Ford, GM and Chrysler have been getting a lot of bad press lately. While much of it is deserved, there are some high points coming out of Detroit that we should all be thankful for. Here are some of the best cars coming out of America right now.
Not since the Taurus was introduced has Ford had a real turning point in the midsize sedan segment. With the Fusion, Ford offers plenty of legroom, pleasant driving dynamics and a unique exterior that actually makes a statement. And get this: The Fusion is priced lower than other class leaders, with prices starting under $20,000. Just the kind of car a struggling automaker needs!
While it won’t be introduced in the States until 2010 or 2011, this is Ford’s evolution into the global market. The compact Fiesta brings big-car features to the small-car segment, offering a stronger, safer, more fun to drive small car than an American company has ever produced. Question is, is this car coming too late for Ford? This car could be the game changer!
Honda perfected the efficient and reliable sedan in the 1980s. It took GM until the early 2000s. Well, 20 years late is better than nothing. With the new Malibu, fuel efficiency, performance, and a long list of standard amenities come wrapped in a design that GM says carries the new face of Chevrolet. It features a precise build quality and refined driving dynamics, along with a standard 169-horsepower, 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that delivers 30 mpg on the highway. If this car had arrived 10 years earlier to the party, maybe GM wouldn’t be on the verge of collapse today.
In GM’s history of building overly truckish SUVs, the Saturn Outlook is proof that someone in GM corporate finally caught wind that buyers weren’t looking for that anymore. The Outlook is the result of a valiant effort to package eight-passenger seating, real cargo capacity, and a pleasant driving experience into the skin of one hot SUV.
I won’t try to top what Motor Trend said about this car: “If you were one of those who wrote off General Motors as a dying dinosaur — after all, it’s been a decade since any GM car took home the Golden Calipers (the Chevrolet Corvette won back in 1998) — prepare to rewrite everything you think you know about what’s in the General’s store. With this bold, savvy, uncompromising showpiece of a sedan — the all-new Cadillac CTS — GM has leapt straight from the rabble’s side of the velvet rope into that coveted, highly selective inner sanctum marked ‘World’s Finest Cars.’ For that remarkable achievement, and for making us grin like lottery winners every time we drove it, the CTS is our enthusiastic choice for Motor Trend’s 2008 Car of the Year.”
