Digital Drive Car of the Year: Acura TL

As cars seem more and more alike, what sets them apart is leading-edge technology rather than acceleration or leather appointments packages. When one car has standard Bluetooth, better navigation, night vision, superior mileage with low emissions, or free Mayday calling, that's an advantage in attracting buyers. And that's what's behind our third annual PCMag.com / TechnoRide Digital Drive Awards: useful technology, applied intelligently. We honor the 10 best cars (also runners-up) and the best technology of 2008. The Digital Drive Car of the Year is the Acura TL and the Digital Drive Technology of the Year is Ford Sync. Slideshow, 2008 PCMag.com / Technoride Digital Drive Top 10 Cars: Click Here Here's how we chose the Digital Drive winners: We looked for pioneering use of cutting-edge technology as well as all-round application of established technology. On a high-end car such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, we expected lots of technology, because the S-Class goes out the door nicely equipped for $100,000. On more affordable cars such as the Volkswagen Jetta Diesel or Nissan Altima Hybrid, we looked for a couple standout features, in both cases here their energy efficiency. To be eligible for the Digital Drive Awards, the car had to be available in 2008. And we expected two core building blocks of technology - Bluetooth and a music adapter, not just a line-in jack - to be offered, at best included in the base price, at the very least offered as a dealer option. Here are the winners, which includes two from BMW (the leader in technology), and two from Nissan (and sibling Infiniti). See the slideshow for even more details on the winners. And use the Feedback section below to remind us how blind and short-sighted our winning choices are.