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Jeep made great strides with the new Grand Cherokee, coming up with a premium SUV showing off very nice cabin trim and full-featured electronics. What really impressed us is the Grand Cherokee's comfortable on-road manners, and its ability to tackle very rugged terrain. We weren't quite as impressed with the power train, which lags behind other automakers' level of technology. And the cabin tech interface is a little rough. But features such as adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, and an available Wi-Fi hot spot show that Jeep is looking toward the future.

Check out our 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 Limited review. … Read more

Automakers started using the term crossover this decade referring to vehicles that combined the comfortable ride of a car and the carrying capacity of an SUV. But Porsche's idea seems to have been to combine SUV qualities with the handling of a sports car. The new Cayenne S uses an array of handling and stability technology to attack turns with almost the aggressiveness of a 911.

The 2011 Cayenne S sees some important tech updates, such as the inclusion of torque vectoring on the all-wheel-drive system, putting a little more twist on the outside wheel when cornering, and some … Read more

Although maligned as a boring, suburban family hauler, the minivan offers undeniable utility. The new Honda Odyssey rolls out as a very tech-friendly vehicle with new looks that may be hard to take for some. We like the angular styling, but found the rear section, which looks like it's falling off, disconcerting.

Tech highlights are the ultra-wide-screen rear-seat LCD, which includes an HDMI input, the first installation we've seen in a production car, and an advanced voice command system that not only lets you dial phone contacts by name, but also request specific artists and albums from an … Read more

As Toyota's luxury sedan, the Avalon is difficult to figure out. People who outgrow their Camrys are supposed to step up to Lexus. But maybe Lexus is too fancy for some people, so Toyota has provided an alternative. That alternative is somewhat like a Lexus ES 350, but with inferior cabin tech and ride quality.

The Avalon is your basic front-wheel-drive sedan with a 3.5-liter engine, a vanilla formulation in the car world that should, however, meet a lot of needs. The cabin tech sports some modern features, such as its voice-controllable Bluetooth phone system, but the navigation … Read more

With its simple styling, the 2010 Challenger is an excellent take on a classic Dodge muscle car. But more impressive here is the update to the driving tech. Boasting 425 horsepower in SRT trim, the Challenger is surprisingly drivable. It does equally well crawling through a parking lot or blasting down a country road. Far less back-breaking than other modern muscle cars, it exhibits European refinement in ride quality.

Tech-wise, it looks a little rough, but it is feature rich. We didn't like using the graphical interface for the navigation system, but voice command worked very well. iPod and … Read more

Prime time is Netflix time, apparently.

Netflix is driving one-fifth of all fixed network downstream traffic at the time of day that the largest number of Americans are on the Web, according to network equipment and software provider Sandvine.

"In the United States, Netflix represents more than 20 percent of downstream traffic during peak times," Sandvine wrote in a statement highlighting its "Fall 2010 Global Internet Phenomena" report. The company said that Netflix's traffic is heaviest (20.61 percent, to be precise) between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time--the venerable prime time … Read more

Convertibles are a blast in sunny weather but lose their charm on cold, rainy days. Mercedes-Benz couldn't do anything about the rain, but the E550 Cabriolet is still comfortable when it is cold out. Heated seats and its Air Scarf technology, a system that blows warm air over your neck from the headrests, coddle the driver and front passenger in a cozy cocoon when the mercury drops.

Mercedes-Benz accentuates the E550 Cabriolet's other luxury appointments with some fairly impressive sport handling, giving the car an exciting edge.

Check out our 2011 Mercedes-Benz E550 Cabriolet review.

ALK Technologies, provider of the CoPilot line of navigation software, has just announced a new low-cost version of its CoPilot 8 software for Android phones, dubbed CoPilot Live USA. It costs just under $5.

Navigation software has typically been a hard sell for Android phones, since Google started offering its Google Maps Navigation app for Android 1.6 and higher, but CoPilot Live USA has one feature that makes it worth a second look: local map data. By storing its maps locally, users are still able to plan routes when their data connection goes dark, which is a godsend for … Read more

Pampered was how the Lexus LS 460 made us feel. Its sound-deadened cabin made even the howl of jet engines a distant whisper. It rode over potholes and the remains of road construction with little notice. At the same time, music poured forth from its Mark Levinson audio system with delightful clarity.

Our LS 460 was also dressed up with some sport equipment, but where this car really performed was in fuel economy, showing that a V-8 does not have to be too thirsty. Combine that with a price undercutting flagships from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and the LS 460 looks … Read more