With all this media talk of a gas electric plug-in hybrid clean diesel hydrogen fuel cell future, someone forgot to tell Mercedes that the horsepower war is over. Sure, the new BMW M3 has a 414hp V8, trumped by the Audi RS4’s 420hp eight pot. But who gives a shit? The new automotive arms race: building and selling enough small, high-mileage, low-profit vehicles that various government agencies will let you sell large, low-mileage, high-profit vehicles. Meanwhile, the Mercedes C63 AMG.

TTAC's general policy on press embargoes: no. RF believes that any media outlet that agrees to keep their mouth shut on behalf of a manufacturer is colluding with that manufacturer against the consumer's best interest. And yet, this morning, that's exactly what I did. I signed a piece of paper at the press launch for Ford Flex crossover– without reading the fine print. Which committed me to hanging fire until mid-June. And so I must honor that agreement. (For this I went to law school?) I have re-written my previous post to exclude any and all driving impressions gleaned during the Flex launch. The full review will appear as Ford desires: on June 12. I apologize without reservation to Ford for violating our agreement, and to any of my colleagues who may feel aggrieved by TTAC's "premature" post. 

In anticipation of my upcoming more lengthy review (after the buff books get their 30 pieces of silver), I offer you my initial [looking and feeling, not driving] impressions of Ford's latest and greatest crossover (anyone remember the Edge, or Taurus X, or Freestyle?) from an up close and personal encounter. It has a design your mom could pick out of a lineup, and it looks great in person. It also looks great, as in "my goodness, that's a big damn car." For whatever reason, it conveys tall wagon rather than low SUV, but that might be in part due to the optional white roof on my test car. The bigness extends to the interior, which is the Flex' highlight. Yes, there's a 260 horsepower engine and a six-speed automatic. But the business class cabin is the biz. Best. Ford. Interior. Ever. Materials are seriously "oh my god, is this a Blue Oval car?" The middle row (especially when equipped with a brace of captains chairs) is spacious enough to allow even the gigantically tall and morbidly obese splay their legs in vulgar comfort. The Flex is utterly silent while in motion (which you'll recall from my test ride at the NY Auto Show), though standard 18" wheels sounds large for a would-be comfort cruiser. A home run for Ford? Maybe inside the park (consistent year-on-year sales). Otherwise, seating for four adults/three young 'uns and 24 mpg highway make this a strong triple. Full review to follow. Eventually.200″ height=”133″ />In anticipation of my upcoming more lengthy review (after the buff books get their 30 pieces of silver), I offer you my initial [looking and feeling, not driving] impressions of Ford's latest and greatest crossover [anyone remember the Edge, or Taurus X, or Freestyle?) from an up close and personal encounter. It has a design your mom could pick out of a lineup, and it looks great in person. It also looks great, as in "my goodness, that's a big damn car." For whatever reason, it conveys tall wagon rather than low SUV, but that might be in part due to the optional white roof on my test car. The bigness extends to the interior, which is the Flex' highlight. Yes, there's a 260 horsepower engine and a six-speed automatic. But the business class cabin is the biz. Best. Ford. Interior. Ever. Materials are seriously "oh my god, is this a Blue Oval car?" The middle row (especially when equipped with a brace of captains chairs) is spacious enough to allow even the gigantically tall and morbidly obese splay their legs in vulgar comfort. The Flex is utterly silent while in motion (which you'll recall from my test ride at the NY Auto Show), though standard 18" wheels sounds large for a would-be comfort cruiser. A home run for Ford? Maybe inside the park (consistent year-on-year sales). Otherwise, seating for four adults/three young 'uns and 24 mpg highway make this a strong triple. Full review to follow. Eventually.

Autoblog is asking if the "Volkswagen Tiguan Diesel Launch Delayed in US?" I'm happy to answer that question for them. No, it's not delayed. If your flight is supposed to get in at 2 PM, the fact that it is not getting in at 1 PM doesn't make it delayed. It makes 2 PM the time the plane is supposed to land. Autoblog is hypothesizing that there probably won't be a 2009 model year VW Tiguan with the 2.0-liter TDI engine. This was the plan was all along– not that it's a good plan, mind you. But Europe is really, really loving VW's 2.0-liter TDI engine right now, especially in the Tiguan. VW can't build 'em fast enough. So while the Tiguan 2.0-liter TDI would be a somewhat hit here in the States, it's a grand slam home run (game-winning penalty kick?) for VW in Europe.The 2.0-liter TDI engine will eventually make it stateside in the Jetta and Jetta Sportswagon. But you knew that back in March, when I asked one of VW's execs, and then passed the news along to you.

