Inside Line Road Test Videos

You don't choose cars like these, you succumb to them. They creep up on you like thin hair and thick ankles. One minute you're rolling a 3 Series coupe, the next minute your wife needs room to haul her gardening stuff and the kids want rear doors and a DVD player.It's about that time when wagon-style things like the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour and 2009 Toyota Venza start to look attractive. OK, plausible maybe.

We don't know if anyone's ever called the Porsche Boxster the Beverly Hills Miata, but we're going to. It's maddening. The landscape of Los Angeles' richest suburb is littered with Boxsters. They're driven by soccer moms while their kids are with the nanny; by USC co-eds living off their parents' Amex Black card; and by movie agents yet to make the scene and jump to a 911 Cabriolet. It's enough to make you ignore the history of Porsche engineering and motorsports that this car's retro-style round face and plump bodywork are meant to evoke.

The 2010 Dodge Ram Power Wagon marks the second generation of the company's off-road-fettled heavy-duty pickup, and Dodge didn't muck with the plot. That's good news for serious truck users, as the Raptor is no substitute for the Power Wagon, and vice versa.

Oh, you haven't heard? The 5 Series wagon is gone for 2011. Only 878 Americans bought one in 2009 (yeah, nice going, you guys), and the most BMW ever sold was 2,351 back in 2005.

Consider that the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG is nowhere near as quick as the 2010 Porsche Panamera Turbo and you might be disappointed. With four doors and a power figure beginning with the number five, the E63 should be capable of a toe-to-toe showdown with the sedan from Stuttgart, right? But it's not even close, because the Porsche is 0.7 second quicker in the quarter-mile and embarrasses the Benz to 60 mph by a merciless 1.1 seconds.

Yes, we have enjoyed a steady stream of modified 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS tuner cars. It's been a regular Camarogasm 'round these parts. Some have performed, others never showed up, and one that made at least 700 horsepower ate its clutch.First, we tested an HPE550 Camaro from Hennessey. Then we tested one from Vortech Engineering. Then we borrowed the Hennessey HPE700 LS9 Camaro. This year's SEMA show even provided a tasteless Camaro Hall of Shame.

A strong argument can be made that this 2010 Volkswagen GTI burns with the flame of the original GTI, the spark that ignited the hot-hatch explosion and led to cars like the Mazdaspeed 3, Mini Clubman S and Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

The 2010 Lincoln MKT EcoBoost has the making of something pretty special.Anyone who has read our entries on the IL Long-Term Road Test blog over the past year knows we're smitten with our 2009 Ford Flex. And the more powerful 2010 Ford Flex with EcoBoost picks up where the original left off, walking away with an Inside Line Editors' Most Wanted award in our most recent annual voting session.

The 2010 Kia Forte Koup wants to be a Honda Civic and it's pretty easy to understand why. The Civic has an image of fuel-efficiency that is supported by eye-catching styling and driving dynamics. The Kia Forte Koup so wants to be there.Lots of cars have tried to become the Honda Civic — like the Chevy Cobalt, Mazda 3 and Scion tC — but Honda still sits on top of the sales pyramid. The Civic represented 339,289 sales in 2008, and when the recession began in earnest in June 2008, the Honda Civic was even the top-selling vehicle in the country.

The hype machine has been running full-tilt for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt since GM revealed the 2007 Volt Concept car, and although we've previously wheeled a development mule, we've now driven the car you see here, a pre-production Volt.

Campagna Motors builds its line of three-wheelers by hand in Montreal, Quebec (what is it about Quebec and three-wheelers; there's the Can-Am Spyder, too). The chassis of the T-Rex is constructed from 1.5-inch tubular steel and then covered in fiberglass body panels. This three-wheeler utilizes a double-wishbone suspension at each front wheel and a traditional motorcycle-style swingarm in the rear. Mounted behind the driver and passenger is a 197-hp, 1,352cc inline-4 engine and six-speed sequential manual transmission lifted from the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 — one of the quickest and most powerful motorcycles made today.

Don't let the fact that the 2010 Audi S4 says "V6T" on its quarter panels confuse you. This alphanumeric soup has more to do with Audi's marketing department than it does with anything going on under the hood of the new S4.Rest assured, the 3.0-liter V6 in the 2010 Audi S4 cranks out 333

The problem with the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport is, it's not really a limited-edition car (no special VIN is assigned), it doesn't perform any better or worse than a base-model Corvette, and finally, the price of the Grand Sport comes within striking distance of the car it emulates — the brutal Corvette Z06.

The 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon Road Test showcases the new wagon version of Cadillac's luxury sedan.

