Winding Road Magazine
Driven: 2010 Toyota Prius
It has become almost passé to criticize Toyota products for being rather soulless, yet utterly effective, to drive. Prius, especially in the ubiquity that it has earned in its last generation, has toiled famously under the “appliance” descriptor—serving up masses of consumers with a high-mileage, low-effort driving experience. And while enthusiast-minded detractors everywhere may take issue with the very notion, the good people at Toyota Motor Corporation are well aware of their cars’ snoozing reputation and are far more willing than one might expect to create a different identity for their brand.
Driven: 2010 BMW Z4
Two market segments in particular have been decimated by the Great Recession. First, the Bentley-Ferrari-Porsche 911 area has effectively been castrated in the past six months. Second, there are the smaller two-seater premium Euro roadsters we all love so well in the best of times: Porsche Boxster, Mercedes SLK, Audi TT Roadster, and BMW Z4. For these little guys, emasculation similes do not suffice.
List: Top 10 Sporting BMWs Of The Past 50 Years
We’re right on the heels of getting the first drive impressions about BMW’s latest Z4 hardtop roadster. Because of this, we began to think about the sporty, road-going BMWs of the past and how there have been a few really great cars that have come from the fine folks in Munich. Thus, we present our list of the top ten sporty BMW’s from the last fifty years.
Driven: 2010 Kia Soul Sport
When an automaker launches a new vehicle, there’s usually a lot of corporate enthusiasm built in. All of the engineers, executives, and public relations people get really excited about their latest and greatest offering, and in turn, they hope that the automotive press feels that excitement, too. The Kia people are no different in this regard but, given the automaker’s rather bland current lineup, it’s been harder for them to sell it.
List: The Top 10 Most Futile Formula 1 Teams of All-Time
Ross Brawn—former technical director of the highly successful Ferrari Formula 1 team and last year’s Team Principal at Honda F1—announced last week that he had bought out the former Honda team, restyling the outfit as the Brawn GP team.
List: Ten Great Concepts from Geneva Motor Show History
With the Geneva Motor Show opening its doors to the press for the 79th time this week, we thought it appropriate to compile a list of some of our favorite cars from the show throughout the decades. Geneva’s reputation for being a styling showcase has lead to some fascinating launches through the years, with production and concept cars that are at the bleeding edge of European design.
Driven: 2008 BMW 123d
America would really like this car. The BMW 1-Series is a fantastic little creature, and we like it so much that it earned the honor of being one of our favorite cars in 2008. Furthermore, the American automotive marketplace is in dire need of more fuel-efficient vehicles, and we’re slowly starting to see clean diesel cars trickle into our pond from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen. Looking past the oil-burning powerplant, the 1-Series hatchback configuration is incredibly more useful than the lonely coupe and convertible options that we have currently. Americans are finally starting to warm up to the idea of hatchbacks and small wagons—it’s now a well-known fact that SUVs are not the only useful tool for $200 grocery loads. What’s more, we think America would find much more to like about a small, useful five-door than the seemingly unnecessary BMW X6 or even the upcoming 5-Series GT, which don’t provide much in the way of space or utility, and carry ultra-premium price points.
List: Ten GM Performance Cars That Will Never Exist
The news has already broken that GM is putting all of its high-performance vehicles (save the Corvette) on an indefinite hold, so don’t expect to see anything new with an SS or V badge on it. That’s right — all SS-badged Chevys, V-series Cadillacs, and eight-cylinder Colorados are being suspended until further notice, leaving GM to instead focus on fuel-efficient offerings and bringing up the overall quality on its bread-and-butter models.
List: The Legacy of “Maximum” Bob Lutz in Seven Parts
With the recent announcement of Bob Lutz’s impending retirement from General Motors as Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, we thought it would be time to take a look at a few of the things for which Maximum Bob will be remembered.
List: Top Ten Most Beautiful Subarus (In No Particular Order)
“Beautiful” may not be the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of Subaru vehicles throughout history. If you’re like us, though, these cars have some sort of affinity that reaches beyond mere looks. Whether one defines beauty as physical or, well, something else, we at NextAutos agree that these are the Ten Most Beautiful Subarus (in no particular order).
Driven: 2009 Nissan 370Z
Downshifting from third into second for an especially tight right-hander, Nissan’s 370Z makes a soaring, rev-matching howl that radiates through the desert like thrown-stone ripples in a quiet pool. It’s the sort of bellicose and randy whine that alerts motor-minded schoolboys to prick up their ears, setting the would-be racer’s heart to flutter. The uninitiated might assume that the sonorous growl of a lone sports car in the desert may simply evaporate into the vast distance, but our tour of the stark, southern Nevada moonscape in the newest Z proved that to be untrue, with the hard scrabble surfaces acting more like an echo chamber for the roaring V-6 and a sonic lodestar for anyone within earshot.
