New models

BMW's announcement of the 135i hit us like Pavlov's bell, the one he used to make his dog salivate. Once we got into the 2008 BMW 135i Coupe, all of our expectations were met, and more. BMW threw its best engine into its smallest car, leading to impressive acceleration for a car in this price range. But don't expect BMW engineers to content themselves with this simple concept; no, they tuned the car appropriately, such as making sure its tires would hold the road while being turned by 3-liter, twin-turbocharged power.

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Following the sport versions of Audi's larger cars, such as the S4, S5, and S8, the diminutive TT gets its own sports version, the TTS. Audi announced today that the 2009 TTS would launch in late 2008. We got a preview of this car at the 2008 Detroit auto show, and came away baffled by its engine specs. We were highly impressed by the 2008 Audi TT Coupe and Convertible, when equipped with the 3.2-liter V-6 and Quattro all-wheel-drive, but Audi specified a 2-liter turbocharged four cylinder for the TTS. Stats published with Audi's announcement today clear … Read more

A new BMW launch always gets our rev-counter ticking higher, so when we got the chance to test drive three new Bimmer models last week at an event hosted by the Western Automotive Journalists association, we lost no time in buckling up. From the two nimble 1-Series models to the the phenomenal M3 trio, to the curiously styled X6, we put the next generation of Bavarian Motor Work through its paces.

Check out our photos here.

When we tested the 2008 BMW M3 Coupe recently, we were so impressed with it that we gave it an Editors' Choice award. But now we've driven the M3 equipped with BMW's new double-clutch gearbox, and found that perfection could be improved upon. We got our first sense of the brilliance of this gearbox on a public road, where we shifted up through the gears until the indicator in the instrument cluster showed a seven. Yes, seven speeds. One critique we had of the six-speed manual M3 Coupe we reviewed was that its fuel economy was low, sticking … Read more

The Truth About Cars blog posted commentary on the next generation Toyota Prius today. The car is supposed to debut at the 2009 Detroit auto show, but a few details have come out in Edmund's Auto Observer. The new Prius will be 3 inches to 4 inches longer than the current model and it will get a 50 horsepower boost. Along with all that, it will get better fuel economy than the current model. The last update was in 2004, so this new version is definitely due. There's also talk of another model in the Prius line, and … Read more

On the second day of the 2008 Western Automotive Journalists Media Days, we drove a variety of different cars at Laguna Seca. This famous track employs a number of technical turns, not to mention a quarter-mile straightaway, for testing handling and acceleration.

Click here for photos of production cars tested on the track at Laguna Seca.

We got our first chance to try out the 2008 Lancer Evolution X MR on both regular roads and the Laguna Seca Raceway. The car thoroughly met our expectations, offering performance and cabin tech we could only drool over when we saw it at the Tokyo auto show.

Click here for photos of the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR both on and off the track.

In his latest prizefight, Brian Cooley looks at two high-stepping German cars, the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S and the Audi R8. Both cars have all-wheel-drive and both top $100,000 in price, but which is better? Brian compares powertrains, handling, design, cabin electronics, and a special category for cars in this segment.

Aiming squarely at the BMW X3 and the recently-announced Mercedes GLK, Audi unveiled its own car-based SUV this week in the shape of the Q5 crossover. With a sleeker design than the lumbering Q7 and an drivetrain designed to walk the line between performance and economy, the Q5 is Ingolstadt's contribution to the red-hot crossover market. Audi is also using the new model as a showcase for some of its latest cabin tech, including the third generation of its MMI interface and a hard-drive based media and navigation system. Check out our images right here.