New Car Scoop

Ward’s Auto has released its annual list of the Ten Best Engines for the new year. There are a lot of great engines in here, however there’s something missing. Let’s see if you can guess:

• Audi AG: 2.0L TFSI turbocharged DOHC I-4 (A4 Avant)
• BMW AG: 3.0L turbocharged DOHC I-6 (135i Coupe)
• BMW AG: 3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (335d)
• Chrysler LLC: 5.7L Hemi OHV V-8 (Dodge Ram/Challenger R/T)
• Ford Motor Co.: 2.5L DOHC I-4 HEV (Escape Hybrid)
• General Motors Corp.: 3.6L DOHC V-6 (Cadillac CTS)
• Honda Motor Co. Ltd.: 3.5L SOHC V-6 (Accord Coupe)
• Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd.: 4.6L DOHC V-8 (Genesis)
• Toyota Motor Corp.: 3.5L DOHC V-6 (Lexus IS 350)
• Volkswagen AG: 2.0L SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel (Jetta TDI)

It seems as though all the new cars have very useful, reliable and efficient engines, all the performance engines to come out of BMW, VW and Mercedes are nowhere to be found. The only traditional performance based engine that remains on the list is the venerable Hemi. Despite this, we are seeing engines that offer a unique combination of efficiency and performance (BMW’s 3.0L turbodiesel, 3,0L petrol, VW’s 2.0L turbodiesel and Audi’s 2.0L TFSI petrol engine). These engines mark the very peak of efficiency, yet sit in inside of cars that are known for being spunky (VW Jetta), handle very well (BMW 335d) and are known for their race car attitude (BMW 135i). It seems though the high performance engines likely to be in your M3 or GT-R aren’t on this list, Ward’s hasn’t gone completely boring and given the Toyota Prius Hybrid Drive the top 10 spots. However, whether you’re a weekend racer or a discerning traveler looking for something that’s going to get you far and not break on the way there, buying a new car is going to yeild some of the best engines we’ve seen in cars yet!

Press Release:

Ward’s Announces 2009 10 Best Engines Winners

SOUTHFIELD, MI – Amid plummeting vehicle sales, thousands of job losses, an economy officially in recession and pleas for federal assistance, a handful of auto makers have cause to celebrate.

Ward’s Automotive Group announces its 2009 10 Best Engines list, which reflects the diversity of powertrains that will play a role in reshaping America’s automotive landscape.

Selected by Ward’s editors, the 2009 list marks the 15th year for the Ward’s 10 Best Engines program, the North American auto industry’s only awards honoring powertrain excellence and considered by many to be the “Oscars” for automotive engines.

The winners for 2008 (engine and tested vehicle):

* Audi AG: 2.0L TFSI turbocharged DOHC I-4 (A4 Avant)
* BMW AG: 3.0L turbocharged DOHC I-6 (135i Coupe)
* BMW AG: 3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (335d)
* Chrysler LLC: 5.7L Hemi OHV V-8 (Dodge Ram/Challenger R/T)
* Ford Motor Co.: 2.5L DOHC I-4 HEV (Escape Hybrid)
* General Motors Corp.: 3.6L DOHC V-6 (Cadillac CTS)
* Honda Motor Co. Ltd.: 3.5L SOHC V-6 (Accord Coupe)
* Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd.: 4.6L DOHC V-8 (Genesis)
* Toyota Motor Corp.: 3.5L DOHC V-6 (Lexus IS 350)
* Volkswagen AG: 2.0L SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel (Jetta TDI)

Awards to be presented during Detroit auto show in January.

“A decade ago, few consumers in the U.S. paid serious attention to hybrids or diesels. This year, they have to, if they don’t want to be pinched the next time fuel hits $4 a gallon,” says Tom Murphy, executive editor of Ward’s AutoWorld magazine.”The diesels from VW and BMW and the Ford Escape Hybrid all got better than 30 mpg (7.8 L/100 km) during our testing, and often they topped 40 mpg (5.8 L/100 km),” he says. “And the diesels meet the strictest emissions regulations in the world. If Americans want to find a vehicle that consumes less fuel and is fun to drive, our list is a great place to start.”

Among the winners is Ford Motor Co.’s redesigned 2.5L 4-cyl. hybrid-electric powertrain, which motivated President and CEO Alan Mulally’s Escape Hybrid cross/utility vehicle to and from Washington D.C. for federal-aid talks, makes the cut.

During Ward’s testing, the front-wheel-drive HEV managed to easily surpass the federal fuel-economy rating of 34/31 city/highway mpg (6.9-7.5 L/100 km).

