Road and Driver

The Germans give this SUV some (more) attitude.

BY JORDAN BROWN

Porsche has announced plans to offer U.S. customers its latest special edition of the Cayenne SUV. Building upon the sporty Cayenne GTS, this is the third Porsche Design Edition in the series—and the first sport-ute—and gets a host of interior and exterior upgrades that have it looking fit for a German Batman.

Sprayed in what Porsche calls Lava Grey Metallic paint and festooned with racing stripes, the DE3 also features color-matched 21-inch wheels, blacked-out bi-xenon headlights, and tinted windows that add to the SUV’s menacing exterior. Also available to customers at no additional charge is an extended roof-mounted spoiler similar to the one found on the Subaru WRX STI. The final exterior flourishes are the Porsche Design Edition 3 graphics on the doors.

Keep Reading: 2010 Porsche Cayenne GTS Porsche Design Edition 3 - Car News

You’ve seen one at your local ice rink, but how many of you have driven one? Ride along as we take to the ice.

The ultimate in plug and play.

BY AARON ROBINSON

Always leave space in your life for objects that bring out your inner child. We think Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said that, right before inventing the yoga moves needed to get in and out of a Tesla.

Whatever design anomalies, daily annoyances, absurd ergonomics, and ridiculous economics underlie Tesla’s little battery-powered peashooter, the car has one slam-dunk feature: It makes boys out of men.

One driver with gray at his temples and a giggle on his lips recalled when he used to daydream of shrinking down and driving his own slot cars. Another became a comic-book rocket guy, racing to save the underground city. Driving the Tesla is so unlike wheeling a normal vehicle—indeed, even the severely abnormal Lotus Elise on which the Tesla is based—that it’s possible to be transported in mind much farther than in body. Well, anything that extends a Tesla’s range, metaphysical or otherwise, is welcome.

Recall that the Tesla, named for 19th- and early-20th-century electricalüber-inventor Nikola Tesla, is a two-seat targa assembled by Lotus in England and finished by Tesla Motors in San Carlos, California. The aluminum-chassis and carbon-fiber-paneled roadster weighs 2756 pounds, 781 more than an Elise, but is made spunky by a 248-hp, air-cooled AC-induction electric motor fed by 6831 lithium-ion cells resembling slightly overweight AA penlight batteries. No gas, no oil, just juice from the wall socket—amounting to about $4 to $7 worth for a single fill-up, depending on your local electricity rates.

Keep Reading: 2009 Tesla Roadster - Road Test

The ultimate in plug and play.

Putting a Track pack on the popular pony.

BY AARON ROBINSON

A Mustang with a Track pack? Corvettes and Vipers grab the glory for Old Glory at temples of speed such as Le Mans. The lumbering, log-axle Mustang is just a quarter-miler for the tattoo-and-tobacco crowd, right?

Actually,mes amis, the Mustang is America’s other road-racing workhorse. It has its own pro series, the eight-race Mustang Challenge. And there were more than a dozen Mustangs on the grid at Daytona this past January when a Roush-prepared Mustang finished second in the three-hour Koni Challenge race. It made all its rights and lefts better than Porsche 911s and BMW M3s. [Turnkey Mustang drag cars are featured in this month’s Sport, page 110].

No, we wouldn’t expect that hierarchy to hold on the street, even if the 2010 Track-pack Mustang GT is billed as the hairpin-and-carousel king of the newly reskinned Mustang lineup. Still, Ford’s old pony has a long history of making incremental improvements as it ages, and the Track package shows that the late-night lights still burn in some windows at Ford.

Building a Track-pack Mustang on the order form starts with a GT Premium and its 315-hp, 4.6-liter V-8 and five-speed manual, for $31,845. The $1495 Track package swaps out the 3.31 or 3.55 axle for a 3.73 limited-slip rear end with carbon friction plates. The shocks are less forgiving in both compression and rebound, the anti-roll bars are thicker, and dual-piston front brake calipers with performance pads from the 2009 Bullitt model do the stopping. Also, the stability-control system is retuned to tolerate more sideways play.

The world’s cheapest car aims to bring vehicle ownership to the masses.

BY RAY HUTTON

You need to be re-programmed to test the Tata Nano. Normal references do not apply. For the moment, disregard the Nano Europa that appeared at the recent Geneva auto show, as well as the possibility of a U.S. version. Instead, it is the simplest, most basic model that counts: available for as little as $2200, it’s the cheapest new car available anywhere in the world.

