2011VOLKWAGEN JETTA TDI CUP EDITION
BY DAVID COLMAN
The newly introduced 2011 Jetta is larger, and more soft-edged than its predecessor. By upsizing their bread and butter sedan, VW hopes to entice North American buyers into abandoning Camrys and Accords in favor of a more family-oriented Jetta. But this move to the middle has left hard-core VW sports types wondering whether Germany has forsaken them. Wonder no more, because the optional $2,350 Cup Edition of the Jetta Diesel will restore their faith in the sporting integrity of the brand. For the past several years, VW has backed a racing series for beginners in the US called the TDI Cup. They did so for two reasons. The first was to focus American eyes on the performance (and sales) potential of clean Diesel powered sedans. The second motive was to create a professional and affordable series for novice young racers to compete against one another. By all measures, the TDI Cup has been a resounding success. VW finally has acknowledged their brainchild by launching this Cup Edition of the Diesel Jetta. While The TDI Cup may look like a racecar, it still performs like a family sedan.
Reskinned body parts distinguish the Candy White Jetta Cup from the mom ‘n pop SEL sedan. An imposingly deep front airdam flows into ground effects sill extensions below the doors. The tail receives a diffuser-like lower valance plus a full trunk-mounted wing spoiler. Read the rest of this entry »
2010 DODGE CHALLENGER SRT8 LIMITED EDITION
BY DAVID COLMAN
It’s not often that you get to drive a factory prototype 4 years before the production version comes out, but in the case of the Dodge Challenger, I had the privilege of being one of the first journalists to drive the mock-up show car years before the final product hit the street. That first drive in the prototype was under whelming, as the show car had a dashboard with fake painted gauge faces, a shifter with just forward and reverse gears, and plastic bodywork that creaked and groaned at 20mph. Since the test car was a million dollar only child, crashing or thrashing it was not an option. But the slick way it looked said it all, and whetted my appetite for the real version to come.
Challenger is an important product for the newly reconstituted Fiat-Chrysler group. Much as Mustang is Ford’s image car and Camaro is GM’s, the Dodge Challenger plays Chrysler’s siren song, especially with Viper production ending. Musclecar lovers who fondly remember the original Challenger that starred in the 1971 cult movie Vanishing Point will not be disappointed in this hottest version of the reborn Challenger, the SRT8 Limited Edition. Read the rest of this entry »
2010 MERCEDES-BENZ E550
By DAVID COLMAN
This is one sweetheart of a Mercedes. You can fall in love with it on looks alone. Or you can become enamored of its stellar performance. If neither of these criteria motivate you, then try practicality, because this is a car with two-seater looks and go, but room enough for four and their luggage. By any quantifiable measure, this all-new for 2010 pillarless coupe is the best bargain to come out of Stuttgart in decades with a base price of just $54,650. Of course, you’ll want to up the ante a bit with the $3,950 optional “P01” Premium Package which adds a 40GB Navigation hard-drive with COMAND control stick, Logic7 Surround Sound, plus all the entertainment and information sources any sentient being could possibly want (Realtime Traffic Data, HD and Sirius Radio, and iPod/MP3 interface with cable connector included). The P01 Package also adds really nice 3 setting heated front seats (used every day), a power rear window shade (didn’t use), and a rear backup camera (which we ignored).Â
Mercedes could easily market this svelte new coupe as a sports car, since its got the looks and performance to compete with Chevy’s Corvette and Porsche’s 911. That’s a pretty heavy league, but … Read the rest of this entry »
2010 VOLKSWAGEN GTI
BY DAVID COLMANÂ
If you’re 27 years old now, you were born the year VW introduced the GTI to the USA. That’s right, it’s been 27 years since the original hot hatchback hit these shores. Back then, the Rabbit GTI, as it was originally known, wasn’t really all that hot: 90 horsepower, 14 inch wheels, 60 series tires? Today, it sounds like the start of a Jay Leno joke, but back in 1983, those were considered supreme performance refinements, hungrily sought after by a burgeoning legion of VW enthusiasts who had been waiting no less than 7 years for this previously Euro-only model to make its tardy debut in America. Indeed, the advent of the GTI even occasioned release of the pop tune “Kleine GTI†(“Little GTIâ€), carefully modeled after Ronnie and the Daytonas hit 60’s ode to Pontiac, “Little GTO.â€Â Â
2010 marks the debut of the 6th version of the GTI, dubbed A6 by VW. Aside from the carryover tradition of the hatchback body and red grill stripe, you’d be hard pressed to find any similarities to the original GTI of 1983. For example, horsepower has more than doubled, to 200hp, thanks to VW’s terrific 2.0 liter turbo TSI engine which produces 207 lb.-ft. of torque without lag. You can order your GTI as Read the rest of this entry »