Editors here (well, some of us, anyway) have been pining for a bit more stealthiness in Project Evo X, our longterm 2008 Lancer Evo GSR. What good is all this power if we have to check our mirrors every time we lay into the throttle? (rhetorical question. It's worth it.)
The AMS single-exit exhaust that has been on Project Evo X since we took delivery of it is a fine piece, just not our style. Fortunately, AMS also offers for the Evo X a more stock-looking twin-tip exhaust (pictured) which also has a larger-volume muffler than the single-exit tailpipe. In theory anyway, the twin-tip should be quieter.
The twin-tip exhaust is intended to bolt in place of the single-exit muffler we currently have, so we don't have to change the whole exhaust. However, both the twin-tip you see above and the exhaust on the car started life as prototype pieces that AMS made at different times. So in our case, fitment of these one-off bits isn't assured, though AMS' production offerings are said to be plug-and-play modular pieces.
I know what you're thinking, and you're right--the more convoluted and baffled twin-tip setup may add backpressure which would compromise our power output. Hence the five silencer discs that can be swapped out just upstream of the passenger-side tailpipe tip to dial in the amount of flow / sound level you can tolerate. Pretty clever.
Rest assured we'll be doing before and after dyno comparisons to determine the penalty of stealthiness.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor
Categories: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR
The red Cadillac CTS above is our long-term test car. The black one below is another CTS I drove some time ago.
Something visible in these photos gives away the fact that one is rear-wheel drive and the other is all-wheel drive. Can you spot it?
Tiebreaker question: Can you ID the black car's location?
Disclaimer: Employees of General Motors, Edmunds.com and their families are not eligible to play.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 26,201 miles
Categories: 2008 Cadillac CTS V6 DI
Thanks to vacagrande for this week's favorite caption.
Others that made us laugh:
I should've never slept with that pathfinder (cx7lover)
He's my brother from another mother (louiswei)
It's not a tumor! (gooney911) and It's naht a toumah! (Murtman)
Do these wheels make my butt look big? (shladney)
Extra, Extra - Nissan engineers discover the wind-tunnel! (Before and after shots). (bizz1)
Z: Hey, Lil' Man...You're in my space. (johnnyr3)
And you can always get me with a Star Wars reference:
Cube, I am your father (gooney911)
What was your favorite?
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
Categories: 2009 Nissan 370Z Touring,Caption Contest
Just before Mike Magrath handed me the key to our 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, he pulled the key back and said, "There's a string attached to this." "Ok. Let's hear it," I said. "We think one of the tire pressure sensors might be malfunctioning, but we don't know. Could you check the tire pressures before you leave?" "Sure," I nodded. "Great. Let me know if there's a blow out and you're killed." "You got it," I smirked.
Happily, I didn't have to call Magrath and tell him I'd been killed. After checking pressures before leaving last night and after I got home and checking them again before leaving this morning and after I got to work, it's safe to say one of the tire pressure sensors was damaged or was not reset when two of the tires were recently replaced.
You might remember Erin's ongoing quest to eliminate all radial tires from the Earth is what led to the replacement of two of the STI's tires.Â
Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 19,475 miles
Categories: 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI
I don't frequent dry cleaners. Partly because I don't wear things nice enough to dry clean and partly because I'm too lazy/cheap to venture to a dry cleaners. An uncontrollable urge to ride on the wicked cool hanging conveyor belt is another reason. But I went to the dry cleaners yesterday and I was driving the 2009 Honda Fit..
When I got back with my hands full of hangers, I discovered the Fit's left rear seat bottom was flipped up. I had often extolled the virtues of this feature, but I realized another use last night. As the picture shows, I could hang all those shirts, jackets and dresses up on the oh schmidt handle without them getting crunkled up on the seat bottom. And no, those aren't my dresses. Not that there's anything wrong with a dude who has dresses, but they're not mine. Where was I?
Oh yeah, the Honda Fit is really good at picking up dry cleaning. How's that for real-world, affordable car impressions?
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
Categories: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
I was driving our 2002 BMW M3 around last night when I noticed that that red clown nose dimmer switch was missing from the rearview mirror. So, yeah, couldn't dim the headlights of all those motorists I left behind in the dust. Heh.
The mirror looks so sad without that red button that I did a quick search online just to see how much it would be to replace an E46 rearview mirror with dimmer. There seemed to be a wide range of choices with a wide range of prices, from the 99-cent one (opening bid) I found on eBay to the $50 defective leaky one (also on eBay) to a $300 oval mirror found on an M3 forum.
Haven't brought this up with the key keepers yet but in all honesty none of the other editors even noticed the dimmer was missing.
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 68,308 miles
Categories: 2002 BMW M3
In a bid to appear like responsible adults we ordered the $1,200 third-row seats option on our long-term X5 instead of the monster 20-inch-wheels option. They are mutually exclusive options.
We're not saying it was a mistake, per se. But we can say that if we were buying an X5 for personal use we'd save ourselves the $1,200. And if we really needed three rows of seats, we wouldn't even consider the X5.
