2011 Buick Regal. photo // buick.com

For the last few decades, the American automobile industry has been consistently beaten by the foreign automobile industry.  The American automobile industry has looked into this problem and found every way they could to bounce back.  They have done this with a new mentality: quality cars for a good price, as opposed to mediocre cars for a not–so-good price.  One car that showcases this new mentality is the 2011 Buick Regal.

I showed up to the dealership unsure of what to expect.  I noticed that every car in the showroom was quite nice looking, except the Cadillac DTS, which looked dated. Then, my guide came over and pointed out the new Regal.  My eyes nearly popped out of my head in a cartoon-like way.

The Buick Regal no longer looks like a huge boat made for your grandparents to travel in. It’s slimmer, with a sportier look that actually makes you want to drive it around town, not into a lake.  Both the interior and exterior are attractive.

Once in the car, I noticed that the seat was very comfortable; it has different warm and cool settings. I already had the feeling that the name Buick has begun to mean something entirely new. I started the car and heard the engine roar to life. The two-liter, 220-brake horsepower inline four-cylinder engine has a turbo charger, something that never seemed to fit in a Buick.  It must be mentioned that Volkswagen has a two-liter inline four-cylinder engine with a turbo, yet it only produces 200-brake horsepower.  Because the Buick is larger, you might think it would need the extra twenty, but Volkswagen makes such heavy cars that perhaps it needs the extra twenty just as much.

It was explained to me that the engineering with the turbo charger meant better cooling and better lubrication so that it would take much, much longer for it to burn out. Even when you stop the car, turn it off and leave it, the car continues to take care of the turbo on its own by continuing to cool it.

Next, I set off down the road. The car was so enjoyable to drive; it was a relaxing experience. The turbo had no lag, and the car could get going when you put the pedal down. But with such a smooth suspension, it was easy to see that Buick was now in hot pursuit of a Lexus or Mercedes.

Instead of thinking to myself, “This is a whole new car that has come from an old company,” I thought, “This is a new car from an entirely new company!” Normally, when a car company goes in a new direction, you can tell because the engineering still seems to be  in the test phase within the first or one or two model years.  But with the Buick, there was no more of the usual American car companies only engineering the car 95%.  Everything was in place.

Overall, the new 2011 Buick Regal is a sign that the American automobile industry is making a complete turnaround. They’ve seen their business stripped away from them in one fell swoop by foreign cars. Wealthy people turn to BMW and Lexus, while the not-so-wealthy choose Toyota and Honda. Between Buick, Cadillac, Ford and so on, it is easy to see that America is going to make plenty of competition on all fronts.

Is it possible to find a solution to these problems and still have a car for daily use? It looks like Ford can help.

Ford has recently come out with the newly designed Taurus SHO. The radical updates are experienced early on. Just getting into the car, you have the choice of using the key fob or just walking up to the car. The car senses the key and unlocks for you. Once you’re inside, all you have to do is push a button to start the engine.

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/taurus/gallery/photos/

The futuristic technology doesn’t stop there. You can also program the voice sync technology so that the car operates on voice commands. The SHO also has control buttons on the steering wheel for the radio, cruise control, voice sync, and Bluetooth.

Ford has made other changes, some of which are aimed at those reckless drivers from my high school. Yes, the SHO has a 365 horse power 3.5-liter V6, but, Ford seems to be saying, why should teenage drivers have it so easy? Ford now gives out multiple car keys for which the owner can program permissions. Basically, this is so that when Daddy gives his son or daughter their own key, the car knows which key is being used. Then when the kid goes out, the car knows to only allow the kid to go certain speeds and can track where the kid goes. This feature isn’t so much an effort to be Big Brother as it is to be Big Daddy.

Four of the SHO’s fantastic safety features are the Collision Warning with Brake Support (CWBS), adaptive cruise control, Cross Traffic Alert, and Blind Spot Information System (BLIS).

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/taurus/gallery/photos/

The CWBS makes noise and lights up a red bar on the windshield to get your attention when its radar sees you accelerating directly toward a stopped or slower moving object. The car also begins to brake for you if you have a slow reaction time. The adaptive cruise control works similarly to slow down the car so you don’t have to worry about coming up on a car too fast while using cruise control.

The Cross Traffic Alert has radar on each side toward the rear, and it tells you if traffic is coming up behind you as you back out of a parking space. This radar system doubles to give you the BLIS technology. BLIS lets you know when a car is in your car’s blind spot areas. A light on each side view mirror lights up if the space is occupied.

Some other features include a sat-nav (satellite navigation) system to warn you of traffic and impending weather conditions. Automatic high-beam headlamps are a cool feature where the car senses other headlights, and if none are found it puts the high-beams on for you. You almost have every excuse to be lazy with this car. I encourage anyone considering this car to go to a dealership and pick up a free booklet on it. It will blow your mind.
You also might want to test drive this car. On the course I drove, I experienced acceleration similar to the 2006 Audi A4 I drove last year. Once more the suspension was amazing. I felt like I was hovering above the ground. When I got to a hill, I accelerated almost as fast as I had on flat ground. At one point I took a wrong turn in the car and got momentarily lost, but it didn’t matter because it was such a pleasant car to be in. Plus, I had the sat-nav at my finger tips.

