This week's Tesla versus The New York Times flap came to a climax yesterday when Tesla released the logs it promised on its Web site, and the newspaper responded with a point-by-point refutation.

Tesla's post says that New York Times environmental reporter John Broder misrepresented the Model S' performance. Broder argues that he was simply following advice from Tesla personnel during the drive.

The original New York Times story painted the Model S with a negative brush, but as I wrote Wednesday, a close reading of the article shows that the Model S operated exactly as you'd … Read more

The 2013 BMW 750Li may seem like the perfect luxury car, but it did not organize my financial portfolio for me. Nor did it shine my shoes. It did not even bother to buy me a winning lottery ticket. But those are about the only services it failed to perform.

The 750Li overwhelmed me with everything it did offer, from driving modes to connected features. It delivered on BMW's reputation for excellent handling and served as a superbly comfortable freeway cruiser. It abounds with tech from stem to stern, improving its fuel economy and entertaining the driver's every … Read more

Past generations of the Honda Accord may have become lost in the competitive shuffle, but the 2013 model faces off well with the likes of the Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata. The 2013 Accord comes out as the ninth generation of a nameplate in existence since 1976.

More than just an update, the 2013 Accord represents a very necessary leap ahead for Honda, a company previously locked in a technology pit stop while other automakers raced ahead.

I could not help but think of the 2013 Honda Accord EX as another boring midsize sedan when I saw its name written … Read more

It was love at first sight when Alfa Romeo debuted the 4C concept car at the 2011 Geneva auto show. At that time, Alfa Romeo said it would put the car into production, but it has been an excruciating two years waiting for any news of the car.

Now the wait is over, as Alfa Romeo announced it would not only show the production car at the 2013 Geneva auto show, but will also sell this beautiful little two-seater in the United States.

The 4C is a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive car, a perfect formula for excellent handling. The production vehicle will … Read more

This week saw a war of words between Tesla's supporters, lead by CEO Elon Musk, and New York Times' environmental reporter John M. Broder. The issue in contention was the range of the Model S electric car during a typical East Coast winter, as detailed by Broder in the article "Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway."

Broder's article could be taken as an indictment against the practicality of the Model S, but reading his account closely, I did not see anything that went outside of how I would expect an electric car to behave.

Finding … Read more

Oft-criticized for its appearance, something about the Nissan Juke appealed to gearheads, enough so that the company created the Juke-R, a high-performance, and costly, version of the compact SUV using the GT-R's engine. For those of us lacking the funds for one of those custom-built rocket sleds, Nissan comes out with the Juke Nismo.

The Juke Nismo was first shown as a concept at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.

Nismo is Nissan's sport brand, which in the retail market covers performance parts and a version of the 370Z. The introduction of the Juke Nismo should be the first … Read more

BMW has attempted to sidestep the dreaded "W word" in marketing and designing the 2013 X1 xDrive28i that recently rolled into the Car Tech garage, but have no qualms about it, the X1 is a wagon. Granted, it's a tall wagon that perhaps skirts the lower boundaries of what could be considered a crossover, but, even with the slightly increased ground clearance of a crossover, everyone who approached me about the X1 while I was out for a spin referred to the vehicle as a big blue wagon. So, I'll be referring to it as a … Read more

Hybrid and electric cars turn in the best fuel economy numbers, but if you are not ready to trust that newfangled technology, here are five gasoline-driven cars that manage very good mileage. For this round-up, we stuck with recent models we have actually driven. Instead of focusing on the highway fuel economy number, which many automakers do in their advertising, we looked at the combined city and highway numbers. … Read more

The Infiniti M37 sedan starts at $48,700, but our 2013 M56 sedan starts at a base price of $63,700. What do you get for the extra $12,500? About 1.9 extra liters of displacement that's about a Honda Civic's worth of engine size and power. That's an impressive little source of bragging rights there, but does it really make this flagship sedan better than its more modest sibling?

420 horsepower V-8 The 5.6-liter V-8 engine that spins its crank under the M56's hood outputs 420 peak horsepower and 417 pound-feet of torque. … Read more