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You might have heard that Mitsubishi (and more recently DaimlerChrysler) is offering free gasoline with the purchase of a new car.

Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi’s Sales and Marketing Dave Schembri points out, “There are a lot of confusing incentive offers out there whose true value is extremely hard for customers to determine” but the true value of the Mitsubishi offer is – well – confusing and extrememely hard to determine…

Here’s the fine print:

Each customer after purchasing a new 2005-model-year Mitsubishi vehicle will receive in the mail pre-paid debit cards, totaling from $1,500 to $2,500. The amount varies by vehicle depending on two factors: 1) The estimated amount of gas required to drive the new vehicle for 12,000 miles (at the EPA combined rating for the vehicle). 2)Whether the recommended fuel for the vehicle is regular (computed at $2.80 per gallon) or premium (computed at $3.10 per gallon). These rounded prices were fixed at the average price per gallon as reported in the AAA daily fuel report of Monday, September 19, 2005. Customers can select from a variety of major motor oil companies for each debit card. source: Motor Trend

(If Mitsubishi spent as much effort on all their cars as they do the Evo, they wouldn’t need any incentives).

It says a lot that the ‘NASCAR combo’ at one fast-food chain includes a triple cheeseburger, a large french fry and a 42oz. fountain drink…

The new 3 series has gotten lots of coverage, but this is the only article we’ve seen that flows from the consciousness of someone who understands what the 3 series has been and what it should be. (In other words, someone who seems to understand BMW better than the product planners and marketers responsible for the 5, 6 and 7 series).

Here are some excerpts:

After the controversies swirling around the styling of the 7 Series, the 5 Series, and the Z4, BMW’s new bread-and-butter car was bound to be a gamble, and not just in the styling department: all-new 3 Series, the demise of the well-tested sickle-shapedcontrol- arm front end, and an engine that apparently bore little relation (either physically or visually) to anything that came before it, except its fundamental layout. Even the E46’s M50 engine family, new as it was, was still essentially based on the M20—itself dating to the late 1970s—in terms of basic block architecture: familiar stuff. The N52? Magnesium/aluminumalloy engine blocks? Not so much. And that was just the power plant. The rest of the car was almost as new, and more electronically complicated than ever before. What if they screwed it up?

The E36, for example, was a great car both dynamically and by the numbers, and yet a great many people felt it lacked the personality of the E30. By the same token, the E46 added a little weight while regaining some personality and build quality, but lost some of the snappish, “small” feel of the E30 and the E36 in the process. Enthusiasts will argue all day long as to which makes a better driver’s car, but that’s beside the point: What matters is that each car has to be considered from several angles. A new model may be viewed in the larger scheme of BMW’s history, or in the smaller scheme of its current product line and the current same-segment offerings of other brands.

The E90, it would seem, is a car of opposites: Weight is up (the biggest increase being almost eighty pounds on the automatic 330i), every interior and exterior dimension is up, and the car just seems to take up more physical space if you’re standing beside it— but it drives… well, it drives smaller than an E46

What does it do right? Well, for starters, balance: Trailing-throttle oversteer, along with its accompanying potential for stupid screw-ups, has been significantly reduced. Along the same lines, the back end of this thing works incredibly well, and even on the somewhat stiffer Sport Package spring and shock rates, the correction-response window is eternally large: You can get the car out to absolutely stupid yaw angles and bring it back almost too easily.

What does it do wrong? If the car has one glaring fault, it’s that it’s guilty of being a little too uninvolving under normal driving; much like the E30 M3, the harder you spank the car around, the more it likes it and the more feedback you get—but at normal everyday speeds, the E90 has less to say.

In the grand, modern-world scheme of things, this car is seriously, seriously good. In a lot of ways, it marks a true return to form for BMW’s most important product— both dynamically and philosophically. Unlike some of BMW’s previous models— no matter how good they were—or even some of the phenomenally capable current ones, the E90 has one unique quality: It is exactly as good as they say it is.

UPDATE: Automobile’s Mark Gilles gets it too… (Here’s his stream of consciousness while behind the wheel – absolutely worth watching).

We can think of few cars more soulless than the new Lexus GS. From its cheaply trimmed interior to its lifeless steering and brakes to its confused and ungainly styling the GS is a bunt when Lexus should be swinging for the bleachers.

