Automotive Einstein

So there I was, sitting under a giant Honda tent at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It was the morning, I was eating breakfast, and I was staring off into the distance, idly wondering why I couldn’t remember any of my high-school Japanese. (Ok, I didn’t take Japanese in high school, but I’d like to pretend that I did, because the smart kids all took Japanese. I took Spanish, a language that has helped me exactly zero times in my professional life but nevertheless allowed me to insult all of my mexican college friends in their native tongue. Y tu mama tambien, bastardo!)

Photo Gallery: 2008 Honda Civic MUGEN Si – New Car, Truck and SUV Road Tests and Reviews – Automobile Magazine

I confess: I am not one of the first-wave faithful. Ten years ago, I didn’t stay up nights wondering why Subaru kept holding out on the American public.

Photo Gallery: 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX – New Car, Truck, and SUV Road Tests and Drivens – Automobile Magazine

I’m just clearing customs on my way home from Europe when my cell phone rings. It’s Keith Price, our favorite Volkswagen product rep, calling. He’s on his way to Ann Arbor in a 2004 Jetta, and he wants me to drive it. A 2004 Jetta? Keith is obviously up to no good, so I immediately agree to meet him.

Photo Gallery: 2008 Volkswagen Jetta Clean Diesel – New Car, Truck, and SUV Road Tests and Reviews – Automobile Magazine

Cadillac’s current-generation STS was the first to use a rear-wheel-drive chassis, which at last put it on equal footing with big-name players such as the Mercedes-Benz E-class, the Lexus GS, and the BMW 5-series. That’s very tough competition and, at the midpoint in its season, the STS is getting some fortification.

Photo Gallery: 2008 Cadillac STS – Latest Car, Truck, and SUV Road Tests and Reviews – Automobile Magazine

It would be easy to dismiss the Lexus LS600hL as the ultimate feel-good device, a literal limousine for limousine liberals, a $100,000 self-indulgence-mobile whose hybrid powertrain provides a veneer of environmentalism that allows its well-to-do owners to feel like they’re doing something for the environment when they’re really doing something for themselves.

Photo Gallery: 2007 Lexus LS600hL – New Car, Truck, and SUV Road Tests and Drivens – Automobile Magazine

For a very long time, the Passat sat on the sidelines of the American family-sedan playing field. It was seemingly content, in mid-1990s fourth-generation guise, to dangle its optional, gutsy VR6 engine in front of Volkswagen devotees and to snag a few four-cylinder buyers who got lost on the way to the Honda showroom. The mid-size-sedan segment belonged to the Honda Accord, the Toyota Camry, and the Ford Taurus, while the Passat was little more than a charming anachronism from Wolfsburg, all but invisible.

Photo Gallery: 2006 Volkswagen Passat – Latest News, Features, and Four Seasons Reviews – Automobile Magazine

Welcome to the German autobahn, the first leg of our cross-Europe trek behind the wheel of the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-class. Two-lane sections can be tricky, since every driver seems to be talking on a cell phone, but the increasingly common three-lane stretches are perfect playgrounds for mile-eaters like our C-class. Although officially limited to 155 mph, the speedometer reads 163 mph when the limiter finally calls time. At this speed, the C350 is totally unperturbed. Expansion joints? No effect, even when you’re really flying. Test-of-courage corners? Easy. Turn the wheel, keep your foot down, and marvel. Clueless slower drivers swerving left without so much as a flash of the turn signal? Don’t worry, this car has good brakes. Make that very good brakes.

Photo Gallery: 2008 Mercedes-Benz C350 Sport – Latest Car, Truck, and SUV Road Tests and Reviews – Automobile Magazine