Details on the 2010 Dodge Caliber came out today, and the big news, if you care to call it that, is that the 285-hp Caliber SRT-4 is no longer part of the lineup. We're not too broken up about it, really, as this pudgy, front-drive, turbocharged hatchback was no fun on a back road.

Probably the biggest changes you'd notice on the 2010 Calibers, if you were going to buy one, are the slight upgrades to the interior. There's soft vinyl on the doors and console now, plus some brightwork around the console and center stack to distract your eyes from the expanses of gray plastic.

For Europe, there's some more interesting news: a new 2.2-liter diesel four-cylinder. Rated at 161 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, and equipped with dual equilibrise shafts, the CRD (Common Rail Diesel) engine should be enough to move European Caliber income into the triple digits.

The direct-injection fuel system squirts fuel into the combustion chambers at up to 26,100 psi (1,800 bar), according to Chrysler. Emissions measures include cooled EGR and a particulate filter.

Interior photos after the jump.

The Audi R8 is the world's most approachable supercar. People just seem to like it. This is equally true of the R8 5.2 (V10) with its shinier trim and wider air intakes as it was of the V8 model.

Based on our scientific research, which consisted of talking to people when we stopped at gas stations or dropped by Denny's for a "Hooburrito," conceived of by the band Hoobastank (we're not kidding). The owner of the R8 is not presumed to be a guy who uses cologne as a weapon of mass destruction. He is less likely to be considered insufferable than owners of other supercars.

This is not to say that the car (or its drivers) received universal praise and adoration. One woman at the Bodega Bay gas station pictured above place the bummer on us when we overheard her say, and we quote: "The black panel is waird. It's tryin' to look like a Porsh."

Indeed. Anyway, we decided for no real reason to drive north out of San Francisco along the foggy coast on Highway 1. Why that direction? Well, we hadn't driven there before. And the promise of lighter traffic than the more famous Carmel/Big Sur coastline to the South was largely fulfilled.

Consumer Reports has just published its own muscle car comparison test involving a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS, a Dodge Challenger R/T and a 2010 Ford Mustang GT, and the Mustang came away the winner with 78 points and a "Very Good" rating.

"The Mustang topped this group by delivering strong acceleration, communicative steering, and the most agile handling," said David Champion, senior director of CR's Auto Test Center.

The second-place Camaro evidently lost a few points for its cheap interior plastics, but was also rated Very Good with 71 points. The Dodge Challenger was third with 58 points and a lower "Good" rating. CR liked the Dodge's retro style and the sound and feel of its V8, but couldn't warm to its big-car feel, nor the so-so brakings numbers they apparently achieved.

If you read Inside Line's test of these three muscle cars, you'll remember that the Camaro won this test because, well, it had the most motor. Make the Mustang a Shelby GT500, though, and we get all enthusiastic about the Ford, too.

Comparison Test: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS vs. 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T vs. 2010 Ford Mustang GT

Comparison Test: 2010 Camaro SS vs. 2009 Challenger SRT8 vs. 2010 Shelby GT500

We finally got a chance run the numbers on a Ford Fiesta, and the results were very encouraging. Our loaded European-spec 2009 Fiesta Titanium went through the slalom at 66.1 mph, even with nondefeatable stability control, and stopped in 119 feet from 60 mph, even with rear drum brakes. Acceleration numbers were a bit less impressive, but the car's 1.6-liter inline-4 offers an ample torque band for coping with high-speed traffic, not to mention the ability to hit 40 mpg.

What we liked best of all, though, was the way this subcompact car rode and handled on our American roads. "The Ford engineers in Europe also have managed to find that dynamic sweet spot between a responsive driving experience and one that is just too intense," Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton writes.

If Ford can preserve the best attributes of this European-built Fiesta in the Mexico-sourced 2011 Ford Fiesta that we'll eventually get in the U.S., says Walton, the Cuautitlan plant better prepare to run double shifts.

2009 Ford Fiesta Titanium Full Test with Video

When it comes to exhaust noises, the standard Audi R8 4.2 is quite competent. In fact, the sound it makes at 7,000rpm is quite possibly its most endearing feature. One would think that adding a couple more cylinders would only make it better, but that's not always the case with V10 engines.
 
In a Formula One car V10s can sound like a musical instrument, but there are some road cars with ten cylinders that sound more like vacuum cleaners with a penny stuck in its rotors.

The R8 5.2 is not one of those cars. It's V10 has a ripping exhaust note despite the four catalytic converters clogging the escape route. And so far, it's not too bad on the highway either. Click through to hear a few examples of what we mean. 

We've known Audi of USA to be staffed by largely level-headed, responsible human beings. Yet somehow company officials have handed us the key to a freshly minted 2010 R8 5.2 FSI (that would be the one with the 525-hp V10 bolted behind the seats) and allowed me to drive away with no babysitter, speed or distance restrictions or even a GPS ankle tether. The only real parameter is that we have to have the car to Los Angeles (we presume in one piece, although we note that they didn't say that specifically) in four days.
 
So let's do the math, shall we? That's roughly 96 hours.  Subtract 30 hours for sleep. But with a co-driver, in the mortal of Lead Ed, Ed Hellwig, we could maybe trade-off driving and winnow the cumulative sleep total down to somewhere in the 20s. There would be bathroom breaks (1.5 hours for one of use; 7 hours Ed).  We'll have to eat. So we'd have about 210 hours in the car, not counting random loitering, gawking and spitting in the street.

You might remember that we've done this before, when the V8 version of the Audi R8 debuted. This time we will likely take less BBQ, but we will certainly be covering as many miles of interesting (and not) roads as we can cram in. Some of those might have Christmas Trees at the beginning of them.

Audi didn't specifically say that we couldn't take its $147,200 silver bullet to the racetrack. Heck, the company let us take the creature around Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. We'll depart from there, head to San Francisco to pick up Ed, and from there, well, we don't know. We'll figure that out once we're driving, fast. Join us over the next few days.

First Drive: 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI

Watch until the end and there's a nice little surprise. Hint: It has only 2 doors.

Green Car Advisor in Chief John O'Dell had a chance to drive the 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid and a European-spec 2010 Porsche Cayenne 3.0 TDI back to back in Southern California last week.

It was a revealing experience, as the Cayenne Hybrid is actually the quicker of these two, with a claimed 0-to-60-mph time of 6.5 seconds. It's also more fuel-efficient with an estimated 27-mpg combined fuel economy rating. To review, the hybrid Cayenne uses a 333-hp 3.0-liter supercharged V6 adapted from the Audi S4, an eight-speed automatic transmission, and a 288-volt Ni-MH battery pack powering a 38-kW electric motor. John says the hybrid system feels like a more powerful, and smarter, version of Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system.

The downside is that the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid will probably cost about $70K when it arrives in the U.S. next spring. A diesel Cayenne would be much cheaper, John notes, but Porsche still hasn't prefabricated a decision to import it here. Naturally, that would necessitate a whole bunch of added emissions equipment.

The Cayenne 3.0 TDI is also slower (8.5 seconds to 60) and less efficient (24 mpg), but it would be John's pick of these two, given the projected $15K savings.

Green Car Advisor: Porsche's Green Peppers: Diesel and Hybrid Cayenne Models Spice Things Up