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There’s a good reason this new, seventh-generation Volkswagen GTI triggers a feeling of déjà vu: you have, in fact, seen it before. When VW rolled out its all-new Golf VII range at the Paris Motor show last September, it also unveiled an all-new GTI – but said that the hot hatch was merely a concept. No more. The new GTI returns in time for the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, but this time without the pesky concept suffix.

This is Porsche ballet. My car glides over an all-white stage, a landscape skimmed in snow and ice. It is a new, very blue Carrera 4S, one of the first 991 all-wheel-drive models in North America, and it is full of grace.

The 2013 Subaru Legacy has a revised engine with a smidge more power than the 2012 version, and a new continuously variable transmission designed to be more responsive and more efficient. The engine sometimes vocalizes the asthmatic wheezing that is typical of four-cylinder engines strained by CVTs, but overall it's a smooth powertrain that provides more than adequate acceleration. I still love the way this car drives: the Legacy is pleasant and inoffensive, yet it offers just a touch better steering and suspension balance than in typical midsize sedans, making it feel like a special choice in its class.

There are numerous benefits to putting winter tires on your vehicle, but they can impact a car's performance since they're made more for cutting through the white stuff than for running on dry roads. Initial reviews of the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 snow tires on our CX-5 have been pretty positive, despite the fact that this winter, like the last, has not seen a lot of snow.

It has been a tough couple of months for the window sticker. An EPA investigation found that Hyundai and Kia, the two automakers most responsible for making "40 mpg highway" an industry mantra, don't hit that number at all. As of this writing, the agency may also look into whether Ford has been inflating the numbers on some of its hybrids. The embarrassing shortcomings raise some important questions, starting with, "What the hell happened?" More important, considering how much is riding on fuel-economy numbers and tougher standards, can the EPA still keep automakers in line?