Car and Driver January 2014

Sic your dogs on us at: editors@caranddriver.com or join the discussion at: backfires.caranddriver.com NOT BUYING IT Although I agree the Audi is the superior car of the group, I really have an issue with the RS7's interior looking identical to a base 2013 A6's and would find myself struggling to write that check. Do something different. Anything. TIMOTHY R. PICKETT ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILLINOIS Would some rich Corinthian leather change your mind?—Ed. I find it interesting how Mercedes, BMW, and Audi have bastardized the term "coupe" to name what are, in fact, sedans ["Civil War," October 2013]. Heck, if they're rewriting definitions, why don't they just call them "berlinettas"? And we could call the S-class and 7-series "phaetons." The term "coupe" in its true definition, as you know, refers to a two-seat closed car, like a Shelby…

OUR ANNUAL 10BEST EXTRAVAGANZA gets more extravagant than ever this year, the 31st running of the competition. For 2014, we've cut out all the year-in-review stuff that normally accompanies (and crowds) the winners, instead focusing our efforts and meager talents on telling the stories of the cars and our quest to identify them. It's all in there—the highs, the lows, the bar tabs, and the cross-dressing that have come to surround and define this celebrated laurel [10Best starts on page 40]. But we still give out only 10 statues, so some very worthy stuff doesn't make the cut. That's why I'm here. My picks for the 3Almost10Best of 2014 are: LEXUS IS350 F SPORT Maybe everyone was confused. Maybe they only drove the lesser of the two identically white-over-black IS F Sports…

Subaru's U.S. sales ARE UP—way up. The brand may even reach its stretch goal of 500,000 annual sales here in the next couple of years, which would nearly double its volume from only three years ago. Apparently, that means Subaru can have more fun. Its catalog, mostly of earthy four-wheel-drive wagonoids, expanded in 2012 thanks to the rear-drive BRZ, which debuted to critical acclaim and a spot on our 2013 10Best Cars list. And at the Los Angeles auto show this past November, Subaru unveiled the latest iteration of its other product for boy-men—the turbocharged, four-wheel-drive WRX sedan. DESIGN The hexagonal grille and wide, angry fascia lend the WRX appropriate menace, while the rear sports a distinctive decklid and fascia. The "hawk-eye" LED headlights seen here will be standard equipment on the…

THE R35 GT-R HAS TO SATISFY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. THIS R32 ONLY HAS TO SATISFY ONE. HIROSHI TAMURA CHIEF PRODUCT SPECIALIST AT NISSAN Hiroshi Tamura is Japan's Car-Guy-in-Chief. At 52, he's the chief product specialist at Nissan for the current R35-generation GT-R and for the NISMO performance division. When he's not at work building faster Nissans, he's at home doing the same: tweaking his classic 1989 R32 Skyline GT-R. So you have an R32? Actually, I had an R32 and an R34 [1999–2002 edition], but I sold the R34. The R32 was always my dream car. I worked on the R34, but when the R32 was produced I was only a kid. So it was only a dream to me. The Skyline GT-Rs have a reputation as Japan's greatest hot rods. How important is it…

SOLE TO SOLE Not all tire-recycling operations are as massive and industrialized as the one depicted below. A number of small companies carve up old tires to make sandals. If a tire can survive 45,000 miles under your car, then footwear made from it will easily outlive you. Every year, more than 200 million worn-out tires get replaced and another 15 million leave the road on scrapped cars. That's a lot of round, black blight collecting in vacant lots and piling up into unsightly mountains. Fires that start in such mounds are notoriously hard to extinguish. Traditional landfill disposal isn't viable because tires are bulky and buoyant. When their cavities fill with methane, the tires migrate to the surface, fill with water, and become mosquito condos. Various government agencies have fretted over this…

In 1980, only 2200 people lived in Murrieta, California, in the arid southwest corner of Riverside County. By 2010, the population hit 103,466. It's where families moved when the coastal counties of San Diego and Orange became too expensive. It's a town where AYSO soccer matters, where the church buildings aren't as old as the McDonald's, and where Republicans win the elections. And it's the site of a major blow against red-light cameras. In 2005, the city of Murrieta signed a contract with Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS) to operate automated cameras at three intersections. Critics, such as the National Motorists Association (NMA), have long opposed the cameras. These opponents claim, among other things, that the very foundation of the justification of the cameras is flawed. They say the studies concluding…