A high-point in 1980s automotive technological innovation and excess, this 1988 Aston Martin Lagonda is one car that tends to divide people into groups of “love it” or “hate it” We tend to think that the car’s wide, flat, boxy lines are rather elegant, it a bit overly severe.There’s no arguing about the Aston’s being a technological tour de force however, as it boasted features like LCD screens , and a voice warning system that wouldn’t be seen on lesser cars until a decade later.
Part of the very last fourth Lagonda series the 1988 car is one of only 105 made between 1987 and 1990, and would seem to represent the best of the marquee. Nice ornamental Dubai plate comes with the auction as well, perfect for that extra exotic touch.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
Now that GM has given a hybrid powertrain to the new-for-2008 Malibu, Chevrolet’s mid-size runner has a lot more to bring to the table and offers a real stiff competition for the Toyota Camry. We like the Malibu’s styling and interior refinement, but after a week in our test fleet, we’re having doubts about the Chevrolet competing with the likes of Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive.
Click through the jump for our full driving impressions and click the images below to open a gallery.
Opel has officially pulled the sheet off of its new Insignia, which is liable to come to the U.S. after its European launch as the newest version of the Saturn Aura. While we thought that we had seen all there was to offer on the sleek four-door sedan, our friends at CarPix have delivered up a few images of a brand new variant to the range, a five-door hatchback.
The totally undisguised hatch, possibly to be known as the CombiCoupe or Fliessheck, mimics the lines of the sedan everywhere but the rear section. The liftgate of the new Insignia looks to be of good size, and promises to add a measure of utility to the car that won’t be possible with a mere truck. Why doesn’t everyone offer a five-door?
No word of course about whether this configuration could make it to American Saturn dealers, though the GM brand’s recent willingness to stock its showrooms with straight Euro copies is encouraging. Tell us what you think of the car, after browsing our gallery below, in comments.
Our thoughts on the 2008 Dodge Charger R/T AWD are pretty unanimous. We are big fans of the 340-horsepower Hemi V-8 under the hood but the fun starts to diminish when the road begins to curve. As for interior refinement, our test car was loaded up with all of the bells and whistles anyone could want, but the build quality and materials used just aren’t as nice as something we could get from Europe or Japan.
Click through the jump to read our staff’s impressions of the Charger and click the images below to launch a gallery.
WINDING ROAD readers seemed especially keen to know, with good reason, how our 2008 BMW M3 sedan compared dynamically to its M3 coupe stable mate. While that question is certainly a valid one, it’s a bit difficult to answer without doing a head-to-head comparison (our M3 coupe arrives when the sedan leaves, unfortunately), though many of the questions are touched on in our own Matt Davis’s excellent review of the sedan.
We can say that the M3 proved to be perfectly tractable while in low-speed traffic and offered strong acceleration in pretty much every gear, though the addictive engine sound high in the rev range often left us choosing the lowest ratio. Editor-In-Chief Chris Paukert averaged about 16 mpg in spirited driving, mostly on freeways, but claims 10-12 mpg (or even single digits) would be easily possible if the driver was given to speeding around town.
Click on the video above for a few more answers to reader questions about the M3 sedan and make sure to check back this Friday, when we post our next Ask It choice.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
As many WINDING ROAD readers are no doubt aware, our publication is lucky enough to have a constantly rotating set of fleet vehicles to help fuel our automotive adventures. And while we already utilize our press cars to bring you items like WR Fleet blogs and Quick Drives, we’ve always wanted to give our readers more of an active role in the process of exploring these daily drivers.
To accomplish this, we’ll be presenting you with one vehicle each week, and then asking for questions about the model. Want to know how many golf bags fit in the trunk of a Honda Accord Coupe, or how the Nav system works on a Hyundai Veracruz? Ask away. We’ll post short videos answering some of the more fascinating queries, and hopefully get to the bottom of what makes these cars good, great, or god awful.
Our first subject; the lovely and talented 2008 BMW M3 Sedan. 414 horsepower, four-doors, and six sweet speeds done the old fashioned way. We thought that the mighty M car would be a perfect way to kick this thing off. So let us know what you want to know, in comments.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
After a variety of leaks, official and unofficial, General Motors’ European Opel brand has gone ahead and released the full specification for its new Insignia ahead of the car’s official debut at the London Motor Show this summer.
Though it’s still unclear exactly which engine lineup will be available if the Insignia makes the leap to the U.S. as a Saturn product, Opel has given us the range for the car’s European spec. The Insignia will offer a choice of three diesels and four gasoline engines, topped off by a 260 horsepower V-6. The diesels will all displace 2.0-liters and will offer between 110 and 160 horsepower. Available transmissions will include manual and automatic six-speeds all around.
Check our gallery below for the first official Insignia photos and then tell us what you think of the potential Saturn product, in comments.
Speak to any Chinese fifty-something about the First Automobile Works (FAW) Hongqi, or “Red Flag,” and you’ll bring back their memory of the old days, probably with some anecdotes of their own. To them, Hongqi was the cream of the crop of Chinese cars in the 1960s and 1970s, as that’s what Chairman Mao was riding in at the time. A Hongqi presidential limo was also appointed during Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking visit to China in 1972; a move that has been repeated like a mantra for other foreign officials’ visits in the ensuing years.
Tagged by some Chinese media as a sub-brand for Hongqi, the Besturn is a B-segment luxury model that was first introduced into Chinese market two years ago. But now it’s pretty clear that the Changchun-based automaker wants to market Hongqi and Besturn independently. At the Beijing Auto Show this weekend, FAW will display its new Besturn B50 along with a hybrid model named B70HEV.
Developed on the Mazda6 platform, the Besturn B50 is powered by a 1.6-liter four, though no pricing info is available for now. The B70HEV is reportedly the first hybrid model developed by the FAW. Its 47-mpg mileage (6.0L/100km) is pretty much the same as Toyota’s Prius, which immediately made one think of the joint venture FAW established with the Japanese carmaker. Just a bit of Prius tech in the Besturn hybrid perhaps?
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
It would be easy to dismiss this version of the fourth-generation M3 as just and M3 with two extra doors allowing humans to use the rear seats, but that would be a slight injustice. Not huge, but slight.
Ford has spent the better part of this week trying to keep the image you see above from cropping up on automotive websites just like ours. The automaker was able to stem the tide for a few days, but with gold like this spy photo of a possible 2010 Taurus, and the no-holds-barred sprit of the internet, it was bound to come out.
Said to be snapped inside Ford’s own design studio this prototype would seem to represent a kind of quantum leap visually for the Taurus, with chiseled headlamps, jutting front air dam, and a more subtle application of the three-bar grille.
Give us your opinion of the potential new Taurus, in comments.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
The Volkswagen Passat, which recently graced our test fleet, has left us quite perplexed. That’s mostly because this front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder model carries an as-tested price tag of just over $37,000. Sure, our test Passat was loaded to the brim with leather upholstery, navigation, moonroof, seventeen-inch alloys, and a handful of other goodies, but the engine specs just don’t cut it, especially when we could get a more powerful Acura TL or BMW 3-series for roughly the same price.
Click through the jump to read our impressions and click the images below to open a gallery.
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