Car and Driver January 2013

Our annual 10Best runoff is democracy in action. Every editor and contributor driving at the event gets an equal vote, and no one, not even yr. hmbl. svt., gets to massage the results. So it was with no small satisfaction that I discovered that the final list of winners matched my own personal roster this year, clear evidence that everyone who voted is getting smarter. Still, there are only 10 spots. For the ones that couldn't quite ascend to the 10Best pantheon—those cars that didn't fully nail our criteria of maximal value, perfect mission fulfillment, and all-out fun—I present the Almost-Rans for 2013: AUDI S5: It may sound like sacrilege, but I prefer the new, supercharged V-6–equipped S5 to both the outgoing V-8–powered model and the just-arrived-to-the-U.S. RS5. The shrunken-engined car…

Sic your dogs on us at:editors@CARandDRIVER.comor join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com Hey, is that Zach Galifianakis driving the BMW on the October cover? ["Camaro ZL1 Beats M6!"] Now I know that comparo was a joke! CARLO DE CICCO CALEDON, ONTARIO It's not Galifianakis; that's our very own one-man wolf pack and technical editor, K.C. Colwell, sporting a coiffure named "The Flow"—Ed. Stick a BMW, Audi, or Porsche badge on any American car, double the price, and you will give it rave reviews. Your final reviews do not support your facts in many cases. You must have an overwhelming circulation surplus in Europe compared with the United States. R. MALVICINI NEWINGTON, CONNECTICUT And yet a Chevrolet-badged Camaro beat a BMW M6—Ed. Ha ha! The October high-low comparos were a big joke, no? Next time do Nissan Versa versus Ferrari F12,…

Midway through 2010, Ford shed Volvo, the last lingering vestige of its Premier Automotive Group (PAG). Having once encompassed Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, and Volvo, PAG finally sank completely beneath the waves with the sale of the Swedish safety king to Chinese automaker Geely. Ford is still dragging Lincoln around, but it parted out the foreign makes at tremendous loss. What PAG cost during its nine-year run only Ford knows—and many erstwhile executives would no doubt like to forget. Things aren't looking much better for the former PAG brands under their current owners: JAGUAR/LAND ROVER ACQUIRED: (JAGUAR) 1990, $2.4 BILLION; (LAND ROVER) 2000, $2.8 BILLION PURGED: 2008, $2.3 BILLION BUYER: MUMBAI-BASED TATA MOTORS PROGNOSIS Ford's attempt to integrate only the retail operations of Land Rover and Jaguar utterly failed. Land Rover ran hot and…

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, oversteer means that a car's rear tires are operating at a greater slip angle than the front tires, i.e., they're working harder. In real-world terms, it means the tail of the car is sliding sideways. Holding the car in this dynamic state results in a glorious drift. Failing to hold it usually ends with an inglorious spin. Controlling oversteer in a rear-drive car is all about separately regulating the lateral velocity at each end of the vehicle. Here's what's going on when your car gets going sideways. UP FRONT, the tires are still planted. To prevent a spin, the driver steers in the direction that the rear tires are sliding. This is called "turning into the slide," or countersteering. It allows the front of the car to also move…

>A SURVEY OF FUEL PRICES AROUND THE WORLD. IN SPITE OF INCREASING DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION, four-dollar-per-gallon gasoline remains an on-again/off-again reality in the United States. That's because oil and gas are global commodities, and the U.S. market isn't as insular as we might like. The prices we pay, however, still stand out as cheap. Most of our global neighbors see fuel prices at the pump so high that even the most bumptious Texas oilman would blush. We've assembled the costs of a gallon of the most popular juice in every country we could—be it leaded crud in Ghana, sugar-derived ethanol in Brazil, or near avgas in Bahrain—based on the most recent data available. Check out some of the pricing highs and lows on the dimensional map below. And no, the price…

NEW AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY usually debuts on an expensive flagship model, then passes down to lowlier members of the lineup as costs spread over greater volumes. But the trickle-down effect is not always consistent or predictable. Here we track stability control—mandated as standard equipment on all 2012 model-year vehicles sold in the U.S., but commonplace for a decade—and other safety features from their debuts in high-end luxury models to their arrival in everyday cars. How everyday? Our definition: those available at or below $30,282, the current average new-car transaction price. —MICHAEL AUSTIN ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL 2001 Mercedes-Benz S430, $73,600 OPTION PRICE: $2800 Debuting in mid-2000 for the 2001 model year, Mercedes-Benz's radar-based system came to market a few months before the laser-based system in the Lexus LS430. LANE-DEPARTURE WARNING 2006 Infiniti FX35, $43,900 OPTION PRICE: $4200 (part of…