Sometimes, the whole of a car is greater than the sum of the parts. Such is the case with the 2011 Volkswagen GTI. On paper, the GTI looks fairly unremarkable. The starting price is just over $24,000 for a three-door, or just over $25,000 for a five-door, which makes it slightly more expensive than its closest rival, the five-door Mazdaspeed3. Worse, it gives up a significant amount of horsepower to the Mazda: the GTI makes 200 horsepower from its 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder, while the Mazda cranks out some 263 horsepower from its 2.3-liter turbo four. If you’re looking for performance and handling, it looks to be an open and shut case for the Mazdaspeed3.
Or is it? Life doesn’t consist of an endless series of mountain roads and racetracks, and even if you hit the track every weekend, chances are that you still drive there on boring public roads. On the road, the GTI’s ride is more refined than the Mazdaspeed’s, and the Mazda’s ever-present (and occasionally puckering) torque steer is absent from the GTI. Sure, it’s not as quick as the Mazda, but the difference is less than you might expect. Volkswagen is very conservative in rating the GTI’s power, and owners who dyno their cars often find that the GTI produces about 215 horsepower at the wheels on 93 octane gas. It weighs about 240 pounds less than the Mazda, too, so the real-world advantage of the Mazda in 0 to 60 times is only a few tenths of a second.
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Unless you’ve been living in a cave in the wilderness for the past 12 months, it’s impossible to miss the huge strides Hyundai has gained in market share. Its Sonata mid-side sedan and Elantra compact have won numerous industry awards, and dealers can’t keep cars on their lots. In fact, Elantra supply is so short these days that dealers are selling from inventory in the pipeline, not on the showroom floor.
If you get the sense that Hyundai is doing a lot of things right these days, you’d be correct. When Hyundai announced the Genesis R-Spec last February, we’ll admit to being a bit skeptical; Hyundai had proven that they could build and sell mainstream and even luxury cars, but what did the Koreans know about building a sport sedan, long the domain of manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz? After all, not much has been done with their sole sports car, the Genesis Coupe, since launch, which has many critics questioning how serious Hyundai is about attracting performance-oriented buyers.
Check out our full review of the 2012 Hyundai Genesis R-Spec after the jump.
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The car world keeps coming back to roadsters. Marketing people perennially argue “what moderns really want is an appliance.” Huh. Tell Saturn that. Roadsters are the opposite of an appliance car, yet they thrive. They are the essence of Car.
At Porsche, they never succumbed to the nonsense. They do not just sell sports cars, they also sell SUV’s that think they are sports cars and a luxury sedan that will take on the newcomer Cadillac at Nürburgring and give you time for a quick sippa joe while the CTS-V finishes. Fair enough. Porsches are exciting cars and we all know it, but a roadster? Isn’t that a little beneath them? We can buy a Miata for twenty grand and you can’t find enough options to get one out the door at more than thirty. On a Porsche’s option sheet, a little daydreaming adds enough in options alone to match the cost of a new Miata. Can Porsche build a roadster that could possibly be worth that much more than a Miata?
Uh… yes. That turns out to be the case. I’m talking about people that care about cars of course. If a car really is just an appliance to you, you can always find one.
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When we buy a car, we want it to make us feel special. Now that the Fiat 500C has hit our shores, it’s easy to see that this convertible has excelled in this aspect. It combines the fun of a convertible and the ease of use of a compact car. You feel so happy when driving the 500C it should be categorized as an anti depressant. With such a cheap and cheerful car, you would expect it be made of plastic and have the same cosmetic qualities as an outhouse. As soon as you peek inside and out, you are amazed.
The 2012 Fiat 500C promises all the fun and style of the Fiat 500 with a convertible drop top that lets you soak up the glorious sunshine. The amazing thing is a fully loaded 2012 Fiat 500 C is the same price as a base model MINI convertible. We just looked up thew word value in the dictionary and not surprisingly, it showed a picture of the 2012 Fiat 500C.
Details on the Fiat 500C after the jump.
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The luxury sedan segment is cluttered with numerous offerings spanning many different countries. Germany is the pack leader with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and the Audi A8, while Japan counters with the Lexus LS460. Jaguar delivers with the new XJ, which is combination of elegant lines and old world grace, while American company, Cadillac, offers up the Stone Age DTS.
Each and every one of these machines has a purpose that is executed with precision and, for the most part, excellence. The new BMW 7-Series is fairly good at being a technology laden sports sedan, while the Lexus LS is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Yet, after a week in the new 2011 Audi A8, it has become clear that there is a new benchmark for the luxury sedan.
For years it was left behind by its German competitors, but now, the new world has caught up with the old world and for once, Mercedes-Benz and BMW will need to do some serious catching up in order to compete with this new A8. The “third” German car company has just taken the lead.
More details on the Audi A8 after the jump. Full story
