By Mark Takahashi Photos by Scott Jacobs, Kurt Niebuhr and Mark Takahashi
muscle car n : any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving.
The muscle car wars have once again been ignited and fans of the holy trinity of American performance -- Camaro, Mustang and Challenger -- have never been happier. Ford has fired the latest shot across the bow of Chevy and Dodge, with the revival of the revered 5.0-liter V8 in the 2011 Mustang GT. It seemed fitting then to pit the new 'Stang against our long-term Camaro SS and Challenger R/T, both of which are also powered by stout eight-cylinder engines.
For this comparison, we motored along a meandering stretch of pavement that curls high above the Pacific Coast. Each section of the route included similar portions of highway straightaways, curves and choppy road surfaces. Editors Mark Takahashi, John DiPietro and Warren Clarke charged into the mountains for a raucous yet enlightening afternoon of driving and debating. In the end, our rankings were unanimous and our number crunching backed them up. It's a tough job, we know, but somebody's got to do it.
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Categories: Chevrolet, Comparison Test, Dodge, Ford, Muscle Car
Like a menu with too many items, the small crossover SUV category serves up so many worthy choices that it's often difficult to choose which ones to test drive, let alone actually buy. This is a comparison test we've been meaning to do for a long time, and as expected, it was a nail biter.
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Categories: Comparison Test
Here's Day 2 from the Fuel-Sipper Smackdown 3: SUV Edition. It was a miracle we ended up in the garage at all after St. Patrick's Day in Las Vegas -- but we had fuel sipping to do to find out which SUVs get the best fuel economy?
Day 1 Video
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
Categories: BMW, Comparison Test, Ford, Fuel Efficiency, GMC, Hybrid Vehicles, Thoughts from the Curb, Toyota, Volkswagen
Here's the Day 1 video from Fuel-Sipper Smackdown 3: SUV Edition. We opted to do something a little different this year. We hope you enjoy it.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
Categories: Comparison Test, Fuel Efficiency, Thoughts from the Curb
Originally, this was going to be a thematic comparison -- the "Battle of the Boxes" wherein we'd put the new-for-2010 Kia Soul up against the Nissan Cube. But we subsequently expanded the test to include the Honda Fit (the winner of our last subcompact hatchback comparo) after realizing many shoppers would likely be taking a look at all three.
Can the Fit retain its title belt against these two unconventional competitors? The answer lies beyond the jump.
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Categories: Comparison Test, Honda, Kia, Nissan
The results of our second Consumer Comparison Test are in. This time around we pitted leading economy sedans against one another and let six real-world consumers do the evaluating. While we arranged the track and the excercises we didn't tell them our opinion of the vehicles.
The three contenders were the Honda Civic, Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla. The Honda and Mazda were 2008 models but the Toyota was the all-new 2009 model. The vehicles cost within $500 of each other and were nearly identically equipped. And, most importantly, no vehicle manufacturer had any part in the comparison. Other so-called "editor for a day" tests, performed by various and sundry automotive publications, can't make that final claim...
The results were most interesting.
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Categories: Comparison Test, Toyota