This car could change your life in so many little ways. It is a fun car to drive even though it’s far from being a Ferrari. Then again, do you really want a two-seated, loud, screaming gas guzzler like a Ferrari to drive every day when you could have this grown-up, family-friendly car that seats five pretty comfortably and is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop?
However, while the Taurus is fast, it’s not a car you buy for performance. Its tiptronic transmission wasn’t super responsive and it didn’t let me down shift. Outside of that, the car was such a nice ride. It was smooth, never lacking in power. What’s really interesting is if you get a lower end model, you still get a few bells and a few whistles. Also, non-SHO models still have 263-horse power!

Ford has spared no expense in making their new Taurus something to really get excited about. This is a car you buy to make everyday life seem that much more interesting. This car makes the bold statement: “Why have a car that gives you life-changing excitement off the scale, but only on weekends? Why not have a car that makes your every day more exciting?”

myride.com / photo

The Volkswagen GLI is a combination of the GTI and the Jetta.

First, to give you some brief background, the GLI is a combination of the GTI and the Jetta.  The Jetta is a sedan and the GTI is a souped-up version of the hatchback known as the Golf.  However, the GTI is more than a hatchback.  The GTI was widely used in rally racing as a base, which was then bulked up to withstand jumping the car and speeding through a forest on a dirt road at 100 mph.   In short, to make the GLI you basically have a Jetta body with the bulked-up GTI engine.  And that is what I tested, or should I say, what tested me.

I arrived at the dealership and talked to one of the sales representatives.  In the building and on the way to the car, he told me about some of the features of the new GLIs.  It’s not an outrageously equipped car.  It doesn’t transform and save the world from aliens.  It also doesn’t talk to you while it drives for you as if you were Michael Knight.  However, there are some features that make life a little better.

One such addition is the one-touch blinker.  How often have you changed lanes and had to turn on your turn signal and then turn if off?  Or have you opted to hold it part of the way, then release it so it snapped back into position?  Well, all you have to do in the GLI is lightly push it in the direction you plan to move and let go.  As you return to your driving, the car automatically flashes the blinkers three times and stops.

Before I get to the driving experience, I must tell you about one more significant feature. Volkswagen has produced arguably the best dual clutch automatic transmission on the market. Volkswagen also happens to own Audi, Bugatti, Bentley and Lamborghini, which means you will find this wonderful piece of machinery in other cars.

autos.yahoo.com / photo

The dashboard of the Volkswagen GLI

This transmission is called the direct shift gearbox, or DSG. It’s based on the F1 racing transmission and shifts in two-tenths of a second.  How can it do that?  I thought humans could shift faster!  How does an automatic transmission have two clutches?  Well, the clutches are controlled by a computer, and overall there is more science involved than a normal automatic transmission in a normal car or my mother’s mini-van.

The basic idea is that each clutch has every other gear on it.  So clutch 1 has gears 1, 3, and 5 on it while clutch 2 has gears 2, 4, and 6 on it.  That way, judging by your speed, the computer can shift one clutch up or down and have it ready for you so when you shift, all it does is change the clutch.  Now, instead of disengaging the clutch, moving the gear selector and reengaging the clutch, all you do is engage one gear while the other disengages.

To visualize how a transmission with two gears looks, you must think outside the box. Imagine you have a clutch that is basically just a disc.  If you cut a hole out of it, that’s one clutch.  Now, take the piece you cut out and trim the edges off to make it smaller.  Now replace it.  You now have two clutches that resemble a donut and its donut hole.

When I got in the car, it seemed quite normal with doors, windows, a radio, and seats.  Once I started driving, however, I could tell right away that the engine was bigger.  To be precise, it was a 200-brake horsepower 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine.  As we kept driving around, it was doing a fantastic job handling the curves.  It was very fun, possibly above average, but I wasn’t ready to rave just yet.

clickmotive.com / photo

A view under the hood of the GLI

Then the sales rep had me stop under a bridge and asked me to put the car into sport mode.  Next, I did as I was instructed and took the ESP (Electronic Stability Program) off, held the brake down with one foot and pressed the gas with the other.  Then I was told to let off the brake.  The car shot forward like a rocket.  I sailed through the atmosphere and into a nasty curve, which made me feel like I was on a bullet train because the car had such good cornering I felt it must have been on rails.

With this launch control feature, the computer controls almost everything, so when it knew I was pressing the brake and gas at the same time, it disengaged the clutches.  As soon as I let off the brake and it knew I still had the gas down, it dumped the clutch for me so the engine shot me to the moon.  Who said automatic transmissions were no fun?

We proceeded to the highway.  I, like many, love to go as fast as I can around the clover leaf, then punch the pedal down so I can soar into traffic.  Soar into traffic I did, and I quickly moved into the far left lane.  I was conversing with the sales rep for a moment and then looked down to discover I was moving at 100 mph without a clue.  The ride was so easy, so smooth, and so quiet!  I was stunned and slowed down.  I then put the transmission into manual select mode so I could tell it when to shift down and when to shift up.  I used this feature to dart around traffic like an adolescent in a video game.

However, play time soon ended.  It was time to go back to being a grownup in the real world.  Overall the car was great.  It isn’t too expensive and is a great little economic car to have. However, it has the same intensity and excitement at your fingertips that a lower-end sports car would have.  Therefore yes, you can get the excitement of a sports car in a simple and affordable package.