Posted by admin |
No Comments »
BY TONY SWAN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM FRENAK
So here it is, the third and final entry in the 21st-century pony-car-revival derby. Get your bets down early because we don’t expect to see any more resurrections of famous makes from the galloping go-go Sixties—Barracuda, Firebird, Javelin, et al.—and even gloomier, we think it likely that, given fuel prices and other concerns, this revival is likely to lack the fervor and duration of the original movement. (more…)
Posted by admin |
1 Comment »
BY JOHN PHILLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON KILEY
Antique Road Show: What would Andy Warhol drive?
This road test may be irrelevant. Which wouldn’t necessarily make it unique to the pages of C/D. This time, however, it isn’t our fault. See, Bentley is going to create only 550 Brooklands—delivering the final one toward the end of 2009—and 549 of them are already spoken for. The grand-touring coupe you see on these pages, in a color Bentley calls “Porcelain,” is the last copy for sale. Or was at the time this was written. (more…)
Posted by admin |
No Comments »
BY ALISA PRIDDLE
BMW adds a performance diesel to the U.S. lineup, but no seven-speed dual clutch.
BMW has released the first official pictures of the new 3-series sedan and wagon that will be unveiled this fall at the 2009 Paris auto show, prior to going on sale in North America in October. (more…)
Posted by admin |
2 Comments »
BY AARON ROBINSON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID DEWHURST
Day 2 Second and First Place: Extremists
2008 Porsche 911 GT2
Second Place: Extremists
Check it out: Black leather, red seatbelts, splashes of fuzzy Alcantara, deep-scallop buckets in glossy carbon-fiber shells, fish-gill vents, and flaring air snorkels on the wing posts. The GT2’s visual cues mix the subtle with the animal. (more…)
Posted by admin |
2 Comments »
BY AARON ROBINSON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID DEWHURST
It’s man against motherboard in this four-way flog of max-horsepower machines.
Behold four machines sitting on the pointy end of a horsepower skyrocket that lifted off sometime in the 1980s and hasn’t hit the chutes yet.
For now, anyone can buy these vehicles by flashing a valid driver’s license and a healthy checkbook. But this may be it. The last act. The apogee right before reentry, when post-peak oil prices and carbon-emissions limits and general economic malaise threaten to make memories out of 500-horsepower cars. Maybe someday you’ll bore grandchildren with tales of Porsche GT2s practically falling out of trees for just $198,875. Is it 1971 all over again? Who knows? Maybe you’ll be telling them from the back seat of their parents’ 700-hp minivan. (more…)
Posted by admin |
2 Comments »
