Winding Road Magazine
Driven: 2009 Roush Stage 3 BlackJack
Since the dawn of the Shelby GT500 in 2007, the exclusive, supercharged Mustang experience is no longer just for the dedicated enthusiasts willing to shell out some extra cash to aftermarket performance manufacturers. Ford now offers 500 horsepower right from the factory, and with the Shelby’s starting price of around $43,000, some enthusiasts might find it hard to justify shelling out $56,000 for a Roush BlackJack—a special edition of the company’s Stage 3 treatment limited to just 100 cars for 2009. But for those who aren’t battling in a horsepower war, we think the Roush offers a bolder appearance and a bit more driving pleasure. Conveniently, it just so happened that we had a GT500 in our test fleet during the same week that we tested the BlackJack, and after driving them back-to-back, some of us would rather have the Roush, regardless of price.
List: Ten Cars That Looked Better Before Their Makeovers
Most of the time, when an automaker completely overhauls one of their models, it’s a good step forward for not only the car, but for the brand it represents. However, there are other times where the design teams make some questionable decisions and the new products end up looking worse than their predecessors.
Driven: 2009 Mazda RX-8 GT
The Mazda RX-8 continues to have us puzzled as to why more of these aren’t on the road. No, the rotary engine isn’t four-season friendly, and neither is the car’s rear-wheel-drive, but when the weather is right, the RX-8 really shines. For 2009, a re-worked exterior sports a slightly more aggressive fascia, and while our Grand Touring model doesn’t have all of the beefy visual add-ons found on the R3 (a new model for ’09), we still had a lot of fun throwing this Mazda into bends and revving the twin-rotor engine way up past 8000 rpm.
Driven: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR
Over the past couple of years, we’ve noticed a trend that more and more performance cars are steering away from traditional manual transmissions in favor of high-tech dual-clutch setups. For 2008, the top-dollar Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR features a six-speed paddle-shift transmission, and while some of us would rather have a stick and a third pedal, there’s no denying that this tranny is really, really good. Still, at nearly $41,000, some of us would rather just stick with the softer Evo GSR, which has the same performance specs but at a lower cost.
Driven: 2009 Volkswagen Routan
Badge engineering. This is the common practice in the automotive industry of taking a vehicle designed for one brand, and tweaking to work for another. But is this a good thing or a bad thing? We all know examples of the Chevy that is also a Pontiac or a Ford that is also a Mercury with little but trim differences. That cynical approach to marketing has led to a tarnished reputation for badge-engineering, among the pundits at least. The term even sounds pejorative.
Driven: 2009 Hummer H3
The Hummer H3 is an interesting vehicle to drive in light of our nation’s fuel crisis. Off-road enthusiasts and Hummer loyalists appreciate the H3’s off-road capability and style, but the H3 is becoming tougher and tougher to see to new consumers and the automotive press alike. Our test car’s sticker price is just a notch below the $40,000 mark, and while that might seem like a bargain to some, we’d search elsewhere for our SUV needs.
Driven: 2009 Ford Flex Limited AWD
The new Ford Flex arrives into our market at a time when consumers are downsizing from their large SUVs but still need room for the spouse, kids, dogs, etc. The retro-wagon styling of the Flex may steer some customers away, but we rather liked the styling of our Limited AWD test car. Inside, plush materials and high-tech gadgets make this family-hauler a real win. Overall, the Flex proved to be a big step forward for the Ford Motor Company and we hope their future products go in this direction, as well.
Driven: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sedan
As recently as just a few years ago, Volkswagen sold a wide range of diesel vehicles in the States. In fact, the company has a long history of selling oil-burners in the U.S. that dates back to the 1970s. These models were slowly jettisoned throughout the years due to stricter emissions laws, and by 2007, the Touareg V-10 was the only diesel Volkswagen that Americans could buy. However, in light of today’s higher fuel prices, the automaker is once again getting serious about broadening its turbo-diesel offerings in the States.
Driven: 2009 Suzuki Equator RMZ-4
The auto purist inside nearly every enthusiast still pines for the now far-gone days when automakers, conceived of, built, and sold each of their creations – owning both the process and the results from cradle to grave. Of course the results of such one application engineering weren’t always laudable, and the process was (and is where and when it still happens) inherently more wasteful than the modern practice of building multiple vehicles on the same or similar running gear. And yet even today, platform sharing vehicles, especially those between two distinct parent companies, are often dismissed with a “badge engineered” label and cast as being somehow less good than the earlier product with which they share an architecture.
Driven: 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport
After spending some time with Mercedes’ hot-burning C63 AMG, we thought it apt to give the rest of the C-Class range a shot to see if the new Benz C can all-around top other premium sport sedans like the BMW 3-Series and Lexus IS. While we did enjoy our C300 Sport, we found the $45,000 as-tested price a little high, especially when a BMW 335i offers better performance for a more reasonable price. Still, much of the blame for the hefty price tag is down to heavy treading on the options list…
Driven: 2009 Ford Escape XLT V-6
One of the more ubiquitous sights on the American Road is the Ford Ranger pickup. It is handsome, in a hard-working, rectilinear way, and you don’t see many that appear to have suffered neglect or abuse. Now the Ford Escape (and Mercury Mariner) SUVs join the Ranger pickup in its ubiquity. Not only do you see a lot of them, and not only do they look good, they are good. They may be the class-leader of the compact SUV category.
