2011 CAR TECH AWARDS: AND THE WINNER IS…
CNET Tech Car of the Year for 2011
2012 Audi A7Our preference for CNET Tech Car of the Year goes to the 2012 Audi A7, a automobile that shows glorious technology throughout. The list of nominees this year enclosed many very modernized cars representing an considerable jump over last year, explanation that the automotive industry is on a prohibited streak. Improvements in power-train tech play a vast role, which helped the Chevy Volt take a tip mark in our reader poll, though the connected automobile seemed similar to the many applicable and broad-based trend, which is since our staff leaned toward the A7.
There is so many starting on in this car, it is formidable to refer to a source all of the techie goodness. But the many strange underline is Google Earth formation with the navigation system. As you drive, the navigation complement shows heavenly body detailed imagery of your evident surroundings. And shortly to be implemented is Google’s Street View function, which pops up a sketch of the end address as you get close. The Google Earth navigation complement relies on the car’s own 3G interpretation connection, which also powers a number of other features, together with a arrange of localized Wikipedia, inventory information for circuitously places.
The A7 facilities utterly a bit more cabin tech, together with an discretionary Bang & Olufsen audio complement and a unequivocally unaccompanied and utilitarian cabin tech interface controller. But Audi has been aggressive all fronts, and the car’s engine and delivery have their own share of technical prowess. Direct injection and a supercharger let Audi get divided with a comparatively tiny engine, definition decent fuel economy, whilst progressing estimable power. The Quattro all-wheel-drive system, which has been serve refined, is also estimable of mention. It doesn’t harm that the automobile is a single of the best-looking vehicles on the road, and it positively held the eyes of our staff.
The Car Tech 10There was a lot more starting on in the past year on top of five really, unequivocally good tech cars. So that’s since we have The Car Tech 10, a set of unsuitable awards for assorted achievements in automotive technology.
People’s choice
2011 Chevrolet VoltIt may not have gained as many recognition in between the open at large, though for tech-fascinated CNET readers, the Chevy Volt is the one. Any engineering-minded motorist will attend closely to the energy train, seeking for that impulse when the battery runs out and the gas engine takes over as a generator. The automobile encourages recurrent record-keeping to see just how many miles it can go gas-free, and how the physical phenomenon use stacks up in cost opposite gas.
Most popular
2011 Kia Optima EXKia has accomplished utterly well over the final year, releasing mixed indication updates all emphasizing unequivocally great quality and modern tech, at prices that consistently undercut the competition. Those attributes paid off with the Optima, Kia’s charity in the unequivocally renouned midsize sedan segment. None of the reader reviews gave it anything reduction than five stars. Runner up in this difficulty is the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, which warranted fewer five-star reader reviews.
Car with the many personalities
2011 Mini Cooper Clubman JCWSome cars competence feel composed on the freeway, afterwards sporty on a towering road, though the Mini Cooper, with the Mini Connected underline running, essentially speaks with the voice of 3 opposite personalities. Hearing a British-accented voice praise us for a quick start, or a womanlike voice criticism on the weather, was a rarely comical treat. Covering many waste miles, these voices competence suggest a tiny comfort, as well. Mini Connected can be had as an option in any code brand new Mini Cooper, though we first attempted it in the Clubman with the John Cooper Works opening package.
Something something Italian
2012 Fiat 500CFiat chose the 500 indication for the lapse to the U.S. market, and it was a great choice. Bringing something similar to the Panda over would have done people consider that Fiat was usually an additional tedious manage to buy automobile brand, though the 500 shows character and panache. People newly introduced to Fiat will consider of the code as something fun. And the cost of this tiny crater of espresso shows people that bad does not indispensably proportion with cheap.
Best-sounding stereo
2012 Volkswagen Beetle 2.0T TurboIt was a vast warn to see a Fender-branded stereo complement in the Volkswagen Beetle. And it was even more of a warn how great it sounded. This is the kind of complement that competes with home audiophile systems. It brought out the deepest layers of marks with glorious fidelity, creation us do a couple of more laps around the retard until a great strain finished. Honorable discuss goes to the Bang & Olufsen complement in the Audi A6, though we chose the Fender system, since it is a bargain.
The Tardis award
2012 Scion iQLike the Doctor’s Tardis, the Scion iQ ecstatic us through time and space, nonetheless to a many more unaccompanied degree, though the many applicable underline was ostensible many bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. It was undiluted for a densely packaged city similar to San Francisco, as we didn’t be concerned about parking when we took it out. Our complete video crew, four normal to tall-size guys, could sit in it at the same time, and our veteran case getter-inner squeezed himself in to the load area, sans backseat passengers.