Yet, there's something odd about the 2010 Accord Crosstour that can't be entirely written off to its exterior styling and the ensuing fuss on Facebook. The Crosstour is supposed to offer an ideal compromise of sedan and SUV attributes, but the utility doesn't quite add up.

If you do your part to forget about your (grand)father's Buick, we'll do ours to refrain from picking the low-hanging fruit when it comes to smart remarks in this comparison test of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS and the 2009 Lexus ES 350. There will be no references to forgotten left-turn signals or Murder She Wrote. Instead we'll ensure our focus remains on how well each car fulfills its promise of entry-level luxury. 2010 Buick LaCrosse vs. 2009 Lexus ES 350 Comparison Test:http://www.insideline.com/lexus/es-350/2009/2010-buick-lacrosse-vs-2009-lexus-es-350-comparison-test-and-video.html

Given all the praise heaped on the BMW 3 Series over the years, we can't blame you for thinking there's more to the story. We've heard all the conspiracy theories, most of them involving checks in large denominations from Munich. This might seem believable to a certain segment of the population, but there's a far less interesting truth behind all those wins: The BMW was the best car. Sure, certain rivals often upped their game in one area or another, but the 3 Series always put it all together in a way that made it better. So now the 2010 Audi S4 is here to take another shot. It's all-new this year and the old V8 is gone. There's now a supercharged V6 in its place, along with a lower price designed to better align the S4 with the BMW 335i. The BMW 3 Series received a face-lift of its own last year. It was mostly minor trim changes and the like, but we're told that iDrive thing was tweaked again, too (oh, lovely). 2010 Audi S4 vs. 2009 BMW 335i Comparison Test: http://www.insideline.com/audi/s4/2010/comparison-test-2010-audi-s4-vs-2009-bmw-335i.html

The 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT is the latest attempt by this quirky Japanese carmaker to move into the mainstream. The new car is bigger and better suited to American buyers, but is it a game-changer?www.InsideLine.com

After giving its Carrera lineup numerous changes last year, Porsche has updated the 911 Turbo for 2010. And to see just how far Porsche went with the 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo, Inside Line sent Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton to southern Portugal to experience Porsche's latest masterpiece. 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo First Drive Video:http://www.insideline.com/porsche/911/2010/2010-porsche-911-turbo-first-drive-and-video.html

In our recent pony car comparison test, the retro-heavy and just plain heavy 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS walked away with top honors in its debut. The big V8-powered coupe needed a new challenge. It was time to refocus the lens. Shoot from a different angle, so to speak. So we squared the brooding visage of our SS-badged protagonist up against the cruelest bunch of savages we could find, the range-topping 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and 2010 Ford Shelby GT500. 2010 Camaro SS vs. 2009 Challenger SRT8 vs. 2010 Shelby GT500: http://www.insideline.com/ford/shelby-gt500/2010/comparison-test-2010-camaro-ss-vs-2009-challenger-srt8-vs-2010-shelby-gt500.html

If you understand the limitless desire of Americans for personal space, then you understand the thinking behind the 2010 Ford Taurus Limited and 2009 Honda Accord EX-L V6 with Navigation. Taurus and Accord may be iconic midsize-sedan nameplates, but now the badges are on large-car rumps.... FULL 2010 Ford Taurus vs. 2009 Honda Accord Article: http://www.insideline.com/honda/accord/2009/comparison-test-2010-ford-taurus-vs-2009-honda-accord.html

You don't need a flat-billed hat or limbs covered in tattoos to appreciate the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, but they help. If nothing else, such items will help you pass muster with the rest of the crowd that will buy this truck. Really, though, all you'll need to truly appreciate it is a desire to drive fast over rough terrain. This is because the Raptor is a truck — that's right, a truck — that's engineered to be driven. Flat-bill or not. 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Full Test: http://www.insideline.com/ford/f-150-svt-raptor/2010/2010-ford-svt-raptor-full-test.html

We're the first to strap our testing gear to the heavily revised 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 and we'll get the bad news out of the way first. Here goes: It's slower than the old car. Among the many bits of good news is that it's faster than the outgoing model. Say what? 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 Full Test: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/... More Articles: http://www.insideline.com Car Prices & Info: http://www.edmunds.com Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/ins... Hi-Res Videos: http://www.hulu.com/edmunds-in side-line

We once had one of those bosses who would, for the smallest oversight or infraction, growl, stiff-spined and red-faced, "No, no, no, [expletive deleted] no!" Pretty much all of you responded the same way after discovering our test-track results for the 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXL with its direct-injection 3.0-liter V6. Come on, guys, you've got it all wrong. A 2-ton Buick powered by a 255-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 that gets to 60 mph in 8.4 seconds (8.1 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like at a drag strip) is not a car that General Motors needs to make apologies for. But OK, you're in full denial mode about the 2010 Buick LaCrosse. We've given you all the recognizable markers to compare cars when they're speeding along at their dynamic limits, but we haven't been able to program our satellite-based VBOX testing equipment to judge how serenely a luxury vehicle glides to a halt.