List: A Dozen Movie Star Corvettes
Most of us will agree that Chevrolet’s Corvette has been an automotive star since day one. That stardom has been borne out in Hollywood over the years, where filmmakers have chosen to give Corvettes prominent roles in their films for upwards of fifty years. Thanks to the twin magical resources of the Internet Movie Database , and the too often overlooked Internet Movie Car Database , we’ve been able to compile a list of a dozen notable Vettes as seen on the silver screen. Our list is by no means complete (as we’re sure you’ll point out) but it’s a pretty entertaining browse at any rate. Click through the gallery above to relive the memories and then tell us what you think, in comments.
Driven: Honeywell BMW X5 3.0d
It’s no secret that we American automotive journalists are anxiously awaiting the arrival of BMW’s new U.S.-spec diesel offerings, the 335d and X5 xDrive35d. In the meantime, however, the folks at Honeywell (who specialize in turbo technologies) provided us with a Euro-spec X5 3.0d for a week in order for us to experience BMW’s current diesel offerings.
Driven: 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Coupe
When General Motors introduced the first Chevrolet Cobalt SS for 2005, it was praised within the sport compact scene for its supercharged power and relatively cheap price point, though the car didn’t really have the overall refinement to make it something extra special. Thus, Chevy has gone back to the drawing board and come up with something it can really be proud of. This latest addition to the Cobalt lineup was tuned and tested on Germany’s Nürburgring and finally has the power and poise to be taken seriously as a true performance car.
List: Five Cars that Should/Could Be Better with New Parents
With great cars sometimes being products of an inspired idea, a singular vision, or a focused effort from a few dedicated people, it’s far too often that we see mismanagement or a loss of focus dim an otherwise bright star. For those vehicles (or sometimes whole brands) we can’t help but imagine what they would be like under more synergistic management conditions.
Driven: 2009 Ford Focus SES Coupe
While the second-generation Ford Focus debuted last year, FoMoCo has gone and given the car some tasteful updates for the 2009 model year. A revised front end, larger wheels, and some minor chassis tweaks are enough to make this new Focus a bit better than last year’s car, though it might struggle when faced with the best of the import competition. Still, we were pretty pleased with our Focus’ behavior during its two-week stay in our test fleet.
List: The Five Most Muscular Cars You Can Buy
When it comes to getting customers interested in a vehicle of a performance oriented nature, one of the sexiest numbers an automaker has at its disposal is the horsepower figure. The other end of the power equation, that deliciously shadowed figure measured in foot-pounds, is too often obscured. So when engines like the free-revving unit in BMW’s M5 (for instance) make eye-popping 500 horsepower numbers, we tend to forget that their smaller displacement, frenetic characters also mean that torque (383 pound-feet in the M’s case) is in shorter supply.
Driven: 2009 Saleen Dark Horse
For one reason or another, the Winding Road and NextAutos fleet has been graced with a whole lot of Mustangs over the past few months. Whether it be a simple GT, a stock Shelby, or a tuned up Roush, we’ve driven them all. However, nothing seems to compare to our latest Mustang iteration: the Saleen Dark Horse. This car boasts 620 horsepower, 600 pound-feet of torque, and a sub-four-second zero-to-sixty time, making it the baddest Mustang we’ve driven to date. Still, with a limited production run of only twenty-five cars, the Dark Horse will only be experienced by a select few, and we’re happy to have been part of that lucky group.
Driven: 2009 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Supercharged
The Range Rover Sport is a vehicle that can go anywhere, do anything, and look trendy in the process. No, it’s not going to win any awards in within the Green crowd, but for the consumers who actually pay out for one of these (especially in Supercharged trim), it won’t matter. In our week with the Range Rover Sport, we found it to have more than ample performance, relatively good handling (for an SUV), and a pretty luxurious interior.
List: Top Ten 300 Horsepower Cars for Under $10,000
Not so many years ago, cars that produced 300 horsepower or more were considered rather rare and desirable things. Generally only the top tier of sports car or the very most posh boulevardiers had engines that could muster such prodigious output, and the price tags of the vehicles reflected it.
Driven: 2009 Toyota Venza
When any manufacturer, but particularly an industry titan like Toyota, rolls out a new vehicle that they say is “in a new class”, well, the hairs on any journalist’s neck stand up a bit. That was certainly the case as we listened to Toyota’s executives and engineers roll out the new Venza. But after a couple of days of driving it, talking to Toyota about it, and reviewing the data, we think they have a point. It’s a subtle point, but a point nonetheless.