Driven: 2009 Mercedes-Benz R320 Bluetec Diesel
For 2009, Mercedes-Benz has outfitted all of its diesel vehicles with the latest in Bluetec technology. First pioneered in the E320, the ML-, GL-, and R-Class now get the cleanest version of Benz’s oil-burning 3.0-liter V-6. This engine is good for 210 horsepower and an extremely useful 398 pound-feet of torque. However, we were rather skeptical if this would be enough power to move the large R-Class family hauler with enough spirit to keep our enthusiast hearts beating. What we found was a rather pleasant people mover with ample power and a comfortable, luxurious interior perfect for long drives.
Driven: 2009 BMW 330d
Just as we recently wrote about the new BMW 7-Series, the midlife fifth-generation 3-Series also makes its first impressions with its exterior and passenger cabin. What’s different in the case of the E90 3-Series four-door is that the all-new version introduced in 2005 has been an enthusiast favorite, whereas the 7-Series has received little else but sharp ridicule for its exterior design and the horrid earlier versions of the iDrive system, since going on sale in 2000.
Driven: We Take a 2008 BMW 335xi on Summer Vacation Through the White Mountain Range
Just as soon as I received word that my request for a fleet vehicle to take on my summer vacation to the great state of Maine was to be filled with a Crimson Red 2008 BMW 335xi Coupe, I immediately knew that I would have to add a significantly expanded program of challenging roads to the itinerary. My girlfriend, Molly, was understandably overjoyed.
Driven: the 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5
We were recently invited, along with an immodestly large group of our fellow scribes, to have our way with the whole of the 2009 General Motors lineup at the bustling Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois. And despite the siren song of several Corvette ZR1s wailing from the direction of the north track, we took the afternoon to acquaint ourselves with a vehicle that seems to have an ever increasing importance for GM’s near term future, the 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5.
List: Car Doors Throughout the Ages
Used almost completely without thought by most of us every day, the humble car door has taken on a remarkable number of forms and functions throughout the years. Click through the gallery above to see a sampling of them – both banal and bizarre – and then tell us which we’ve forgotten, in comments.
Driven: 2009 Dodge Ram 1500
If you’ve driven pickups much over the last thirty years, when you’re behind the wheel of the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500, the notion might occur that pickups shouldn’t be so quiet, ride so smoothly, carve corners so competently, accelerate so quickly, or have so many features. These were our prevailing thoughts as we drove a Laramie 4×4 through the Tennessee countryside, enjoying a driving experience so good that it provides a compelling argument to drive a full-size truck if you can figure out how to rationalize it.
Driven: 2008 BMW M3 Convertible
Now that we’ve tested the BMW M3 Coupe and Sedan, it’s time to round off the M3 lineup with the hardtop convertible. While we were quick to proclaim the Coupe and Sedan as fantastic automobiles, we’re having second thoughts about the cabriolet. Many of us have qualms with the folding hardtop and even though BMW has re-engineered their dual-clutch setup, some of us would still prefer the straight-up six-speed manual gearbox. All in, the M3 Convertible proved to be good fun for top-down driving, but we’re not sure if our M3 love stands true to this model.
Driven: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Even though the original Fit debuted in 2001, we Americans were deprived of the little Honda that could until it finally arrived Stateside in 2006. After years of successful sales in Japan and Europe (where it sold as the Jazz) the folks at Honda decided to see how the diminutive hatchback would do in the bigger-is-better United States auto market. At that time, a gallon of regular unleaded still cost less than three dollars and consumers were lined up for miles waiting for new crossovers and sport-utilities to hit dealer lots. Not even Honda had anticipated that the Fit would sell roughly 80,000 units each year in America.
Driven: We Drive the 2009 Mazda6
Hard as it may be to fathom, we automotive journalists get things wrong every once in a while. Despite perpetually cheering for the 2003-2008 Mazda6’s ragtag charms and dynamic excellence in a crowd of somnambulant sedans, it never really sold. Nevermind that it was a wieldy package and fun to grab by the scruff on winding roads, it languished on showroom floors while far duller drives poured out of showrooms like so many bags of rice. Heck, we even heartily applauded the availability of a segment-best three separate body styles (sedan, wagon, and touring), as well as a genuine high-performance variant, the Mazdaspeed6. Still no dice. Great handling and a multiplicity of formats are evidently no substitute for outright size and power in the family sedan stakes. Not that we’re bitter or anything.
Driven: We Drive the 2009 Acura TL
Before we had even spent one minute behind the wheel of Acura’s new-for-2009 TL sedan, we could already pick out the feature that will ultimately divide shoppers into potential buyers and those who will choose to look elsewhere: the in-your-face grille.