The two folding mini-buckets in the way-back are simply not very useful. But what about kids, you say? Well, there are no Latch attachments for the third row which would mean you'd have to use the old-school belts. And beside, we think some of our child-safety seats are bigger than the X5's third-row buckets. Although the kids would at least get an HVAC vent and a couple of cupholders back there.
And what about cramming adults back there, just for short trips? Stop being ridiculous. We crawled back there and it hurt. We don't dislike anyone that much -- certainly not anyone we'd allow into our car. Even employees of BMW North America will admit that offering the third row in the X5 was simply a marketing exercise and not a particularly useful option.
During it's stay with us the X5's rear-most seats remained folded into the floor basically always. There they added weight and cost and became the locus of resentment for staffers who really wanted the big, meaty rear tires.
-- Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit at 26,358 miles
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
Earlier this week I raved about the gauges in the 370Z. They are clean, easy to read and perfectly suited to the car's purpose.
The picture above shows the gauge cluster on our new Genesis sedan. For a luxury car they don't look very luxurious do they?
And what do "luxurious" gauges look like? Well, a little chrome might help. Maybe a different font? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that every time I look at the current setup it reminds me of Hyundais of old. And that's not a good thing.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor @ 1,467 miles
Categories: 2009 Hyundai Genesis V6
Deputy Caroline took this picture of the Nissan 370Z looking like the Cube is a growth on its nose.
I offer up "Dude, you made it come out my nose."
I'm sure you can beat that.
We'll post our favorite caption Friday at 4PM (Pacific Time).
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
Categories: 2009 Nissan 370Z Touring,Caption Contest
This is what the fuel gauge in our longterm 2005 VW Jetta TDI looks like when the tank is filled to the tippy-top. I know this because I just overfilled the tank and took this crappy cellphone picture.
Here's how it went down. I set the pump nozzle at the slowest fill setting until the pump clicked off, waited a bit and then topped it once, slowly (as per our standard filling procedure). The needle still sat here, just below full. I waited a minute or so for any gauge damping to settle out. It never happened.
Then I recalled that the Jetta had some filling issues way back when and figured it was reading below full because it actually wasn't full. I don't drive this car much so I'm not really up to speed with its idiosyncracies.
So I manually topped it off again. Slowly and carefully. It took a smidge and clicked off again. I re-checked the gauge. Same position, even after waiting another minute.
Then I gave it another tiny fraction of fuel and bam, a trickle of fuel ran out the filler neck. Dammit! I don't think this is what they had in mind when they said biodiesel was eco-friendly.
Even a few miles down the road, the gauge didn't read any fuller than what you see here. Lesson learned...
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 67,670 miles.
Categories: 2005 Volkswagen Jetta GLS TDI
...Quando with a guess of 243 miles!
Context clues, people! In the image posted you can see I'm in DS-- drive sport--that can't be good for economy. Also to consider: I live in the city and never once for these 230 hit a freeway or even an uncongested street (but you couldn't have known that).
Closest estimate for gallons: kurtamaxxxguy who guessed 20.5. Our 2008 X5 took 20.429.
(And to those who asked: It's an old picture. The X5 is in Detroit but in honor of Car of the Week, I pulled some things from my library.)
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant and unofficial Inside Line quizmaster
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
Our 2009 Audi A4 has a rearview camera. I really do like rearview cameras in general, as they make backing out of crowded park spaces and driveways less worrisome. This is true even on our A4, which actually has decent outward rear visibility.
I've noticed that our A4's display screen, in particular, is high resolution -- the view is crisper and more detailed than most other backup displays I've encountered. Is it the camera or the display that makes it look better? Not sure.
Like on our departed Q7, the screen's yellow lines bend as you turn the wheel to help show your intended path as you backup. The camera comes bundled with the navigation system, though, so the privilege of seeing more will cost you $2,500. Our A4 doesn't have the ability to play DVDs though its screen, either, though our own Al Austria tells me the new Q5's MMI will allow DVD playback.
In a belated announcement, our A4's It's Not A Tumor tire (for the Govenator version, click here) was replaced last week. Cost us $306.12 ($256 parts, $25 labor) at our favored tire shop, Stokes Tires Pros in Santa Monica.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor
Categories: 2009 Audi A4 Avant
I've spent the better part of a week cruising around in the all-new BMW 750i, the flagship of the Bimmer line -- the big daddy if you will. There are certainly worse ways to spend time on the road. Then as fate would have it, I got handed the keys to the opposite end of the family, our long-term BMW 135i. I was going from the big daddy to baby Bimmer.
Continue reading...
Categories: 2008 BMW 135i
A couple of you have asked how the X5's headlights perform, noting that most shoppers test drive a car during daylight hours and therefore have little or no opportunity to test a vehicle's lighting performance. Good point.
I'm as sensitive as the next guy to good nighttime lighting. Well, rest assured that the X5's lights are dazzlingly bright. Whether this annoys oncoming drivers I cannot say. I certainly have not had anyone flash their high-beams at me. That was a common occurrence when high-intensity discharge lamps were first arriving on the market.
