We recently brought you some up-information and driving impressions on Cadillac’s world-class, 556-horsepower CTS-V sport sedan. But it’s worth another better look inside the V Series.

It borrows heavily from the standard CTS’s stunning interior, and that’s great; it already felt a class above thanks to stitched materials, very attractive surfaces, and a sweeping, aggressive look that breaks away from the sport-sedan status quo. Along with subtle badging and trim differences, more standard equipment, and an electric parking brake, here are some noteworthy points after spending a day inside the car, fiddling, fussing, oohing, and aahing:



The CTS-V’s instrument panel, like that in the CTS, is a stunner, with a visually unified design, classy trim and materials, and a standout tapered center console design. The only thing that still leaves us wishing is the bank of gray buttons in the middle, and climate control temperature controls and displays that require too much of a glance downward and get obscured by the right knee for tall drivers.



Hooded, deep-dish gauges with chrome rings feel a bit overdone, styling-wise, but they don’t have a hint of glare. The tachometer includes an arc of red lights that follows the needle and flashes quickly when approaching redline.



The top of the navigation screen functions as a sound-system display when the nav functions aren’t in use; controls are somewhat cluttered elsewhere, but this is a feature we love.



The navigation-system screen itself is one of the best offered in any vehicle, with excellent brightness and contrast, even with the moonroof’s sunshade completely opened; what’s more the system has simple menus and clear, easy-to-use touch-screen controls.



The hand-stitched door panels, well-matched trim pieces, and fine wood veneers that we loved in the CTS are also here in the CTS-V.



The CTS-V has plenty of smartly designed cubbies throughout, including these felt-lined center-console compartments that include a place to put the fob for the EZ Key keyless entry system.



The standard leather sport seats in the CTS-V feature grippy yet breathable suedelike inserts.



You might as well keep this backseat armrest folded down, as the middle seating position isn’t nearly as comfortable as the outboard ones. The backseat doesn’t fold forward in the CTS-V but it does include a ski pass-through, accessed here.

There's big news for the Infiniti M mid-size premium performance sedan for 2008: the fortification of its base V-6 engine, now dubbed VQ35HR (High Revolution).

This edition of Nissan's lauded VQ-series V-6 was introduced in the second-generation G35 sedan and it brings a gain of 28 horsepower to the M35 and M35x for power totals of 303 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque. The rear-drive model also gets a new seven-speed automatic, while the all-wheel-drive edition sticks with its five-speed automatic.

The V-8 M45 stars the same for this year, but all Infiniti Ms also get a Drive Sport shift mode and automatic speed-sensing door locks, along with Scratch Shield paint.

Starting with three models at the beginning of the model year and extending to a total of eight by the middle of 2009, General Motors announced it will be offering radios with USB ports for digital music players in some of its vehicles.

Similar to other carmakers such as Ford and premium brands that have offered it as an option (such as BMW) for a year or longer, many of GM's systems will charge portable digital music players as well as allow management of playlists and playback through the radio's interface.

These new radios are currently available in the Chevrolet Cobalt, the Chevrolet HHR, and the Pontiac G5. By the middle of the 2009 model year, they will extend to the Pontiac G6 and Solstice, the Saturn Sky and Aura, and the Chevrolet Malibu.

Auxiliary input jacks for MP3 players and other audio devices began appearing in GM products two years ago. But like all auxiliary jacks, they neither provided for device charging nor did they interface with the controls of the music player, requiring the user to adjust the player independently of the radio.

Big news from the purveyor of symmetrical all-wheel drive and devotee of horizontally opposed engines: Subaru adds a 'tweener Impreza model to slot bridging the Impreza 2.5i and the enhusiast-oriented WRX and WRX STI--which we told you about a few weeks back--and now they're pricing the new versions in the mid-$20s.

Dubbed the 2.5GT, the new Subie's turbocharged and intercooled flat four churns out 224 horses, 41 hp shy of the newly fortified WRX. Actually, those 224 horses are the exact same output as last year's WRX, so perhaps this was just a way to up the semi-soft performance of the WRX without alienating buyers who want more power with less flash. The 2.5GT is about equal in power with Mitsubishi's similarly positioned Lancer Ralliart (at 235 hp, and slotted between the econo Lancer and the Evo), though its yesteryear four-speed auto can't hope to compare with the Ralliart's slick dual clutch automated manual gearbox that features six ratios.

Alas, the autobox is the only transmission available in the 2.5GT. Thanks to a half-liter greater displacement, though, one would expect the 2.5GT to hold its own. We can only hope that Subaru adds a ratio or two in the near future to improve both performance and fuel consumption in their thirsty flat-four turbos.

The 2.5GT sedan starts out at $26,995, the five-door at $27,495, placing this trim some $2,000 higher than comparable WRX models but still significantly cheaper than the toney STI, which starts at $34,995. Included for the 2.5GT's slightly higher price than the WRX are an Active AWD version of Subaru's Symmetrical AWD as well as a power moonroof. Active AWD is simply a front-biased system that throws power rearward when slippage is detected at the front wheels through a hydraulic multiplate transfer clutch (think Honda CR-V and other soft roaders). When compared to the continuous AWD used in manual-transmission Subarus that features a 50/50 front-rear power split, Active AWD will lend the 2.5GT a less sporting, greater understeering nature through turns and during aggressive driving.

Rounding out mechanical updates to the Impreza line, the base 2.5i now receives the rear disc brakes, brake assist, and VDC (Vehicle Dynamics Control) previously standard only on uplevel models.--Colin Mathews

A Toyota dealer that got a little anxious over the purported plug-in Prius hybrid has been rebuked--and customers are getting their deposits back.

In a gentle but public slap on the wrist to Silicon Valley-adjacent Magnussen Toyota in Palo Alto, Calif., Toyota announced that it's "very proud that Magnussen’s Toyota intends to return the deposits it has collected from customers hoping to be the first to buy a plug-in Prius," explaining that "one of our dealers created some confusion recently by taking deposits on future Prius plug-in hybrids" despite the fact that the automaker has not announced a timetable for retail sales of such a vehicle.

Toyota's PR folks issued a carefully-worded statement on their blog that danced a fine line between maintaining the public's rabid enthusiasm for its hybrid vehicles and emphatically stating that plug-in hybrids will not be released until they are tried and tested. Toyota's corporate blog says "we have vowed as a company to not release new systems until they are reliable and ready for everyday use. One of the best ways to help ensure that is through rigorous testing in fleets that do a tremendous amount of driving in all types of weather and road conditions."

Toyota did mention that its Global President, Katsuaki Watanabe, announced that test Prius plug-in hybrids will be delivered to commercial fleet customers not in 2010, as originally planned, but in early 2009. These fleets will be in the U.S. as well as in other parts of the world.  Presumably, the plug-in test vehicles will bow sometime after the new 2010 Prius shows up at the Detroit auto show in January.

Meanwhile, GM battery engineers are working to deliver on the promise of the 2010 Chevrolet Volt, which also may sport a plug-in version at some point in its life. We're expecting Volt news within the next week or so; keep an eye on these pages for more.--Colin Mathews