Auto News 5

Of course I have a huge affinity for the retiring, but hardly shy, Bob Lutz. The title of this column is Vile Gossip, after all, and half the things that come from my mouth at any given moment set my own hair on fire. Obviously, I like anyone - especially in this barren industry, bereft as it is of real characters - who can cause a bigger ruckus than I can.

Toyota's Land Cruiser is truly a global vehicle. In the past fifty-five years, some four million Land Cruisers have been sold in more than 125 countries. Originally a crude but highly utilitarian off-roader patterned after American military jeeps, the Land Cruiser has branched out to encompass a plethora of shapes, styles, and amenities. Toyota's oldest nameplate, the Land Cruiser has been built in the form of a pickup and an SUV, as a softtop and a hardtop, with two doors and four. Today, the Land Cruiser sold in America comes in only one body style and a single trim level, an eight-seat SUV loaded with at least as many luxury features as off-road items. It's exactly the sort of vehicle we love having in our Four Seasons fleet, even if the price of gas conspired against it over the course of the year.

This Jetta SportWagen TDI is exactly what we should have in our long-term fleet. The DSG transmission is much nicer than our six-speed manual for daily driving, and it's only a 1-mpg penalty at the pump. Being able to bang off a quick, clean 6-4 downshift for passing is a huge advantage over the manual car, although I wish our tester had paddle shifters like a GTI. I instinctively look for those paddles when I'm driving a DSG car and need to make a quick pass. Reaching down to bump over the shifter isn't as natural.