| Track (and Road) Ready: 2008 Lotus Elise SC by Inside Line - 174 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=126177
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2008 Lotus Elise SC Edmunds Inside Line car auto motor sport Exige race track
 | | Jaguar v Germany Dust-up: XF v BMW 550i v MB E550 v Audi A6 - 300 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=126107?tid=edmunds.il.home.photopanel..3.*
We regret to inform you that the era of the V8-powered midsize luxury sport sedan could be over. Gas prices aren't the problem; instead, it's the impending federal fuel-economy standards that could spell the end of these luxurious street sleepers.
So this meeting of the 2008 Audi A6 4.2, 2008 BMW 550i, 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged and 2008 Mercedes-Benz E550 might represent the end of an era.
Under the new rules, shoving big V8s into midsize sedans will become a questionable prospect even for luxury brands. Without massive price increases, only the most expensive flagship models will be able to offer thirsty eight-cylinder engines, leaving the smaller sedans to get by with six cylinders or worse.
With that prospect looming, we figured a comparison of the current crop of V8 midsize European luxury sedans was in order. They may not have much of a future, but they offer some of the best combinations of luxury, prestige and completely unnecessary horsepower you can get — for now.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Audi A6 BMW 550i Jaguar XF Supercharged Mercedes-Benz E550 Edmunds Inside Line v8 luxury car motor sport auto
| | Challenger New vs. Old: Vanishing Point Revisited - 183 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=126092
"Our sole Challenger has just broken the ring of evil the deep blue meanies have so righteously wrought — get through 'em baby, get through 'em." — Super Soul, Vanishing Point 1971
It happens deep in the Nevada desert, just past Austin. On a long, straight section of road with nothing to lose, our friends in the white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T finally put the hammer down. At once, the rawness and purity of Kowalski's ride pulverizes the well-insulated interior of our 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, shredding the peace inside the modern car's cockpit with the same brute force Kowalski used to pierce a hole in the cool desert air 38 years ago. Even with my right foot buried, I see nothing but taillights until they disappear into the desert.
In these few brief seconds, the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is clearly defined by its soft edges and quiet exhaust. Manufacturers don't let us feel cars raw and unfiltered anymore. Hammering down a desert road with a thin-rimmed steering wheel and pistol-grip shifter — that's raw. Four hundred and forty cubic inches and a four-speed — that's raw. Powerslides unhampered by electronic intervention — that's raw.
In 1970, when Kowalski drove this very road — U.S. Highway 50 through Nevada — he felt it. And it was raw.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Dodge Challenger SRT8 SRT-8 New vs. Old Vanishing Point Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line car auto motor
| | Nissan Beats Porsche? 2009 Nissan GT-R (U.S.-Spec) - 188 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=126103
For a few seconds, you give in to the spectacle of driving a 2009 Nissan GT-R. This car attracts its own entourage and then takes you along for the ride. It's not just the Skyline mystique, either. It's the fact that even in production sheet metal, the R35 GT-R looks like a one-off concept stolen from a Southern California design studio. It has as many hard contours as a Porsche 911 has soft curves. You have the key fob, and still you ogle it.
Soon, though, you point the GT-R down an on-ramp and plant the throttle. The effortless brutality with which the 2009 Nissan GT-R gathers speed is what you'll describe to your friends — once everyone's tired of talking about the styling, that is.
What you won't tell them is that you suspect your supercar might be a sociopath. It doesn't flow around corners like your E46 BMW M3 did, nor does it transmit feedback through the steering wheel for the sheer pleasure of it.
Instead, the 2009 Nissan GT-R bends asphalt to its will. When it talks to you about tire grip, you get the feeling it's only bothering because you're part of its great plan to break free of the Earth's orbit. Should it ever achieve this, you imagine that its conversation will cease and it will simply expel you into the airless void. Until then, though, you have the conn.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2009 Nissan GT-R gtr U.S.-Spec Full Test Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line auto car motor Japanese Porsche 911 skyline
| | 2008 Volkswagen Touareg 2 V8 Full Test by Inside Line - 177 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125519
If cars had superpowers, the 2008 Volkswagen Touareg 2 V8 would be Captain Light Fantastic. Each time you start the VW Touareg 2, it salutes you with an impressive light show as the range-adjusting dynamic headlights calibrate themselves.
