A slide into third, when the team needs a home run

Performance

Under the hood of our test car was the top-of-the-line 4.0-liter V-6 engine with 251 horsepower and 259lb.-ft. of torque. It’s mated to a six speed automatic transmission with manual shift control. It all sounds good on paper, but the drivetrain has two drawbacks. First, the engine is thirsty; we only averaged 14.4 mpg during the week we had the car. Second, the transmission is poorly sorted. The first three gears are snappy and provide good acceleration, but fourth through sixth are tall gears that make freeway passing sluggish and, apparently, don’t even help with fuel economy.

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