We've all heard the stats. Flying is safer than driving. Bicycling is safer than driving. Swimming with sharks with lasers on their heads is safer than driving. And despite Volvo's claims of an ultrasafe, fatality-free car in the next ten years, cars are destined to remain killers. You can't argue with physics. And there's always the human element: we're fallible. Not to conclude that cars will kill us all, but the risk is out there. Real hardcore motorcycle riders say to "ride the bike you want to die on." Which brings us to the question of the day: if you could know it was going to be your last drive, what would it be in? My choice is a classic 12 cylinder Ferrari, like the 275 GTB. The magnificent sound of the engine is what I'd want to hear if I was on my way out. As the Simpsons' Sideshow Bob once averred, "I shall send you to heaven before I send you to Hell."

We've don't pay that much attention to automakers' charitable contributions. While we're pro pro bono and love largess, we get hundreds of press releases each year, all touting contributions to causes from adult literacy to wounded veterans of Ford Granadas. Cynics might suggest that these payments are all drawn from carmakers' PR budgets, but we couldn't possibly comment. Well, in this case, we will. After Toyota's $20m contribution to the Audubon Society stirred-up a hornet's nest of questions surrounding SUVs and global warming, ToMoCo has announced the donation of $1m– and five vehicles– to the Florida Everglades National Park. This new donation is also targeted to "environmental education initiatives" rather than, say, culling gators. This is about as obvious as greenwashing gets, but moral relativists have already clicked through. And we agree: it's better for the Everglades to get some dough from Toyota than not. Victor vado share a little spolium. 

Once upon a time, Americans didn't drive around in Kleenex-mobiles designed to be dis-car-dead after an obligatory three to four years. OK, they actually fell apart in that time. But the thrill of the new– what came to be known as planned obsolescence– wasn't always the industry's main selling point. A lot of folks bought the Model T or an early Buick because the cars were built to last. Outside of pickup trucks, I can't remember the last time I saw a car company advertising the longevity and mechanical quality of their products. Sure, there's some noise about "precision engineering" and "legendary reliability" (e.g. the new, more epically epic Toyota Sequoia). But when was the first/last time you heard a manufacturer claim that "our cars are built to last?" Well then, I guess it's time to rethink Nissan. The Japanese automaker has decided to tout the durability of its cars– especially the Altima– in TV ads and on the web. They're talking quality testing and "years of durability." Yes, an upgraded warranty would have placed currency in their oral cavity, but I think it's fantastic that Nissan is actually suggesting that you buy a car for more than 20 minutes. In these days of tanking vehicle sales, how long before someone nabs Patek Phillipe's strapline (so to speak): choose once, choose wisely? 

My biggest kvetch about the BMW 1-Series: price. When you compare the 1-Series to the more practical 3-Series, the cheaper 1 might as well have a bone through its nose and wear a Fine Young Cannibals T-shirt. Still, no one ever lost any money selling BMWs to well-heeled consumers whose desire for status trumps… everything. Given that the majority of the brand’s fan base are insensitive to matters of relative worth– other than new hotness– the drop-top 128i has less of a hill to climb than the rest of the “I’m-not-a-3-Series, not yet an icon” 1ers. So, does it?

The 6.0-liter G8 is a wonderful car. But I was curious about the V6. Supposedly, the smaller engined variant will account for the majority of sales. And RF's been bugging me for a review of the "entry level" G8 ever since the Aussie-built sedan first hit the showroom floor. Getting a G8 V6 via the GM press fleet is as about as realistic as dividing by zero. So I hit up NY-area dealerships. Two weeks, no joy. A regular check of Pontiac.com eventually revealed two G8 V6s at Cunningham Buick Pontiac GMC in Bayside, NY. Upon arrrival, I discovered they had no G8s or any kind, sort or description. "But give us your number, and we'll call you this Friday when we get several more delivered– including a V6." Great. On Saturday morning, a salesperson called. "The V6 G8 is here!" When I got there in the early afternoon… no G8 V6. "Oh, we must have sold it this morning." Yes, in the course of a morning, a G8 V6 was arrived by a truck, found a buyer, got prepped and left. In four hours. All without the salesman's knowledge. The G8, in eight-cylinder form at least, is a kick ass car and a great deal. But with dealerships plying the ole' bait and switch, product excellence doesn't matter. [NB: this is not the first report of this c'mon down oops no V6 we've heard. Has anyone even seen one?]

With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the internet and nonprofit sector are abuzz about the game's "inappropriate" content. No surprise there; GTA is designed around the commission of felonies. In fact, if there weren't a slew of outraged press releases decrying something about the game being overly-violent, sexist, racist, homophobic, etc., Rockstar Games (owned by the NASDAQ-traded Take-Two Interactive) would have been mightily disappointed. This time 'round, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has inadvertently aided and abetted Rockstar's PR efforts. Not-so-surprisingly, MADD slams GTA IV for the simulated drunk driving portion of the program. Not to take a shot at MADD's important real life message, but this is a little overboard, isn't it? I'm not going to ask the most obvious question– does driving drunk in a videogame encourage impressionable teens to think drink driving is acceptable– because I trust that TTAC's Best and Brightest aren't morons. So here's the more complex question: could GTA IV have been both anarchic and didactic? 

