2009 Sneak Preview: New and Future Aston Martin Cars

Just like you, we always want to know what's coming next from Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles, and all the other places where automotive engineers and designers dream and scheme on our behalf. Car companies, of course, are loath to share information on new products lest their competitors try to copy them--or you decide not to buy the cars they already have on dealer lots. Car companies, though, are simply groups of people, and some of them have a hard time keeping secrets. So, we poke, we prod, we cajole, and we uncover information that becomes the basis for our annual Sneak Preview issue. As always, some of our information is educated guesswork based on hints, insinuations, hunches. Make no mistake, though, these cars are on their way, even though details may change. Ladies and gentlemen: our list of 136 cars coming over the next few years...

2009 Sneak Preview: 2010 Subaru Legacy/Outlook

Subaru continues its relentless push into the mainstream with the all-new Legacy sedan and Outback wagon that debuted at April's New York auto show. Both go on sale this fall, and both feature a longer wheelbase and a wider track for more interior room.

For the Legacy's part, a handsome new instrument panel; bigger, cushier seats for bigger, cushier Americans; and 3.9 inches of additional rear legroom make it a much more viable competitor for cars like the Mazda 6 and the Honda Accord. A new control-arm rear suspension, an electric parking brake, and standard stability control top the list of chassis improvements, while three different boxer engines and three transmissions make for eight available models. First, there's the 2.5-liter four, producing 170 hp and mated either to a new six-speed manual or a CVT; then there's the 265-hp, turbocharged version of that engine under the scooped hood of the GT model, mated solely to the six-speed stick. Finally, the six-cylinder boxer returns, this time bored out to 3.6 liters and running on regular unleaded to produce 256 hp through a five-speed automatic.

Subaru hopes that the Outback wagon, which gets either the base four or the six, can make greater inroads into the crossover market. To that end, it's two inches taller than before, with seven percent more interior volume, although it's an inch shorter. The H-point (where a passenger's hips reside) is raised nearly two inches, and there's 8.7 inches of ground clearance.

2009 Sneak Preview: New and Future Ford Cars

Just like you, we always want to know what's coming next from Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles, and all the other places where automotive engineers and designers dream and scheme on our behalf. Car companies, of course, are loath to share information on new products lest their competitors try to copy them--or you decide not to buy the cars they already have on dealer lots. Car companies, though, are simply groups of people, and some of them have a hard time keeping secrets. So, we poke, we prod, we cajole, and we uncover information that becomes the basis for our annual Sneak Preview issue. As always, some of our information is educated guesswork based on hints, insinuations, hunches. Make no mistake, though, these cars are on their way, even though details may change. Ladies and gentlemen: our list of 136 cars coming over the next few years... .

Review: 2010 Volkswagen Golf GTI

Recent developments at Volkswagen have sent some enthusiasts praying for their beloved brand. A sacrilegious VW badge on a Chrysler minivan and plans for watered-down, cost-cut, U.S.-specific models are an effort to attain VW's ludicrously optimistic U.S. sales target of 800,000 cars per year. But those cars come at the risk of undermining Volkswagen's brand image - that of a premium, sporty product with superior driving dynamics.

Then again, most enthusiasts won't care what VW sells - as long as it continues to make a real GTI. Without those three little letters in its lineup, VW is nothing but another appliance manufacturer. And so, despite disappointing sales of the last, fifth-generation GTI, the Wolfsburg crew has developed Number Six. Gott sei Dank.

That means "Thank God" in German, and it's exactly the phrase you'll sigh the moment you start driving the 2010 GTI. Whether it's God or Volkswagen's engineers who need to be thanked depends on your own religious beliefs, but the prayers of devout worshippers at the church of GTI have been answered.

The new GTI is, like all GTIs, based on Volkswagen's mainstay hatchback, the Golf. (The Rabbit moniker, which was used for first- and fifth-generation U.S.-market Golfs, has again been banished to the history books.) The sixth-generation Golf is a very careful evolution of the last car, less of a generational change and more of a comprehensive update.

2009 Sneak Preview: New and Future Jaguar Cars

Just like you, we always want to know what's coming next from Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles, and all the other places where automotive engineers and designers dream and scheme on our behalf. Car companies, of course, are loath to share information on new products lest their competitors try to copy them--or you decide not to buy the cars they already have on dealer lots. Car companies, though, are simply groups of people, and some of them have a hard time keeping secrets. So, we poke, we prod, we cajole, and we uncover information that becomes the basis for our annual Sneak Preview issue. As always, some of our information is educated guesswork based on hints, insinuations, hunches. Make no mistake, though, these cars are on their way, even though details may change. Ladies and gentlemen: our list of 136 cars coming over the next few years... .

2009 Sneak Preview: New and Future Mercedes Benz Cars

ust like you, we always want to know what's coming next from Detroit, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles, and all the other places where automotive engineers and designers dream and scheme on our behalf. Car companies, of course, are loath to share information on new products lest their competitors try to copy them--or you decide not to buy the cars they already have on dealer lots. Car companies, though, are simply groups of people, and some of them have a hard time keeping secrets. So, we poke, we prod, we cajole, and we uncover information that becomes the basis for our annual Sneak Preview issue. As always, some of our information is educated guesswork based on hints, insinuations, hunches. Make no mistake, though, these cars are on their way, even though details may change. Ladies and gentlemen: our list of 136 cars coming over the next few years... .