The Premium Club: It’s Getting Harder To Join
Back in the mid-’90s, I sat and listened as Audi designer Peter Schreyer — now the man responsible for all those good-looking Kias — ran through the media briefing for the C5 Audi A6. Smooth and...
View ArticleTesla Model S: Your Mileage May Vary
Motor Trend was the first media outlet to do any kind of long-range testing on the Tesla Model S. We performed three tests back in August 2012, shortly after the vehicle’s launch. These road trips were...
View ArticlePrelude to an Accord
The last car I owned was a 2000 Honda Prelude. At the time, it was one of the best-handling, most fun, and most refined sporty coupes you could buy for around $25,000. I have nothing but fond memories...
View ArticleAlfa Bettor: Sergio Marchionne Gambles Big on Reviving an Italian Legend
Alfa Romeo was the BMW of the 1960s. Back then, Alfa sedans, coupes, and sports cars delivered almost exactly the same combination of sporty driving dynamics and daily utility that BMW later stumbled...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: How Your Car Salesman Sees You, Part 2
I was standing in front of the dealership when a well dressed, middle aged lady pulled up in a rental car and got out. “What kind of credit score do you need to buy a car?” she asked. This is not the...
View ArticleBreaking Records and Rules
This month’s cover layout breaks all sorts of professional and personal rules. One of the first tenets of journalism is to report the story, not be part of it. From a design standpoint, just look at...
View ArticleMeet the Microbe That Might Soon Munch CO2 to Make Bio-Butanol
I’m starting to lose hope (or patience) for cheap, mass-produced cellulosic bio-fuels. It could be those nasty lignins just can’t be converted into sugars and then into alcohols economically. The...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: The Seven Immutable Laws of Car Sales
I’m not a scientist, but I did graduate high school and I seem to recall my high school science teacher saying something to the effect that “Every physical system is governed by its own unique set of...
View ArticleThe Immortal Porsche 911: We’re Not Bored Yet
It’s 28 years since I first drove a Porsche 911. I still remember the wonderful clarity of the steering and the clattery rasp and razor-sharp throttle response of the air-cooled flat-six. I remember,...
View ArticleHow to Allroad and Crosstrek it to the Bank
Not too long ago, we had a 2009 Audi A4 Avant in our long-term test fleet. What a sweet car. Dressed in Monza Silver metallic and with a sophisticated S line package, it was a stealthy streamliner...
View ArticleFuture Tech—A roundup of cool gizmos recently crossing the Tech Director’s desk.
A week of breath catching in between a flurry of new-car launches and drive programs saw me catching up on journals, surfing the tech web, and attending the 2013 WardsAuto Interiors Conference in...
View ArticleThe Big Test
There has never been a more challenging time in auto-motive publishing. Everyone is scrambling to find the right way to connect to an audience that has fractured and fragmented to numerous different...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: Get ‘Em In!
I’ve always hated the expression “Old School” because…well, I graduated from the Old School, and I think it’s a pretty fine school. In fact, in most cases, I think Old School is still the best school....
View ArticleThe V-8s Australians Want Americans to Love
We are probably traveling north of 160 mph when Michael Caruso grenades the brakes and fans the sequential shifter. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Down from sixth to second quicker than John McClane warming up a...
View ArticleThe Mercedes-Benz GLK250 BlueTec is a Solo Standout
In this issue there are no fewer than three million-dollar gas-hybrid super sports cars. (OK, the Porsche 918 starts at $845,000, but with a few options, it’s close enough.) Think about that for a...
View ArticleFathers Day Done Right
Today was a picture-perfect car-guy Fathers Day weekend. First of all, my father (and mother) drove 800 miles up to visit me for the weekend. Saturday we gorged on Polish beer and food in Hamtramck,...
View ArticleBehind the Blueprint
The seed of this month’s cover story was embedded in an observation made by Paul Mackenzie, McLaren Automotive’s P1 program chief, at the 83rd Salon de l’Auto Genève. I asked him why somebody should...
View ArticlePorsche’s Fundamental Shift
In 2012, Porsche sold a couple hundred of its awesome, track-taming 911 GT3s. Often referred to as the “purist’s Porsche,” every one of those high-horse, big-winged, 8400-rpm-redline Bauhaus beauties...
View ArticleOnce-Exotic Carbon Fiber Inches Toward the Mainstream
Time has long been carbon fiber’s enemy. The time a preimpregnated sheet of woven carbon fiber can spend at room temperature before it starts to set up; the time it takes to lay up a structure of this...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: Win-Win
Whenever I up someone on the lot and they tell me they used to be in car sales I cringe. Ex-car salesmen can be some of the worst customers you’ll ever meet. The ones who loudly announce “I used to do...
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