2009 Pontiac G8 GXP, First Drive

If I were to tell you GM is the new BMW you’d probably laugh at me. But driving the 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP just a couple of months after the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V and Corvette ZR1, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. Equipped with a 6.3-liter, LS3 V8 making 415 HP and 415 lb-ft of torque, the G8 GXP isn’t just the fastest car Pontiac's ever made, but based on GM’s new global rear wheel drive platform (the same one as the new Camaro) and fitted with lower, stiffer suspension and a six-speed manual gearbox it strikes the right balance between supercar performance and real world practicality. Think E39 M5, but with a Corvette engine and better steering. More »

2009 Jaguar XF, Part Two

Exterior Design: **/**** More »

2009 Jaguar XF, Part One

If the Jeremy Clarkson School of Automotive Journalism has taught me one thing, it’s that any good car review needs a metaphor. They serve to add a tangible anchor to a story, they add humor, they add relevance and, more importantly, they create an easy formula with which us car reviewers can crank out reviews in no time flat about a car most readers will likely never drive. So in keeping with the teachings of Professor Clarkson, we’re picking a metaphor for the 2009 Jaguar XF: Seinfeld’s pretty/ugly girl. More »

2008 BMW 750Li, Part Two

Exterior Design: *** More »

2008 BMW 750Li, Part One

Since 1977, the BMW 7-series has represented the thinking man’s luxury car. A vehicle that was, on paper, neither as gargantuan as American competitors like the Lincoln Town Car or Chrysler New Yorker (closer actually in size to the two-door Cordoba), nor as austere as its main Deutschland domestic rival, the Mercedes S-Class, it nevertheless represented the perfect balance of substance and style for the wealthy driver. The latest version was launched in 2001, with BMW facing stiff new competition from the Far East as well as a shift in luxury customer preference to large SUVs. Their response to this threat? Challenge themselves and their customers to rethink the term “luxury.” It worked. Although extremely controversial, the Chris Bangle design has become influential — the “Bangle Butt” can now be found, in some form, on each of the 7-series’ rivals — and successful — the current generation is the best selling ever. With the 2009 BMW 7-Series just over the horizon, we felt it was time to take a look back at this most polarizing of vehicles: the 2008 BMW 750Li. More »

2009 Cadillac CTS-V: First Drive

Only a couple of minutes into the briefing and already things are going bad. “The supercharged engine doesn’t trail off up to the 6,200 RPM redline, so on the track, you may find yourself hitting the rev limiter once or twice,” says a Cadillac spokesperson, preparing us for our first foray onto the track at Monticello. I’m sheepishly trying to sink further into the leather couch, hoping none of the elderly car journalists sitting around me brings up the fact that, half an hour ago, I was bouncing off the rev-limiter at full throttle in third and fourth gear, passing all of them on the wrong side of a two-lane mountain road. I guess that Cadillac considers the 556 HP, 191 MPH 2009 Cadillac CTS-V so fast that drivers — even professional car reviewers — won’t be able to fully exploit its engine on the road. The thing is, they’re wrong. More »

2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR

Andrew Stoy is wrong. (No, I'm not. —A.S.) The 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR makes a much better everyday car than the 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart. And I should know: I've only driven it in rush hour traffic. More »

2008 Dodge Charger SRT8, Part Three

Why you should buy the 2008 Dodge Charger SRT8: More »

2008 Dodge Charger SRT8, Part One

While Wert spent last week behind the wheel of the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, I had the muscle car's big, boorish bear of a brother, the 2008 Dodge Charger SRT8. The two cars may come off the same production lines, but I'm finding myself using a different set of adjectives than the petals of flowery prose Wert scattered in front of the Challenger's tires. The Charger SRT8 is pitifully crude, boorish and obnoxious. As far as high performance goes, it's a complete piece of shit. But it's the most badass, tire-spinning, smoke-billowingly fun piece of shit we've ever driven.

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2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart

The 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart isn't an Evo X. It's better. That's what I keep telling myself as I drive the back roads of the Detroit exurbs in Mitsubishi's latest boosted compact. Slotting between the regular FWD Lancer 2.4 GTS and the balls-out rally car Evo X, the Ralliart seeks to put Mitsubishi on the shopping list of folks who might consider, say, a WRX but not a full-bore STi. More »

2008 Dodge Charger Police Edition, Part Two

Exterior Design: **** More »

2008 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, Part One

Visitors to Chicago may never realize that an entire world exists below their feet as they explore the city. But it's there. And it's paved. Word came to me that at the lowest point, Lower Lower Randolph Street, there's a mystical market trading in far out wares. In order to find said market I decided to employ the 2008 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, a car that's inconspicuous despite the abundance of letters in its name and the bright red paint. More »