2007 Car Reviews

The media and the public are crazy for hybrids, which they see as a magical-mystery powertrain that transforms an ordinary car into a fuel-sipping, earth-saving machine. That image has made Toyota's Prius (a 100,000-plus seller last year) an environmental icon more

Maybe you know someone who as a kid longed so much for top-down, open-air motoring that she helped her older brother cut off the top of a '72 Plymouth Valiant sedan in their driveway. (Gosh, was mom ever mad.) Later, she started working at the local Chick-Fil- more

My girlfriend is accustomed to having exotic and obscure cars materialize in our driveway. But she doesn't know what to make of the tiny, impossibly low-slung kazoo-on-wheels that thunders to a stop in front of our house and improbably disgorges not one but tw more

The Eskimos are said to distinguish thirty-seven different kinds of snow and ice. The Laplanders, who live much closer to civilization, can probably still name seventeen different varieties. But I'm perfectly happy with a three-step gradation: slippery, very s more

The Battle of Britain was waged in the skies above England in the summer and fall of 1940, the stakes being no less mo-mentous, in Winston Churchill's rousing formulation, than "the survival of Christian civilization . . . our own British life . . . and our Em more

The XLR-V is Cadillac's most expensive model to date, costing some $23,000 more than the next priciest Cadillac, the STS-V, and it's a huge risk for a division still in the midst of mustering a credible threat to the European luxury marques. But the focus cann more

There's just one thing wrong with the 400-hp, all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Eclipse Ralliart turbo: you can't buy it. It's a one-of-a-kind SEMA concept that showcases Ralliart, Mitsubishi's new line of performance parts. But maybe one day you'll be able to buy it more

It's Friday night, and we're inching down Collins Avenue, a multicylinder, multiwatt, multidollar, bumper-to-bumper convoy. In this star-spangled parade of flash, the new Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder triggers more flashed headlamps and thumbs-up signals than th more

It's illuminating to sit in a conference room and listen to a parade of Toyota executives freely describe the outgoing version of the Camry, the automaker's most successful and important vehicle, as "vanilla," "bread-and-butter," "ordinary," "boring," and "uni more

Ann Arbor- If you think huge is a mortal sport-utility sin, move on. But if you still need huge in your SUV, then you'll want to take a closer look at the new Chevrolet Tahoe. We have no quarrel with its size; we only want to know how this new Tahoe does its more

Dsseldorf, Germany Before explaining the visual elements that distinguish the new Audi S8 from the A8, Filip Brabec, Audi product planning manager in the United States, observes, "Germans like things understated. Americans want flash." His assertion is that, more

The Mercedes-Benz S-class is done pandering. more

Finally, we drive the world's fastest and most expensive automobile, the 987-hp Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4. more

When you're at the top of your game, where do you go? You go up--in power, size, and features. But is the sum of the greater parts still great? more

The Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 harks back to the past, with more than just its name. This thing offers enough tire smoking performance to launch you straight back to the late sixties. more