Toyota Camry 2015

It's a cyborg catfish, but one you can take home to meet the parents

Toyota has pledged to make its vehicles more engaging, with the bestselling Camry the latest to be called in for an overhaul. While the result is indeed a better Camry for 2015, the car proves that altering the essence of this refrigerator on radials is no simple task.

The Camry’s latest freshening is substantial. All the bodywork is new save the roof, and the curves flow more organically than before. Most models carry a simple five-bar chrome grille, but a gaping, black-mesh snout distinguishes the sportier SE and new-for-2015 XSE trims. It’s a cyborg catfish, but one you can take home to meet the parents.

Volkswagen Passat

Much-needed good news for VW.

In the wake of the TDI emissions scandal—or are we still in the build-up phase?—Volkswagen is in need of some good news. The launch of a new model can provide just that, and the 2016 Passat is sufficiently different from the 2012­–15 models to justify a modicum of enthusiasm.

It’s true that the U.S.-built Passat has failed to give competitors like the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry a serious headache in the way that VW had hoped. But the company has taken in plenty of customer feedback to make the 2016 model a better and more attractive car. On the technical side, there are vastly improved connectivity features plus a new electronics and infotainment architecture that allows for a full range of driver-assistance systems (most notably forward-collision, blind-spot, and lane-departure warning as well as lane assist). The front end receives structural upgrades designed to address the IIHS's rigorous and ambitious new crash tests; they add between 50 and 100 pounds to the Passat's weight.

Chevrolet Volt 2016

The gas-electric Volt, now quicker and less eccentric, is the embodiment of New Age versatility. 

We have only fond memories of the original Chevy Volt, that slab-sided toccata and fugue of Yankee ingenuity from 2011. It looked like something Jimmy Carter acolytes created after locking themselves in a bunker with a Commodore PET computer, the Tupperware collection for 1981, and a laserdisc of the movie Tron. But the Volt worked, delivering both electric-vehicle stealth and internal-combustion freedom. It may have missed the energy crises for which it was perfectly suited, but its timing was still propitious. The 77,000 or so units that Chevy sold, the majority in California, thoroughly expunged the mark of Cain borne by General Motors ever since it was accused of killing the electric car.