We must not forget that the Nano is first and foremost a car for India, a country of about one billion people where fewer than two percent own a car. It was instigated by Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata conglomerate, India’s biggest corporation, in a gesture that looks as much philanthropic as business savvy. Watching the way whole families travel on motorcycles—rider, pillion passenger, and two children hanging on—and noting the terrible toll in road deaths involving two-wheelers, Tata called for a safer four-wheeled vehicle that bike riders could afford.

Small Car, Big Ambitions

Everyone knows that small, cheap cars mean small profits, and for Tata the margin on the Nano at its entry price is, well, marginal. But look at the big picture and perhaps we can see the Ford Model T or the Volkswagen Beetle for the 21st century. Through the Nano, Tata of India hopes to become one of the biggest players on the global automotive stage.

The “people’s car” of today primarily has to be for first-time buyers with average incomes way below those of the industrialized Western countries. Ratan Tata’s brief for the Nano was that, apart from being cheap to buy, it must be a “proper” car capable of accommodating five people, exceed Indian safety and emissions requirements, and be economical to run. One look at the Indian market told the Tata engineers that the cost objectives could not be met by stripping out an existing conventional car. The cheapest car on the Indian market, the Maruti 800, is based on an age-old Suzuki minicar and costs twice as much as the Nano.

Keep Reading: 2009 Tata Nano - First Drive Review

Could the Prius and fun finally get along?

BY STEVE SILER

We’ve never gotten too excited about the Toyota Prius around here. On one hand, as an extreme fuel-sipper with a distinctive design and contrarian appeal, the Prius is laudable in the manner with which it eschews traditional luxury and conspicuous speed in favor of high-tech eco features, utter thrift, and unconventional hatchback living. On the other hand, with skinny tires, a loud cabin, terrible rear vision, and a boomy ride, the Prius has been the exact opposite of fun to drive. Indeed, efficiency and green image aside, considered as a plain ol’car, the Prius has represented little more than an expensive Corolla.

Toyota has been relatively fine with that, for there are plenty of shoppers seeking the automotive equivalent of an Energy Star appliance for their transportation needs, and Toyota has wooed more than a million into Priuses so far. For 2010, however, Toyota has stepped up the game, not just updating the styling considerably, but veritably pouring engineering talent (some 200 engineers’ worth) into making countless changes intended to make the Prius both more powerful, more efficient, and—get this—more fun to drive. Plus, there are those impressive fuel-economy ratings: an official EPA-estimated 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway, and 50 mpg combined.

Transformed? Not Quite

Did Toyota succeed? Now that we’ve had a chance to sample the 2010 Prius along the scenic and winding roads around Napa, California, we can say that it did achieve those three goals. A welcome helping of grunt (okay, maybe grunt is too strong a word) has been injected into the Prius’s vastly improved hybrid powertrain, which mates a larger, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine to an 80-hp electric motor and a 650-watt nickel-metal-hydride battery pack for a combined power rating of 134 hp, up from 110 for the 2009 model. Furthermore, a new engine management system allows for three driving settings—Battery, Eco, and Power. Toyota also added a 17-inch wheel-and-tire option to liven up the handling.

Keep Reading: 2010 Toyota Prius - First Drive Review

Someone was kind enough to pre-own your next new car.

BY DAVID GLUCKMAN

When it comes to purchasing a used car—or “pre-owned vehicle” for the euphemistically inclined—there are two traditional routes a buyer can take. Dealing with a private seller is typically cheaper, but requires faith that the owner is being honest about the car’s history. Buying from a used-car dealer often costs more, but necessitates trust of a whole different order, namely that the dealer knows anything about the car’s past. But another avenue has become a popular alternative: purchasing a used car from a manufacturer’s certified program.

Often called certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles, these cars are sold through new-car dealers’ used sections. From January 2008 to January 2009, there was a nearly 10-percent increase in monthly sales of certified used cars. Nearly all manufacturers have such a program, including luxe brands like Bentley, Maserati, and Porsche. We’ve assembled this guide to help you understand the different options available.

How Does a Car Get Certified?

For a vehicle to be eligible for a CPO program, it must be within a certain age range (typically less than five or six years old) and have less than a specified number of miles on the odometer (the limit is anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 miles), although Bentley has no mileage limitation. Vehicles with aftermarket modifications are generally excluded and manufacturers also tend to look for vehicles with known dealer-service histories. Chosen vehicles are put through a multipoint inspection—the magic number of points seems to be 150—and anything that needs attention is supposedly repaired or replaced. The number of points is mostly irrelevant, as each brand breaks the inspection down differently, and many of the points are things that would be obvious to a buyer anyway. Many companies make the inspection list available to buyers, so you’ll want to be sure to ask for that before making your decision.

Keep Reading: A Guide to Certified Used Car Programs - Buyers Info