Auto News 5

The seventh-generation, 2014 Volkswagen Golf sticks to the car's basic formula of practical and stylish design, but a new chassis helps reduce curb weight and improve fuel economy. On top of that, the Golf scores a range of clever active-safety features that were previously unavailable in the compact-car segment. Although the new Golf won't debut in the U.S. until early 2014, the updates and specifications announced for the European model closely predict the changes in store for our version of the Volkswagen hatch.

Elon Musk merely dreamed of building rockets and electric cars, the front-passenger air bag wasn't yet mandatory, and the euro currency didn't exist when Americans last had Italian speed on the cheap. Long past its Graduate-fueled prime, the Alfa Romeo Spider bowed out in 1994, and that was it for reasonably accessible Italian driving pleasure. Fiat had made an ambivalent effort to vend its wares before abandoning these shores a decade earlier, and the truth was that its cars hardly kept up with the Alfas even when modified by exhaust systems and other speed parts from the Abarth performance division.

The first automotive elegance contest near northern Italy's Lake Como at the Villa d'Este hotel was held in 1929. The winner of the 1931 event was an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 roadster with Carrozzeria Touring's "Flying Star" bodywork. Eighty-one years later, another Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 took top honors as the favorite of the professional jury, the selectively invited public on Saturday, and the general public on Sunday at the Villa Erba: three coveted trophies, in fact.