In the early '70s, just before the oil embargoes kicked off, Americans tended to drive massive land yachts. With the exception that rear wheel drive sedans have largely disappeared from the American carscape, not much has changed. Today, America drives huge pickup trucks instead.

Sure, Audi's E-Tron is the sexiest electric car concept ever, but is it worth its weight in electrons as a true driver's weapon? We headed to the twisties of Southern California to find out if Audi's getting it right.

After four years of planning and three years of hype, we've finally driven a production Chevrolet Volt plug-in "hybrid." We expected some character from the most obsessively engineered vehicle in GM's history. We didn't expect so many personalities at once.

The Cadillac CTS Coupe is the culmination of a Manifest Destiny-like aspiration — a dream that, one day, an American automaker would be able to stand up to Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus. America, luxe yeah!

To buy the 5.0 or the 2011 Shelby GT500? That is the question. True to the plethora-of-packages Mustang it's based on, the relative value of Ford's new 550 HP supercar-killer all depends on which option boxes you tick.

Externally, the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is indistinguishable from the 2010 model. But under its skin lives a brand-new, 6.2-liter, 411-hp V-8. We didn't desert race it, but we did cover it in two inches of mud.

The Ford Focus RS is the most lustworthy European hot hatch forbidden to us Yanks. No journalist has dared put all 305 hp of its front-wheel-drive madness down on red, white, and blue soil. Until now.

For the last year, every Mustang review has essentially read, "an involving, exciting sports car, but it's slower than the Camaro." In the muscle market, it's power, not handling, which sells. Luckily, the 2011 Ford Mustang fixes that. Moar power!

Ford perversely uses "EcoBoost" to describe their direct-injected and turbocharged engines when everyone knows fuel economy is merely the side effect of more power. The Hennessey MaxBoost 435 is a Lincoln MKS with the right name and 435 HP.

Infiniti's 5-series rival used to be a nice, but anonymous car. After hooning it through Southern California's canyons, that's no longer the case. Now, the 2011 Infiniti M is Japan's Jaguar.