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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Monday, 02 March 2009 |
Range Rovers are the gold standard for luxury SUVs. They invented the segment and the name carries all kinds of great brand cachet. The folks at Land Rover may have left the Ford corporate umbrella when the company (along with Jaguar) was sold to Tata in India, but they still know what their customers want, and they deliver it well.
One thing to like about Land Rover is that they’ve stayed largely immune from the disease that causes automakers to radically redesign their cars every year or two. The press packet that came with this week’s 2009 Range Rover Sport was written in 2004 for the 2005 auto show season, and it’s still applicable to the 2009 Range Rover. When you’ve got the car the way your customers want it, there’s no need to change things for the sake of change.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 March 2009 )
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Thursday, 27 November 2008 |
Just a couple years ago, the Los Angeles Auto Show was all about bigger, heavier, taller, faster. But what a difference a fuel price spike can make! There were a few standout fast cars this year (The Nissan 370Z springs readily to mind) but the big noise at every automaker’s display was alternative fuel, hybrids, and electric cars. Last year, they had non-running prototypes, but this year the press could hike down to the parking garage and test-drive an assortment of green cars on the roads circling the L.A. Convention Center.
 The New Mini E
Among the most hotly desired rides was the Mini Cooper E - an all-electric version of the popular Anglo-German subcompact hatch. At first, it looked like we wouldn’t get a chance to take a turn, but persistence and a Japanese journalist who didn’t show up for his appointment earned us a jump in the line. Read on for the juicy details...
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 November 2008 )
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Thursday, 04 September 2008 |
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Back in the first golden age of sports cars during the 1950s and 60s, automakers had a habit of producing their sports cars in a basic version, a super-duper hot rod version, and then a kind of in-between version. The in-between car was often idiosyncratic and nearly always reflected the factory design team’s conception of how the car really should feel. In other words, those cars hit the sweet spot between performance and comfort at an attractive price.  Just Right
Thus, cars like the Porsche 356SC and 911SC were perhaps not as fast as the Carrera models, but had a certain balance of comfort, performance, and longevity that made them the favorites of those who really knew and understood the breed. Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and other serious sports car players also made these special low-production models. If you check your trivia, you’ll find that people like Sergio Pininfarina, Enzo Ferrari, and Ferry Porsche tended to drive these special cars rather than the all-out performance models.
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Written by Jeff Zurschmeide
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Thursday, 19 June 2008 |
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 It's precisely what you think it is The Audi R8 is the state of the art in German supercar technology. It’s got 420 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque pumped out of a normally-aspirated direct injection 4.2-liter DOHC V8 engine. Power is delivered to all four wheels through Audi’s advanced R-Tronic 6-speed “clutchless manual” transmission and legendary Quattro all wheel drive system. The car will do 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, and has a top speed governed to 187 MPH. The least expensive R8 comes in at $109,000, and the R8 we tested is priced at $137,000 - that’s what it costs to take home the finest engineering that European automakers can provide.
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