Cars & Motors News

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M Benz 2006

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فرمول يک استراليا

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Audi S6 2006

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manam ino dust dashte bidam

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bebakhshid esmesh yadam raft maybakh bid

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bebakhshid esmesh yadam raft maybakh bid

ghashangeh,mamnoon vali man ghablan inaro gozashtam aziz .khosh halam keh ye baz ye dokhtar khanoomeh digeh beh cars alaghehmandeh .

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eee man navadunestam akhe nemishe hamaro az avval chek kard ke tekrari nabashe

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10Best Cars 2006

First part

This year marks our 24th-annual 10Best Cars competition, and we've conducted the past 20 or so of these events at the same rural site about 30 miles west of our home office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the years we've grown used to seeing camouflaged new models and convoys of competitive vehicle sets cruising around on these roads. But during this year's test week, we saw something new.

In two different locations, half of the two-lane country road was blocked off for a few hundred yards. Within the coned-off area, technicians from an unknown Japanese car company were using sophisticated instruments to measure the road surface so they could build a duplicate section of that pavement at their home proving grounds.



We've always known that these roads, with their combination of heavy crowns and less-than-glassy-smooth pavement arranged in variegated twists and turns, provide a challenging test of any vehicle's road manners and control responses, but it's nice to see others have independently come to the same conclusion.

Having such demanding roads is tremendously helpful to us because the task of winnowing the 10Best Cars from the dozens of terrific new models remains as tough as ever.

For 2006, we were presented with a brace of affordable roadsters in the form of an all-new Mazda MX-5 and the eagerly awaited Pontiac Solstice. The new Ford Fusion and the comprehensively redesigned Hyundai Sonata and Volkswagen Passat took on the returning 19-time 10Best-winning Honda Accord, which came reinforced with a fresh face lift.

It was also a big year for V-8 sedans from Detroit, with the new Buick Lucerne, the Cadillac DTS, the Dodge Charger, which is already available with the high-output Hemi in SRT8 guise, and the Chevy Impala SS and Pontiac Grand Prix GXP, which are now available with the latest iteration of the venerable small-block Chevy V-8, complete with cylinder-shutdown systems.

Our rules for inclusion in the 2006 10Best competition are essentially unchanged from last year's. We automatically invite the 2005 winners back and sift through our automotive database to identify other cars that are all-new or significantly upgraded for 2006. Cars we've considered in previous years don't get invited back until they meet our redesign threshold.

Otherwise, all nominees must also have a base price no higher than $71,000. This is 2.5 times the average new-vehicle transaction price as of August 2005. Eligible cars must also be promised for sale no later than January 2006, and the manufacturer must deliver an example to us for our evaluations. Vaporware, in other words, need not apply.

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II Part

As usual, we assembled every available C/D editor to take full advantage of our collective experience. This year that comprised 318 years devoted to scribbling about cars on the part of 14 editors spanning several generations and coming from different parts of the country, as well as from Britain and Germany. Consequently, we all have different automotive priorities and hot buttons. But for this competition, we agree to judge the cars in three general areas.

First, how well does the car perform the functions that we expect from it? We expect Corvettes to be fast and exciting, whereas we look for practical utility in family sedans. Second, we show a marked preference for the more engaging cars in each category. This could be exhibited in fine road manners, or a striking look, or a powerful engine, but in every category we seek some form of automotive satisfaction. Finally, we are suckers for value. Everyone wants to get the most car for the buck, and we're no exception.

