2011 Jaguar Xf on 2040-cars

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The best cars we drove this year

Six hundred and fifty. That's roughly how many cars pass through the hands of Autoblog editors every year, from the vehicles we test here at home, to the cars we drive on new product launches, testing roundups, long-term cars, and so on. Of course, our individual numbers vary due to several reasons, but at the end of the day, our team's repertoire of automotive experience is indeed vast. But let's be honest, some cars certainly stand out more than others. So as the year's about to turn, and as we're readying brand-new daily cat calendars for our cubicles, our editors are all taking time to reflect on the machinery that made this year so special, with one simple, open-ended question as the guide – a question that we're asked quite frequently, from friends, family, colleagues, and more. "What's the best car you drove this year?" Lamborghini Huracan When I review the list of everything I drove in 2014, picking an absolute favorite becomes almost impossible. I mean, how does one delineate between the joy offered by cars as different as the Alfa Romeo 4C, Volkswagen Golf R, Mercedes-AMG GT S and even the humble-yet-wonderful Chevy Colorado? Okay fine, I'll just pick the Lamborghini. I drove the Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 on a racetrack, in the mountains, and along southern coast of Spain. It felt like the king of the car jungle in all of those places, sucking the eyeballs of observers nearly out of their heads as it drove by, and almost melting my brain with its cocktail of speed and grip and intense communication. It feels a little easy to say that the one new supercar I drove this year was also my favorite, but the fact is that the Huracan is one of the finest cars I've driven during my career, let alone 2014. Judge me if you must. – Seyth Miersma Senior Editor Rolls-Royce Wraith There are a couple of ways to look at the question, "What's the best car you drove this year?" In terms of what was so good I'd go out and buy one tomorrow, that'd be my all-time sweetheart, the Volkswagen GTI. Or if I'm just talking about sheer cool-factor, maybe something like the Galpin GTR1, BMW i8, or Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG. But instead, I'm going to write about the sheer opulence of being the best of the best. The hand-crafted, holier-than-thou, shut-your-mouth-when-I'm-talking-to-you supremacy. I'm picking the Rolls-Royce Wraith. I drove the Wraith for a week in April, and was really, really impressed. This car does everything, perfectly.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Jaguar F-Pace leaps into crossover segment [UPDATE]

UPDATE: Jaguar has issued a statement indicating that the F-Pace cargo volume specified in the original official press release, was incorrect. In short, the correct figure is 33.5 cubic-feet, not 23 cu-ft, and we've updated the text. Here's the statement: "The previous draft of the release we issued incorrectly identified cargo volume in the Jaguar F-PACE using a figure that was not calculated using the US Market standard SAE methodology. The correct specification for rear load space volume in the 2017 Jaguar F-PACE with the second row seats up is 33.5 cu.ft., not 22.95 cu.ft." It's been two years since Jaguar showed off the C-X17 concept crossover at the Frankfurt Motor Show, giving us a deep metallic blue taste of what the world would look like with a leaping-cat in it. Here we have the production result, the 2017 F-Pace, coming to dealerships in Spring 2016. It will be offered in four trims - Premium, Prestige, R-Sport, and S - with three engines. Two supercharged V6 engines come at launch, one with 340 horsepower, the second with 380 hp, both shifting through the same ZF eight-speed transmission from the sedan range. Some time after that a 2.0-liter Ingenium diesel will join the lineup, offering 180 hp and 317 lb-ft. To get in, the price for that eventual diesel is will be $40,9907, while the V6s start at $42,390 and $56,700. If you liked the look of the C-X17 then there's nothing to put you off the F-Pace. The illuminated intakes from the concept are gone and the fender vents have a slightly different graphic, but otherwise you'll find Waldo before you'll find significant exterior changes. The body is one third aluminum, tweaked with high-strength steel, magnesium, and composites creating torsional stiffness numbers that match the new XF. Wheels go from 18 inches to 22 inches, hung at the ends of a double-wishbone setup in front, an integral link suspension in back, and monotube dampers all around, over a wheelbase that's 113 inches. Short overhangs front and back that mean a maximal approach angle of 25.5 degrees, a max departure angle of 25.7-degrees. The standard instrument binnacle is two analogue dials flanking a TFT display, the upgraded unit is a 12.3-inch virtual instrument cluster. It sounds like the interior trim will go as high up as you want it - something has to justify the $14,310 price difference between the V6 models - with "available leather" on the low end, aluminum mesh and satin grey ash at the other end.