Carz Arena

Intro to the 2009 Honda Pilot

I can launch into the merits and shortcomings – and I will – but the simplest way to describe the most desirable quality about the mid-size SUV Honda Pilot is that its not too big, not too small, but sized just right.

I drove a 3-row, 8-passenger 2008 Honda Pilot EX-L with a 250-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine. Interior highlights included leather seats, XM satellite radio, driver's 8-way adjustable power seating, and tri-zone climate control (all rows). Exterior new bonuses include a tailgate with a lift-up glass hatch (not on previous models). Total vehicle price came to $33,595.

Launched in 2002, the Pilot has been redesigned for 2008 and the shape is boxier – a bit reminiscent of the newer Jeep Commander. The bulk pulled tighter around the edges and is sharper than the previous years' models. The roof height on front-drive versions got rid of less than an inch, but length expanded to 2.9 inches and the width at 1.0 inch.

When I drive a vehicle, I spend a majority of my time fiddling around with the technology or other powered accouterments, testing for usability or driver friendliness. I spent most of my time in the Pilot feeling perfectly settled, just basking in delight with its performance and comfort. So did my passengers, including those in the third row. In other words, we all felt downright at home.

HEELS ON WHEELS REVIEW CRITERIA

Stylish But Comfortable Results

I had a larger third-row passenger take on hours of sitting without complaint. Most third rows offer minimal comfort in terms of head and legroom – Honda added 2.9-inches of wheelbase for 2009 model to create a third-row that is actually functional with easy of access. I found the EX-L trim very pleasing and sufficient; but not to be outdone by its Acura line, Hondas are stepping it up with the luxury factor and now offer a luxury-oriented Pilot Touring edition with the Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation2 System™ as standard equipment, starting at $36,795.

Reliability & Safety Factor

On National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tests, the pilot earned five out of five stars on frontal crash and side crash, and four out of ive on rollover. Standard safety equipment includes the Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE®) body structure; Vehicle Stability Assist™ (VSA®), also commonly referred to as electronic stability control, with traction control and ABS; three-row side curtain airbags with a rollover sensor; dual-stage, dual-threshold front airbags; a driver's front side airbag, and a front passenger's side airbag with an occupant position detection system. The Pilot is backed by a 36-month/36,000 mile or a 60-month/60,000 powertrain warranty.

Cost Issues: The mid-size, non-luxury SUV market is a very tough market to be in – you've got a lot of great cars at great prices (Saturn Outlook, Buick Enclave, Kia Borrego) – but the Pilot remains a contender at under $35,000. Hondas are extremely reliable cars, with the Pilot being no exception.

Activity & Performance Ability

Very smooth and silent, with agile and secure handling. Acceleration is not immediate when passing others on highway; a bit hesitant, but still delivers – not a vehicle good for towing.

The Green Concern

It has SUV gas needs, but at an average of 19-mpg (17-pg city and 23-mpg highway driving), the Pilot is a little less thirsty than most competitors of its size. Another added bonus is the new Variable Cylinder Management (VCM), which allows the engine to operate on six, four or three cylinders, depending on engine load. There is a light on the dash that indicates when the VCM is working, netting 1-2-mpg improvement in fuel economy.

FINAL PARTING WORDS

A perfectly sized SUV built by one of the most reliable auto manufacturers in the world at an affordable price makes the Honda Pilot a sought-after vehicle.

INTRO TO THE ACURA RDX

The 2009 Acura RDX is testament you need to start watching your crossovers more carefully. They are getting meticulously specific in their offerings to stand apart from the pack.

Acura introduced this smaller crossover in 2007. The vehicle is the smaller sibling to the Acura MDX, but has the handling and performance of the Acura TSX sports sedan.

I drove a 5-passenger 2009 Acura RDX with a 240-horsepower 2.3-liter turbo engine and all-wheel drive (AWD). Total manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) came to $37,755.

Acura's first turbocharged engine features an advanced variable flow turbocharger designed to provide quick response. The advantage is immediate acceleration, passing and hill-climbing ability of a traditional 6-cylinder engine.

The Super Handling All-Wheel Drive First is specially adapted for the RDX. The system deters understeering – when the front tires have a loss of traction in a corner – by shifting power to the outside rear wheel for more accurate turning precision.

