New Car Review: 2008 BMW 5-Series
BMW sport sedans are still very much the "ultimate driving machines." It's just a shame you have to fight with a lot of often very frustrating technology while you try to drive the things.
The '08 5-Series, for example, is without question the most powerful (and quickest/fastest) regular production 5-Series sedan BMW has ever offered. For the new model year, it has been updated with a larger, 3-liter, 230 horsepower version of the famous DOHC in-line six now standard in the base 528i ($44,300) and a new-for-2008 twin-turbo version of the 3 liter six that produces 300 horsepower in the mid-range 535i ($49,400). The top 5-Series engine is a 4.8 liter, 360 horsepower V-8 in the 550i ($58,500) that delivers 0-60 runs in the 5.5-5.6 second range.
Memory Lane: Mercedes-Benz SL Series (1954-present)
Mercedes SLs, like any other noble line, trace their antecedents back to a single great forbear. That illustrious ancestor was, of course, the 300SL coupe - known just as well to enthusiasts by its more familiar name, "Gullwing." This car established the ongoing dynasty of SL-series coupes and roadsters, from the 190 and 280-450 SLs to the current generation SLK retractable hardtop.
Congestion Pricing As An Alternative To Gridlock?
Some transportation experts believe that variable tolls—also known as congestion pricing—offer the only real solution to worsening gridlock in and around major population centers.
“Phantom tollbooth” scanners deduct tolls from prepaid smart cards posted on cars’ dashboards; the tolls would rise as rush hours approached and taper off as traffic dwindled. Demonstrated in Ontario and southern California, such tolls could generate more than $2 billion annually in the Northwest, according to proponents -- offsetting many local taxes while easing the congestion that annually squanders more than 130 million hours of time and 143 million gallons of gasoline in Northwest cities alone.
New SUV Review: 2007 Chevy Trailblazer SS
Few really big things are graceful. Jackie Gleason managed it, despite his 300-plus pounds of curb weight. And so does the Chevy Trailblazer SS - despite being many times more bulky than Sheriff Buford T. Justice - and despite its truck-based, full-frame underpinnings.
It also runs to 60 in 5.7 seconds - just half a second or so off the pace of the current Corvette. Like a Saturn V Moon rocket - which is also real heavy - the four-door, five-passenger Trailblazer SS overcomes mass with sheer thrust. Its 395 horsepower 6 liter LS2 V-8 gets all 4,500 lbs. moving with an athleticism comparable to performance cars that weigh a thousand pounds less - and which seat only two.