That's the story with this revised version of VW's sport-utility, as a range of exotic enhancements to the electronics expand its dynamic possibilities, while a number of luxury features have been added, like a stylish interior treatment and a power liftgate. It's a sport-utility with a superhero's range of special powers.
The Touareg 2 seems to have driven away from its VW heritage and become more like the Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne, with which the Touareg shares the fundamentals of its platform and powertrain.
Of course, this 2008 Volkswagen Touareg V8 rang the cash register to the tune of $55,750, and this makes us wonder, is the Touareg 2 now the sport-utility version of the Volkswagen Phaeton, a luxury sedan that never found its audience?
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2008 Volkswagen Touareg V8 Full Test by Inside Line Edmunds' Edmunds car auto motor suv crossover
| | Challenger: Faster than a Speeding Bullitt? - 259 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=125968
The rebirth of the American muscle car is about a lot more than retro. It's about pride. It's about recalling a time when Americans looked down the road to the future with confidence, and they wanted a great big V8 engine to get them there as soon as possible.
It's no wonder the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt has our respect. It's the best version yet of the 2005 Ford Mustang, the car that set Detroit on fire again with enthusiasm for good old American muscle. Maybe the fuel-guzzling muscle car won't save Detroit from the challenge to build cars that people need, but it's surely restored the domestic car industry's confidence in its ability to do so. And it's shown that Americans can build cars that are utterly unlike anything you'll find in Stuttgart, Shanghai, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or any of those other places that economists think they're so clever to know about.
Now that the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is here, Chrysler is cracking the seal on its own Mopar-branded can of muscle-car whoop-ass to show that it understands what's at stake in the muscle-car sweepstakes. The Bullitt and the Challenger are the two coolest cars in America, and it's only natural to bring them together.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Challenger: Faster than Speeding Bullitt? Dodge Ford Mustang Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line car auto motors
| | Battle of the Bimmers: BMW M3 v BMW 135i v BMW 335i - 243 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=125265
Before you start sending us flaming e-mails complaining that a comparison between the 2008 Audi S5 and the 2008 BMW M3 Coupe is an obvious mismatch from the get-go, you should know a few things.
Our first full test of the $53,000, all-wheel-drive 2008 Audi S5 was a bit of a revelation. With a 354-horsepower version of Audi's direct-injection 4.2-liter V8 under its hood, the voluptuous Audi S5 ran a 13.3-second quarter-mile at 104 mph, just 0.1 second and 2 mph shy of the 420-hp 2007 Audi RS4 sedan. What's more, the S5's slalom speed is within a couple mph of the harsh-riding RS-spec sedan. "It ran a 13.3? With that kind of speed, who needs a $67,000 RS4?" we asked ourselves.
We believe so strongly in the 2008 Audi S5 that it earned our Inside Line's inaugural Editors' Choice Award.
So we acquired (hastily perhaps) another 2008 Audi S5 and set it against the new 2008 BMW M3 Coupe, a car now fortified with V8 power for the first time. Speed-reading the specifications sheets of these two cars, they seem like natural rivals: the 354-hp, all-wheel-drive 2008 Audi S5 measured against the 414-hp, rear-wheel-drive 2008 BMW M3.
But as it turns out, we gave the 2008 Audi S5 a bigger challenge than we had initially intended.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Battle of the Beemers: BMW M3 135i 335i Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line
| | Challenger 2.0 - World's 1st Test of Dodge's New Muscle Car - 179 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125459
The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is a muscle car, right? An American muscle car. So naturally, the first thing I want to do when I jump behind the wheel is a big American smoky burnout.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Car Auto Motor Mopar Dragracing Driving 2008 Challenger SRT8 World's First Test of Dodge's Newest Muscle
| | The New Jaguar: 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged by Inside Line - 195 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125955?tid=edmunds.il.home.photopanel..3.*
Bruised and bloodied, Jaguar's fate now rests in the hands of Indian automaker Tata. The only certainty of its future is that it is uncertain.
