Auto News 5

So Honda has a new Insight hybrid, and almost every comment I have seen says that Honda "copied the Toyota Prius" shape. Not really. What both four-door hatchbacks do is follow the tenets of Reinhard Koenig-Fachsenfeld, a sometime motorcycle racer who lacked the academic credentials so important in German engineering circles. The talented German professor/doctor/engineer Wunibald Kamm, whose name is commonly applied to the truncated tail featured on both the Insight and the Prius, headed the Research Institute for Motor Vehicles and Engines (FKFS) in Stuttgart from 1930 until the end of WWII and lent his prestige to the development of Koenig-Fachsenfeld's aerodynamic patents. Together, they built and tested a series of experimental, Prius-like "K-cars" that were a far cry from the eponymous little boxes that saved Chrysler in the early 1980s.

When you sell as many variations of a vehicle as Ford does with the F-150, there are bound to be a couple of stinkers in the mix. This extended-cab truck with a 6.5-foot bed just isn't the best example of the 2009 F-150. I've probably driven seven different 2009 F-150s, and all of them felt better to me than this one does. Most of the other trucks were crew-cab models, so it's possible a lot of my complaints are due to the lack of a B-pillar in the cab. Overall, the truck just felt a little floppy, and there was far too much dive under braking. And the 5.4-liter V-8 is nothing to write home about.

Chevy's Colorado and GMC's Canyon are the Rodney Dangerfields of the mid-size pickup category. During their first five years of existence, they earned all the respect they deserved: nada.