Awhile ago I exhorted family sedan shoppers to buy a G8 GT instead. If muscle cars aren't your thing, perhaps I could interest you in a 2009 VW Jetta TDI. I had the privilege of our long-term TDI's company for a couple nights this week, and I'm pretty much sold on this car as a family sedan substitute. It's fuel-efficient, it's quick, it's sized right, and it positively reeks of that "overengineering" thing for which German cars are justly known.

A great President of the modern era once said, "Fool me once: Shame on you. Fool me twice: We won't get fooled again." And so it is with the Audi A4 wagon: I was fooled the first time (or three), but won't be fooled again. You see, when I first attempted to enter the A4, I saw the door handle with the smart key switch shown in the photo. All of these systems are similar, but with some you have to press the switch to unlock (with the key conveniently in your pocket); others you just pull the handle to open. I tried it both ways with the A4.  Fool!!

Upon closer inspection, I saw that there is no button on the handle — it's a switch blank. There is no smart key. These switch blanks are common inside many vehicles as placeholders for optional equipment that's not on that specific vehicle, but I've never seen such a thing on the door handle or anywhere on the exterior of a vehicle. Apparently, our A4 wagon shares its door handles with a fancier A4 or a high end Audi model. But for $44K, couldn't this vehicle have its own door handles without the switch blank? Audi rubs it in by putting these switch blanks on all four door handles.

Hopefully Audi will address this issue instead of ducking metaphorical shoes thrown by this crazed journalist.

Albert Austria, Sr Vehicle Evaluation Engineer @ 4034 mi

On my drive home last night, I kept a careful eye on the Mazda's display. The stripe got worse.

After about 30 minutes of driving, the fluctuating stripe became a solid stripe. When I shut the car off then started it back up, the stripe went away for a moment then returned full force. Perhaps it has something to do with heat in the system. I tend to agree with y'all that it's a bad screen and not something to do with a connection or program.

Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 2610 miles

There's no good reason for this car to have 18-inch wheels. You can paint it up like a DTM racing car if you want, but it's still never going to be sports sedan.

Until you drive cross-country, you'll never understand just how good a Mercedes-Benz really is. It goes down the road with a purpose, but all the rough edges have been smoothed down from long experience with the whole vehicle engineering thing, so everything works with the sure, carefully damped action of the turn-signal stalk on a Mercedes S-class sedan.

And then Americans take our Mercs and put the biggest wheels we can find on them and spoil the whole thing.

Our 2008 Subaru WRX STI has massive 4-piston fixed calipers that really get the job done. No fade, no drama. They just work.

But they are starting to emit a rough growl in certain conditions, specifically the last few feet before a complete stop. It's not the fingernails-on-chalkboard "squeeeeeeee" that indicates the wear indiator has introduced itself to the rotors, mind you. It's something else. 

I decided to have a look.

I'm sure some our more knowledgeable staffers would be able to explain the intricacies of suspension tuning and thusly why the suspension in our 2005 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is so good. But since I'm not one of them, I'll just say that it's like, really good. It is completely unfazed by our decrepit freeways; always composed and always controlled. Did I mention it's got good steering feel too? Someone with a degree in suspension or something must have tuned this car.

Combine its sublime ride and handling with its torquey little diesel, solid transmission, attractive interior design and 40+ miles per gallon fuel economy, this little Jetta is quite the phenom.

Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 65,782 miles

I didn't have to wait long to get a good test of the Cadillac CTS' snow-driving prowess. Detroit got a good dusting last night and we were out early enough to drive the Caddy on lightly traveled roads. I got to Woodward Avenue just in time for the transition from pure pretty powder to snotty gray slush.

Our rear-drive CTS wears Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 tires, which Tire Rack classifies as Grand Touring All Season rubber. Slush counts as a full season in the upper Midwest and I'm not sure that's covered in "All." We concur with Tire Rack's assessment that this model Michelin exhibits "Fair" performance on snow and ice. That ranking makes the HX MXM4 the worst-performing in the snow of the Michelin models in its catagory.

Spoiled by dedicated snow tires on my personal car, I find the all-season Michelins only borderline acceptable, at least in the brief time I've spent with them on slippery stuff. Even with a very light throttle foot, I'm getting a whole lot of traction control interventions (stability control intervention comes with a heavy foot), making forward progress, um, deliberate. On the upside, the CTS' traction control system comes on smooth.

More study is needed though. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find a large, empty, snow-covered parking lot to practice my donuts and drifting winter-driving techniques.–Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit

After wheeling our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 from LA to Phoenix and back last week, I've garnered enough driving impressions to fill three road tests. I'll be brief, though. Suffice it to say that although the 6 has grown up, Mazda has not succumbed to the vapid JD Power-obessed blandification that some of its competition has in their mainstream midsize offerings.

Most notable are the Mazda's precise steering and firm brake pedal. These two driving interfaces alone really separate the 6 from its CamCordBu competition, allowing the Mazda to wink and nod at car enthusiasts. Think of a grown-up Mazda 3 and you're on the right track.

It makes you wonder why don't other manufacturers execute them like Mazda has in the 6. Right, the JD Power thing. To score well there, you must not offend the whiners with "vibrations" such as actual steering feel or "hard" brakes that respond with confidence-inspiring initial bite and linearity. What you get with fixation on JD Power numbers is a Toyota Camry.

Oh, and since I can tell you're champing at the bit for some highway fuel economy numbers, I'll relent. Cruising at 75-82ish mph, air off, the 6 averaged 29.3 mpg.

Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 2,541 miles.

It's only been a short time we've had the Mazda6, and we did our initial track test yesterday (results soon), but we already have a glitchy nav screen.

Look in the upper-left right corner for the reddish pattern that's displayed on every type of screen (audio, navi, setup, etc.). The width of the pattern never changes, but the top-to-bottom length of it acts as if it's a sound-level meter. Yet the varying length of the stripe doesn't seem to correlate to anything in particular (e.g. volume, static, station).

Why is buying this Pontiac G8 built in Australia better than buying a Hyundai Sonata built in Alabama?

James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 15,230 miles