Dan's Papers - August 21, 2009

I've discovered that in life there is a "best" of everything. You know, the best tennis racket, the best skis, the best camera, the best sailboat and, of course, the best cars. My knowledge about cars allows me a heavily prejudiced opinion as to the order of desirability of a whole slew of automotive types.

SPORTS CARS: The top dog here is the Bugatti Veron. It's absurdly expensive (over a million) and kind of hard to service. So the realistic top of the pecking order in sports cars is the McClaren. Never really imported into America, but it's possible. "You know who" in East Hampton has one. Next in line is Ferrari. Any model will do, however, the faster and more expensive ones are more desirable. At least you can have these prancing horses dealer-serviced in America. Next would be Italy's fastest tractor, the Lamborghini. Incidentally, Lamborghini's main income comes from farm tractors. Porsche, which believe it or not once also built farm tractors, is easily the third placed top dog of great sports cars - a relative bargain when compared to the other two leaders. Last on the list is the Chevrolet Corvette. Lots of bang for the buck. However, the snobs at the top of the pack look down at these plastic wonders.

BIG CARS: There is a new kid on the block with outstanding looks and provenance, the newish Bentley coupe and convertible. Forget the sedan, it's a barge. There are simply no prettier, well built, four seat luxury cars in production than these two British rides. When it comes to sedans, Mercedes still leads the pack, always has and always will. There is no more impressive and well engineered, four door sedan than the S-Class Daimler-Benz products. The big BMW has been nipping at the heels of Mercedes for years, but so far no cigar. Another wannabe is the big Lexus sedan. Probably the most dependable car in the world, but more "Buick" than the autobahn stormers with which it competes. The big surprise here is the Cadillac CTS sedan. Born in the USA, it's the Corvette of sedans. It's a much better car than you think. This is one of the cars that can save GM.

SUVS: For the record, I dislike SUVs, but they certainly have a pecking order, with the Range Rover leading the pack. The lush interior is veddy British, festooned with more remnants of dead cows and cut trees than even a Bentley. Second in this league would be the Porsche SUV. Stupid fast, at least the Porsche SUV handles like a, er, Porsche. BMW makes a large well-seasoned SUV that takes a close third. Like the Porsche, the Bimmer is a great road handler. However, all three of these cars get the gas mileage of the Exxon Valdez.

SMALLER SUVS: In the quest for smaller SUVs with better fuel mileage, there is the little Honda CRV. Always a favorite, it is currently the leader with the Toyota Rav 4 a very close second. Both of these cars are powered by state of the art four cylinder engines, which do the job well. I personally like the new Subaru Impreza wagon, especially in turbocharged form. However, for decent fuel economy even a stock, inexpensive base model is peppy. One weakness, Subaru offers only a primitive four speed automatic, while all of the competition offer more modern five speeds.

SMALL CARS: The Mini Cooper leads the pack. Expensive, and in turbocharged Cooper S form, very, very fast. The S model is a little dangerous for the new driver because it has very strong and excessive torque steer when turbocharger boost cuts in. It pulls to the left with a vengeance. However, once acclimated to this quirk, the car is a joy to drive. The Volkswagen GTI is a bargain performance vehicle with twice the build quality of any car on this list. Sort of a grown up Mini without the cheeky looks. The Honda Civic SI has a high RPM engine to die for, housed in a very pleasant looking coupe body. If you can get past that ill-conceived dashboard, you'll love this car. All of the above cars are great to drive and get fantastic fuel mileage. Sure they don't have the panache of a Porsche, but you could own all three of them for the price of one loaded 911.

HIGH MPG CARS: Without a doubt the leader of this group is the Toyota Prius. I once thought the original Prius was just another nerdy looking experiment in Japanese electronic gadgetry. Boy, was I wrong. The Prius has turned out to be an incredibly dependable piece of engineering that happens to get the best gas mileage, 51 mpg, of any car in America. Although exhibiting a strong resemblance to the old model, the spanking all new Prius is less geeky looking and has a nice aggressive stance. The car's main disappointments are the acres of black plastic inside, handling somewhat like your father's Oldsmobile. This car is all about gas mileage. Honda's new hybrid is the sportier of the Japanese hybrids. It's pretty hot looking, a little smaller and a little cheaper than the Prius. It gets only 41 mpg. The real sleeper of this mpg crowd is the Volkswagen Jetta diesel. It also achieves 41 mpg, but with a simple, long-life diesel engine and has the handling of a European sports sedan. The interior is so rich looking and attractive that it puts the Prius and Honda interiors to shame. All in all, the new Jetta sport wagon is especially handsome.