So 2013 is drawing to a close, the weather is decidedly foul—for Northerners, at least—and we’ll soon have our fill of champagne. Sounds like the perfect time to curl up and read the hottest reviews we published in 2013. Enjoy the list, and Happy New Year from all of us at Car and Driver.
2013 Audi RS6 Avant
In Europe, excessive displays of power and wealth are considered to be in poor taste. It’s why the luxury-car segment has been in decline there for years, and why high-performance sports cars remain a rare sight as well. But that doesn’t mean that Europe’s wealthy are practicing ascetics. They just prefer their finery to lack flash. And nothing facilitates this philosophy more than a high-powered station wagon. READ MORE ››
2014 Ferrari 458 Speciale
We’re of the mind that all Ferraris are speciale. Yes, even the California. We take this observation to be self-evident and universal, a fact of life that even Lamborghini owners, Red Bull Racing fans, and Prius drivers accept and appreciate. But spend a meaningful amount of time in the industrial burg of Maranello, and you’ll come to the disturbing realization that its denizens are cool toward Ferrari’s red-hot Italian sports cars. Pedestrians stare straight ahead as a barely disguised LaFerrari trundles past. At the hallowed Fiorano test track, an illuminated “Gas Off” sign orders us to lift on the straight because a Ferrari at full bore is too loud for the neighbors to bear. READ MORE ››
Jaguar C-X75 Prototype
On announcing the cancellation of the C-X75 supercar last December, Jaguar brand director Adrian Hallmark tried to put a positive spin on the story, saying that the car’s development would be completed and that regular Jaguars of the future would benefit from the work done on its hybrid technology, aerodynamics, and carbon-fiber composites. He also promised that Car and Driver, which had followed the project closely, would have a chance to experience Jaguar’s vision for a 21st-century supercar. That opportunity came a few days ago and showed that Jaguar, together with Williams F1, is capable of producing a high-tech road car that could compete with the likes of the La Ferrari, McLaren P1, and Porsche 918. READ MORE ››
2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” John 2:10. READ MORE ››
Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6×6
In the Middle East, only tourists ride on camels. Nowadays, oil-rich Arabian natives are more focused on jets and cars. Or, more accurately, Gulfstreams and huge SUVs. The garages of cashed-up kingpins house entire car collections, especially in the absurdly wealthy United Arab Emirates. But how can a sheik stand apart from his neighbors when every desert McPalace is overcrowded with Benz G-models, Toyota Land Cruisers, and Porsche Cayennes? READ MORE ››
2015 Nissan GT-R / GT-R NISMO
Nissan GT-R fans, you can chill out or relax—or even chillax, if that’s your thing. It’s true that the standard 2015 GT-R is slightly toned down, but it’s not as though the automaker chiseled off the supercoupe’s hard edges. Think of them instead as sanded down by microns, an ever-so-slight reversal of course enabled by the fact that there now exists the baddest-ass Godzilla the world has ever seen: the new GT-R NISMO. READ MORE ››
2014 Porsche 918 Spyder
Funnyman Louis C.K. does a widely known bit summed up by a phrase uttered early in the performance: “Everything is amazing and nobody’s happy.” (Go ahead and Google it now, but promise you’ll come back to us. Beware the YouTube wormhole!) He’s talking about personal technology, but the perspective applies to today’s car industry, too. Take a moment to count your blessings as a car enthusiast in today’s world and you’ll quickly realize that you’re going to need a longer moment. READ MORE ››
2015 Subaru WRX
Among all of autodom, the 2015 Subaru WRX stands out as a little odd, but not because of its flared fenders, funky crease-and-angles styling, or even its position as rally beast in a lineup full of granola-mobiles. Okay, so those things are all at least semi-odd, but the thing we’re getting at, the thing that makes the WRX unique, is the 268-hp, 2.0-liter turbo four slotted under its aluminum hood. That’s because, unlike all but one other automaker, Subaru persists with the boxer engine layout. (The other carmaker is, of course, Porsche, where the engine type is reserved for pure sports cars.) Every other company will insist that cylinders are meant to be in lines or vees and not constantly thrusting directly at one another. Yet Subaru puts boxer engines into everything it sells. READ MORE ››
