We Are In The Golden Age Of The Automobile.

I'm sure this has been said during every era of automotive history at one point or another. Perhaps not during the mid-seventies, but otherwise technology continues to march on, and everything continues to get better.  And the way it is now, and the way it's going to be soon, is easily as good as it's ever been.  Even though the news seems to be overwhelmingly negative these days with regards to the automotive industry, (anyone know any companies with increased sales and healthy numbers lately?) this only really has a little to do with the products themselves and more with the overall condition of the economy as it stands.

The products themselves are easily the best they've ever been.  Competition seems to grow stronger and stronger by the day, and that's nothing but good news for the consumer.  Gone are the days where it was actually a possibility to buy a car that would immediately bite you in the ass.  There is no Yugo or Sterling or Merkur any more.  As much as I miss them, the era of the truly awful car (at least in the US market) is long gone.  Consumers won't take it, so it doesn't survive.  Oldsmobile cranked out exceedingly mediocre products for a decade or two, and even a grand-slam like the Aurora couldn't plug the leak in the ship.  Plymouth had no real place in the market, and despite decades of history, they were kicked to the curb like week-old food.  Mercury's next; Mitsubishi is feeling the pain of only offering really good cars for insane speed demons.

Things that used to be crap are now good, and good things that stopped existing are coming back into play.  Want some proof?  Here's a bucket load.

Ford's new Taurus.  The SHO in particular.

When gas prices started to skyrocket, there were a lot of people that believed Ford wouldn't make it through intact, with their SUV and truck-heavy lineup and collection of out-of-date, unpleasant regular passenger vehicles.  They had put their money on the wrong number, and people thought they'd be getting what was long due to them.

I guess that won't be the case, if the new SHO Taurus is anything to judge by.  When was the last time Ford made a mid-sized sedan that people who actually like to drive drooled over?  An argument can be made for the final SVT Contours, but you can't argue that they were truly great cars.  The original SHO (1989-1995) inspired lust in the hearts of American drivers with it's Yamaha-sourced screamer under the hood, and now the automotive sphere's starting to get hot and bothered for the return of the Super High Output.

And with good reason.  5 years ago, would you have predicted that Ford would be putting a direct-injected, twin-turbocharged, twin-cam 24 valve V6 into something called a Taurus? No, because 5 years ago the Taurus was only being purchased by rental fleets.  Now they're being purchased as daily's for people who don't want to put miles on the 911 during the week, and they're running high 12' s in the quarter with mild mods.  And with 365bhp and all-wheel-drive, it's not like stock SHO's have to make any excuses for themselves.  Although the  inevitable Mustang GT's they'll beat off lights when the 'Stangs driver isn't paying attention probably should start thinking up some.

And the best part?  There are no excuses to be made for THIS SHO.  It's got all the tech goodies and luxuries of a 60k Euro sports sedan, more than enough pace to give them a headache, and it's all-in for around 40 grand.  There's even a track package. All this in 5 years?  Really?  And the great thing is, as far as comfy family sedans go, the regular Taurus is right up there with the Passats and Accords of the world.  Raise your hand if this makes you even a little proud to be an American.

The Cheap, Fun Sports Car is Coming Back!

It's been a while since there was really any choice on the market for cheap, light, efficient, and fun-handling two-doors.  The Scion tC isn't it, the last of the 7th gen Celicas left US dealers in 2005, and the Miata is getting ever more expensive and less fun to drive.  The Z4 is all grown up and pricey (of course), and while Nissan teased us with the 240SX-resurrection Azeal concept back in '05, nothing ever came of it.

So I'm more than a bit shocked that Honda and Toyota, two of the most boring companies on earth, seem to get it.  When was the last time you got excited about a new Toyota?  I can't even remember, but the FT-86 concept has got me quite interested.  Based on a bespoke front-mid engine rear-drive chassis, the FT-86 borrows a 2.0L 16v flat-four from Subaru for perfect weight distribution and a low center of gravity/moment of polar inertia, which all equals tidy, responsive handling.  One Toyota brass went so far as to apologize to enthusiasts for not making any remotely desirable cars for a few years, and I'd say this is a good step in the right direction.  An even better step would be an FT-86 with the WRX's 265bhp 2.5L turbo H4, and how hard would that really be?

And if the FT-86 is a resurrection of the old AE-86 Corolla Sprinter/Trueno's (which it is), then at least Honda's not missing out with their modern-day CR-X.  It even looks like a CRX (which I obviously think is a good thing), will hopefully handle like a CRX, and will get great fuel mileage like the CR-X.  Sadly, to make that happen these days Honda had to also add in an electric motor (and you all know how I feel about hybrids) but it'll be a hybrid with a six speed manual.  It's about time.  There are also rumors that Honda will offer a CR-Z Type R with the wonderful K20 (found in the Civic Si), which would be an absolute hoot.

With the base models of both of these fun-to-drive lightweight coupes pegged somewhere around 20k, I predict they'll sell like Evian in the Sahara.  And it's about time!

GM Actually Seems To Care What People Want?!?

Face it, some of the best driver's cars these days have been coming out of Government Motors.  The CTS-V is so epic that even uber-Brit slow driver James May liked it.  The ZR-1 Corvette is a genuine world-class supercar.  According to C&D (who's obviously the be-all-end-all benchmark, right?), the Cobalt SS is quicker arond VIR than an Evo X.  The G8 GXP may be dead by January, but it's absolutely awesome now.

And not just that, but they seem to actually have their ear to the market.  It might be too late, but they've created enough press hype for the Volt that it'll surely be in marketing textbooks for decades to come.  It's leading-edge technology, catering to the hyper-green movement sweeping the world, and the General's got a bragging point.

And more and more products are changing to conform to what consumers want, not what GM thinks they want.  The SRX downsized to where there was a market for it, apparently the Cruze won't be another completely dreadful compact GM, the Malibu fills the boring family sedan roll quite well, you get the picture.

It remains to be seen if this is real change, but it's a great sign.

McLaren's Building A New Car...  That's Not A Mercedes.

Enough said.

Diesel is Coming Back In A Big Way.

Again, five years ago, who was offering a diesel in the US?  VW and Jeep, and only in extremely limited numbers for Jeep.  Besides that, there were lots of diesel commercial vehicles and HD trucks, but that's hardly relevant.  Now, you can buy a diesel from VW, Audi, Mercedes, Jeep, BMW, and apparently soon Nissan, Honda, and who knows who else.  If you like good fuel economy but would prefer a fistful of meaty torque to a bunch of stupid batteries, this is good news for you.

BMW's 335d is massively awesome; it's got 265bhp (enough) and 428lb-ft of torque (almost too much) from a twin-turbo 3.0L diesel.  It's got more torque than the howling V8 M3, despite posting mid-thirties on the highway.  It'll probably do a mile-long burnout, although I know most 3-series driver's aren't really about that.  The Grand Cherokee diesel is what it should've been all along.  Ditto Audi's Q7 3.0TDI.  You get the point.

What do you think is the greatest thing about the auto market today?  Leave your comments below!