OK; they're not the most detailed details. But we can "reveal" that like the new Mazdaspeed6 will have a turbocharged four-cylinder mill. This time out the 2.5-liter engine will be the base Mazda6 motor. Power will swell to something in the 280 horsepower neighborhood, with improved torque busting out all over. All wheel-drive will keep those horses harnessed, but no word as to whether Mazda has tweaked the system from the last iteration. Unleashing a Mazdaspeed6 is a little unusual for FoMoCo's partners. In days gone by, Mazda released the performance versions of their vanilla cars midway through the non-tweaked products' lifecycle (see: the Protege MPS, Mazdaspeed Miata, Mazdaspeed 6 and Mazda3). Still, the "early release" of the hi-po version is worth a try. The last Mazdaspeed6 was not what you'd call a volume seller.

Ford's developing their new compact car, the Fiesta, all over the world. America will be getting a sedan version (huzzah!) and, hopefully, at a later date, a hatchback or two. While ours is still covered in camo in test, the European hatch version is already out in the wild. And even in a hideous color, I think it looks great. Keep in mind that we're talking about a B-segment compact car here, While the European market for this car category is as crowded as Camden Lock on a sunny Sunday afternoon, stateside, the Mexican-built Fiesta will go head-to-CAFE against the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Chevy Aveo and [sort of] Nissan Versa in the US. Even from a distance, the new Fiesta looks set to be the new class-leader (a Flexible Flyer would beat the crap out of the Aveo ). With Honda Fit sales up over 50 percent and even the not-so-wonderful Focus up 30+ percent, Ford's new Fiesta can't fail– or appear in the U.S. soon enough. 

Chevy has its Cobalt XFE, VW its special Polo Bluemotion edition. And now Ford has joined the party, at least in Europe with a special edition Focus called ECOnetic. Manufacturers are getting this down to a bit of a formula and that's a very good thing. Better bumpers, more flush wheel covers, lower resistance tires, and in this case "lower viscosity transmission fluid" all contribute to the mileage and CO2 improvements. The benefit? Fifty-five American miles per gallon on the combined cycle (though their testing methods are considerably more forgiving than American fuel economy standards) and low enough CO2 emissions that the car will be exempt from London's congestion charge. The secret, of course, is that Ford's Focus 1.6 diesel already qualifies for exemption, but don't tell the advertising guys. Still, this is unfortunate news that perhaps the market can adapt to more intense fuel and emissions standards, albeit with limited run special edition versions of existing cars. And no, for the last time, we can't have the Euro Focus in America for a few more years because Ford hates each and every one of us.

Not long ago, persons unknown snapped a picture of a full-size clay model of Ford's next Taurus, taken deep within Ford's secret hilltop fortress (unleashing the dogs of law on the websites that published it). Today, we bring you a computer rendering by photochopper Joshua Byrne, who riffed on the spy shot to give us an idea what the 2010 Taurus (yup there's that date again) will look like. Take it away Jason: "Design wise, the next generation Taurus blends in elements of Ford Europe's Kinetic design theme with a watered down version of the Ford Interceptor concept car, albeit looking a bit Camry'ish in the side profile. The three bar grill has evolved into something less Gillette razor-like, with less chrome and more detailing. Overall the 2010 Taurus is nothing too radical, but it should have the appeal that the current car doesn't." Like it wouldn't. [Note to Andrei: You're still The Man.]

Brabus is the German uber-tuner that's made its name taking oversized engines from AMG Benzes and wedging them into smaller, lower-down-the-line models. It's also known for keeping the dark Satanic mills in situ and making them even bigger. And so comes word that the new mega-motored 2008 Brabus SL will be called the R230. Hang on; wasn't there a Benz by that name? And didn't Brabus tune it? You guys really are the Best and Brightest! Anyway, this nose-heavy monster sports (in the ironic sense) a custom turbocharged 6.3-liter V12. Ready? It's got 730 horsepower and 811 ft.-lbs.of torque. Thanks to the five-speed automatic transmission, the industry standard sprint from rest to 60 mph will only occupy four seconds of your valuable (if you can afford this) time. Hey! You just might outrun a stock Corvette! Okay, that was cruel. But true. Also true: AMG will soon offer an SL Black Series with 700-something horsepower AND a factory warranty. And then Brabus will tune that. Madness.