Now forget about all that. Turn your attention to the product, which is ultimately the most critical aspect of an automaker's success. Here we have the 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged, purportedly ready to do battle with the big German sedans like the Audi A6, BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, cars that know the luxury sedan game.
Only time will tell the story of Jaguar as it enters the next phase of its existence, but we can peek a few pages forward simply by testing the fruits of its labor.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: The New Jaguar: 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged by Inside Line Edmunds' Edmunds car auto motor Tata
| | Beyond Infiniti? 2009 Infiniti FX50 by Inside Line - 177 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125872
It would be easy to dismiss the 2009 Infiniti FX50 as completely irrelevant, a mutant crossover vehicle.
Going on past sales figures alone, you'd be right, because total 2007 sales of the Infiniti FX45 numbered just 1,598 units, about a tenth of the 2007 Infiniti FX35s that found their way to the street during the same period last year.
But this wouldn't be entirely fair. The all-wheel-drive FX came to market in 2003 as one of the first crossovers that had morphed into a high-performance vehicle — a kind of personalized coupe, only with cargo capacity. The FX looked like a Bionic Cheetah, showcased some segment-leading technology and delivered road-going performance on par with European-brand sport-utilities the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne. Unfortunately, no one seemed to care.
Yet now people are talking about personal-style crossovers. Have times finally caught up with the 2009 Infiniti FX50?
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Beyond Infiniti: 2009 Infiniti FX50 by Inside Line Nissan Edmunds Edmunds' luxury SUV car auto motor truck
| | Skyline GT-R Heaven: 2009 Nissan GT-R Ultimate Road Trip - 193 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=125571
It's been a long time coming, but there's a white 2009 Nissan GT-R in the Inside Line Garage (we photographed it with our Ferrari to prove it). In fact, the keys are in my pocket as I type this. Forgive me if this is a short blog post, I'm itching to get on the road.
Here's the deal. The car is a PT2 unit, as in pre-production. And it's right off of Nissan's Arizona proving grounds. Nissan engineer Bruce Robinson drove it west from that facility yesterday. According to him the car runs great but has a tendency to drool a little fuel down the side of the car when you fill it up. He also said we should invest in a case of octane booster. "We recommend 93, but it'll run on 91," he said. "I'd stop and get a few bottles."
And we will.
We officially leave Los Angeles for the Inside Line Ultimate GT-R Road Trip early tomorrow morning, so check back and follow along as we drive this all-wheel drive supercar 3,000 miles in three days. First day's destination? Well, we plan on hitting the El Mirage drylake for some top end runs. Then we'll turn north and find our way to Sacramento Dragway for a Wednesday night of grudge match drag racing. We hope to get there about 5 pm.
If you live in the area of the California capital city come on out. We'll even let you sit in the car while you tell us how much you love Inside Line. If you can't make it, keep checking this page for blogs, photos and video of our adventure.
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Skyline GT-R Heaven: 2009 Nissan Ultimate Road Trip Edmunds Edmunds' Inside Line car motor auto race racing
| | Hybrid v Diesel Smackdown: Chevy Hybrid vs Mercedes Diesel - 319 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=125645
2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid vs. 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI
No one's talking about it, but the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI are the two most fuel-efficient full-size SUVs on the market. We guess that makes Paris Hilton, proud owner of a 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid, the hybrid Tahoe's twin, a forward-thinking early adopter at the vanguard of the green car movement.
Truthfully, calling either of these SUVs "green" might border on an insult to the color, not to mention the movement. These are still large, comfortable vehicles with more torque than the average commuter needs and more seats than most families will use, perfect for vacations but decadent in daily life.
But these vehicles are more reasonable when you consider that the four-wheel-drive 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid earns an EPA rating of 20 mpg city/20 mpg highway, and the all-wheel-drive 2008 Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI rates 18 mpg city/24 mpg highway. This works out to a combined rating of 20 mpg for both SUVs — a big achievement for a full-size sport-utility.