BMW AG’s new 3.0L inline 6-cyl. turbodiesel scores a slot on the list in its first year available in the U.S. Joined by the auto maker’s twin-turbocharged and direct-injected gasoline I-6 engine, which returns for the third year, the diesel employs a sequential twin-turbocharger system that provides the 335d sedan with impressive fuel economy and a stunning 425 lb.-ft. (576 Nm) of torque.

Volkswagen AG joins the clean-diesel party this year, as well, with its new 2.0L 4-cyl. turbodiesel powering the Jetta TDI sedan. Fun to drive and frugal at the pump, the TDI is an affordable and entertaining alternative to many larger gasoline and hybrid-electric powertrains.

Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. appears for the first time on Ward’s 10 Best Engines list with its all-new Tau 4.6L DOHC V-8. Introduced in the new Genesis luxury sedan, the engine’s velvety power delivery, competitive performance and attainable price epitomize the Korean auto maker’s drive for world-class engineering.
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Chrysler LLC’s venerable 5.7L Hemi V-8 returns to the rankings with added refinement, power and variable-valvetrain and induction technology. Its guttural roar and low-end grunt serves double duty this year in the all-new Dodge Challenger R/T and Ram pickup.

Toyota Motor Corp. scores its fourth consecutive 10 Best Engines win with its Lexus 3.5L DOHC V-6, a brilliant design that employs a unique, combination direct- and port-injection fueling system that helps generate 306 hp and 277 lb.-ft. (376 Nm) of torque.

General Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. also make return appearances with their high-volume V-6 engines exemplifying practicality balanced with precision engineering.

GM’s high-feature 3.6L V-6 with direct-gasoline injection returns for the second time. Tested in the Cadillac CTS, yet flexible enough to proliferate through the auto maker’s CUVs, the advanced V-6 makes a hardy 304 hp on regular gasoline.

Honda underscores its longstanding reputation for great engines with the encore performance of its 3.5L SOHC V-6 in the Accord lineup. Merging exceptional performance with reasonable fuel economy, the engine employs advanced cylinder deactivation in the sedan and engaging power delivery in the coupe.

Audi AG’s 2.0L TFSI turbocharged 4-cyl., freshly revamped with 211 hp and a mighty 258 lb.-ft. (350 Nm) of torque for the all-new A4, rounds out the list with a fourth-consecutive 10 Best Engines placing as one of the best all-around turbo-4s on the market.

This year, six Ward’s editors nominated 32 different engines for the Ward’s 10 Best Engines competition. The nominee list consists of the 2008 winners as well as all-new or significantly improved engines.

Over a nearly 2-month period, the editors evaluated and scored each engine against all others in a number of objective and subjective parameters. Each engine must be available in a regular-production U.S.-specification model on sale no later than first-quarter 2009, in a vehicle priced no more than $54,000, a price cap indexed to the average cost of a new vehicle.

The awards will be given at a Jan. 14 ceremony in Detroit during the North American International Auto Show.

Complete stories about the 10 Best Engines will be featured soon on WardsAuto.com and in upcoming issues of Ward’s AutoWorld magazine and Ward’s Engine & Vehicle Technology Update newsletter.

Ward’s 10 Best Engines is a copyright of Penton Media Inc. Commercial references to the program and/or awards are prohibited without prior permission of Ward’s Automotive Group.

To most people, safety is the top priority when buying a new car. There’s nothing more important than the safety of you and your family and because of this, the IIHS releases yearly standard of how well each car does in various instances of crashes.

This year, there were 72 cars that hold a safety rating at or exceeding the standards of highest safety rating by the IIHS. These standards include various criteria pertaining to air-bags, crumple zones, cabin incursion, roll-over safety and and overall survivability (the chart to the right are a few more of the locations that can decide safety). Below is the official IIHS press release:

IIHS Names Top Safety Performers for 2009

ARLINGTON, VA - Crash Test Winners - Seventy-two vehicles earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick award for 2009. This is more than double the number of 2008 recipients and more than 3 times the number of 2007 winners. Top Safety Pick recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, side, and rear crashes based on good ratings in Institute tests. Winners also have to have electronic stability control (ESC), which research shows significantly reduces crash risk.

For the first time ever, winners represent every class of vehicle the Institute tests except microcars. Most car, minivan, and SUV models, midsize convertibles, and small and large pickups are eligible. Ford and its subsidiary Volvo have 16 winners, including the Ford F-150 large pickup. Thirteen winners are from Honda and its Acura division. The Honda Fit with optional ESC is the first minicar to earn Top Safety Pick.