Best car, according to Wayne
2011 Nissan JukeProving that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, where others saw an nauseous frog, Car Tech editor Wayne Cunningham detected a desirable prince. The tiny Juke SUV may be explanation that Nissan has outsourced the design to a array of unfriendly Indonesian islands, though Cunningham could not stop articulate about the automobile all year, bringing it up in mixed podcasts prior to being voiced down by Antuan Goodwin and Brian Cooley. Imagine Cunningham’s fad when Nissan voiced the Juke-R?
Car Tech’s best prolongation asset
GoPro HD Hero2Every week, we strike the highway to move you the Car Tech podcast and video reviews. To constraint the action, we need a camera complement that’s tiny and rugged, that’s easy to use, and, of course, that delivers crisp, high-quality HD video. The GoPro HD Hero2 is a single of the newest models in the sports camera market, though it fast superseded the Contour GPS and Contour+ as our go-to-camera for our in-car video needs interjection to the dramatically softened graphic interface that, whilst more formidable than Contour’s slide-and-go system, gives us sum control of the camera’s assorted recording modes. Toss in the GoPro system’s nigh-indestructible polycarbonate bombard and you have a camera that can also be trustworthy as quietly to a fender as it can to a windshield.
Love for low-tech award
2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302We’re all about automobile technology here at CNET Car Tech, though once in a whilst a shining low-tech automobile comes along, shakes things up, and gets our adrenaline flowing. Judged by our unchanging standards, the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 does all wrong: it’s got no cabin tech, bad fuel economy, and an out-of-date power-train. But turn the pass and give the stifle a eruption and nothing of that matters. The Boss 302 is a automobile with unaccompanied purpose: driving. It offers no distractions from that purpose, though it also places unequivocally couple of electronic nannies in between you and the 444 ponies underneath your right foot. The Boss final your courtesy (and the courtesy of everybody inside of the heard operation of the V-8 bark) and if you give it that undivided, this complicated flesh automobile will prerogative you with a single of the great rides of your life.
Daily driven track car
2012 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 R-Spec”Fast, good, or cheap. Pick two.” That’s the quandary enthusiasts face when selecting a sports car. The 2012 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 R-Spec comes along and says, “I’ll have all three, thanks.” Not usually has this hotted-up and stripped-down chronicle of Hyundai’s rear-wheel-drive sports automobile platform been upgraded with sufficient go-faster something good to eat to make it track worthy, it’s also versed with more than sufficient cabin tech to make it a efficient every day motorist for your normal smartphone-toting techie. What’s more, it does all of this for roughly $8,000 reduction than the closest competition, the Nissan 370Z Track!
car – Yahoo! News Search Results
CNET Tech Car of the Year for 2011
2012 Audi A7Our preference for CNET Tech Car of the Year goes to the 2012 Audi A7, a automobile that shows glorious technology throughout. The list of nominees this year enclosed many very modernized cars representing an considerable jump over last year, explanation that the automotive industry is on a prohibited streak. Improvements in power-train tech play a vast role, which helped the Chevy Volt take a tip mark in our reader poll, though the connected automobile seemed similar to the many applicable and broad-based trend, which is since our staff leaned toward the A7.
There is so many starting on in this car, it is formidable to refer to a source all of the techie goodness. But the many strange underline is Google Earth formation with the navigation system. As you drive, the navigation complement shows heavenly body detailed imagery of your evident surroundings. And shortly to be implemented is Google’s Street View function, which pops up a sketch of the end address as you get close. The Google Earth navigation complement relies on the car’s own 3G interpretation connection, which also powers a number of other features, together with a arrange of localized Wikipedia, inventory information for circuitously places.
The A7 facilities utterly a bit more cabin tech, together with an discretionary Bang & Olufsen audio complement and a unequivocally unaccompanied and utilitarian cabin tech interface controller. But Audi has been aggressive all fronts, and the car’s engine and delivery have their own share of technical prowess. Direct injection and a supercharger let Audi get divided with a comparatively tiny engine, definition decent fuel economy, whilst progressing estimable power. The Quattro all-wheel-drive system, which has been serve refined, is also estimable of mention. It doesn’t harm that the automobile is a single of the best-looking vehicles on the road, and it positively held the eyes of our staff.
The Car Tech 10There was a lot more starting on in the past year on top of five really, unequivocally good tech cars. So that’s since we have The Car Tech 10, a set of unsuitable awards for assorted achievements in automotive technology.
People’s choice
2011 Chevrolet VoltIt may not have gained as many recognition in between the open at large, though for tech-fascinated CNET readers, the Chevy Volt is the one. Any engineering-minded motorist will attend closely to the energy train, seeking for that impulse when the battery runs out and the gas engine takes over as a generator. The automobile encourages recurrent record-keeping to see just how many miles it can go gas-free, and how the physical phenomenon use stacks up in cost opposite gas.
