Auto Channel Euro Chief Picks Best Of 2007

Anthony Fontanelle
2 January 2008

The Auto Channel is one of the leading providers of automotive news online. For the New Year Andrew Frankl, Chief of The Auto Channel's European Bureau, claimed that he has a treat for readers as he named his picks for the past year.

Frankl said that the car that he would pick if he had to have just one will be the Volvo V70 XC AWD. "Sorry about all these silly letters but essentially what we are talking about is Volvo’s cross country, all-wheel drive station wagon/estate car. It may not be cheap but at around 35 thousand dollars-without some of the unnecessary extras- it is quick, economical, pleasant to drive, safe with tons of room for people and luggage, equally at home in the mountains and by the sea, just one sensible automobile," Frankl writes.

And according to him, the surprise car of the year is the Mercedes E Class. She relates: "I had to get to Los Angeles from San Francisco in a hurry and with the 3.2 liter engine the new 'E' got me there in 5 hours flat on one tank of fuel. Bearing in mind that I averaged 80 miles per hour I found this quite outstanding. Only problem-the rock hard seat, otherwise a great car at a sensible price."

While there are vehicles praised in his article, there is also a technology that Frankl obviously did not like which he calls the disappointment of the year. The unfortunate winner of the award is BMW's iDrive system. "What possessed that great company to do such a thing is completely beyond my comprehension. As I pointed out in Bimmer Magazine it looks as though the bits one cannot see were designed by the A team and the interior by the reserves. I hear that the forthcoming 5 series will be a lot more sensible as a result of all the negative press the company had received over the 7," he shared.

And Frankl also picked not only vehicles and features but also people. Frankl had these picks for Man of the Year in the auto industry: "Let me name several and you take your pick. Bob Lutz for breathing life into GM, Carlos Ghosn for reviving Nissan, Luca di Montezemolo for Ferrari’s astonishing success and Jurgen Schrempp’s team for stopping the hemorrhage at Chrysler. I would love to name my old mate Nick Scheele from Ford but I think he would be the first to admit that they have a long way to go."

Although these picks do not mean that it is the accepted standard all over the industry, it is one good gauge to measure just how well the automakers are doing - whether they are manufacturing cars as remarkable as Subaru Loyale parts or not.

Source:  Amazines.com