First Drive Reviews

Big Gulps. Animal Style. Smothered, covered, chopped, and chunked. America's shameless and torrid affair with the over-the-top isn't limited to food. When it comes to luxury and performance cars, we like them big and brawny, too. Alpha-numeric sequences like CTS-V and E63 and M5 activate overworked...

An icon since its introduction at the Frankfurt auto show in 1977, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon enters the 2017 model year with a new model: the E400. Tons of new tech, a new engine option, and some of the best semi-autonomous driving features around make the new 2017 Mercedes-Benz E400 Wagon...

A couple of premium automakers have tried tossing pedestrian engines in their premium cars, and the results were disastrous. Acura shoved a 150-horsepower 2.0-liter 4-cylinder in the ILX, and buyers stayed away in droves. Cadillac plopped the Malibu's 202-horsepower 2.5-liter 4-cylinder in the ATS...

Quiet hands. A race instructor friend of mine harps on them all the time. If you want to go fast around a track, you need smooth, steady steering inputs to keep the suspension settled and keep the car on its intended path. Saw at the wheel and you are losing precious time. If you are driving the...

BMW’s flagship sedan, the 7-Series, has never received the M performance treatment. That’s OK, though—Alpina is here to help. In fact, the small BMW-exclusive tuner company does such a good job of building what is, in effect, an M7 that we doubt BMW could top it. Alpina is a...

In the beginning, Honda created Acura. Toyota and Nissan looked upon it and saw it was good, and they begat Lexus and Infiniti. Many years later, Hyundai looked upon these luxury makes, saw they were good, and begat the Genesis coupe and sedan followed by the Equus sedan. Hyundai looked upon the...

Aston Martin turned out garage rock and roll for decades. Of course, the small British carbuilder got some big help from deep-pocketed benefactors who tried every way to Sunday to turn a profit. They failed. But the sound from the factory at Gaydon has always been raw, reckless, and—excuse...

The 2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo may not hit the streets until next January, but we've already had the opportunity to go for a spin. And what a spin it was! Porsche gave journalists rides at the Lausitzring (also called Eurospeedway Lausitz) road course near Dresden, Germany. Much like the infield...

The Corvette is the king of American sports cars, but which one reigns supreme? If smashmouth acceleration and take-no-prisoners grip are your thing, the only Corvette on the menu is the Z06. Check, please. If you favor a subtler approach--maybe just a roundhouse to the jaw, with a donkey-kick...

We've already driven the Ford Shelby Mustang GT350, and spent most of our time in its natural habitat: the road course at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (to be fair, any track will do). But this past week I've had the opportunity to drive the GT350 at home in Chicago, like I would any other commuter...

Remember when fun-to-drive cars were rear-wheel drive? When neutral handling trumped tricked-out suspensions with variable-ratio everything? When manual gearboxes weren't just available, but standard? The Subaru BRZ is trying to save sports cars with headsmackingly simple counterprogramming. It's...

Audi's A4 brings home the bacon for its U.S. sales arm, but there's no denying the stylish spin-offs that give the compact-car family its panache: the Audi A5 and S5. These Audi twins vie for attention at the dinner table. Between bites, the sleek A5 catches up on the #RichKidsOfInstagram hashtag...

Wagons have been staged for a comeback for more than a decade. Yet time after time, seemingly splendid, sporty wagons have fizzled in the American market. Is Volvo being hopelessly optimistic in bringing the V90 wagon to the U.S., where wagon sales barely break a one-percent market share year after...

Say you just sold your first mobile app, or your company just got acquired by some search-engine giant. What’s a car-crazed geek to do? Real estate? Retirement plan? We’d do something totally logical like this--the 570S, the first car in McLaren's more attainable Sports Series. Logical...

Bentley says every car it builds is a blend of luxury and performance, with the Mulsanne taking the luxury ideal to the company's furthest extreme. Well, if you're going to go to extremes, you might as well go big, and for the 2017 model year Bentley is adding more luxury to its biggest, cushiest...

With Volvo’s most recent products, including the 2017 Volvo S90 sedan and upcoming 2018 V90 wagon, the Swedish automaker is wholly embracing its Scandinavian roots. From the upright concave grille, the prominent brand ironmark, and the elongated hood in front, to the name proudly spelled out...

Fifty years ago, Fiat sought the help of the legendary Pininfarina design firm to turn its somewhat stodgy 124 sedan into a stylish convertible sports car. The result was a simple but attractive drop-top that would enjoy a 19-year production run of more than 200,000 cars—roughly 170,000 of...

Porsche's strategy for old GTS models had been magnificent in its mission: Even if buyers couldn’t afford faster cars, there was still a race to empty whatever they had left in their wallets.

I’ve just snaked through legendary Eau Rouge and Raidillon S-turns at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, careful not to drive over the rumble strips because, in the rain, their paint has a different traction coefficient than the asphalt and that could send the 565-horsepower 2017 Nissan GT-R off...

With the arrival of the small CLA sedan three years ago as its entry vehicle, Mercedes-Benz has moved the latest version of its C-Class range up in size, style, and features. Now the C-Class Cabrio soft-top convertible has been unveiled as the last of the four C-Class variants, following the...