By LAWRENCE ULRICH
Published: December 2008
WITH car sales at a crawl in 2008, and worse numbers projected for 2009, the auto industry is a depressing place. It’s worse for the domestic companies, whose leaders should have driven to Washington in the Joads’ Dust Bowl truck to plead their poverty case.
Yet the cars themselves are solid, if only people had the cash, credit and confidence to buy them. And while the overnight shift from trucks to cars caught everyone by surprise, the industry has no choice but to dance with the cars that brought them, at least until new faces arrive.
Ford was taken to task in some quarters for rolling out a redesigned Ford F-150 pickup. Yet even in this slumping, truck-averse market, the F-150 remained America’s best-selling car or truck, as it’s been for 27 years. Calling it quits would make as much sense as Apple pulling the plug on the iPod.
To me, that disconnect between the auto companies’ balance sheets and the products they sell is the No. 1 thing that many citizens — and Washington politicians — don’t grasp about the industry. Making bad cars eventually catches up with any automaker. But for more than a century, some companies have made good, great, even revolutionary cars without necessarily being successful in business.
Certainly, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have too many deadbeat brands and models. But while G.M.’s financial cupboard may be bare, its product cupboard spilled out more critically lauded models than any other company this year, import or domestic.
Here are my favorite vehicles of the year:
1. BMW 1 SERIES Coupe or convertible, I’d kill to put the 128i or 135i in my own garage. It outhustles the larger 3 Series and costs at least $4,000 less.
2. HONDA FIT I’ve owned economy cars that made me want to stash them behind a Dumpster. The Fit, in contrast, makes a virtue of cheapness. It’s the roomiest, best-handling car in its class and gets 35 m.p.g. on the highway.
3. G.M.’S GIANT SLAYERS I’m referring to the Corvette ZR1, Cadillac CTS-V and Pontiac G8. The 205-m.p.h. ZR1 (638 horsepower), CTS-V (556 horses) and Pontiac G8 GT (361) deserve a three-peat mention. All of them can hang with, or beat, snooty European models with bigger names and much bigger price tags. All three put the lie to the notion that G.M. cannot build a world-class machine that doesn’t have a hound dog in the back.
4. MERCEDES-BENZ GL320 BLUETEC The Mercedes M-Class diesel is terrific, but the larger GL may benefit even more from the Bluetec clean-diesel technology. This royal-plush S.U.V. gets 23 m.p.g. on the highway.
5. DODGE CHALLENGER If you never got the pony car you asked for in the ’70s, hop into the reborn Challenger. The Dodge, whose three engines max out with a 425-horsepower Hemi V-8, is as fast and extroverted as you’d expect.
6. LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO LP560-4 Lamborghini fixed everything that was wrong with the previous Gallardo — hair-trigger brakes, balky transmission — and amped up everything that was right: the future-classic styling, superb all-wheel-drive performance and a 560-horsepower V-10 served under glass.
7. TOYOTA VENZA Toyota knows more about the American family than Oprah, so it’s not surprising that its Venza — a Camry-based tall-wagon thingy — is an ideal family conveyance: Enormous inside, effortless to drive and easy on gas. What’s surprising from this conservative automaker is the Venza’s daringly different styling.
8. BMW X6 With apologies to my colleagues, some auto reactionaries just don’t get it. They say the X6 is ugly. But pretty women reacted to the tall, swoopy design as though Justin Timberlake were inside, so I’ll stick with that. The BMW isn’t supposed to seat six or be socially defensible. It’s supposed to be the Ferrari of S.U.V.’s, and its game-changing performance unseats the Porsche Cayenne as the class benchmark. Only a Hooveresque economy is keeping this Bimmer from being a smash with the style-first, cost-who-cares crowd.
9. NISSAN 370Z The Nissan GT-R has been gobbling up auto awards this year, so I’d rather extol this other Nissan sports car, which costs half as much. Starting at $30,000, the 332-horsepower Z is stronger, swifter and more solid than the departing model, and it looks terrific. If there’s a sweeter two-seater for less than $40,000, I haven’t driven it.
10. DODGE RAM Conventional wisdom flatters the Ford F-150. But the Ford doesn’t satisfy my truck jones as the Ram does. The Dodge looks badder and it rides and handles better. And its available 390-horse Hemi V-8 thumps anything from Ford or Chevy.
Didn’t Make the Cut ( BAD CARS)
1. AUDI A4 I’m supposed to love the new A4, which is so techno, so tasteful, so German. So what’s the problem? Perhaps it’s my sense that Audi has forgotten what the A4 was about: a luxury car that opened its doors to younger, less elite buyers. The new A4 feels overwrought, oversized and overpriced.
2. HYUNDAI GENESIS The Genesis is roomy and well-built and delivers a fat roster of luxury features for around $35,000. In this economy, that may be smart. Yet luxury is also about desire. And it’s hard to desire a car that, from its generic grille to its copycat cabin, seems more like cold data than a hot date.
3. INFINITI EX35 My wife adored the EX35, which she correctly assessed was not a crossover at all, but the world’s most expensive hatchback. The EX is fast, deluxe and overflowing with gizmos, but I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want its sibling, the awesome G37 sedan, instead.
4. FORD FLEX Well packaged and as quiet as most luxury crossovers, the Flex puts the final nail in the Explorer’s coffin. The styling grabs attention; now if only the V-6 powertrain were on par with the rest of the package.
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