True to its marketing word, the RDX does offer a "class-leading array of sophisticated electronic technologies that are seamlessly integrated to keep its passengers informed, in touch and entertained." The interior offers a labyrinth of features, from a voice recognition navigation system to a 10-speaker surround-sound radio. The Technology Package also includes AcuraLink® Satellite Communication System with Real-time traffic, a rearview camera, and a GPS-linked, solar-sensing, dual-zone, automatic climate control system.

HEELS ON WHEELS REVIEW CRITERIA

Stylish But Comfortable Results: Acura describes the shape as an "urban sports utility vehicle." I think by this they mean something that handles like a sedan, but showcases the crossover trend with a higher eye-point or driving position. Generous wheel arches for the 18-inch wheels make it muscular. The power driver's seat is 8-way adjustable with power adjustable lumbar as well as a 4-way adjustable power-activated passenger front seat. As far as the backseat is concerned, I had two passengers constantly fighting over who would get the second row.

Reliability & Safety Factor

Large 4-wheel disc brakes that include a 4-wheel Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist. Its ACE™ front body structure makes the RDX compatible with smaller vehicles if a car-to-car frontal collision should occur, and it has a specially engineered hood and other components to reduce the chance of injury in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. It also features LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children), a child-seat mounting system.

Cost Issues

The price sits on the higher end of smaller crossovers. Aside of the reliable, premium name, you're paying for the technology and turbo engine – it's one of the most technologically equipped and fastest crossovers on the market.

Activity & Performance Ability

No doubt this engine displays the climbing and passing power of a 6-cylinder engine. Very low road noise.

The Green Concern

Gas is sited as 17-mpg city and 22-mpg highway with an average of 19; but watching that gas gauge sink made me think – I found out in 2007 the EPA estimated this model at 17-mpg. Any turbo engine with AWD sucks up gas rather quickly.

FINAL PARTING WORDS: The Acura RDX is unique in the sense it addresses many consumer issues: You've got higher-up seating found in a SUV, but the look of a smaller crossover that handles like a sporty sedan.

BMW on Tuesday released fuel-economy and pricing details for its upcoming diesel versions of the 3-series and X5. The diesels will be shown at the Los Angeles auto show next week, ahead of their launch in the U.S. market.

The sedan, badged the 335d, is rated at 23 mpg in city driving and 36 mpg on the highway, bettering original estimates. It will cost $44,725, including destination charges when it arrives in December.

The X5 xDrive35d is rated at 19 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway. It will sticker at $52,025, including destination when it arrives in January.

BMW estimates the sedan will be able to travel 560 miles on a tank of fuel, while the X5 will have a range of 585 miles.

BMW calls its diesel technology BluePerformance, and it uses urea injection to cut emissions. Both vehicles share the same twin-turbo, 3.0-liter I6 powerplant that makes 265 hp. As with many diesels, the performance comes from the delivery of plenty of torque--the engine is rated at 425 lb-ft, nearly the same as BMW's vaunted V12.

The big torque is expected to help the vehicles post respectable 0-to-60 mph times, with the 335d hitting it in six seconds and the X5 diesel checking with a time of 6.9 seconds.

BMW is joining fellow German automakers Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which are betting heavily on diesel technology as one solution for fuel economy. BMW says 67 percent of the vehicles it sells in Europe have diesel powerplants.

Want a diesel X5? The sticker price starts at $52,025.
BMW

Though diesels have long been a favorite in Europe, automakers have faced an uphill battle in trying to convince American consumers that diesels aren't noisy, smelly or dirty--preconceived notions built up over years of experiencing commercial and work vehicles on the roads.

The challenge of selling diesels to the public grows as the vehicles are about to launch in an environment in which fuel prices have recently dropped dramatically. BMW argues that even though diesel fuel is roughly 15 percent more expensive than premium gasoline right now, diesel is 30 percent more efficient.

Tax credits will be $900 for the 335d and $1,550 for the X5 diesel.

BMW execs left open the possibility of expanding the diesel technology to other engines and vehicles, though they wouldn't specify. They're gauging the launch of the 335d and X5 diesel before committing, but an X6 and 7-Series diesels are the likely next candidates.