Most popular
2011 Kia Optima EXKia has accomplished utterly well over the final year, releasing mixed indication updates all emphasizing unequivocally great quality and modern tech, at prices that consistently undercut the competition. Those attributes paid off with the Optima, Kia’s charity in the unequivocally renouned midsize sedan segment. None of the reader reviews gave it anything reduction than five stars. Runner up in this difficulty is the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, which warranted fewer five-star reader reviews.
Car with the many personalities
2011 Mini Cooper Clubman JCWSome cars competence feel composed on the freeway, afterwards sporty on a towering road, though the Mini Cooper, with the Mini Connected underline running, essentially speaks with the voice of 3 opposite personalities. Hearing a British-accented voice praise us for a quick start, or a womanlike voice criticism on the weather, was a rarely comical treat. Covering many waste miles, these voices competence suggest a tiny comfort, as well. Mini Connected can be had as an option in any code brand new Mini Cooper, though we first attempted it in the Clubman with the John Cooper Works opening package.
Something something Italian
2012 Fiat 500CFiat chose the 500 indication for the lapse to the U.S. market, and it was a great choice. Bringing something similar to the Panda over would have done people consider that Fiat was usually an additional tedious manage to buy automobile brand, though the 500 shows character and panache. People newly introduced to Fiat will consider of the code as something fun. And the cost of this tiny crater of espresso shows people that bad does not indispensably proportion with cheap.
Best-sounding stereo
2012 Volkswagen Beetle 2.0T TurboIt was a vast warn to see a Fender-branded stereo complement in the Volkswagen Beetle. And it was even more of a warn how great it sounded. This is the kind of complement that competes with home audiophile systems. It brought out the deepest layers of marks with glorious fidelity, creation us do a couple of more laps around the retard until a great strain finished. Honorable discuss goes to the Bang & Olufsen complement in the Audi A6, though we chose the Fender system, since it is a bargain.
The Tardis award
2012 Scion iQLike the Doctor’s Tardis, the Scion iQ ecstatic us through time and space, nonetheless to a many more unaccompanied degree, though the many applicable underline was ostensible many bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. It was undiluted for a densely packaged city similar to San Francisco, as we didn’t be concerned about parking when we took it out. Our complete video crew, four normal to tall-size guys, could sit in it at the same time, and our veteran case getter-inner squeezed himself in to the load area, sans backseat passengers.
Best car, according to Wayne
2011 Nissan JukeProving that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, where others saw an nauseous frog, Car Tech editor Wayne Cunningham detected a desirable prince. The tiny Juke SUV may be explanation that Nissan has outsourced the design to a array of unfriendly Indonesian islands, though Cunningham could not stop articulate about the automobile all year, bringing it up in mixed podcasts prior to being voiced down by Antuan Goodwin and Brian Cooley. Imagine Cunningham’s fad when Nissan voiced the Juke-R?
Car Tech’s best prolongation asset
GoPro HD Hero2Every week, we strike the highway to move you the Car Tech podcast and video reviews. To constraint the action, we need a camera complement that’s tiny and rugged, that’s easy to use, and, of course, that delivers crisp, high-quality HD video. The GoPro HD Hero2 is a single of the newest models in the sports camera market, though it fast superseded the Contour GPS and Contour+ as our go-to-camera for our in-car video needs interjection to the dramatically softened graphic interface that, whilst more formidable than Contour’s slide-and-go system, gives us sum control of the camera’s assorted recording modes. Toss in the GoPro system’s nigh-indestructible polycarbonate bombard and you have a camera that can also be trustworthy as quietly to a fender as it can to a windshield.
Love for low-tech award
2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302We’re all about automobile technology here at CNET Car Tech, though once in a whilst a shining low-tech automobile comes along, shakes things up, and gets our adrenaline flowing. Judged by our unchanging standards, the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 does all wrong: it’s got no cabin tech, bad fuel economy, and an out-of-date power-train. But turn the pass and give the stifle a eruption and nothing of that matters. The Boss 302 is a automobile with unaccompanied purpose: driving. It offers no distractions from that purpose, though it also places unequivocally couple of electronic nannies in between you and the 444 ponies underneath your right foot. The Boss final your courtesy (and the courtesy of everybody inside of the heard operation of the V-8 bark) and if you give it that undivided, this complicated flesh automobile will prerogative you with a single of the great rides of your life.
Daily driven track car
2012 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 R-Spec”Fast, good, or cheap. Pick two.” That’s the quandary enthusiasts face when selecting a sports car. The 2012 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 R-Spec comes along and says, “I’ll have all three, thanks.” Not usually has this hotted-up and stripped-down chronicle of Hyundai’s rear-wheel-drive sports automobile platform been upgraded with sufficient go-faster something good to eat to make it track worthy, it’s also versed with more than sufficient cabin tech to make it a efficient every day motorist for your normal smartphone-toting techie. What’s more, it does all of this for roughly $8,000 reduction than the closest competition, the Nissan 370Z Track!
car – Yahoo! News Search Results