When it comes to large sport-utilities, think of this as a practicality test for hybrid and diesel. In other words, if you want to drive something big without feeling bad, this is what it's all about.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: diesel 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid vs. Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI Edmunds Inside Line alternative fuel
| | 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 Cruise Weekend by Inside Line - 175 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=125650
"I'll never be able to face my muscle-car friends if I don't ask you for a ride around the block," Brooks reminds me.
"Sure, get in." It's not like I'm going to turn him down. This 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 in all its Hemi Orange splendor has been illegally parked in front of motorhead bookstore Autobooks in Burbank, California, for an hour, so I'd be totally cold to just drive off without giving one of the guys a ride.
Dropping the keys into the cupholder, I press the start button. It's plastic rather than some kind of pretentious metal, yet it wakes up the 6.1-liter Hemi V8 all the same. It's a hot afternoon in Burbank, but I put the windows down so Brooks can get the full aural effect.
"It idles quieter than I thought it would," he says. "I was expecting it to grumble and snort like the old cars that my friends have."
I pull onto Magnolia Boulevard, take a quick right down a side street scanning for children and pets, and go for maybe two-thirds throttle.
"That's more like it," says Brooks, bracing himself a little. "The exhaust note gets all loud and old-school as the revs build, and even though it's an automatic, the car feels fast."
A minute later, we roll up to Autobooks and my only Challenger ride-along of the weekend seems to be over. But Brooks knows better.
"Wait here a second. I'm going to see if my manager Hiram wants to ride with you."
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 Cruise Weekend by Inside Line Chrysler Edmunds Edmunds' muscle car auto motor burnout
| | Beijing Auto Show: Buick Invicta by Inside Line - 56 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/autoshows/beijing/2008/index.html
Buick has dusted off one of its classic nameplates — Invicta — for a new concept luxury vehicle that will be formally unveiled in mid-April at the Beijing auto show.
General Motors says the Invicta was jointly developed at corporate design centers in China and North America — a pattern that could mark the future design direction of the Buick brand, which is expected to share more models between those two markets.
GM says the Invicta showcar continues the thread of the futuristic styling theme introduced last year on the Buick Riviera concept that was displayed at the Shanghai show. It borrows such signature Buick design cues as the chrome waterfall grille, portholes and "sweepspear" curving line that runs along the vehicle's flanks.
The Invicta name — Latin for "unconquerable" or "unvanquished" — was used briefly by Buick from 1959-'63 on an uplevel version of the big LeSabre, and was supplanted by the Wildcat. The Invicta brand also appeared on a series of British cars from 1925-'50, and more recently on a limited-edition British sports car called the S1.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Beijing Auto Show: Buick Invicta by Inside Line Edmunds GM Riviera Velite car motor event china chinese
| | Honda on the Right Course? 2009 Honda Pilot by Inside Line - 156 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=125573
Honda knows the difference between revision and improvement, and you can see the evidence in the 2009 Honda Pilot. It looks different, only the same. Or maybe it's the same, only different. But what you can't see are the dozens and dozens of places within this utility package where the Honda engineers have fiddled with the details.
It's easy to imagine the Honda engineers swarming over the 2009 Honda Pilot, relentlessly improving space-efficiency, utility, fuel economy and performance. It is the Honda Way, the thorough refinement of a mechanical device into a form that is supremely functional, pure and simple.
Only these particular Honda engineers are a bunch of guys from Ohio at Honda R&D Americas, and they've tried to make the 2009 Honda Pilot into the right kind of crossover for Americans.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2009 Honda Pilot by Inside Line Edmunds Acura car auto motor crossover suv
| | A Better GT: 2006 Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo - 142 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125555
It looks like any everyday Ford GT, but John Hennessey says there's 1,000 horsepower under its rear deck. This is Hennessey Performance Engineering's twin-turbocharged GT1000 and it has just roared to life as if the gates to hell have blown open.