2015 Volkswagen Golf GTD
It’s hard to determine which Volkswagen products enjoy fiercer loyalty—performance models like the GTI and Jetta GLI or the efficient TDI diesels. The performance and economy subsets are diametrically opposed but equally well executed by the German car brand. The GTI is a regular on our 10Best Cars list, and we’ve seen 40-plus mpg from various TDI models over the years. What could be described as a GTI with a diesel engine, the GTD is a sort of internal reconciliation between these two priorities. READ MORE ››
2014 Volkswagen XL1
If you drove a Volkswagen XL1, you’d be unlikely to encounter anything like it coming the other way. That’s because VW plans to build only 250 copies of its 283-mpg hybrid, and also because GM long ago crushed most of its EV1s, from which the XL1 looks almost entirely plagiarized. READ MORE ››
2014 Audi R8 Spyder V-8
Among the many charms of the 2014 Audi R8 Spyder is its embrace of the exclamation mark. Press the button below the new seven-speed S tronic transmission’s gearshift lever, and the instrument panel proclaims, “Sport mode on!” Press it again, and the car responds with similar enthusiasm for “…off!” Appropriate sentiments, both of them, as in either mode the gearbox represents a significant upgrade for a car that was nearly perfect already. READ MORE ››
2013 BMW 135is
Our 42nd president, Bill Clinton, had the stones to argue the meaning of “is” at his impeachment proceeding. BMW performs no such hedging as to its definition of “is.” It denotes a higher level of performance to its customers, and the latest car to wear that suffix, the 135is, is as suave as Slick Willie. READ MORE ››
2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51
That whiff of smoked Michelin you smell and the bawl of tortured rear tires you hear confirm that we’ve popped the clutch on the Corvette’s seventh generation. We uncorked it at GM’s Milford, Michigan, proving grounds, where we strapped our testing gear to the thing and came away feeling sorry for almost any car that meets it at a stoplight, the track, or a winding road. READ MORE ››
2014 Chevrolet SS Sedan
Now that the government’s stake in GM is below five percent, the automaker is launching new models with giddy abandon. That’s especially true at Chevrolet, where the lineup runs from the vest-pocket Spark to the garage-busting Suburban with a generous helping of performance models in the meaty middle. READ MORE ››
2014 Ford Fiesta ST
Since its reintroduction to the American market a few years ago, the Ford Fiesta has been less of the party-on-wheels that its name promises and more of an office budget meeting. Sensible? Absolutely. Fun? Not exactly. Well, break out the tequila, because, with the ST variant of its Mexico-built, jalapeño-sized hatch, Ford has finally produced a Fiesta worthy of its name. READ MORE ››
2014 Jaguar F-type V-8 S
Hamlin, West Virginia, is nowhere. Which is exactly the place Jaguar sports-car development has been for the past 40 years. The XK? That, good sir, is a GT. That anything small and uncompromisingly sporty could or would grow in the sizable shadow of the E-type has long seemed impossible, what with Jaguar’s spasmodic management over the decades. Yet here is the 2014 F-type, a proper two-seater with a folding fabric roof whose ancestral link to that last great Jaguar roadster is its audaciousness of spirit as much as its naming convention. READ MORE ››
2014 Mazda 3i Hatchback 2.0L Manual
Ponder life behind the Joker’s mask. You’re a stud at Batman movies but an object of scorn the rest of the time. Such was the plight of the previous-generation Mazda 3 four-door sedan and five-door hatchback. The grotesque smile and black-tongued face no mother could adore kept these otherwise excellent compacts from earning the respect they deserved. READ MORE ››
2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG
When Mercedes-Benz sends a model to AMG for high-performance finishing school, it’s hardly news. But until the CLA, nearly every car to make the trip to Affalterbach was packing an engine with a “V” cylinder layout. (The C30 five-cylinder diesel was the lone exception, and it never made it stateside.) So when the power brokers at AMG began dropping not-so-subtle hints that they’d already had their way with the CLA’s inline four-cylinder powerplant, our curiosity was piqued. Would the result be a roguish, hair-triggered toy or a true CLS63 AMG mini-me, blending breathtaking power with Mercedes style and luxury? READ MORE ››
2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S-Model Wagon
We’re not even going to pretend to be impartial in discussing the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG wagon. We love it. We love wagons and horsepower, and wherever the two shall meet, we shall find true love—or something like that. If you’re reading this hoping for a measured analysis, understand this: This is not a vehicle for the measured and rational. It’s absurdity overload, unchecked enthusiasm manifest. If you’re reading this because you’re trying to decide if you should drop more than $100,000 on an E63 wagon of your own, we’ll skip to the important part: yes. READ MORE ››
2014 Porsche 911 GT3
Just two years in, the new Porsche 911 lineup doesn’t lack for variants, and yet the GT3 still seems more exceptional than all the others, a naturally aspirated hothead stripped of the frivolous and prepped for track duty. It’s also the 911 most willing to slay a few sacred cows. It only comes as an automatic, for one thing, and you’d better get used to hearing that: Porsche hints that all 911s will eventually be PDK only. Also, the GT3’s engine isn’t quite as fabulously special as it once was. READ MORE ››
2014 Audi RS7 vs. 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe, 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG S-model
We’ve watched two Gulfstreams and a Learjet touch down in a span of 30 minutes, taxi along the stretch of pavement we’re using as our provisional test track, and tuck into spotless hangars. Only the flight crews disembark from these planes. The nondescript southern German village of Schwäbisch Hall, population 40,000, isn’t the kind of place where you’d reside if you could afford to live anywhere. From what we can tell, this airfield is the EZ-In/EZ-Out parking garage for the planes of one-percenters who reside elsewhere. Suddenly, our collection of $100,000-plus four-seaters doesn’t seem so extravagant. READ MORE ››
2014 Cadillac CTS 3.6 vs. 2014 Audi A6 3.0T, 2014 BMW 535i xDrive, 2014 Mercedes-Benz E350, 2014 BMW 535i xDrive, 2014 Mercedes-Benz E350
Behind the rural gas station that serves as Car and Driver’s pork-cracklin’s-and-beer depot during southern Ohio comparison tests squats a small, unadorned cinder-block structure slathered in white paint. Somehow, we’d never noticed this building on previous trips. It has a central glass door flanked by two small windows. All of the glass is blacked out. A handwritten sign taped to the door indicated that the establishment was open and warned that alcoholic beverages and smoking are not allowed. READ MORE ››
2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 vs. Porsche 911 Carrera S
Real longevity is rare in the automotive industry. Only a handful of models have made it to the half-century mark, but the milestone the Porsche 911 celebrates this year is one the Corvette passed a decade ago. Both have survived rampant model proliferation that has crowded their markets, plus rumors of massive, personality-altering redesigns, as well as the suffocating and ever-changing regulation inherent in one of the most scrutinized consumer-goods industries in the world. READ MORE ››
2013 SRT Viper GTS vs 2013 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
If you believe in parallel universes, here’s a meeting that never takes place in pretty much all of them except this one. READ MORE ››
2015 Volkswagen GTI vs. 2013 Ford Focus ST
At roadside cafeterias in France, next to the napkins, cutlery, and plastic trays, are baskets of free dinner rolls. Hungry? Take as much as you want; bread is as free as air. We have to assume that this is a legacy of the French Revolution. No need to steal, Jean Valjean. The struggle is over. Everyone is equal and no one will go hungry. Put away the guillotine. READ MORE ››