auto

Here at the 2007 New York auto show, we just got a demo of the next in-car offering from XM Satellite Radio: XM WX real-time weather service. As we reported last year, XM is planning to bring the WX service (originally designed for nautical and aviation use) to aftermarket devices this summer with the release of the Bushnell ONIX 400 handheld GPS device. According to XM reps, the same technology is about a year away from being integrated into in-car navigation systems in much the same way as XM's NavTraffic real-time traffic service.

XM WX makes use of a … Read more

While Audi lost the World Car of the Year award to the self-parking Lexus, there are other areas in which the German company made its mark this year.

Audi took the 2007 World Car Design of the Year Award for the Audi TT and the 2007 World Car Performance Award for the Audi RS4.

"There is a segment of the public for whom performance overrides all else, said Dan Carney, director of the award committee and an automotive journalist for Edmunds Inside Line, MSNBC and other publications.

Mercedes-Benz took the 2007 World Green Car Award for its E320 Bluetec. … Read more

Two digits instead of three on the back of a modern Mercedes Benz mean only one thing: enhanced performance courtesy of AMG, Mercedes' in-house tuning arm. To celebrate 40 years of souping up cars (first as a standalone company, then as a part of Mercedes-Benz), AMG is building a super-limited-edition version of the Mercedes CL dubbed the CL65 AMG 40th Edition. The car, which makes its debut here at the 2007 New York auto show and which will have a production run of just 40 units, boasts a hand-built 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 engine that produces 604 horsepower and 738 … Read more

If it's not broke, don't fix it: this is the maxim that Honda has applied to its popular S2000 roadster for the past 6 years, making minimal modifications to the high-revving two seater.

Here at the 2007 New York auto show, however, Honda has finally given the S2000 a new "Club Racer" trim level, designed for those drivers looking for a little more juice out of their weekend convertible.

With a drive train unchanged from that in the regular S2000, the biggest structural modification to the S2000 CR is the replacement of the S2000's cloth … Read more

Infiniti is one of our favorite automakers when it comes to in-cabin gadgetry, as evidenced in our recent reviews of the 2007 M35 Sport and 2007 FX45. And here at the 2007 New York International Auto Show, the Infiniti lab coats are strutting their stuff again with the unveiling of the Infiniti EX concept. Similar in design to the space-age FX crossover, the EX concept is the forerunner to a production version due out next year. The EX concept features an arsenal of tech features that we haven't seen anywhere before.

Perhaps the most impressive is the Around View … Read more

While still fairly new, the car industry is taking a cue from Hollywood and ending the car show season with an awards ceremony.

Comparable to what the Golden Globes means for film, the World Car of the Year Awards are voted on by 44 automotive journalists in 22 countries through secret ballot. (The actual awards are giant gold spheres on a pedestal.)

This year the World Car of the Year (think Best Motion Picture), went to the Lexus LS 460, which beat out the Audi TT and the Mini Cooper, as well as seven other nominees. (It should be noted … Read more

Ford introduced three distinctly diverse limited-run 2008 models at the New York Auto show this week.

First in the lineup is the most powerful Mustang to date, the Shelby GT500KR. But if you need something larger to haul your Ponycar, consider the 2008 Ford F-150 Foose Edition, named for famed car designer and star of Overhaulin' Chip Foose.

Sporting a 450 HP, 5.4-liter supercharged V8 engine that delivers 500 pounds of torque, this is arguably the most powerful F-150 since the 2004 SVT Lightning. Rest assured it will get you to the construction site and back with time to … Read more

We have spent a good deal of time over the past few months complaining about the navigation systems in Mercedes-Benz models. As we found in the 2007 Mercedes E550, the E320 BlueTec, and the SL550 models, the Benz COMAND solution for onboard tech fails to live up to its cars' world-renowned performance credentials. With its small, poorly rendered navigation screen buried at knee-level in the center stack and fidgety controls, the existing system leads had us tearing our hair out more than once.

Well, today at the 2007 New York auto show we saw the next generation of Mercedes' cabin … Read more

If you thought the pictures of the 2008 Audi R8 making the rounds were gorgeous, wait until you see it in person...and from the inside. I had the pleasure at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday.

The sports-car public has been lusting after a mid-engine, high-horsepower model since Mercedes debuted its C111 in 1970. But unless you count the Porsche Carrera GT (which I don't because it was about $500,000) there has been nothing available in the "reasonable" price range.

Nearly four decades later, Mercedes' German brethren finally deliver.

Remember the old SNL … Read more