Carwad.net - automotive articles

The Tiptronic is dead. Long live the Tiptronic! We are cruising past the Great Salt Lake, through Salt Lake City neighborhoods whose backyards are littered with trampolines in a Porsche Carrera S with Doppelkupplungsgetriebe. What the hell are the Germans up to this time?! (more…)

To a certain extent, the new Ford Flex embodies today’s Western society, personifying excess in one of its most pleasing forms. How has Ford managed this? Simply by offering a fundamentally useful and practical car wrapped in a cutting edge package. The Flex’s aesthetical calling is clearly to inflame our passion. No one is left indifferent by it: either you love it or you hate it, but you definitely react to it. (more…)

The current-generation Legacy and Outback models were launched for the 2005 model year. But unlike some cars that go through a product cycle without any changes, Subaru is constantly improving its mid-size sedan and wagon offerings. (more…)

It’s funny that one of the loudest cars on the road this year comes from a manufacturer that makes some of the quietest. Of course, when first entering a German-dominated market full of performance sedans, it is important to make some noise- both visually and aurally. (more…)

When an automaker realizes that 15 percent of its customers are leaving its showrooms due to a missing product in a specific market segment, it has to find an answer — and fast. That’s what happened at Volkswagen when a failure to include a minivan in its lineup forced some customers to look elsewhere. (more…)

The cheating’s over. After selling a 2006 Jetta TDI well into 2008 because of federal emissions regulations in effect for 2007 models and up, Volkwagen has finally introduced the 2009 model with a brand-new turbo diesel engine. Better yet, the new car costs $2,475 less than the outgoing one. (more…)

Ford never runs out of ideas when it’s time to design special editions of models that are nearing the end of their lifecycle. Obviously, the goal of this exercise is to give a boost to slumping sales. The results are not always successful, but this time, I must admit that the automaker hit the bull’s eye. (more…)

My hot hatch journey started around the tender age of 15.Saturday nights were spent standing around at the Doll’s house, sipping choc banana milkshakes and watching VW Golf GTi 16 valves taking on the old BMW E30 325i and in those days the legendary Opel Boss was thrown in the mix to spice things up. (more…)

The award-winning Sonata is Hyundai’s mid-size bread and butter sedan, which for 2009 just got a little sweeter. Warm out of the oven, the ‘09 Sonata exhibits revised front and rear fascias along with a revamped interior. The changes also include a little more yeast under the hood in both V6 and I4 configurations. (more…)

New York City, New York - Well, I finally made it, and here I am in the Big Apple to bring you the complete rundown on the new Dodge Challenger lineup.

However, before we get into all that, I simply have to make a statement, and that is…”I can’t recall ever driving a vehicle which draws as much attention as the new Dodge Challenger”. (more…)