Inhaltsverzeichnis für June 2016 in Automobile

As the crow flies, less than 270 miles lie between France and the Czech Republic by way of Germany, but we’re taking the long way, zigzagging through Deutschland on a three-day, 500-mile steeplechase in the all-new 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. By journey’s end, we want to know: What are the real-life benefits of all those costly safety and comfort-enhancing innovations? And can this Mercedes carve out a big enough lead to beat the present Audi A6 and BMW 5 Series, not to mention the next-generation models due in the next couple years? Unrestricted autobahns are an enthusiast’s dream, but in reality, they more often serve up mindnumbing stop-and-go, with aggressive lane hopping and infuriating tailgating. We expected our Hyacinth Red E-Class to create a stir in the Teutonic weekend traffic, but…

THE WONDERFULLY ECLECTIC Lane Motor Museum is located a few miles from Nissan’s U.S. headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. In a locked room in the basement is Nissan’s corporate heritage collection—55 cars and trucks dating back to the company’s earliest days. Since this is primarily a U.S. collection, there is nothing to prepare you for the 2009 Nissan GT-R sitting proudly front and center—nothing that, philosophically or stylistically, guides us through Nissan’s previous 20 years or so, evolving into this sports car that is understated in design, overstated in performance. This isn’t true in Japan, of course, where the Skyline GT-R was a performance staple since 1969. The U.S. enthusiast base didn’t really sign on until 1998, when Sony Play-Station’s “Gran Turismo” debuted, starring the Nissan GT-R. Add to that the…

The Koenigsegg Regera pictured here is the same car that took the 2015 Geneva Motor Show by storm. This is the prototype, and we’re among the first outsiders in the world to get a crack at the hypercar that signals a new chapter in terms of design and technology for the boutique Swedish brand. This car in particular is a fair bit outside industry norms: Most auto show queens can barely eclipse walking speed; this one will reportedly touch 249 mph. The production version aims for 255. Koenigsegg won’t begin delivering fully baked models of the Regera until September. It plans to build only 80 copies of the 1,500-horsepower, carbon monocoque monster for about $1.89 million a pop, with half of them already spoken for. The Regera is stunning to…

Perfect faith would have us believe we’re direct recipients of revelation. Jews are supposed to fulfill the commandments of the Bible as if they themselves received them at Mount Sinai, and Christians are supposed to behave as if they heard Jesus deliver a sermon. In practice, however, perfect faith is difficult to keep if you’re constantly questioning your beliefs. Take, for instance, our faith in BMW. Most of our editors were not yet born when founder David E. Davis Jr. expounded on the greatness of the BMW 2002, and only a few of us worked here when the magazine awarded five stars to our Four Seasons 2003 BMW M3. We recall Four Seasons tests of the current-generation 5 Series and 3 Series, fine cars that lacked a certain sparkle, and…

Thumb through the classifieds or browse the results of the latest auction, and you’ll come to the dreadful realization that instead of buying up fistfuls of Apple and Google stock, you should have invested your Benjamins in the market for the classic Porsche 911. Values for pre-1974 911s have risen as much as 600 percent over the last four years, as indicated by the Hagerty Insurance vehicle-valuation tool. Want one? Sorry, no bargains remain. But there is one desirable and affordable air-cooled 911 model left, though it’s been long overlooked. Of course we’re talking about the 911SC. There are lots of them for sale because the big-dollar collector crowd has long rejected the 1978-1983 911SC as too slow, too reliable, and too common to be a purist’s car. In fact,…

TOP 10 AUTOMOTIVE BRANDS BY POLITICAL PARTY: IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN POLITICAL AND AUTOMOTIVE PREFERENCES? 67% of potential Mini buyers claim they’re outside the major party system. Libertarian: A person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action. A member of a political party advocating libertarian principles. BUICK INFINITI LINCOLN aren’t very popular and are politically androgynous, appealing to fewer than a tenth of potential buyers regardless of affiliation. It’s a presidential election year, in case you haven’t noticed. So naturally we started thinking about Decision 2016 in automotive terms. What do the people who support different presidential candidates drive? And is there a way to predict people’s politics based on the brand of car they own? To help us find out, we pinged George…

To hear BMW tell it, the electric exotic i8 rests atop Munich’s product lineup, the halo car that shines its high-technology glow over the whole range. Ask those of us who still enjoy driving, though, and the new 2016 BMW M2, much nearer the bottom of the scale, is the hottest prospect in years, the real Ultimate Driving Machine. BMW revealed the car at the Detroit auto show in January, and now we’ve just driven it down Pacific Coast Highway and at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. BMW touts this car’s lineage through the 2002 Turbo of 1973, the E30 M3s of the late 1980s, and its most immediate predecessor, the limited-production 1 Series M Coupe of 2011-’12. It’s a worthy heir, a modern interpretation of a real driver’s coupe. Make…

Even though Mercedes-Benz is finishing development of its next-generation SL, based on an all-new platform and featuring a canvas convertible top, its existing signature luxury convertible still receives a few upgrades for the 2017 model year. The SL’s headlights are now more oval-shaped, and the front fascia’s air intakes are rounded out too. The front grille is larger, as are the car’s taillights. The convertible top now raises or stows at speeds up to 25 mph (the car previously needed to be stationary), and a new panel separates the folded top from the rest of the cargo area when it’s stashed. Mercedes also modified the optional Active Body Control suspension. It can “tilt” the car into a turn using its active hydraulic springs (similar to a motorcyclist leaning into a…

