Archive for the ‘2009’ Category

It’s official; as of January 1, 2010, the much-loved Sprinter van, made by Daimler, will once again have the three-pointed star in the U.S.—and be sold by Mercedes-Benz rather than Dodge.

Automotive News reports that the Sprinter will be sold by 120 appointed dealerships as part of Daimler Vans USA, a new entity that shares its corporate headquarters with M-B USA. Meanwhile, Freightliner franchises, which have sold Sprinters as well, will continue to do so, and the vans will still be built in South Carolina.

And if you’re thinking about a Sprinter, you might want to hold off until then; the model will be relaunched with the more modern...

Volkswagen late last week issued a service program covering several Volkswagen and Audi models equipped with Direct Shift Gearboxes (DSG).

In a release, Volkswagen Group of America reported that some owners of vehicles with the DSG transmission have reported “performance issues, due to a faulty component in some of the units.”

The program affects about 43,000 Volkswagens and 10,300 Audis in all, including 2007-2009 models of the Volkswagen Eos, GTI, Jetta, R32, and SportWagen, plus the Audi A3 and TT.

This is unrelated, VW says, to a voluntary recall issued August 20, covering a faulty temperature sensor and affecting a smaller group of...

While crawling along in traffic or responsibly setting the cruise on a pockmarked Interstate, it's quite possible to forget that you're in the fastest American sport sedan ever, with more than 550 horsepower on tap.

That's a huge compliment, as most high-performance cars let themselves be known in ever-present ways, with droning engine notes, bum-busting impact harshness, and stiffened bodies that ring in almost constant protestation on coarse highway surfaces.

The 2009 Cadillac CTS-V—which carries into 2010 with no significant changes, by the way—thankfully doesn't have any of these reminders. It's a car that, on the street, doesn't need...