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UPDATE: Angus Mackenzie’s blog entry after first driving the X6 is a great read and can be found here.

ORIGINAL POST

“Perfectly pointless.” After taking the X6 xDrive 35i home for a night, that’s how editor-in-chief MacKenzie summarizes the X6. It’s a damning critique of BMW’s latest as a flawless execution of a worst-of-both-worlds concept: sport-coupe practicality with SUV-like handling… While you don’t exactly flop and flail about in the BMW, there’s… a feeling of sitting on top of the car, rather than in it, especially as it leans into corners. Reynolds was ultimately displeased by this driving machine: “The X6 wobbles, shudders, plows at the limit-and does so much damage to BMW’s reputation for building fine driving automobiles, it’s almost obscene… “They’ve missed the target with the X6,” he continues. “It’s ungainly and awkward to drive.” the X6 tends to toss people around… Kiino sums it up: “Unless I really wanted one of the X6’s new engines or was completely smitten by the styling, I can’t figure out why would I buy the X6 over the X5. It’s basically the same car-just less practical and more expensive.”...Slaves to fashion will look no further than this boulevard strutting beauty queen. Shame she doesn’t drive as good as she looks. – Motor Trend

Hard to say whether it was a matter of the chassis not being happy with the needlessly large 20” wheels or that the XDrive with Dynamic Performance Control doesn’t wake up fast enough for quick 5000lbs and sitting this high is going to feel sporty but never sporting.

Actually as a fan of cars in BMW’s past, it’s hard to say what BMW was thinking other to point to this:

says Vance, “I guarantee that for the first six months they’re on sale, the X6 will be the hottest ride in L.A.!”

So has VW produced nothing more than a shameless and superficial CLS knock-off? That’ll be the widespread public reaction. But you can’t really blame VW. The Passat is a worthy-but-dull saloon, just as the E-class is. Benz’s makeover into the CLS sprinkled some showroom fairy-dust onto the range, and the Passat’s CC transformation looks likely to be just as successful. And the CC’s mission is exactly the same as the CLS’s. Neither replaces any existing car. They just give a slinkier choice to anyone needing four doors and four seats but not wanting the staid profile of a saloon. But I can’t help thinking they could have designed a Passat CC that did all that while still escaping the charge of looking, especially from the rear three-quarter, like a Benz on VW wheels… Anyway, the main thing is the CC doesn’t just look like a Passat. It’s longer, lower, wider and to a surprising degree has a curvier feel to its surfacing. It’s not an integral part of the range: it was conceived well after the Passat saloon and estate were finished, which probably explains the surfacing: VW designers were moving into their latest ‘emotional’ phase. In fact, the CC wasn’t even going to be badged a Passat to begin with. Then they thought about calling it Passat Coupe, but the American dealers objected: “That ain’t no coupe, sir – it’s got too many doors.” So we ended up with CC which stands for ‘comfort coupe’ not, as every other manufacturer uses the abbreviation ‘coupe cabrio’. – Top Gear

Giving a car more power doesn’t necessarily make it any better. Make it too costly, and you set yourself against trickier new rivals, make it too powerful and you out-reach the capability of the chassis. It’s a path fraught with difficulties… Companies can push their cars as far as they want, but the better stuff often lurks at the bottom. – Piers Ward’s Top Gear review of the Audi TTS

-3.0L flat six is expected to be phased out.

-remaining engines will employ a new alloy block to help reduce weight

-the longer stoke design employed in the new Tribeca will be used across the lineup for improved torque

If you read the mainstream U.S. magazines, you’re probably of the opinion that the new EVO is better than/faster than the STI. But there’s something troubling about the weight gain and the packaging and something even more disconcerting about the new platform that places you much higher off the ground, not to mention shares its roots with a Caliber.

Problem is, most U.S. magazines get so hellbent on numbers and trick technology that they don’t remember to steward the essentials: subjective accomplishment, involvement.