As the Bentley nears 200 mph I focus solely on its fundamentals: steering, engine, brakes, and the view ahead. Suddenly, it feels race-car basic in here. The handmade, leather-lined cabin is long forgotten. The two-lane Australian public road stretching out ahead of me is straight, but its surface is uneven. Each dip causes the wheel to kick back and the car’s line to drift. Nerves make me want to strangle the rim, and it’s a conscious effort to keep my grip loose. The throttle requires the same constant attention to hold wide open. The noise and the sensation through my backside tell me that the 626-horsepower, 6.0-liter W-12 engine is starting to labor, so I must be getting close to 206 mph, or whatever the Continental’s top speed is in…

1987 Buick Grand National Sold at $25,300 S/N 1G4GJ1170HP433961 Black over blackand-gray cloth interior. 245-hp, 3.8-liter turbocharged OHV V-6; four-speed automatic transmission. Power features, tilt steering wheel, air-conditioning, high-power factory stereo. Good paint, brightwork, and black trim. All-original interior shows well. A good, clean example but far from brand new with 48,752 miles. THE STORY BEHIND THE SALE: The auction season starts with sales in Phoenix and Scottsdale during January, and the field of companies in Arizona is certainly getting crowded. Barrett-Jackson started it all and just celebrated its 45th anniversary. Additional events by Bonhams, Gooding & Company, RM Sotheby’s, Russo and Steele, and Silver make for a busy week. Although the number of cars sold in Arizona increased, the median sale price dropped slightly, and other private sales decreased…

As it stands today, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are little more than loss-making goodwill devices. But as major markets continue to tighten emissions regulations and begin to mandate alternative propulsion vehicles, experts are predicting that by 2050 only about 10 percent of all-new cars will be powered by an internal combustion engine alone. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that Germany’s automakers are investing billions into developing the next generation of BEVs. Never mind that a well-integrated charging infrastructure is a long way from reality, range anxiety is still all too real, and sales of fully electrified vehicles remain flat. Within the Volkswagen Group, Audi, Porsche, and VW are all actively pursuing BEV projects. Right now, the group has two new BEVs officially in the works (Audi Q6 e-tron…

WHO DOESN’T LIKE CHEAP GAS? Nobody, right? Then how come now that gasoline is at long last delightfully, delectably inexpensive, so many are sad? From petroleum-dependent governments plunged into debt crisis to newly unemployed denizens of the oil fields to the dealers who sold them their pickup trucks and provisions. Commodities markets and stock exchanges aren’t happy, and neither are the oil companies whose profits are falling— cheap gas having finally done for BP what even the $54 billion Deepwater Horizon blowout couldn’t, plunging the petro-giant that assassinated the Gulf of Mexico into the red for an entire fiscal year! So many don’t care for affordable gasoline. They’re not happy, and the way things go, they won’t be until you’re not happy. Yet as the knock-on effects of cheap gas…

BMW’s M2 is an involving track tool and well-behaved commuter car. No, it is not perfect. The rear seats are a token gesture, the short wheelbase adds excitement rather than stability, and after a long day’s hard driving you lust for more power. But in terms of drifts per hour and grins per mile, it is already on our list of potential 2017 Automobile All-Stars. These five points stand out, for better or worse: 1 The new car justifies its price premium over the moderately cheaper M235i by incorporating a number of essential M4 elements; it is more mature and much more refined than its predecessor, the remarkable 1 Series M Coupe. However, it costs quite a bit more than performance-car bargains such as Ford’s Focus RS, Honda’s Civic R,…

The latest fashion in resort wear is the Cadillac XT5, a crossover that turns every drive into a tour of Tuscany. Or, you know, California. So when you burst through the lobby doors and come out beneath the big roof of the hotel’s porte cochère, you’ll always be happy to find a Cadillac XT5 waiting for you. Why not, since everyone else seems pretty pleased to see it too? This isn’t the usual German-brand crossover, and you’re not the usual sullen, self-important person you meet too often at fancy resorts like this. The hotel staff turns toward you expectantly, since you’re clearly a little different from everyone else. So when you burst through the lobby doors and come out beneath the big roof of the hotel’s porte cochère, you’ll always…

IN THIS SNOWBOUND WONDERLAND, ALL-WHEEL DRIVE IS A PROVERBIAL NO-BRAINER GOOD THING WE BROUGHT A COUPLE OF MAXTRACOUPLE MAXTRAX VEHICLE EXTRACTION MATS ALONG ... Snowflakes danced in our headlights’ path as we wound our way up the dark mountain. By morning, the Taos Ski Valley was frosted white—the type of day that skiers and snowboarders who descend on this alpine-forested sliver of the Land of Enchantment dream about. It served as a fitting starting point for our 750-mile journey across the Southwest in a trio of Germany’s newest crossovers: the BMW X4, Mercedes-Benz GLC, and Porsche Macan. In the 1950s a Swiss-German immigrant named Ernie Blake founded the resort tucked between the soaring peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in north central New Mexico. The only thing missing from…

Gran Turismo. These mellifluous Italian words are magic. They sound good to all ears, translate well to other languages, and even provide an evocative acronymic abbreviation: Gee-Tee. Unfortunately they are entirely too easy to append to some silly economy car with a few extra horsepower under its hood. The GT label truly should mean something more significant than a name change. A real Gran Turismo should offer some comfort and luxury items, accommodate enough luggage for a weekend trip, and deliver serious but not ultimate performance capabilities. A GT is not a race car. Consider that the new, very racy Ford GT doesn’t truly meet this mix of requirements, while ironically the Ford Mustang GT does. Several weeks before the Geneva auto show, we were invited to London and given…