Join production and test fleet manager Steven J. Ewing as he takes us on a short tour of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz CL550 4Matic, answering some of our readers' questions along the way.

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Great news! We took delivery of our long-term Volkswagen Jetta TDI this morning, and we're quite excited about spending the next 365 days with the little diesel-burner. Since we normally only keep cars in our test fleet for a week or two, it will be interesting to see how our Jetta holds up after one year of driving. More importantly, we're curious to see what kind of overall fuel economy numbers are observed.

Since the Jetta will indeed become a trusty steed for our staff, we'd like to give it some extra personal touches, including a name. Thus, we're looking to you, our readers, for suggestions on what to name our Laser Blue Jetta TDI. Leave a comment with your best suggestion for a name, and if your name is picked, we'll send you some free Winding Road swag, including a couple of t-shirts, mugs, pins, and keychains.

Click through the images in the gallery above to see a bunch of shots of our new long-term Jetta TDI.

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tata Motors announced today that the mother plant for the Nano will be relocated to Sanand in Gujarat, India. The plant will take up nearly 1100 acres of space and Tata hopes to crank out roughly 250,000 Nanos each year from this location, though the plant's capacity allows for around 500,000 cars to be produced each year. This new plant is said to generate over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.

While this new plant is being built, Tata Motors will look into the possibility of manufacturing the Nano at its existing facilities at Pune and Pantnagar. The car is expected to launch in the last quarter of 2008.

Click through the post to read Tata Motors' official press release.

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ford’s enigmatic new Flex appears to be stumbling out of the sales gate. The boxy-yet-sleek three-row crossover wagon has been on the market for four months, and sales numbers have already been falling for the past two months from starting figures that were already well below expectations.

Given America’s growing financial crisis and continued fretting over gasoline prices, some of this is to be expected, but the bottom line is that Ford has gone on record hoping for 70,000-100,000 units per year, and the Flex is presently floundering at just over 2,000 units per month (about 24,000 units per year). This, despite the fact that there are already substantial cash-back options on the table for buyers. Even factoring in market conditions, early signs are that the Flex just isn’t clicking with buyers.

Now that the leaves are changing and autumn is hitting the NextAutos office, road trips through the colorful countryside have been on the minds of our staff. Road trips are some of automotive enthusiasts' favorite things to do, and we all have one or two great drives that we'd like to embark on someday.

So tell us, what's your ultimate fantasy roadtrip? Leave your answer in the comments section, and if you've already lived out your road trip dream, we want to hear about it. Got photos? Upload those, too, and share them with the world.

Now that Audi's RS4 sedan has dropped out of the North American lineup, the quad-rung automaker is now turning its focus to the RS5 coupe, expected to debut next year in Geneva.

Our friends at Motor Authority have captured the RS5 testing at the Nürburgring. New wheels and a reworked front air dam indicate that this car is near production-spec, though no final word has been given on powertrain. Sources claim that the 4.2-liter V-8 from the RS4 will be used, though power would be boosted to 450 horsepower. Others speculate that the V-10 from the RS6 will be featured, though this seems like a rather costly decision for car meant to battle with the BMW M3 Coupe and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.

Click on over to Motor Authority for more details and images.

+ Motor Authority

Today marks the start of the 2008 Audi Mileage Marathon, a cross-country drive featuring the latest clean diesel offerings from Audi, including the U.S.-bound Q7 3.0 TDI set to hit dealerships next year. This drive will cover more than 4800 miles between October 6th and 20th and twenty-three Audi TDI vehicles will participate in the rally.

Other vehicles included in the Mileage Marathon are the new Q5 3.0 TDI, A4 3.0 TDI, and A3 2.0 TDI Sportback. While it's not confirmed if any of these models will be making their way to the States, we're looking forward to experiencing the performance and fuel efficiency that these TDI cars offer.

The NextAutos team will be jumping on board the Mileage Marathon later this week. We'll be posting pictures and impressions live from the road, so stay tuned for further updates. In the meantime, click through the post to read Audi's official press release -- and check the list of towns we'll be stopping through, as well.

It has been almost fourteen years since Alfa Romeo sold new cars in the United States, and their commitment to bring cars back to the U.S. is looking good. The folks at Alfa are planning for an entry into the States as early as late 2009.

The 8C Competizione will be the first car offered in the U.S., and all 84 cars bound for the States have already been sold out. Alfa will only produce 500 of the 450-horsepower 8C coupes worldwide, and U.S. sales of the upcoming 8C Spider are said to begin in 2010. After that, the folks at Automotive News say that Alfa will plan to bring a large, rear-wheel-drive car over, potentially riding on a Jaguar platform. If Alfa can reach a deal with Jaguar's new owner, Tata Motors, we could see this product as early as 2011 or 2012.

+ Automotive News

• Previous Image
• Next Image
• Enlarge Image

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Badge engineering. This is the common practice in the automotive industry of taking a vehicle designed for one brand, and tweaking to work for another. But is this a good thing or a bad thing? We all know examples of the Chevy that is also a Pontiac or a Ford that is also a Mercury with little but trim differences. That cynical approach to marketing has led to a tarnished reputation for badge-engineering, among the pundits at least. The term even sounds pejorative.

Realistically, though some Lexus models are pretty closely related to Toyotas, yet they manage to be distinctive cars for different markets. And some Audi models don’t seem too far removed from Volkswagens, yet they look and feel rather different. Some badge-engineered cars are actually pretty good -- which would seem to be what matters.

Which brings us to the badge-engineered Volkswagen Routan minivan. For the 2009 model year, VW partnered with Chrysler to get back into the segment that some would say VW invented. While many had hoped that VW would return with a Microbus-influenced retro machine, that’s not what we’re getting. What we do get is a pretty nice minivan with some distinctive VW touches.

(Click through the post to read the rest of our Routan review.)

The Ford Motor Company announced today that they will be implementing a new technology called MyKey to allow parents to have better control over their kids' driving habits. The first examples of this will appear on the 2010 Focus Coupe and should quickly spread to other models.

MyKey uses Ford's existing technology to determine which key is being put in the ignition and then knows which driving mode to enable when the car is started. This system allows parents to limit the vehicle's top speed to 80 miles per hour and limit the stereo's volume up to 44 percent of its maximum ability. Also, MyKey does not allow the traction control system to be deactivated, and delivers a low-fuel warning at 75 miles to empty, rather than the standard 50. Cautious parents may also opt to have a speed alert chime come on at 45, 55, or, 65 miles per hour, and the system will repeatedly chime when seatbelts are not being used.

Parents of teen drivers like the idea of MyKey, and initial polling shows that 75 percent like the speed-limiting feature, 72 percent like the seatbelt reminder, and 63 percent like the audio limit feature. On the contrary, teen drivers were also polled, and 67 percent said that they disagree with the MyKey system. However, if having MyKey would, in turn, lead to more driving privileges, only 36 percent of teens would object to the system.

(Click through the post for Ford's complete press release.)