Time for some hyperbole. Blipping the throttle has it pivoting over its keel like it's been hit by a tsunami. The sound is so intense, the shockwaves could be used for CPR. This car has the power to move continents and disrupt the very rotation of the earth.
Then we drive it. And when the turbos hit it's as if the car has been grabbed by the gravitational pull of a black hole. Time, space and your facial features seem to warp into a frappe of subatomic particles.
Four full digits' worth of power — it's the sort of thing that gives insanity a good name.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Ford GT 2006 Hennessey GT1000 Twin Turbo Edmunds Inside Line car motor auto DOHC 32-valve 5.4-liter V8
| | Benz v Bimmer: 2008 Mercedes C63 AMG vs. 2008 BMW M3 Sedan - 230 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=125350
There will be no Camaro vs. Mustang death match this week due to a distinct lack of Camaro, so can we interest you instead in a muscle-car comparison test? Here we have two classic nameplates, each with a 400-horsepower V8 stuffed into a smallish four-door body shell and powering only the rear wheels.
Naturally we're referring to those two paragons of modern muscle, the 2008 BMW M3 Sedan and the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.
Don't be confused by the German nameplates, the aura of high-tech engineering and the rarefied price tags. The 2008 BMW M3 Sedan and 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG match up as naturally as any muscle cars on Woodward Avenue during the 1960s.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: Benz Biemer: 2008 BMW M3 Sedan vs. MercedesC63 AMG Edmunds Inside Line car auto motor German
| | Mutant or Masterpiece? 2008 BMW X6 by Inside Line - 219 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=125474
It looks awkward in pictures and some find it hideous, but the 2008 BMW X6 50i isn't nearly as warped when you see it in person. It's kind of a supermodel from behind, with a slim, narrow roof at the top and curvaceous hips at the bottom. Designers call this sort of thing tumblehome, and an SUV without it looks like a refrigerator.
The front is all BMW with a big twin kidney grille and fighter-jet-size intakes at each corner. The roof line goes on forever in profile, giving the X6 a hatchback-style look that's unique at best, a little too forced at worst. The designers at BMW say it's "coupelike," so they — and they alone — call the X6 a Sports Activity Coupe.
It gets better from behind the wheel. Fire up the new 400-horsepower, 4.4-liter V8 and it sounds more like a carbureted big block than a sophisticated twin-turbo engine with direct injection. We don't remember an X5 sounding this burly.
So far this much is clear — pictures don't do the all-wheel-drive 2008 BMW X6 justice.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: First Drive: 2008 BMW X6 xDrive 50i car auto motor Edmunds Inside Line X5 X3
| | Benz Brutality: 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG by Inside Line - 193 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125334
Everything you need to know about the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG is made clear the instant you prod its 451-horsepower V8 engine to life. When the 6.2-liter beast lights off, the engine revs spike in a programmed "look at me" blip before the Merc's idle settles into a deep, throaty burble. Cue the goose bumps.
We haven't yet released the brake or slotted the shift lever into gear, and we're already trying to figure out an angle to finance one of these muscle-bound sport sedans, all $54,625 of it.
But we have to wonder if the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG — essentially a hot-rod C-Class sedan — can possibly deliver the goods in direct proportion to this testosterone-infused exhaust note. There's only one way to find out.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Edmunds Inside Line car auto motor mercedes German
| | rEVOlutionized: 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X by Vishnu Performance - 148 sec
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Followup/articleId=125372
Improving the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is no easy task. It hits 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and blasts through the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 101 mph.
It performs even more amazing feats when its steering wheel is turned. Physics-defying electronics and magic all-wheel-drive torque distribution help rotate this sport sedan about its axis with brilliant control and consistency. It produces a 0.99g performance on the skid pad, and that's enough grip to match the Dodge Viper and trounce no less than the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Porsche 911 Turbo.
In other words, the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is a lot of car for $33 grand.
But for another thousand bucks it can be a lot better. All it takes are a few electronic modifications. That's where the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution by Vishnu Performance systems comes in.
Auteur : InsideLineVideo
Tags: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution by Vishnu Performance Systems Edmunds Inside Line car motor auto racing tuner race
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