Motor Trend Car Of The Year - Wrong Choice

Found a few problems with MT's COTY choice. And as always, their photo resolution is lacking.

I found numerous problems and omissions with your recent COTY issue. Some of them inexcusable. The COTY process, Ferrari California and photo quality are the three items that need addressing.

Was the criteria for the Contenders and Finalists listed? The "Contenders" included a Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix. Why in the world were both "corporate twins" included? That made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Was there ANYTHING of significance revised regarding these cars?

Regarding the Challenger R/T. Why wasn't the SRT-8 model considered instead? It has more power, handles better, Brembo brakes, also now available with a 6-speed transmission AND limited-slip rear differential. Additionally, SRT-8 models offer the SRT-8 Track Experience.

If performance criteria was a factor, there were many other cars missing from the list which should have been finalists, especially reading their reviews in the same issue. For example, the ZR1 Corvette and the 7 Series BMW. Why weren't the following models considered: 370Z, BMW M3, Pontiac G8 GXP (vs. the GT like the Challenger R/T), Viper ACR and Solstice GXP (please, leave out the Saturn - corporate twins, you know?). These were serious errors of omission.

While the GT-R is an amazing car for the price, it is also a street-only car. It will probably never see a green flag in a sanctioned racing event, especially due to it's numerous driver's aids and undoubtedly because of it's excessive weight. If no longer AWD for racing, no DCT, no driver's aids, is it still a GT-R?

Notations about it's weight savings are laughable for a car with only 2 usable seats that weighs 3900lbs. It never set a record at the Nurburgring as quite a few sources have already exposed Nissan's 'Ring time that was obviously done in a more powerful car and the street tire question not entirely disproven either. Also, falsely representing the production car's ability in terms of power by not matching the pre-production model's 1/4 mile trap speeds in all the magazines. Remember the ZR1 #001 fetching over $1 million at Barrett-Jackson? How much do you think GT-R #001 would go for? And why is that?

Car & Driver magazine had an excellent article about the "real horsepower" of the GT-R. Funny thing was, their conclusion was WRONG. Their May '08 Road Test model (pre-production) hit 130mph 1.6 seconds quicker than the next fastest model (12.1 vs. 13.7) tested in September '08. That is an enormous margin. Clearly the pre-production model tested at the Nurburgring was much more powerful than what is for sale in the real world.

Also, what about the Ferrari California? Numerous "firsts" for Ferrari: dual-clutch transmission that is probably the best on the market, a folding hardtop, direct injection and a front-engine V8. How could that be passed up for consideration? Pricing? A $75,000 Nissan that should be sold at Infiniti dealers isn't exactly affordable either.

But the worst part about the Ferrari California? The statement that it looked better with the top up. And not ONE photograph with it's top up! Inexcusable!

This brings me to the final observation. It's quite obvious MT has a lower resolution photographs in numerous articles compared to your competition. This have been happening for a long time. I suggest MT bring it's visual quality back to a competitive level.

Pontiac's magnum opus in Motor Trend leaves more questions

Motor Trend recently tested the soon-to-be orphaned Pontiac G8 GXP and left some questions unanswered. Orphaned because it was reported today, April 24th, 2009, that the Pontiac nameplate is being dropped. How unfortunate for another excellent domestic (though imported) car. The GXP is a fantastic bang-for-the-buck sedan but now there will be questions left unanswered. Unfortunately, it looks like we only get to enjoy it for one model year unless Chevrolet picks it up. And they absolutely should.

I must commend Motor Trend for instrument testing both the manual and automatic transmission versions. This is very rare in the automotive media arena. But it also dictates more extensive coverage. http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/112_0902_2009_pontiac_g8_gxp_first_test/index.html

First, a clarification. the LS3 engine in the GXP is not the second most powerful version, it's actually the third and sixth in the LSX family. The C6 Corvette has two versions that are more powerful at 430hp and 436hp with the exhaust option. The LS7 in the Corvette Z-06, the LSA in the Cadillac CTS-V and the LS9 in the Corvette ZR1 are all much more powerful and top the list in the family.

Related to this, the octane requirement is reported to be "regular" or 87 octane, GM media online states it requires premium.

The rear diffuser was called "fake". How so? BMW made a less obvious yet purposeful change to the tail light surface on the 6-series for aerodynamic reasons, so how is the diffuser fake? Have you ever noticed the scallops on the bottom surface of mufflers? This is for aerodynamic reasons as well. Take a look at the diffuser on the 190mph+ Lamborghini Gallardo - it isn't very significant looking.

When a car is advertised as, "Simply the fastest, most powerful Pontiac ever" that pretty much obligates a top speed test, doesn't it? But it wasn't listed, why is that? Also, AutoWeek report the top speed was limited due to cooling reasons. What are the details regarding this lack of cooling?

Now that cars with six, seven or even eight speed automatics perform so closely to their manual transmission counterparts, the clear performance advantage of the manual has effectively been equalized. But once again, when testing them together, further analysis is mandated.

There are a few more questions regarding weight and braking. The weight differential between the two models is 74lbs or almost 2%. Yet the weight distribution is listed as being identical. How can this be? It doesn't have a rear transaxle. The 74lbs differential is definitely not over the center of the car. Finally the braking distance delta is 6ft. Is this accepted statistical variance or due to the weight differential? What is the typical variance found in braking tests?

So while this is Pontiac's best car ever, it is also quite low in domestic content. If similar to the G8 GT, it is roughly 8% if memory serves from a listing in AutoWeek a few months ago. Also, doesn't the previous generation CTS-V make the GXP somewhat redundant? Nicer interior, handles better, braking performance is probably better, it's lighter, essentially the same power, more aggressive gearing and it competes in the SCCA T2. The GXP could race in that class, but it is a bit heavy. The CTS-V may take the trophy again this year too, when big horsepower cars will give the Solstice GXP (another Pontiac) all it can handle at Road America, one of the fastest road circuits in the country.

This brings us to my final point. Motor Trend must stay relevant in this age of information by digging deeper, disclosing testing procedures, guidelines, atmospheric conditions and acceptable statistical variance.

We may never see a four-door car like this from GM again and I wonder, should they have just used the last generation CTS-V platform? Would it have mattered?