In a nod to a shift in consumers' preferences for disseminating news--and to save time--BMW showed the vehicles with an auto-show style press conference on the Web, showcasing the products while also playing host to a roundtable of executives.

If you squint just right, you can see them spilling from the vehicle, trench coats tied tight and fedoras tipped low over their eyes, tommy guns held not so discreetly at their sides as they quickly step away from the splaying suicide doors and disappear into an inky, rain-soaked night. Gangsters, old-school, on a job. This is their ride, and not just for all the badges that read “Mobsteel.”

Blink. The fedoras make way for bandanas and knit caps, the trench coats for black T-shirts and grease-stained jeans slung loose and low, the tommy guns for tattooed arms crossed tightly across chests. As you check out their ride, their eyes stay glued on you.

Except for Adam’s. The owner and founder of Mobsteel, in Brighton, Mich., Adam Genei has an affability that belies his ruffian image, and he talks easily about his latest creation, the Mobsteel Flex, while his crew quietly hangs back, watching.

The stock Ford Flex “is a little more realistic for middle America; it’s no Porsche Cayenne. But it’s still a girl’s car,” says Genei, smiling. “It has to have some sort of toughness for me to want to drive it.”

The Flex lends itself to a lot of toughening up, with its naturally strong lines and square stance and proportions that tend toward the long and lean. Genei started by dressing up his SEMA show car in Mobsteel’s trademark all-black palette.

The triple-black treatment is at once understated and graphic, a simple, declarative sentence punctuated thrice: a glossy jet-black body and a flat hot-rod-black roof, courtesy of SEM Products’ Color Horizons, with a full black leather interior, custom-stitched by C&S Stitch Works.

A one-off Mobsteel front fascia replaces the stock, with a blacked-out mesh grille filling out the maw where the Flex’s original triple chrome bars once lay. The headlight buckets have been blacked out, too, and a glance at the back end reveals a similar treatment: customized rear fascia and blackened taillight housings.

The flanks still boast the original strakes, but the door handles have been shaved, the better to disguise the fact that the back doors now open rearward. A pair of enormous billet hinges, custom pieces from Street Dreams by Ross measuring every bit of six inches across, allow the back doors to open extra wide.

The body sits low over its custom Mobsteel wheels--24-inchers painted the same flat black as the roof and closely wrapped in Pirelli 255/30Z P Zero Nero tires--lower even than a slammed stock model would, given the additional steel welded to the Flex’s skirt all around. It gives the vehicle a stance as menacing as that of any of the sleds for which Mobsteel typically is known, such as the Heavy Hitter, sitting across the garage, an all-black 1968 Lincoln Continental hardtop that almost scrapes the asphalt.

The Mobsteel Flex doesn’t look driveable but for a full hydraulic suspension that lifts the body up off the wheels to give the rubber some turning clearance, with adjustable

Air Runner custom front struts and Low Rider Depot air-management components.

The heart of the 2009 Ford Flex remains largely untouched, with the powertrain--a 3.5-liter Duratech V6 tied to a six-speed automatic--getting little alteration but for a Magnaflow cat-back exhaust that peeks out from the bumper through a pair of siamesed tips.

Inside, there’s little of the flashy stuff seen on the typical SEMA show car, the Mobsteel guys instead opting for the same minimalist look as on the exterior. Some of the trimwork has been replaced, with detailed pieces stretching across the dash in a black-over-silver perforated pattern by VC Finishes. Scosche Industries supplied a custom stereo center stack, and the backs of the front headrests house Invision monitors, each with its own built-in DVD player.

From the sheer decibels cranked out by the Rockford Fosgate system, you’d expect

to see an interior stuffed full of speakers, on display in every nook and on every sur-face, as with so many SEMA vehicles. Instead, the Mobsteel guys have hidden most of the 18 tweeters, woofers and subwoofers discreetly behind panels in the doors or behind the seats, all the better to maintain the vehicle’s unmolested simplicity. Only a bead of red piping stands out against the pitch-darkness inside.

“At the end of the day, when I go home,” says Genei, “I want to look out my window and see only black cars sitting in my driveway.”

That’s just as it should be with a modern-day mobster.

They've not had a lot to do over the last few years, those poor souls trapped in the 'performance' corner of Toyota R&D. Since the demise of the Celica, the MR2 and the Supra, they've been sat on their collective posterior, presumably making origami swans.

