Car Throttle

Two-doors. Check. V-8 engine. Check. Performance Tuned Suspension. Check. On paper, the Audi S5 ticks all the right boxes. But as anyone knows, performance vehicles and expensive sports cars are very rarely just about the specifications list. Instead, emotion drives purchases at this level. It was a blustery and windy day unusual for California when CarThrottle took delivery of a 2011 Audi S5 tester. The bright, Sprint Blue S5 was an exciting sight to lay eyes on. An appliance the S5 is not - appliances get you from A to Z competently. Cars in this class aim for more. A long and low front hood with flowing body lines and a notchback rear end. Emotion? Oh yes. The S5 stands out as an object of beauty. Audi

In the marketplace, Acura has traditionally positioned itself below competitors like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but is working to reach higher with new models. The ZDX is one of the vehicles the brand is reaching higher with. The ZDX hit the market in late 2009 as Acura's take on a crossover with coupe-like qualities, similar in approach to BMW's X6. With the ZDX, Acura dared to be different. Did the gamble pay off? To find out, we spent a week with the ZDX. We wouldn't say Acura's biggest problem recently has been daring to be different though - Honda's luxury division certainly has set itself apart from the pack with the styling language of its latest vehicles. That differentiation has achieved questionable sales results. The ZDX defies expectations and

Turning points for manufacturers in a segment can often start with one product. A star model; for Infiniti, that was no doubt the original G35 that launched in 2003. For a brand that never really got traction during the 1990s, the G35 represented a big change, being a rear-wheel drive car that vaulted Infiniti into serious contention with long-time segment champions like the BMW 3-Series. As with anything though, there was room for improvement. Infiniti introduced a redesigned G35 for the 2007 model year and it addressed some criticisms lobbed at the previous car, such as the substandard interior. In 2009, the G got an upgraded 3.7-liter VQ powerplant that bumped the designation up to G37. For 2011, the car has been refreshed further,

The most rapidly changing and growing segment in the US market is the C-segment. Cars like the Civic, Corolla, and Focus are becoming some of the biggest sellers on the market, passing the previously dominant mid-sized market as buyers realize they'd rather trade some space for increased fuel efficiency in these days of gas prices less predictable than Lucas electronics. So it's not shocking that every high-volume manufacturer is throwing a lot of money and research into their C-segment entries, because that's where the buyers are.  The vast majority of the big selling C-segment cars are new for 2011 or 2012, including the Cruze (Chevrolet's replacement for the Cobalt), the Jetta (now simplified, cheaper and larger), the Civic, and interesting upstarts like the Kia

Bangle.  Chris Bangle. That's all I can think of when I look at a BMW Z4.  I can see his trademark styling all over these cars, and when Bangle's Bungles first started hitting the road, all it made me want to do was punch babies and scream.  "How can he do this to us?  Our cherished BMWs!  He's ruining them!" But you know, the Z4 has been on US roads now since 2002.  That's 9 years to soak up the Z4's unusual styling, and to be honest it's rather grown on me.  Not to mention the fact that the Z4 wasn't actually styled by Bangle, the styling was directed by Bangle.  So if you want to punch someone, look up Anders Warming. Really though, the (E85-chassis)

Sports cars come in all shapes and sizes. The question of "what constitutes a sports car?" is not one with an easy answer.  Some people would say "Well, it's got to have two seats, and a folding roof."  So, the Mitsubishi Evo isn't a sports car?  "Well, it's got to be really fast."  So the Mazda Miata isn't a sports car?  "Well, it has to be rear-wheel-drive."  So the Honda CRX isn't a sports car? The definition of a sports car is an ethereal, ever-changing thing.  30 years ago, there were no such things as sports sedans.  Sedans for were for boring people, sports cars were for exciting people with rockstar lives.  The original BMW M5 punched a solid hole through that theory, and today we've

If you aren't aware it's 2011 and just like every other year we get one year older. Of course, being mortal when we get older you find your body changing over time. You find hair growing out of your ear lobes, you find aches in places where it has never ached before a year ago and your bones creak slightly more than usual. All of these mentioned above will happen to you, unless you're not human. However, if you're a car, especially a W140 series Mercedes Benz S-class, you could probably go on forever. Designed to be the best car in the world, it actually is, or was. First sold in 1991 the W140 Mercedes Benz S-class cost Mercedes Benz about $1billion to develop

"That's a Taurus?!" was the familiar refrain of all those who saw our Taurus SHO tester. "Yes, that is a Taurus," was our reply. The Taurus brand name is very well known in the marketplace, a result of the car's blockbuster success from introduction and throughout the 1990s. As is the story with many successful Ford products, the car was left to wither whilst new competition eclipsed it. Today, Toyota and Honda are the leading sellers of mid-size sedans. Ford is catching up though, but with the Fusion. The Fusion is more of a successor to the original Taurus as Ford let the Taurus deteriorate to a point of a discontinuation in 2006. Thankfully Alan Mullaly took the reins and things began to change - the Taurus

Now that the FIFA World Cup is over and that Spain have been crowned champions everything is almost back to normal. Even that oracle-like octopus is back to entertaining kids instead of correctly predicting the winner of each and every match that it is asked to predict. As for yours truly, I still get mixed up on which Ronaldo actually played for this World Cup. The one from Brazil or the more meterosexual one from Portugal. But that is another matter altogether. Let's talk about a Malaysian made hatchback. The Proton Satria Neo (pic above) is a three door hatchback launched in 2006 as a replacement for the Mitsubishi Colt based Satria made earlier. The Neo shares its basic platforms with the longer wheelbase Proton Waja

There was a time when most of the cars that were sold were rear wheel drive. This started changing sometime during the 1970s when the bean counters started to really take over from the engineers and designers on what a car should be like. Because of cost and packaging and economic survivability, car manufacturers adopted front wheel drive, which to this day is the norm. Less oversteer and fish tailing for motorists, but what replaced it was lots of wheelspin when you put your foot down on the throttle. This brings us to the Volkswagen Golf. The Golf is an icon amongst motoring enthusiasts. Why? Because it bought affordable speed and handling to the masses. It was the first of the hot hatches. It combined good build