The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro V6 sits, engine ticking, in the middle of a dangerous intersection of perception. Heading in from one side is Muscle Car Blvd. Dotted with neon signs and its pavement scarred with melted rubber, this road is enthusiastically patrolled by car-guy elitists. It bears a sign reading "V8s only." The quick-stop oil change location is long closed, "DIY 4-Life" spray-painted across the dusty windows. Entry-level sport coupes tread lightly here. Dead ahead lies Vanity Lane. It is patrolled by secretaries, retired secretaries and the fashionistas to whom a car is no different from a handbag ? a world where style is substance. Here one little faux pas, one misguided association with, say, a mullet haircut, will shatter the illusion of high style. It's here that you find the entry-level Corvette with automatic transmission, the old Lexus SC coupe and the ever-lasting Mustang V6. 2010 Chevrolet Camaro 2LT V6 Full Test http://www.insideline.com/chevrolet/camaro/2010/2010-chevrolet-camaro-2lt-v6-full-test-and-video.html Chevy Camaro SS @ the Track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJrR8QI9iaQ Ford Shelby GT500 v Hennessey Camaro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwCFIk0xH_s Camaro SS v Challenger SRT8 v Shelby GT500: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rJhgxyWVDo

Driving the 2010 Cadillac SRX reminds us that crossover SUVs are for sane and sensible people.

On a bad day, car criticism is about finding faults with the very things car critics enjoy. You are invited to watch the dreary, bloodless business of marking demerits on a new car's record for shoddy switchgear, insufficient verve or...whatever. Today, friends, is not that day. Today, we consider the 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI (yes, that's the one with the V10), a car so well conceived and executed that we haven't the slightest interest in quibbling or equivocating.

The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro V6 sits, engine ticking, in the middle of a dangerous intersection of perception. Heading in from one side is Muscle Car Blvd. Dotted with neon signs and its pavement scarred with melted rubber, this road is enthusiastically patrolled by car-guy elitists. It bears a sign reading "V8s only." The quick-stop oil change location is long closed, "DIY 4-Life" spray-painted across the dusty windows. Entry-level sport coupes tread lightly here. Dead ahead lies Vanity Lane. It is patrolled by secretaries, retired secretaries and the fashionistas to whom a car is no different from a handbag ? a world where style is substance. Here one little faux pas, one misguided association with, say, a mullet haircut, will shatter the illusion of high style. It's here that you find the entry-level Corvette with automatic transmission, the old Lexus SC coupe and the ever-lasting Mustang V6.

Climbing up the near-vertical dirt trail in the all-new 2010 Toyota 4Runner Trail Grade seems pretty easy, at least until we get to the hill-climb's crest. The trail is actually too steep to walk up and the front tire on the driver side starts losing traction and the front end begins to slide off the trail toward a drop-off that borders each side of the incline. After stopping the SUV on the hill's face (and taking a few deep breaths), we engage the push-button Crawl Control on its most aggressive setting, grab on tight to the steering wheel and take our foot completely off the brake. This allows the Crawl Control to modulate throttle and traction control at each wheel to maximize grip up the hill at a slow and controlled pace, allowing us to just focus on steering away from the cliff's edge. A few short moments later, we crest the trail's lip with ease.

There are plenty of people who would like the 2009 Volkswagen CC a lot better if it were ugly. Isn't a VW supposed to be ugly? Hardly anyone has firsthand memories of the Volkswagen Bug anymore, and yet the lumpy little People's Car follows VW around like some kind of family curse, reminding everybody of a time when everything about Volkswagen seemed wacky and comically futuristic, like a science fiction movie of the 1950s. The fatal flaw of the 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton might not have really been its $66,700 price point but instead its refusal to embrace the Beetle's stereotype. Of course, this is the very strength of the 2009 Volkswagen CC. It's really, really stylish and yet it still has the soul of a plain, practical sedan meant for our times of frugality and fuel-efficiency. FULL VOLKWAGEN CC ARTICLE @ INSIDELINE.COM: http://www.insideline.com/volkswagen/cc/2009/2009-volkswagen-cc-20-t-luxury-full-test-and-video.html