Cars

Let’s get one thing out of the way right from the start: the Kia Borrego might list for a couple grand less than a 2008 Explorer, but the larger rebate on the Ford eliminates this advantage. The story is similar with other established SUVs. Since the Kia won’t cost significantly less than its highly evolved competitors— at least until Kia tosses some similarly serious cash on the hood—the late-to-the-party truck better have another major selling point. So…

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When I first saw pics of Jaguar’s XF, I was a little deflated. While the grill gives me a vague Jag vibe, I don’t think the front end is nearly aggressive enough. Right now, only real estate agents and retirees unconcerned with resale value drive Jag sedans. The XF was supposed to be hot enough to make young professionals who’d otherwise opt for an Audi or BMW drop their iPhones. I wanted to see something bold. Something that screamed vicious. Something I’d notice from a half-mile away. And with all due respect to Jaguar design director Ian Callum, for me, it’s just not there. Now, in all fairness, there hasn’t been a Kitty which looks as good from the front as it does from the back since the mind-bendingly gorgeous E-Type, and the hindquarters of the XF are dead sexy. Bottom line is, I wanted to love this car. Jaguar is one of my favorite marques—I own a ‘78 XJ6L—and since I knew how much the company has riding on it, I wanted the XF to be wicked. And it is. I loved it.      

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There’s been a whole lot of buzz lately about the Chevy Cruze, set to make its debut at the Paris Auto Show next month. It looks basically like a Cobalt successor to me, but apart from the annoyingly-misspelled name, it might not be a half-bad little ride. In any case, Carscoop got ahold of a bunch of new pics of the Cruze, so you can decide for yourself. The compact will hit showrooms in Europe as early as next spring, and will hit North America shortly thereafter. It’ll be available with one or both of the 1.6 and 1.8L powerplants that Chevy has planned for it (Euro bonus: only they will get the 2.0 turbodiesel. But GM reportedly intends to offer a 40mpg turbo’d 1.4L gas motor for the US market). And don’t let the burnout-like smoke effects fool you—the Cruze will of course be FWD. See more below the jump.

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Dynamic, elegant, and emotional; with the Audi A4 sedan, Audi has already advanced into a new dimension. In a few weeks, the Audi A4 Avant will follow: The most successful premium station wagon of its class offers, along with excellent drivability and uncompromising quality, a higher utility value for sports and recreation. This vehicle combines elegance and intelligent functionality.

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At the L.A. Auto Show in 2004, General Motors first introduced the idea of a smaller HUMMER pickup. It was the H3T Concept. The production version of the concept, the 2009 H3T, is scheduled to be on GM’s stand at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show in February.

While the ‘04 concept featured a standard cab with an integrated the bed (similar to original HUMMER H1 variants), the new H3T is a traditional pickup with a separate crew cab and five-foot bed. There is only one cab/box configuration. The H3T rides on a 134.2-inch wheelbase, some 22 inches longer than the standard H3 SUV. The HUMMER truck is also longer than the crew cab iterations of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size trucks on which the H3s are based. On paper and in person, this is not a small vehicle.

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 just got back from flogging Tesla VP 11—short for validation prototype number 11—in a roped-off K-Mart parking lot in Bellevue. The nice Tesla folks made sure to emphasize that this is not a production vehicle, and that it has suffered quite a bit of abuse during its short lifetime—all in the name of testing, of course. In fact, one of the engineers drove it up here from the SF Bay Area last night. This is definitely no trailer queen!

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Among the SUVs and sportscars decorating Porsche’s stand at the 2007Frankfurt auto show, is the new 2009 Cayenne GTS, a midline version of the sport-utility vehicle with V-8 power and new exterior trim.The lowered and skirted GTS gets the sporting features that other Cayennes have lacked — most notably, a six-speed manual gearbox. Porsche says it also has a sizeable increase in power from its V-8, without specifying how much more power the GTS sports — although it’s rumored to be about 20 horsepower.

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“A dark horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed on the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.” Beautiful words from the quotable Benjamin Disraeli, and inspiration for the name of the latest Mustang to come from Saleen’s stable. Due to the car’s name it may sound like our title is a clever play on words, but the truth is our seat time was limited to the passenger seat. We can’t blame Saleen for being careful with the car - the 2009 Dark Horse Mustang you see here is the first one off the assembly line and is the only one built so far. To their credit, Saleen did take us out to Willow Springs Raceway outside of Los Angeles for some flying laps, so we were able to experience the full capabilities of the car’s performance. Follow the jump to hear about our day at the track with perhaps the most fearsome production Mustang ever built.

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Volkswagen has taken the wraps off its latest GTI, the Mark VI. And looking at the photos, it’s an impressive piece of kit.

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MotoringFile, ground zero on the web for all things MINI, has the scoop on the long-awaited 2009 MINI Cooper Convertible. Someone slipped MF seven official shots of the Detroit-bound R57 Cooper ragtop along with some additional inside information. Obviously, it’s based on the current chassis and powertrains, so you know what you’re going to get there. Additionally, the JCW package is supposedly going to be available at launch as well.

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