10Best Nominees

Acura RL
Acura TSX
Audi A3 2.0T
Audi A4/S4
BMW 3-series
BMW 5-series
Buick Lucerne
Cadillac DTS
Cadillac STS-V*
Chevrolet Cobalt SS
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet HHR
Chevrolet Impala SS
Chevrolet Malibu Maxx SS
Chrysler PT Cruiser GT
Chrysler 300/300C Hemi/300C SRT8
Dodge Charger*/Charger R/T/
Charger SRT8
Dodge Magnum
Ford Fusion
Ford Mustang
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Hyundai Accent
Hyundai Azera
Hyundai Sonata
Infiniti M35
Kia Rio5
Lexus GS300
Lexus GS430
Lexus IS350
Lincoln Zephyr
Lotus Exige*
Mazda MX-5
Mazda RX-8
Mazdaspeed 6*
Mercedes-Benz C350
Mercedes-Benz CLS500
Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLK350
Mercury Milan
Mercury Montego
Mitsubishi Eclipse
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
Pontiac G6 GTP
Pontiac Grand Prix GXP
Pontiac GTO
Pontiac Solstice
Toyota Avalon
Subaru Impreza WRX
Volkswagen Jetta

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III Part

10Best Performers, 2005*
Acceleration, 0 to 60 mph Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 3.4 sec
Street start, 5 to 60 mph Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, 3.8 sec
Quarter-mile Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, 11.6 sec @ 125 mph
Top-gear acceleration† Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, 4.1 sec
Braking, 70 to 0 mph Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 144 feet
Roadholding, 300-foot-dia skidpad Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Dodge Viper SRT10 coupe, 1.01 g
Interior sound level @ 70 mph Lexus GS430, 63 dBA
EPA city fuel economy Lexus RX400h, 31 mpg
C/D-observed fuel economy Chevrolet Cobalt LS, 27 mpg
10Worst Performers, 2005*
Acceleration, 0 to 60 mph GMC TopKick C4500 by Monroe Truck, 14.4 sec
Street start, 5 to 60 mph GMC TopKick C4500 by Monroe Truck, 15.5 sec
Quarter-mile GMC TopKick C4500 by Monroe Truck, 19.8 sec @ 68 mph
Top-gear acceleration† Nissan Xterra Off-Road 4WD, 32.4 sec
Braking, 70 to 0 mph Dodge Dakota SLT, 229 feet
Roadholding, 300-foot-dia skidpad GMC TopKick C4500 by Monroe Truck, 0.61 g
Interior sound level @ 70 mph Porsche 911 Turbo S cabriolet, 82 dBA
EPA city fuel economy Dodge Ram SRT10 Quad Cab, 9 mpg
C/D-observed fuel economy GMC TopKick C4500 by Monroe Truck, 8 mpg

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IV Part

Speaking of Spokes

When steering wheels were first created, they needed multiple spokes for support, often four of them. But with the advent of rigid plastics, why do we need so many today? To accommodate redundant radio controls? Hell, millions of Citroën drivers made do with one steering-wheel spoke for years. I counted the number of spokes on 67 of our 10Best candidates. Twenty-five offered four spokes, 40 offered three, and only two—the Honda Civic EX and Civic hybrid—offered two. Those wheels, whose spokes are at 3 and 9 o'clock and include a comfy spot to hang your thumbs, were the best in the field. So how come the Civic Si, the sporty model, offered that same, perfect wheel except with a gratuitous third spoke? Best guess: Manufacturers think you think more spokes are better. That's just dumb.—John Phillips

Slap-Happy Transmissions

Now that manumatic functions have appeared on so many automatic-transmissioned cars (the majority of our 10Best nominees had them), many are sprouting "paddles" on their steering wheels. It's too bad there's little uniformity on how these work. Audi's A4 tranny ignores the driver's wishes, upshifting and downshifting at its own intervals. The Lexus IS350's behaves autocratically, with downshifts only. GM and Acura give the driver complete authority and hold his or her gear commands obediently. With the exception of GM, all vehicles with paddle shifters also have manumatic gates (having missed the manumatic boat, GM leaped straight to paddles on the Corvette and Grand Prix GXP). GM also combines upshifts and downshifts on one paddle; all others split up the work (left paddle for downshifts, right for upshifts). Interestingly, all seven steering-wheel-mounted shifters in our competition were connected to an automatic gearbox-so essentially, these controls are relocated and glorified manumatics. —Dave VanderWerp

