Driven: Ford's Fiesta Tames New York's Meanest Streets
 

We take a spin in the car Ford is making a centerpiece of its campaign to bring us smaller, more fuel efficient -- but still fun -- cars.
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An SUV for Well-Armed Soccer Moms
 

Because the world needs another military-spec SUV patrolling shopping mall parking lots.
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AMG Builds a Car Cast From The Hand of Thor
 

The go-fast guys at Mercedes Benz don't let a little thing like a worldwide economic meltdown stop them from building an absurdly powerful, incredibly lustworthy sedan.
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And the World Car of the Year Is...
 

...the sixth generation of the car that started the hot-hatch movement 30 years ago. Meanwhile, hydrogen takes the green award and Godzilla wins the performance trophy.
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Gallery: Cruising the Misfits of Motordom
 

<img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/1_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>We haven't come to the Peterson Automotive Museum to see the 253-mph Bugatti Veyron or Steve McQueen's vintage Jaguar or even the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame.</p>

<p>We've come to gaze with slack-jawed wonder upon the "<a href=http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?docid=1070>Mi sfits of Motordom</a>," a collection of cars so half-baked they make the Pontiac Aztek look like a stroke of genius. Some of them might have seemed like good ideas at the time &mdash; though it's hard to believe anyone thought a propeller-driven car would catch on &mdash; but in hindsight you can only wonder, "What the hell were they thinking?"</p>

<p>Here are some of our favorites.</p>

<p><strong>Left:</strong> In the 1950s, someone at Studebaker-Packard wondered what a nuclear-powered car might look like. He decided it would look like a boat.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/2_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>It's the multitool of automobiles &mdash; a boat you can drive or a car you can putter around the lake in. The German company sold 3,878 of them between 1961 and 1968, which is almost as amazing as the fact they all used Lucas electrical systems.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/3_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>Look up "commercial failure" in any business textbook and you'll find <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/09/dayintech_0904">the Edsel</a>. It was big, it was ugly and you've gotta wonder why anyone bought them. Kinda like the Ford Excursion.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/4_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>Paul M. Lewis founded Highway Aircraft in 1962 with the dream of building "the economical, safe, smog-free, modernistic, quiet, easy-to-handle, easy-to-park car millions of people want." He built five of these instead.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/5_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>The Helicron has three wheels (the one in back steers). It's made mostly of wood, and it's powered by a propeller. How on earth did it fail?</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/6_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>Streamlined design was all the rage in the 1930s, and Chrysler was the first American automaker to use aerodynamic principles to design a full-size car. The Airflow bombed, but it was way ahead of its time &mdash; and how often can you say that about Chrysler?</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/7_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>Front-wheel drive was a great idea. Rear-engine cars are a great idea. Front-wheel-drive rear-engine cars are not a great idea. </p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/8_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>Toyota rules the world these days. But when it arrived in America with the Toyopet, they couldn't give them away. Americans thought it was too small and too slow. They were right.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/9_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p><cite>Road & Track</cite> called the Pacer "fresh, bold and functional-looking." Love it or hate it, the funky fishbowl on wheels was designed to replace the Gremlin, and it did just that. No one bought this car, either.</p><img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2009/04/gallery_car_museum/10_t.jpg'></img>: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com<p>What can you say? The 3,200-pound Bi-Autogo is part tractor, part motorcycle and all wrong. About the only thing this "car" might be good for is recycling all that copper on the radiator. That said, it has the distinction of being the first American vehicle powered by a V-8 engine.</p>
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