Auto News 5

Much like the BMW 7-series, the S550 is not a car one can digest in one night. There's just so much going on, so much that it can do, that one barely scratches the surface by relating how it feels and how it drives.

I drove the XC60 only briefly, but it's a handsome little crossover, certainly better looking than the Mercedes-Benz GLK350, if not quite as sexy as the Audi Q5. The interior is a letdown. The Volvo center stack is really, really getting old, and it's not particularly user-friendly. The navigation screen displayed the usual legal warning language and instructed me to "push ENTER to accept these conditions." I pushed the ENTER button numerous times, to no avail; the screen retained the legalese and I never saw a map.

The U.S. auto market may be fast-moving and competitive, but one subset, commercial vans, is neither. Looking much the same as it did during the Nixon administration, it has seen few innovations and fewer new entries. The only real change is that the big Dodge van--dressed in the same duds since the early '70s--finally expired a few years ago, when the Mercedes-Chrysler tie-up brought us the Sprinter van to replace it. Half-hearted attempts to make work vehicles out of passenger haulers, such as panel-truck versions of the Dodge Caravan and the Chevy HHR, have met with little success.

Just like you, we always want to know what's coming next from Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles, and all the other places where automotive engineers and designers dream and scheme on our behalf. Car companies, of course, are loath to share information on new products lest their competitors try to copy them--or you decide not to buy the cars they already have on dealer lots. Car companies, though, are simply groups of people, and some of them have a hard time keeping secrets. So, we poke, we prod, we cajole, and we uncover information that becomes the basis for our annual Sneak Preview issue. As always, some of our information is educated guesswork based on hints, insinuations, hunches. Make no mistake, though, these cars are on their way, even though details may change. Ladies and gentlemen: our list of 136 cars coming over the next few years...

The global economic crisis has severely curtailed future product plans for the world's automakers. Here are some of the casualties - so far.

The Mercedes-Benz C300 packs an amazing amount of luxury and technology into a remarkably clean package, inside and out. And that cleanness and simplicity is the most remarkable thing about the C300. It's refreshing to be surrounded by an interior free of clutter and jet-fighter control panels. Instead, you focus on the very sastifying driving experience. The V-6 is adequate, the controls precisely M-B. There's a big, thick steering wheel and brakes that bite. Leaving the office, I found the ride was fairly harsh on the Ann Arbor's broken roads, then noticed the comfort/sport mode button was parked in the sporty shock-your-ass mode. Huh. Someone must talk to these motor gophers.