Thank goodness the British magazines aren’t similarly afflicted… Here’s a quote from evo

You always feel like you’re sitting slightly higher and more upright in an Evo… Somewhere inside the Evo X is the brilliantly pointy, adjustable chassis that has been improving for nine generations. But Mitsubishi has tried to civilize the tenth gen and it’s missed the mark. The steering is more direct than the Impreza’s and therefore initially nicer, but you very soon realise that it has no real feel. For a car that you want to drive on its nose this is not good, because you just don’t have the confidence to throw it into corners. It feels up on tiptoes and it’s more instantly sensitive and adjustable than the STI but you can’t enjoy it because you feel like you’re controlling what’s going on underneath you by remote. It really is like playing a computer game. The engine is disappointing too, feeling very thin in its delivery and lacking in grunt compared with the STI. It is also possibly the dullest sounding engine ever to drone from a performance car – it’s like listening to someone Hoovering a couple of rooms away. The gearing is very short, which is fine when you can flick up and down the box so easily, but as Roger Green says, there’s a permanent flurry of activity going on yet somehow you’re never quite in the right gear. The best solution is to leave it in Drive and let the spookily intuitive computer program shuffle cogs for you. Not something I ever thought I’d say about an Evo. The Evo X SST is still a very quick car across the ground, its ability to carry speed is phenomenal and there are moments when you catch glimpses of why we love Evos, but they’re fleeting thanks to the layer of desensitising civility Mitsubishi has added in. A car like the Evo is not, should not, be a mainstream car. Jumping back into the Impreza as the sun sinks, it’s clear the STI wins this battle. It’s more engaging to drive, the engine feels much stronger and there’s simply more of what you want, what you expect, from a thrilling rally-stage refugee. When you add in the price difference too, it’s a clear winner.

Another thing you’ve probably heard about is likely to be the new STI’s incessant, stubborn understeer. Like I’ve said before, this is a red flag that the reviewer is employing a textbook driving technique rather than learning the nuances of a car. Just as the new EVO/BMW X6, Acura TL, BMW M3 want you to squeeze down on the throttle at the moment understeer wants to rear its head, the Impreza favors a different driving style which is, not surprisingly, the way rally cars are driven. As Henry Catchpole describes in the same article:

The steering is nicely weighted, but it’s curiously indistinct around the dead ahead. There’s a certain amount of roll as you turn into a corner too, so there’s a moment before you really feel the chassis start to bite and the steering start to feed back. If you’re timid or just ambling along, then the Subaru can seem slightly reluctant. What you need to do is be bold; turn in hard and, once into the meat of the steering, you’ll feel the front Dunlops grip and possibly scrub a little into understeer if you’re carrying good speed. As soon as you’re into the corner you should be thinking about getting back on the power. With 300lb ft you’re not short of urge whichever gear you’re in, so it’s just a case of how you deploy it. The slightly slow-acting viscous coupling of the central diff works best if you progressively squeeze the throttle to the carpet rather than just jumping on it. This way you’ll feel the tail move round before the front pulls you out of the corner in one smooth flow. There is of course another way to approach a corner, which is to trail-brake as you turn in. The brakes make a slightly odd sound (like a huge computer powering down) but with the weight over the front axle the steering weights up instantly and the rear swings round nicely as you turn in…

Of course, you’ll never experience this on a test drive and probably won’t have the guts (or permission) to experience it on the road or track, but it’s nice to know that there’s something we know that most others don’t and that the STI holds something to experience as your familiarity with the car deepens. Sounds like the kind of stuff that makes Porsche 911 drivers snicker when people say 911’s are fundamentally flawed, the depth of character that let’s some cars dig deep beneath your skin while others just tickle you which is no surprise when you consider Subaru has always fancied itself as the Japanese equivalent to Porsche (whereas Toyota’s like Mercedes and Honda like BMW).

Had Aston Martin come to us and asked us what we’d change about the V8 Vantage, we’d probably have said: “A bit more power and sharper handling, please, and if you could make it less thirsty that’d be great. But whatever you do, don’t mess with the looks.” But they didn’t ask us, so the revised Vantage gets, erm, a bit more power, sharper handling, better fuel economy… but exactly the same looks. It’s almost like they’re psychic. The Vantage’s 4.3-litre has been bored out to 4.7 litres, with power jumping from 380bhp to 420. Peak torque is up from 302 to 347lb ft too, helping to shave 0.2 seconds off the 0-60 sprint. The Vantage also gets a bunch of suspension tweaks to sharpen it up, with stiffer springs and Bilstein dampers as standard, while the paddle-shift gearbox will now hold onto low gears for longer. – Top Gear

