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Manufacturers know that 99% of the population judges cars by styling, horsepower, etc.

But it’s not how a car looks or how much power it is claimed to have that makes it feel the way it does – only by understanding the efforts (or compromises) made by the engineers can you determine its potential or its limitations.

Over the years, Dave Kimble’s artwork has helped us to develop our ‘X-ray vision’...

Click here for a glimpse of the Corvette Z06 as Dave sees it.

Reading the article you’ll see why we respect this car so much… The performance numbers it produces are impressive of course but the car represents what GM is capable of when it lets the engineers rather than the accountants make decisions. Unlike most of GM’s efforts, this is one thoroughly (re)engineered automobile.

Saab has just introduced a ‘new’ 9-5.

Unfortunately, now that Saab is a division of GM, new doesn’t mean what you’d expect.

In this case, “new” means new headlights, a new hood, new taillights and – if they’re feeling generous – perhaps even a new steering wheel (There are detail changes to suspension components but nothing more than a tweaking, really. The next complete redesign isn’t expected for another few years despite the fact that the car was outdated by the late 90s…)

This is actually quite a lot of newness for a GM product – the ‘all-new’ Monte Carlo coupe was only given a new nose…

...you might want to look at the rebadged Isuzu i-Series if for no other reason than that the Isuzu comes with a 7 year/75,000 mile powertrain warranty as compared to GM’s 3 year/36,000 mile coverage.

Isuzu’s bumper-to-bumper coverage is longer as well: 3 years/50,000 miles versus GM’s 3 years/36,000 miles…

Like ‘SUV’, the term ‘hybrid’ has become a media buzzword that’s now being slapped on an increasing number of vehicles. While many deride SUVs as unsafe and inefficient, I can name cars that don’t handle as well and drink more fuel than – say – a Subaru Forester or BMW X3.

I recently drove the Lexus RX400h in the type of urban driving that the hybrid is supposed to be best at and averaged 18 miles per gallon, while Motor Trend’s Long Term test of a 2004 Chevy Silverado Hybrid resulted in an overall average of 14.8mpg.

Has ‘hybrid’ simply come to mean ‘less inefficient than it might have been’?