As you'd probably suspect, the X5's lights are automatic, self-leveling HIDs. They're standard on all X5s, even the six-cylinder models. They're bright enough in the low setting that I rarely need to use the high-beams which scorch the surrounding shrubbery with lumens. The only optional part of the headlight system as fitted to our tester is the retractable headlight-cleaning system which comes as part of the $900 Cold Weather Package and also includes heated front seats, the much-loved heated steering wheel and ski bag.
So if you're worried about X5 headlight performance, don't.
--Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit at 26,342 miles
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
Pictured is dash of our Long Term 2008 BMW X5 just before a much needed fuel up. (Yes, I run the tank low. It's okay if you don't. I think it's fun.) How many miles are on the trip odometer?
FYI: The 08 X5 has a 22.5 gallon fuel tank and gets an epa rating of 14 city/ 19 highway,16 combined.
Winner gets absolutely nothing.
Bonus nothings for guessing how many gallons of the good stuff this fill required.
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
I don't usually carry my iPod with me, but happened to have it in my purse last night when I signed out the 2008 Ford Focus Coupe for the drive home.
Finally, I thought, a chance to check out the SYNC system while alone in the car.
Maybe it's the Focus' noisy cabin at speed, or perhaps it's my nasally Midwestern accent, I don't know, but no matter how many different "Play Artist" and "Play Track" commands I confidently issued, SYNC always provided Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5 as either my first or only option.
I've never been that fond of the song to begin with, but today I hit the delete button on both Lou Bega and SYNC.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 16,639 miles
Categories: 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe
We all know the GT-R is quick as hell and stupid fast. But when you need to bring it back down, it also has tremendous stopping power.
Our GT-R is equipped with huge Brembo 15-inch disc brakes with 6-piston front and 4-piston rear monobloc calipers. Combine that with special high-performance Bridgestones and you can stop this bear from 60 mph in less than 100 feet.
Do you think Brembo makes the best brakes?
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor @ 17,460 miles
Categories: 2009 Nissan GT-R
It's no secret how much I luuuuve our 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X MR but honestly that just makes it harder for me to figure out what to blog about when I have it. Ummm, oh! There was no one in front of me on the Walgrove curves today! Wee!
All right all right, well, I was able to take off the rose-colored glasses long enough to realize that visibility in this car, at least for me (I'm 5' 6"), isn't all that great, again, for me. I would never change lanes unless I was absolutely sure that no one was there. Rearview mirror, side mirror, blind spot check and switch. But in this car, I always get nervous when switching over to the right and end up triple-checking that blind spot and holding my breath.
Dan Edmunds had mentioned before that his wife felt uncomfortable when turning left: "Seeing the line into left hand corners and making left turns at intersections...was impossibly tough for her because a panoramic blind spot sweeps across the humungous, forward-leaning mirror housing, through the window-mounted mirror base and past the A-pillar."
And the view of the rear spoiler doesn't bother me that much but I totally can relate to what Albert Austria said about 5-0 checks.
For me it's the B-pillar (not the passenger seat which can obviously be moved out of the way, although this one was moved up a bit) and the high window line. This probably wouldn't be much of an issue if the driver seat was height adjustable. In any case, there. I said it.
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 11,711 miles
Categories: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR
Somehow we've managed to go through almost a year in a BMW without really ever talking much about the steering system. Compared to almost any steering system in anything with a remote resemblance to a sport-utility vehicle, the X5's is fantastic.
If that seems like damning with faint praise, it wasn't meant to. But neither is the X5's system entirely faultless. It's nearly perfect on the expressway when a little heft and a relatively slow ratio off-center result in a steady, composed demeanor -- exactly what you want for high-speed runs.
Around town, though, that weight seems unnecessary and unwelcome. Now, we're not talking heavy like the old days of non-assisted steering here. But it will come as a surprise to the uninitiated. And, as on most crossover/SUV things the ratio isn't particularly quick, even though the standard X5 system uses a variable-ratio rack that quickens the response the farther from center you guide it. But the weight combined with the relatively slow ratio and the X5's bulk can still mean a whole lot of work in parking situation.
If there's one vehicle in BMW's lineup that could genuinely benefit from the company's Active Steering system, it's the X5. At speeds up to 55 mph Active Handling uses a quick ratio that results in only two turns lock-to-lock -- giving the driver more turning response for a given input. At higher speeds the system uses a slower ratio to maintain stability. We don't really care for the system on the nimble 3-series.
But if you're in the market for an X5 we would say you should test drive one with Active Handling and one without. It is a stand-alone option which cost $1,400 for the 2008 model like ours. It's since gone up to $1,550.
--Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
By now you've probably noticed that we're featuring the BMW X5 this week.
Now it's your turn. Tell us what you want to talk about on the BMW X5.
Who will be first to post?
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
Categories: 2008 BMW X5 4.8i