Into the Woods

Wood is used purely as a flavoring in today's cars. Pontiac should try garlic instead. The G6 GTP has broad panels of tobacco-hued plastic on each door, angled for a full-frontal look at the "burl." Big mistake. Buick makes it, too, in the Lucerne. Trailer-park Formica looks worse as the acreage goes up. Pretend-a-plank in polished plum is no more promising, but Hyundai makes it work in the under-$30,000 Azera by keeping the expanses small and curving them away from the eye. When you don't see the grain, you won't be offended. Above $40,000, you expect real wood and impeccable taste. Yet BMW overdoses its traditional burl with coffee tint. Lexus drowns the delicate bird's-eye pattern of the GS in cranberry juice. Only Ford, scheming to sell a Fusion at Lincoln prices, does it right: The tiger-striped maple in the Zephyr glows with mystery beyond man's simulation.—Patrick Bedard

Don't Spend More Than 30k on Your Next Car

More than half the cars in this year's field cost more than 30 grand, but I don't see why you'd ever spend more than that amount on a car. I counted almost a dozen perfectly satisfying cars for less than 30K that offer nearly the same level of refinement and comfort as cars costing far more. Here's a sampling of my favorite under-30K cars: the Honda Accord LX, the Audi A3, the VW Jetta GLI, the Acura TSX, and the Toyota Avalon. All of them are quiet and refined, and in particular, the Jetta GLI, the A3, and the TSX are extremely fun to drive. Every time I drove one of those cars, I kept trying to quantify what another $20,000—nearly the price of a new MX-5—would get me, but I never came up with a good answer. I may be a cheapskate, but do yourself a favor and drive one of the cars I mentioned before spending the big bucks.—Larry Webster

The Return of the Tuning Knob

In an age of touch screens and toggling pushbuttons, it's comforting to see the return of tuning knobs on car radios. With the recent trend toward burying radio functions under three menu levels in some impassive electronic Cyclops, how refreshing to just reach over and twirl a knob for a station change—particularly in vehicles with someone else's station presets. Even among cars with screen displays, tuning knobs were so common among the 10Best-nominated cars that they stuck out like sore thumbs. Seek and scan functions are all very well, but they sometimes scoot past the frequency you want. A knob is a simple and familiar way to get the job done.

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Peugeot 207

Peugeot 207 . 2006

Very nice car for young ppl, specially for girls !

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BMW Z4 M Coupé as Motor Racing Kit

Unveiling in Geneva: On the occasion of the Automobilsalon, Prof Dr Burkhard Göschel, BMW Group Board Member Purchasing and Development, introduced a new racing car for customer motor racing. The Motorsport Version of the BMW Z4 M Coupé, which has already made a big impression as a production model, is the first two-seater BMW Motorsport offers for customer teams. When it came to the development, BMW faced a huge challenge: The car had to have what is needed to race successfully on the world’s most demanding and spectacular racetrack, the Nürburgring’s famous Nordschleife. The new motorsport coupé can be used by private BMW customer teams in the German Endurance Championship and in the Nürburgring 24-Hour Race.

The power unit of the beefy coupe is a BMW Motorsport designed 3.2-litre in-line 6-cylinder engine delivering about 400bhp, with the suspension area in particular benefiting from the knowledge gained from the successful BMW M3 GTR project.

With its varied component ranges, BMW Motorsport and BMW Racing Parts Distribution offer customer teams a new technology platform for use in many miscellaneous international racing and club sport series, with the Nordschleife enthusiasts not being the only interested party, as the brawny coupe also represents the perfect car for use in the Belgian Belcar series and other, non-European, endurance series.

The kit can be ordered from May 2006 at BMW Motorsport and will be available for an estimated € 250,000 (plus VAT).

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2006 Mazda Miata . sport car and very pretty one !

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Tata Grand Safari 2006