Honda, Acura, and Subaru, which picked up 4 awards, are standouts for 2009 because they have at least 1 Top Safety Pick in every vehicle class in which they compete.

“Consumers are the biggest winners,” says Institute president Adrian Lund. “No matter what kind of vehicle buyers may be considering, now they can walk into just about any dealership and find one that affords the best overall protection in serious crashes.”

Front and side impacts are the most common kinds of fatal crashes, killing about three-quarters of the 28,896 passenger vehicle occupants who died in 2007. Rear-end crashes usually aren’t fatal, but they result in a large proportion of crash injuries. Neck sprain or strain is the most commonly reported injury in two thirds of insurance claims for injuries in all kinds of crashes.

Automakers improve protection: Top Safety Pick provides an incentive for manufacturers to offer safer vehicle designs that go far beyond basic federal standards.

“In order to win, automakers have beefed up the side structures of vehicles and added side airbags to do a better job of protecting people in serious side crashes,” Lund says. “They’re rapidly adding ESC to prevent crashes, and they’re designing seats and head restraints that do a better job of protecting against whiplash.”

The changes are evident in the safety equipment that is increasingly standard. For the 2009 model year, 84 percent of passenger cars, 99 percent of SUVs, and 23 percent of pickups have standard side airbags with head protection. The same is true for ESC. It’s standard on 74 percent of passenger cars, 99 percent of SUVs, and 37 percent of pickups.

Crash avoidance is required: The Institute began the Top Safety Pick program in 2006, initially giving out 2 tiers of awards. Gold winners scored good ratings for front, side, and rear crash protection. Silver winners had good ratings in front and side tests and acceptable ratings in rear evaluations.

For 2007, the Institute raised the bar to win by requiring good rear impact results and ESC as either standard or optional equipment. ESC helps drivers maintain control of their vehicles in the worst situation - loss of control at high speed - by engaging automatically when it senses vehicle instability and helping to bring a vehicle back in the intended line of travel. ESC lowers the risk of a fatal single-vehicle crash by about half, and it lowers the risk of a fatal rollover crash by as much as 70 percent.

Rear, side performance still lags: Crash tests have driven major improvements in the designs of all kinds and sizes of passenger vehicles. The Institute began conducting frontal tests for consumer information in 1995. Side tests were added in 2003 and rear tests in 2004. Most vehicles earn good ratings based on the frontal crash test, but significant differences remain among vehicles’ performance in side and rear tests.

Twenty-six models fall short of earning Top Safety Pick because of inadequate head restraint designs. The Smart Fortwo, the only microcar in the US market, missed because of its head restraints. The same goes for Toyota’s hybrid Prius, which performed well in the Institute’s front and side crash tests but came up short for rear crash protection.

Chrysler is the only major automaker lacking a single Top Safety Pick. It could have picked up 5 awards if the head restraints were better in the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring, the Sebring convertible, and the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country.

A 2008 Institute analysis of insurance claims found that, all other factors being the same, drivers of vehicles with seat/head restraint combinations rated good in Institute evaluations were 15 percent less likely to sustain neck injuries in rear-end crashes than drivers of vehicles with poor head restraints.

Eleven vehicles missed the mark because they didn’t earn a good rating for occupant protection in side crashes. Many of these vehicles are smaller cars whose size puts them at a disadvantage in the challenging test compared with larger, heavier vehicles.

“Still, the sheer number of this year’s winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection to achieve Top Safety Pick designation,” Lund says. “For years Toyota had more also-rans than winners. For 2009 this automaker has come on strong by updating seats and head restraints in the Avalon, Corolla, FJ Cruiser, and RAV4 to earn good ratings. Volkswagen has done the same with the Eos, Jetta, Passat, and Rabbit.”

Winners include 8 large cars, 13 midsize cars, 6 small cars, 1 minicar, 3 midsize convertibles, and 3 minivans. Among SUVs, 19 are midsize, 10 are small, and 5 are large. The 2008 Toyota Tundra was the first large pickup to earn Top Safety Pick. For 2009, the Tundra is joined by the Ford F-150 and the Honda Ridgeline. The Toyota Tacoma is the only small pickup winner.

Each year the Institute offers to test Top Safety Pick candidates early in the model year. The policy is for manufacturers to reimburse the Institute for the cost of vehicles if the tests aren’t part of the group’s regular schedule. Top Safety Pick is presented by vehicle size because size and weight are closely related, and both influence how well occupants will be protected in serious crashes. Larger, heavier vehicles generally afford better protection in crashes than smaller, lighter ones.

