BMW recently introduced its ActiveHybrid X6, the crossover that uses a powerful dual-mode hybrid system to improve city and highway fuel economy. Most recently at the LA Auto Show, the U.S. version of the ActiveHybrid 7-Series appeared in something other than a press release
The canyon roads in and around Beverly Hills, California, provide some of the best driving scenarios in the country. Long stretches of tight corners mixed in with rapid elevation changes make for a challenging and fun day of motoring, and give us the ability to really wring out our vehicle of choice—immediately pointing out any flaws in suspension tuning, balance, power delivery, shift fluidity, and overall grace. You really want a Lotus Elise for times like this. You can imagine our surprise when Hyundai chose these roads as the testing grounds for the all-new 2010 Tucson crossover.
If you’re like us, the Jaguar XFR definitely makes your mouth water, but you know that shelling out around $80,000 for a sport sedan is better spent on a BMW M5, what with its screaming V-10 and proper manual gearbox (or nifty seven-speed DCT). But before your dreams of Jaguar driving are completely dashed, consider this—the R-badged XF isn’t the only model to benefit from supercharged power. Appropriately (though somewhat underwhelmingly) dubbed the XF Supercharged, this middle-child XF offers super-sedan thrills of a different sort for a discount of $12,000 versus the XFR.
During our drive through the woodsy, hilly roads of southern New York and northern New Jersey, there was one question that kept cropping up during every conversation about the new BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo: “What is this thing?”