A Holiday From Wishful Thinking By LAWRENCE ULRICH

December 27, 2009
Car Critic's Picks
A Holiday From Wishful Thinking By LAWRENCE ULRICH

The urge to find silver linings in the recession’s clouds is understandable. But the vogueish insistence that Americans will rediscover the simple life — forgoing new cars and Texas-size TVs, perhaps stitching designer jeans from homespun cotton — is wishful thinking.

The recession has changed our essential nature as much as vegans have convinced us to stop perusing the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s. When Americans get back to work, they’ll spend their lunch breaks clambering over each other to buy cars, as they have always done when the financial coast was clear. More than a house, and far more than a piddling iPhone — a token of achievement so potent that 15-year-old babysitters can acquire one — a car remains the most visible, desirable accessory of success. For better or worse, those four wheels, wrapped in glossy paint and bursting with high-tech toys, are still the fastest route to the good life that upwardly mobile Americans have always imagined for themselves..

At least that’s my theory, for which I’m hoping to be vindicated in 2011. Or maybe in 2012. And for anyone with the means and inclination to buy a new car in 2010, here are 10 of the best I drove in 2009:

1. Volkswagen Golf TDI and GTI

The TDI hatchback, along with its road-slashing GTI cousin, are the best and most timely cars I’ve driven this year, a one-two punch to the recession’s leering mug. The diesel-powered TDI is more luxurious than a Toyota Prius, and far more fun. Yet in highway driving it is just as thrifty, posting an incredible 52 m.p.g. The GTI starts at barely $24,000 and tops 30 m.p.g. on the highway, yet this practical hatchback is as thrilling to drive as many sports cars.

2. Audi S4 and S5 Cabriolet

For both these Audis, the “S” on their muscular chests is the difference between Superman and Clark Kent: If you love to fly, why settle for the mere-mortal A4 or A5 versions? For roughly $7,000 more, the S versions come with Audi’s new 333-horsepower supercharged V-6, which blows away the 211-horsepower turbo 4 in the most basic models, yet gets just 1 m.p.g. less on the highway, at 26 mpg. And the S5 Cabrio is my current dream car that’s not pure lottery-ticket fantasy: At roughly $70,000, the Audi convertible is fast and decadent, but still roomy enough for kids and luggage.

3. Volvo XC60

A genuine looker in a field dominated by suburban snoozers, the XC60 crossover caps its eye-snaring design with several pluses: Outstanding use of space; a just-right blend of ride comfort and handling control; an eager turbocharged V-6 and a slick all-wheel-drive system. It also offers the most comprehensive safety features in its class.

4. Ford Fusion Hybrid

The Fusion defies the conventional wisdom that Detroit couldn’t build a great hybrid. The Ford trumps the Toyota Camry Hybrid’s city mileage, at 41 m.p.g. for the Ford versus 33 for the Toyota. And I love racking up green points with the interactive, leaf-sprouting video display that encourages you to try to attain the best possible mileage.

5. BMW 7 Series

I must get getting old: I’m starting to feel at home in grandpa-sized luxury sedans. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready for a date with the local death panel. The new 7 Series — I’m talking the long-wheelbase version, the 750Li — has more rear legroom than any Mercedes, Lexus, Audi or Jaguar. Yet the car’s athletic handling makes this the rare luxo-barge that can relax or reinvigorate on command.

6. Nissan 370Z Roadster

Nissan has followed up the acclaimed Z coupe, new last year, with a droptop version. And if the only thing you love more than a sports car is a convertible sports car, the Z (starting at barely $42,000) is the most wind-aided joy you’ll have without raiding the 401(k) for a Porsche Boxster, a Corvette or some other more pricey ragtop.

7. Audi R8 5.2 V-10

I was skeptical before my opening laps in the new 10-cylinder Audi R8; the original V-8 model seemed enough to satisfy any sports-car fantasy. Turns out that the 525-horsepower midmounted V-10 — a detuned version of the explosive engine in the Lamborghini Gallardo, the R8’s sister car — gives the Audi the spine-jangling sound, power and 200-m.p.h. bragging rights this exotic needed all along. Now I think the V-8 version is the one that’s irrelevant: If you have the means to spend $130,000 on a two-seat Audi, you might as well go all-in for the $160,000 V-10 model.

8. Mazda 3/Mazdaspeed 3

Japan’s sharpest riposte to the VW Golf and GTI, the Mazdas are for buyers who demand more from a small car: Not just price and practicality, but fun and refinement. The Mazdaspeed version, with its 263-horsepower turbo 4, is more high-strung and adolescent than the GTI; but a grown-up can still drive one without looking as if he’s watched too many Eminem videos.

9. Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe

The coupe version of the latest E-Class sedan has more hubba-hubba than any four-seat Benz in memory. After you park this arched-roof coupe, you may find yourself walking backward trying to catch one last glimpse. The Benz is also fast, plush, and satisfying, especially the splurge-worthy E550, with a terrific 382-horsepower V-8.

10. Land Rover LR4

This reworking of the LR3 is as old-school as a nearly three-ton, steel-boned, rock-crawling S.U.V. can be. And the 14 m.p.g. I recorded on my test drive is old-school as well. But for the LR4, the new includes a terrific Jaguar-based V-8, a markedly improved cabin and better ride and handling. The capable LR3 was bursting with industrial character, but the LR4 is a genuine luxury alternative to the range-topping Range Rover. Add handy three-row seating unavailable in the Range Rover, and the $60,000 LR4 feels like a three-ton bargain.

Beyond the Top 10

Here are some of my biggest letdowns this year:

1. Ford Taurus

Looks are deceiving for the Taurus, whose modestly handsome styling disguises the most disappointing car I tested this year. The Taurus could get the award for World’s Biggest Small Car: it seems enormous on the outside, claustrophobic on the inside, with poor exterior sightlines and an paucity of rear legroom for taller adults. The final backhand came from my wife, taken aback by the Taurus’ old-fashioned, floaty road manners. “I thought America stopped making cars like this,” she said.

2. Chevrolet Camaro

I wanted to love the Camaro. And while the car’s looks score a technical knockout, the Camaro is too deeply flawed: It weighs too much, has a so-so interior, indifferent steering and the outward visibility of a barrel at Niagara Falls. Let’s hope the “Transformers” star can transform itself into a more complete car in the years to come.

3. Audi A4

The A4 is the rare recent Audi that misses the mark in overall design and performance, not to mention its dismayingly lofty price.

4. BMW X6 ActiveHybrid

The X6 and the 555-horsepower X6M are up front, at least, about their profligate, power-mad intentions. But the bogus X6 ActiveHybrid crossover, rated at just 19 m.p.g. on the highway, reminds me of the Lexus LS 600h L hybrid sedan: It is overwrought and pointless, a piece of green window dressing.

5. Cadillac SRX

All show and no go sums up the Cadillac SRX, a great-looking crossover that drives like a tarted-up Chevy.

6. Chrysler Group

Give Chrysler an “incomplete” final score for the year. Perhaps tired of seeing its cars relentlessly panned, Chrysler simply didn’t put out any new cars at all this year. The Dodge Ram Heavy Duty pickup, itself merely a work-centric offshoot of the company’s lone sales star, was the sole new addition to the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep lineups. Chrysler’s cupboard is scarily bare for 2010 as well; the redesigned Jeep Grand Cherokee looks terrific on paper, but it will arrive into a dwindling class of conventional S.U.V.’s. Aside from that, there is next to nothing until products arrive from Fiat — and it is hardly certain that the Italians can pull off the Chrysler rescue that eluded Daimler and Cerberus, Chrysler’s two previous owners.