Bye-Bye 2009: Most Influential Cars of the Decade

By John LeBlanc These weren’t the best-selling, best-looking or best-performing new cars from the past decade. But these were the vehicles that set trends and had other automakers scrambling to play catch-up. Chronologically, here are the 10 most influential cars:

the straight-GOODS/Sports Coupes

2010 BMW 135i Coupé Base Price: $42,900 Driver Must Haves: “NOT A CHICK CAR” bumper sticker. Let’s pretend the secretary special 128i doesn’t exist, OK? And if BMW makes a convertible 1 Series, I’m drawing a blank. That leaves the 135i Coupe for car zealots, stuffed to its firewall with the same twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six […]

2009 LA Show: Mustang finally gets the V6 it deserves

[svgallery name=”11_Mustang_V6″] By John LeBlanc DEARBORN, Mich. – You know we already think last year’s refresh put the venerable Ford pony car at the top of its class. At least in V8 GT form. With the introduction of a new six-cylinder engine for 2011, though Ford has finally fixed one of the biggest weaknesses in […]

Road Test: 2010 Ford Mustang GT

[svgallery name=”10_Ford_Mustang_GT”] Story and photos by John LeBlanc It seems the only car that fans of American muscle can talk about this year is Chevrolet’s resurrected Camaro.

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