And that’s just what it did with the new IS. You’d expect the IS to feel more driver focused, and it does. But its the immaculately conceived interior finish (far better than the GS or even a 5 series) and more imposing appearance that really make the car gel. Top Gear’s Tom Ford nails the IS with his description in this piece.

instead of the GS’s jowls, we get cheekbones and chin, plus a more defined bottom and sharper shoulders. So it’s a tidier, tauter interpretation of the new Lexus L-Finesse design language that we’ve already seen rolled out to decidedly muted applause in the GS. More resolved here, though, the version that got the same genes but ate less curry and doughnuts. This is A Good Thing…

The seats are also a bit flat across the base… it’s not always the most comfortable car in which to thrash because you tend to hold on to the steering wheel for support rather than direction.

the inside is a really very nice place in which to insulate yourself from the greyness of the real world… There’s… the feeling of solidity…

You can imagine the BMW engineers getting hold of this new IS250 somewhere in a darkened warehouse and torturing its secrets out of it with military-grade intrusion software and miniature toffee hammers, while swearing softly in Bavarian and trying to think of an excuse.

it’s very hard not to be impressed with this new IS250. And very hard to imagine that when the early-adopter atmosphere of the noughties gets a handle on the whole anti-hero image thing, BMW is going to have to try much harder to sell you a car.

We’re impressed – and get the sense that if it wasn’t for the lumpy, shoulder hunching rear seat of the IS, Lexus wouldn’t sell a single GS…

UPDATE:

The ride is agitated at village speeds but improves markedly as the pace increases. Through the bumpy, gnarled back-lanes of Surrey, the IS was utterly unflappable. It glides over snags, feeding the bumps into your subconscious but never letting them intrude unnecessarily into the process of making progress. The all-new speed-sensitive electric power steering won’t surprise or delight you initially, but up the pace and things become much more impressive. It’s as though the rack shrinks as your commitment grows. Dive for a corner and the nose of the IS darts as it grips and turns in. You throw it into corners faster and deeper and it keeps gripping; understeer hardly seems to enter the equation: flick-flack through a quick direction change and the car just stays with you. It’s so unexpected that it’s unnerving at first. One might almost be forced to utter an incredulous ‘I don’t believe it’. On the cold, greasy roads of our test route the lack of understeer means the back feels quite eager to play, but most of the time you just concentrate on using that surgical front end to slice through a corner. When the rear does come round, the IS remains unflustered and an instinctive twitch of opposite lock catches it quickly. Admittedly there’s not a stream of grainy feedback, but the steering is nicely weighted and the body always feels taut and controlled. The only down-sides to the pointy front end are that it’s a little too sensitive on the motorway and that it has a mild tendency to wander and pull slightly under heavy braking… there is still a slightly digital quality to driving the IS250, particularly with the arcade-game gearshift, but in terms of exceeding your expectations, the IS would be a five-star car. source: evo

There are few things in this world that sound as glorious as VW’s VR6, especially when the application allows the engineers to open up the intake and exhaust a bit. (Imagine the hum of a inline-6 with more texture, more of the warble you associate with an inline-5).

The VR has only gotten more melodious with its extra cams and displacement, not to mention the cylinder filling made possible by variable valve timing. In fact with open piped dual exhaust the last R32 sounded so good we found ourselves driving with the window down at temeratures below-freezing.

The next R sounds even edgier – click here for an earful.

(The US market car’s extra displacement should only intensify the experience).

The Ferrari 550 was the first Ferrari we lusted after – its FR (front engine, rear drive) layout giving a more benign, intuitive feel than the edgy 355 while the intelligence of the variable damping and the engine managment made it drivable at real speeds on real roads.

When the 355 evolved to the 360 it was a step in the right direction in every sense but the increased size. Yet when the 575 replaced the 550 Modificato something went terribly wrong. The standard car was a dynamic embarrasment, set up for those who will pose as they amble down Rodeo drive. Only by ordering the Fiorani handling pack did it feel as a Ferrari should.*

Now Ferrari is readying the 600M. Needless to say, we’ve got our fingers crossed…

*We go into more detail in this piece, originally published over 3 years ago on 11.19.02:

A Tale of Two Suspensions

When ordering your new Ferrari 575M, be sure to specify the Fiorano handling pack, which includes stiffer springs that lower the car by 15mm, a larger rear sway bar, new software to firm up the steering assist and the dampers, and high-performance brake pads (as opposed to?).

I’m the last person to claim that the firmer of two available suspensions is the default choice – many times the opposite is true. It is therefore essential to drive the suspension you’re about to order; reputation -as this example shows – is not enough. Considering the comission a Ferrari salesperson makes on a sale, he should be more than willing to comply – the question is: will yours?

We enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek piece on the Mercedes ML not so much because it captures what it feels like to drive the car but because it captures what compels so many to purchase an SUV.

Here’s an excerpt:

it didn’t so much push forward along the road as float six inches or so above it. Possibly worrying and important questions about bulk, heft and likely stopping distances tend to float away in the face of the car’s dangerously charismatic powers.

Honda has every right to be proud of the new Civic; after 5 years as one of the worst cars in its class it has finally returned to form.

When they mention that the Civic is Motor Trend’s Car of the Year you might be skeptical given the magazine used to be the laughing stock of the automotive press (they once gave the Chevrolet Caprice the same award)...

But like the Civic MT recently experienced a rebirth, with CAR’s Angus Macenzie and Car and Driver’s Frank Markus being two notable new hires.

(Look for a buyer’s guide to automotive magazines and buyer’s guides in an upcoming post).