With its expansion to 4.7-litres, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage at last has the engine it deserved from the start… On paper, all the effort seems barely worth it: the 0-60mph time is trimmed back by 0.2sec to 4.7sec while top speed rises 5mph to 180mph. But out in the real world, the car’s performance has been transformed. You notice most how many fewer gearshifts are required: on a road that would once have required constant juggling between second and third gears to keep the engine on song, you can now just slot it into third – or even fourth – and leave it there, leaving you free to concentrate on driving and enjoying the ride… Impressively, just as much progress has been made in the corners. The Vantage is still as forgiving and indulgent as ever, even if you disable the electronic stability programme, but what has been introduced is better feel from the steering, more grip from the tyres and a tighter, more precise reaction to any given input. It’s probably still not quite Porsche 911 or Audi R8 good, but we’ve be surprised if it did not turn out to be the next best thing and close enough as to make no difference to the vast majority of prospective purchasers. – 4Car

The [TSX is] not necessarily an easy car to drive, however: there are several blind spots (the rear windscreen is shallow and strangely angled… and the new dashboard layout is confusing and over-complex. The driver is faced with banks of switches, LEDs, dials within dials, display screens, electronic gauges and levers – it’s a case of information overload. – 4car

the Maxima still doesn’t feel quite like a sports sedan; it’s more of a sporty sedan. It feels huge, which is good for comfortable riding but is a bit of a downer for spirited driving… looking across the cabin can feel like you’re sitting in a Hummer H2. The steering is quick, building effort nicely off center, albeit disconcertingly light and nervous at first, But feel is faint, never more than a whisper from the bottom of a deep well. The sporty mindset means a stiff suspension for the Maxima… but one that also means a less than serene ride over broken pavement. And our tester wasn’t even equipped with the Sport package, which adds stiffer dampers and a thicker stabilizer bar. We’d be wary of tightening these suspenders any more, as the Maxima is respectably agile for a large, front-wheel-drive sedan, and further stiffening seems unnecessary… Sports sedan? Not really. Sporty sedan? Yes. Although we’d ask for more communicative steering and a smoother ride… – Car and Driver

“As soon as the asphalt cracks up, the ride shifts into hammer time-way too stiff for comfortable motoring, even if you’re in attack mode,” carps St. Antoine. Technical editor Kim Reynolds opines, “Over many areas of non-smooth surface, the car just goes into a blur.” In addition to its intolerable ride over patchy pavement, the 550i disappoints with fatigue-inducing front seats, a still frustrating and unintuitive iDrive, a dark and cold cockpit, and a monster engine that somehow doesn’t feel that monsterlike out on the road. – Motor Trend

As a ‘real’ enthusiast, you might think I shouldn’t be advocating a car like the ‘SRT Design’ Chrysler 300C. And yet it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes sense – who doesn’t want to look good while they’re doing just over the speed limit? Don’t most people buy the performance cars for the wheels and lower body cladding anyway?

In other countries, they’ll sell you what you want, but here product planners have gotten into the greedy, grubby habit of forcing you towards the larger engine wherever possible. With fuel prices where they are, that has to change.

Let’s be frank – if you are looking for handling, even the ‘real’ SRT-8 is not the ideal place to start. So what’s the problem with making the 300C look better and ride on a wheel size and offset that won’t throw everything else horribly off kilter, a la most 300Cs you see rolling around on SUV dubs?

Indeed the 300C points to what I have been predicting will be an emerging trend – cars that look fast but don’t ride and guzzle like a fast car does.

Bring on the 3.0L common rail diesel engined SRT design, the TRD Prius!

But don’t despair – there’s another way to do it, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t suggest this to anyone who would listen over the past 5 years: cars that have the handling you want and ‘make do’ with the standard engines. If BMW brings out the tii models that automobile recently reported might be in the works, you won’t have to suffer a BMW that’s too heavy if you want a trick differential or an exhaust system that sings. (Think a more extreme E46 330i Performance Package -like models, cars that emphasise subjective over objective measures).

The last fuel crisis left us with junk – thankfully this time it’s spurring manufacturers to come up with fresh ideas, desirable ones even.

Don’t worry – you won’t be forced to give up the luxuries or the room you’re used to – manufacturers are realizing that they can earn a profit if they let you option up small cars like they’ve usually reserved for large cars – a la the MINI. If we’re lucky, people will be reminded of how clumsy and awkward the average car had become as it piled on layers of fat that come with middle age.

Vote with your dollars for more emotional design and more interesting cars will make it to the market!