Audi R8

The good: With its advanced suspension technology and all-wheel-drive, the 2008 Audi R8 sticks to the road around corners. car looks make it a real head-turner. The base audio system sounds very good, but that can be upgraded to an even better Bang system.

The bad: With the transmission, the R8 is difficult to drive in traffic or at low speeds, and fuel economy is extremely poor. There is no connection for an MP3 player, and the disc changer doesn't read MP3 Many of the R8's options should be standard for a car in this price range.

The bottom line: The 2008 Audi R8 is a serious blast to drive on the right roads and would be incredible on the but we recommend going with the manual transmission to make it more drivable in everyday circumstances. The cabin electronics work well enough but aren't cutting edge.

Audi previously impressed us with its handling technology in the Audi even that car feels a little staid when compared with the 2008 Audi R8. The R8 holds the pavement as only a low-slung car with all-wheel-drive and massive tires can. Then Audi throws in its magnetic damping technology suspension tuned for whatever kind of road you are driving on and puts the engine in the middle to balance the car. All of this combines to let us take the R8 around corners at speeds we wouldn't think possible.

For cabin tech, the R8 is well equipped with Audi's standard navigation, Bluetooth, and stereo module, all controlled through its multimedia interface. Although there is a lot to like about these components, we still have our usual litany of complaints for Audi, from its difficult destination entry to some quirks with the audio system. As we've seen a few cars with hard drive-based navigation systems, DVD-based navigation, used in seems slow.