Auto News 5

The 2009 Hyundai Genesis is one of the most anticipated Four Seasons cars to arrive at the Automobile Magazine offices in recent memory. Yes, you read that right. After driving the Genesis on Hyundai's test track in Korea, and being thoroughly impressed, we decided we needed to spend a year with Hyundai's first foray into the luxury-car arena to see how it measured up against more seasoned rivals from Europe, Japan, and America.

With the small car category gaining strength, more and more automakers are looking to make their pint-size offerings stand out from the masses. Based on the entry-level Rio, Kia's brand-new 2010 Soul fits this mold well, its heavy revisions allowing it to compete with the squarish likes of the Scion xB and the Nissan Cube, not to mention the less funky progenitor of the modern box cars, the Honda Element.

The logical side of my brain is telling me that not only is $57,125 a good chunk of change, it's also enough to get me into the more dynamic Porsche Boxster S. And while that would normally be enough to move me toward the Porsche, I can't help but think I'd still consider the TTS.

The Focus used to be much more sporting. We had this discussion in the kitchen yesterday, agreeing that the second-generation Focus was the "one." And then Ford got deadly serious and made it to big and bland. The 2009 Focus SES gets some spunkiness back, but still needs to move from tidy design to really hot.

Cars such as the new Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Dodge Challenger promise to deliver a modern driving experience wrapped in sheetmetal that evokes the glory years of the first muscle car era. But if you're hankering for the throwback aesthetic in a package that delivers contemporary performance, there is another option: the Richard Childress Racing Series 3 Camaro.

Months in Fleet: Seven
Approximate mileage: 19000

To understand the Camry Hybrid's position in its segment, you need only realize that both the Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima's powertains are based on Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive (Nissan actually licenses the technology, Ford's setup is independently developed but essentially identical). If that's not enough, recall that the Camry has been the best selling car in America for eleven of the last twelve years. Clearly, the Camry is the car Nissan and Ford designers had at the center of their sights. Unfortunately for Toyota, both have been quite successful. While the Camry Hybrid is still a strong choice, its age is starting to show.

The S5 is another Audi product-in addition to the A5 and the R8-that one feels compelled to caress, if only visually. It's sexy shape and muscular stance are irresistable. Audi designers really know how to evoke an emotional response with their designs. It literally stops traffic-foot traffic anyway. Driving through Ann Arbor, I saw plenty of double-takes as pedestrians tried to get a better look.

For years, Mercedes-Benz has fed its U.S. customers a diet of ever-more-powerful engines in its E-class sedan. It's been decades since the forebearer to today's E-class had a four-cylinder engine behind its signature radiator grille - at least in America. Our lowliest E-class Benz, which isn't so lowly at all, has instead come with a six, with a V-8 as the move-up engine, and, for a time, a supercharged V-8 in the AMG version, which has since switched to a normally aspirated big-block (6.2 liter!) V-8.

A single-mode hybrid system is sufficient for small high-mileage cars but, when you're dealing with husky, fuel-slurping trucks, you need more. What we now know as GM's two-mode hybrid system was originally developed for urban buses that began service in 2003. As the technology trickled down to Chevrolet and GMC SUVs, pickups, and (future) crossovers, GM resisted the urge to coin a new name even though the actual number of driving modes increased as the hardware evolved.