Until a few months ago, when a Toyota boss wandered over with an Aygo tucked under one arm.

"There y'go, lads. Do your worst. Go Crazy™."

"What, an Aygo? Can't we at least have an Auris?

"No. Then the pun wouldn't work."

"A Yaris?"

"Nope, you're getting an Aygo. But here's the deal. You can do whatever you want. Anything."

"OK, deal. How many are we doing, then? A few thousand, yeah?"

"Er, one. Sorry. Get to work."

And go crazy they did, fitting out the little Aygo with carbon fibre, Brembo brakes, a monster bodykit, widened track, and the 1.8-litre VVTi engine out of the last MR2, with a new turbo kit. And, because all that sounded a bit sensible, they ripped out the rear seats and stuck the engine there instead. Yes, you're looking at a mid-engined, rear-drive Aygo. With 197bhp. Not since the Clio V6 has snap oversteer been promised in such abundance.

The silliness doesn't end there. The engineers also tore out the ESP system and the power steering. And the brake servo. They call it a kart with a roof. We call it worrying.

But the Aygo Crazy is surprisingly civilised to drive. Yes, the front splitter is so close to the ground that you risk bottoming out on yellow lines, but the throttle and clutch are progressive and forgiving. Sure, things get a bit twitchy when you trash it in the wet, but it's so light (the Aygo tips the scales at a tonne) and talkative, it's easy to keep in line.

That's thanks to the steering which, when you're up and running at least, is a thing of wonderment. There's a tiny bit of slack around the straight-ahead, but push into a corner, and it's absolutely alive. Porsche GT2 good. You can taste the tarmac through your fingertips. OK, you'll need a three-times-a-week gym training routine to park the thing, but surely it's worth it?

The Aygo's party trick, though, is the comical snicker from the turbo wastegate. It's no subtle little chirrup, either. It's a monstrous whoosh, a reflex paroxysm of laughter every time you ease off the throttle. It's fantastic fun.

And that's what this daft over-the-top-ness of a car is, in a word. Fun. No, you can't buy the Aygo Crazy - Toyota has built this as a one-off, a showcase - but it's evidence that the world's biggest manufacturer hasn't had an entertainment lobotomy. As an overall package, it's much too much, but a bit of this daftness in Toyota's range would be welcome.

It would give those poor engineers something to do, too.

BMW doesn't make a 323d. Too many diesels in the line-up already, the story goes - too expensive and risky to try and squeeze another engine into the near-invisible gap between the 320d and the 325d. So, if you want BMW's lovely bi-turbo four-pot in your life, you'll have to make do with the 123d.

Unless, that is, you go to Alpina, who will whip you up a 3-Series with the 2.0-litre diesel out of the 123d, with a revised engine management and a new exhaust system. This is good.

We like the stats too. 214bhp. 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds. 152mph top speed. Yes, that's Golf GTI-beating performance from a car that'll return 52mpg. That's nearly 150bhp per tonne. From a diesel. Simply astonishing.

The D3 doesn't feel like a quick diesel though. In fact, it doesn't feel like a diesel at all. Despite a massive 331lb ft of torque, there's never a genuine gut-punch from the turbos. Instead, the rev needle skips to the red line with petrol-like vim, a fizzy responsiveness that should convert even the staunchest diesel-haters. Leaving aside such freakshows as Audi's giant V12, this might just be the greatest diesel in the world.

The D3 rides better than any current BMW too. Alpina has ditched the 3's hard-riding run-flat tyres - though hasn't added a spare wheel, leaving you instead with a handy can of foam - and fiddled slightly with the suspension set-up, and the result is a beautifully judged ride over any surface.

In fact, it's good enough to make you wonder why Alpina didn't go a bit further with the D3. The new spoilers, steering wheel and seats, the engine and handling, put the car right at the sporty end of diesel, and make the unchanged gearbox and steering feel a little lax by comparison. Yes, revising them would have pushed the price up, but the D3 is being imported in such small numbers - the UK'll get under 100 each year - that interested punters would surely have paid the premium.

Which raises the bigger question: should BMW make its own 323d? It'd clearly create a bit of a headache for the marketing team, but we'd then invoke TG's Altruistic Principle: is it morally acceptable to have an engine this good in just one car?