“Just because small cars are Top Safety Picks doesn’t make them as crashworthy as larger vehicles,” Lund says. “Rather, it’s all the more important to choose a small car that rates highly for safety because you give up the protection of size and weight.”

How vehicles are evaluated: The Institute’s frontal crashworthiness evaluations are based on results of 40 mph frontal offset crash tests. Each vehicle’s overall evaluation is based on measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury measures recorded on a Hybrid III dummy in the driver seat, and analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system controlled dummy movement during the test.

Side evaluations are based on performance in a crash test in which the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph. The barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV. Ratings reflect injury measures recorded on two instrumented SID-IIs dummies, assessment of head protection countermeasures, and the vehicle’s structural performance during the impact.

Rear crash protection is rated according to a two-step procedure. Starting points for the ratings are measurements of head restraint geometry - the height of a restraint and its horizontal distance behind the back of the head of an average-size man. Seat/head restraints with good or acceptable geometry are tested dynamically using a dummy that measures forces on the neck. This test simulates a collision in which a stationary vehicle is struck in the rear at 20 mph. Seats without good or acceptable geometry are rated poor overall because they can’t be positioned to protect many people.

All 72 Winners of 2009 IIHS Top Safety Performers

IIHS 2009 Large Car Top Safety Performers
* Acura RL
* Audi A6
* Cadillac CTS
* Ford Taurus
* Lincoln MKS
* Mercury Sable
* Toyota Avalon
* Volvo S80

IIHS 2009 Midsize Car Top Safety Performers
* Acura TL
* Acura TSX
* Audi A3
* Audi A4
* BMW 3 series 4-door models
* Ford Fusion with optional electronic stability control
* Honda Accord 4-door models
* Mercedes C class
* Mercury Milan with optional electronic stability control
* Saab 9-3
* Subaru Legacy
* Volkswagen Jetta
* Volkswagen Passat

IIHS 2009 Midsize Convertibles Top Safety Performers
* Saab 9-3
* Volkswagen Eos
* Volvo C70

IIHS 2009 Small Cars Top Safety Performers
* Honda Civic 4-door models (except Si) with optional electronic stability control
* Mitsubishi Lancer with optional electronic stability control
* Scion xB
* Subaru Impreza with optional electronic stability control
* Toyota Corolla with optional electronic stability control
* Volkswagen Rabbit

IIHS 2009 Mini Car Top Safety Performers
* Honda Fit with optional electronic stability control

IIHS 2009 Minivan Top Safety Performers
* Honda Honda Odyssey
* Hyundai Entourage
* Kia Sedona

IIHS 2009 Large SUV Top Safety Performers
* Audi Q7
* Buick Enclave
* Chevrolet Traverse
* GMC Acadia
* Saturn Outlook

IIHS 2009 Midsize SUV Top Safety Performers
* Acura MDX
* Acura RDX
* BMW X3
* BMW X5
* Ford Edge
* Ford Flex
* Ford Taurus X
* Honda Pilot
* Hyundai Santa Fe
* Hyundai Veracruz
* Infiniti EX35
* Lincoln MKX
* Mercedes M Class
* Nissan Murano
* Saturn VUE
* Subaru Tribeca
* Toyota FJ Cruiser
* Toyota Highlander
* Volvo XC90

IIHS 2009 Small SUV Top Safety Performers
* Ford Escape
* Honda CR-V, Element
* Mazda Tribute
* Mercury Mariner
* Mitsubishi Outlander
* Nissan Rogue
* Subaru Forester
* Toyota RAV4
* Volkswagen Tiguan

IIHS 2009 Large Pickups Top Safety Performers
* Ford F-150
* Honda Ridgeline
* Toyota Tundra

IIHS 2009 Small Pickups Top Safety Performers
* Toyota Tacoma

ALSO-RANS For 2009 IIHS Top Safety Performers

The following 26 vehicles earn good ratings in front and side crash tests. They have ESC, standard or optional. They would be 2009 Top Safety Pick winners if their seat/head restraints also earn good ratings:

* Chevrolet Malibu
* Chrysler Sebring
* Chrysler Sebring Convertible
* Chrysler Town & Country
* Dodge Avenger
* Dodge Grand Caravan
* Infiniti G35
* Infiniti M35
* Kia Amanti
* Lexus ES
* Lexus GS
* Lexus IS
* Mazda CX-7
* Mazda CX-9
* Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
* Mitsubishi Endeavor
* Nissan Altima
* Nissan Pathfinder
* Nissan Quest
* Nissan Xterra
* Saturn AURA
* smart Fortwo
* Toyota 4Runner
* Toyota Camry
* Toyota Prius
* Toyota Sienna

Source: IIHS