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The art of WRX-ing in the rain

There it is again, the quiver of the STi's blue rear spoiler. I noticed it yesterday on the Autobahn north of Frankfurt. Although the speed limit was 120 kilometers per hour, I was cruising in sixth gear around 200 kph when the STi's signature rear appendage began to dance in my rear view mirror. Now I'm redlining fifth gear on the front straight of the legendary Nurburgring's north loop and it's back. Only this time the quivering blade is in a deluge of water coming off the Subaru's 18-inch Dunlops. It's a rooster tail worthy of Miss Budweiser and it's a constant and sobering reminder that I'm lapping the 13-mile long Nordschleife in a freezing and unrelenting rain. I'm driving a 2017 German-spec Subaru WRX STi, not the updated 2018 version that'll get revised front end styling, tweaked suspension tuning, larger Brembo brakes and 19-inch wheels and tires. At 240 kph, close to the 2.5-liter boxer four's 6,700 rpm redline, I shift up to sixth gear and change lanes to avoid the standing water on the left side of the track. It's my third lap. I'm getting over-confident. The all-wheel drive WRX STI is dealing well with the tricky conditions and the Ringmeisters of the past that tamed this track since it was first built in 1929 - Ascari, Fangio, Clark, Caracciola, Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Chiron, and Ickx - are talking to me inside my head. And they're egging me on. Pushing me to go faster. I'm sticking to wet line and staying off the tall curbing that marks most apexes. Bounce the Subi off a curb and I'm sure to star in the next Nurburgring crash video to hit YouTube. I'm also desperately trying to stay off of the new pavement, which dots the circuit and has a coefficient of friction in the wet similar to snot. Then I make a huge mistake on the entrance to Bergwerk, a tight right hand corner that comes up quickly after a long, fast section and the left hand kink that Nicki Lauda got so wrong in the 1976 Grand Prix. The Nordschleife has 160 corners. Most are blind. Many are off camber. All are lined with walls and Armco barriers. Even the straights are kinked and crowned. And there are two very fast downhill compressions and three jumps that max out a car's suspension travel. There's no runoff room. No margin for error. And remembering the course in this weather in just a few laps is impossible, I don't care how much Gran Turismo you've played.

2019 Subaru Forester Long-Term Update | It's gold wheel time!

Our long-term 2019 Subaru Forester is heading into the new year with a new set of shoes. Subaru’s all-wheel-drive system works perfectly fine, but all-wheel power is no replacement for a set of winter tires. And so our search for winter rubber began. However, the search didnÂ’t take that long, as a set of wheels and tires that fit our Forester happened to be laying around Autoblog HQ collecting dust. The wheels just so happened to be lightweight, gold 17-inch Sparco wheels we had previously fitted to our 2015 Subaru WRX long-term tester. Imagine our glee when we pulled these bad boys out of storage.  ItÂ’s only fitting that the blue Subaru in our long-term test fleet is also fitted with gold wheels as a tribute to all the gold-wheeled Subaru rally legends. The new Forester is nothing like a WRX or STI, but this setup has us smiling every time we walk out to the car. Take a nice, long scroll through the gallery above. We canÂ’t stop obsessing over how much better they make the new Forester look. Maybe a special edition package Â… just a thought, Subaru. Mounted on these wheels are new Michelin X-Ice winter tires. WeÂ’ve already driven it through a couple snowfalls in the midwest region, and the tires make this crossover a nearly unstoppable winter force. We hope to get some serious snow this winter that allows us to really take advantage of the new tires and the ForesterÂ’s high 8.7-inch ground clearance. More on that and the ForesterÂ’s performance to come. Unfortunately, the spare set of wheels we had lying around didnÂ’t have tire pressure monitoring sensors for the Forester sitting next to them. Until the little yellow light in the dash starts annoying us, weÂ’re going to forego the expense of buying a new TPMS at the Subaru dealer — we imagine many owners skip the extra $150 or so for the sensors and check their tire pressure the old-fashioned way with winter wheels, too. After all, the tire pressure gauge still exists, and it works splendidly. Watch out for another Forester update soon, as we get into some of the things weÂ’ve liked and disliked over the past few months. Related video:

Edmunds ranks the best used cars for 2013

When people ask us what car we would recommend for them, it's usually not easy to answer. To make a useful recommendation we must consider which of the numerous vehicle segments fits their needs best, and then choose one of the many vehicles offered in each segment. For some people, new cars don't meet their expectations of value, because they lose so much of it the moment they are purchased and driven off the dealer lot. For them, there's always the used-car market, where great deals can be found, but cars' histories of reliability and maintenance records - and perhaps that Certified Pre-Owned warranty - become ever-important factors playing into purchase choice.
To help out, Edmunds has done us the favor of assembling a list of the best used vehicles money can buy, covering model years 2006-2011, according to what it considers the most important criteria when shopping for used autos: reliability, safety, value and availability. That means unreliable, unsafe, super-expensive or limited-edition models don't appear on the list, but instead cars from each segment that are more likely to satisfy the general population.
There are some real goodies on the list, including but not limited to vehicles such as the capable Honda Fit, the cultish Honda Accord coupe (which can be had with a 240-horsepower V6 and a six-speed manual transmission some years), and the powerful Chevrolet Corvette. While Edmunds' choice of the Volvo C70 for best used convertible baffled us at first (not that it's a bad car), it redeemed itself by stating that the Mazda MX-5 still is an unofficial top choice if you don't require more than two seats.