Acura used to set my heart aflutter.
Legends (both coupe and sedan) Vigors, Integras and the like had their flaws, but they were Acuras and that said a lot.

Download Acura's feisty TL relegates Legend to fond memory

We rarely hear from the Musketier tuning firm, but that doesn’t mean that mean these guys have fallen off the face of the earth. Recently, the German tuning company that specializes on aftermarket works done on Toyota, Citroen and Peugeot vehicles unveiled their latest work on the Citroen C3.

Download 2011 Citroen C3 by Musketier

The Canadian police have added a new vehicle to their fleet starting 2011. The new Dodge Charger

Download 2011 Dodge Charger Enforcer

Project Kahn may have a thing for LandRover models, but the British tuner has settled right in with another luxurious SUV: the Jeep Wrangler. They may have only added a cool new black exterior color and some impressive wheels, but the result was top notch nonetheless.

Download 2011 Jeep Wrangler by Project Kahn

Back in the days when crossovers were just something ghosts did, there was the Subaru Outback, a vehicle that looked like a wagon, but was superb off-road. Established in 1995, the Outback became the synonym for durability, ease of use, and excellent all around ability.

Download 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6

Those eagerly looking forward to our next hybrid family sedan comparison have to wait just a bit longer -- this Hyundai Sonata Hybrid we recently tested is a pre-production model.

Download First Test: 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

So get this: The journalists attending the launch of the 2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid were invited to take part in an economy challenge. Whoever got the best mileage would get a prize.

Download 2012 Porsche Panamera S Hybrid First Drive

Back in 1986, the Taurus was heralded as the car that would save Ford Motor Company. And it did. Now, 20 years later the same monumental responsibility has been thrust upon the 2006 Ford Fusion.

Download First Drive: 2006 Ford Fusion

In BMW's 2006 M Coupe, it's all about the steering wheel.

As anyone who's ever driven a BMW knows, the steering wheel represents a crucial element in cars wearing the blue-and-white roundel. In other automobiles the steering wheel merely serves as a directional control device. But in BMW automobiles it's more like an ergonomically shaped syringe — injecting the car's soul directly into the driver's cerebellum.


Download First Drive: 2006 BMW Z4 M Coupe

Have you ever had the dream? You know the one. You're out in public, as if everything is normal, but you're driving a naked car and everybody else is driving ordinary cars and you're hoping nobody notices; especially law enforcement? Maybe it's just me, but that's how driving the 2006 Lotus Exige feels. There's something exotic and naughty about taking the Exige out in public. It gets attention, and I'm sure the bright orange paint and flat-black wheels and wing have something to do with it.

Download Full Test: 2006 Lotus Exige

We've said it in print. We've said it to Mercedes-Benz. We've told our friends. We've even admitted it to our therapist: The Mercedes-Benz R-Class has a weight problem. Tipping the scales (tipping them over, actually) at around two and a half tons, the R has no natural enemies in the automotive arena — it looks like a Sumo station wagon, but any BMW or Audi luxury wagon you'd try to put it up against would get lost in its massive shadow. And while the all-wheel-drive R-Class is built alongside the M-Class and G-Class SUVs in Alabama, nothing about it makes you want to even consider putting dirt under its wheels (a fantasy you might entertain with a Porsche Cayenne).

Download First Drive: 2007 Mercedes-Benz R63 AMG 4Matic

The call of the third-row seat is pretty strong. Strong enough for a long list of crossover SUVs to have sprouted tiny, tacked-on, kids-only third rows that eat up any hope of carrying decent cargo. Minivans seat seven of course, but bottom out your cool factor faster than a Members Only jacket. So what's a guy to do?

Download First Drive: 2007 Mazda CX-9

Ford was keen that we drive a preproduction 2012 Focus out of the public eye. That’s how we wound up near Potrero, California, separated from the Mexican border by nothing but a rocky brown hill. Well, that’s not exactly true. Between us and the border also stood an armada of maybe 500 U.S. Border Patrol vehicles, enough that any illegal alien probing the landscape would knock himself unconscious on a government-issue Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban. We represented an additional hazard to cranial health, madly hurling a navy-blue Focus back and forth along State Route 94. Our progress was surely tracked by scores of agents wielding monster binoculars, who twice halted us at hastily erected roadblocks for “curiosity checks.” Which is how we became the very public spectacle that Ford so fervently hoped to avoid. Victory. (Once its cover was blown, we photographed the Focus in remote downtown L.A.).


Download 2012 Ford Focus U.S.-Spec - First Drive Review

Could have 380 PS (279 kW / 375 hp)

Download Ford Focus RS slated for a comeback

With Ford's market share in the U.S. slip-sliding away, president of the Americas Mark Fields has said the company has to "change or die." But his long-awaited "Way Forward" plan, announced amid much hype on January 23, fell short of the radical turnaround plan many analysts expected.

Download Ford Motor Company's Plan for Recovery