2012 Hyundai Azera Review: It’s not that the Hyundai Azera gets little respect; nobody in this class gets much. Neither it nor its competitors—large front-drive sedans—has exactly captivated buyers. Even the most successful in the group’s upper register manage fewer than 70,000 sales in a year. For example, the Toyota Avalon sold just 28,925 units in 2011. The Ford Taurus did way better, but the total was still 63,526. Buick’s …
The 2012 Audi A6 would make a fine butler or lady-in-waiting. It displays good manners, civility, professional skill, refinement and charm. It never gets ruffled or feels hassled and never intrudes on your reverie. In short, it is a classy mechanical servant. However, despite considerable capabilities, the A6 will not satisfy white-knuckle enthusiasts, who will have to look elsewhere or wait for a performance-oriented S6 version. The all-new A6 follows …
It might seem logical for comparison shoppers evaluating the highly-competitive midsize segment to find themselves drawn to the Volkswagen Passat. But that’s not fair, you say, because the Passat, with its German engineering, is more substantial and more expensive than others in the midsize segment. Aha, but that’s a perception that is both true and false, when it comes to the newly redesigned 2012 Passat. The 2012 Passat looks …
There was an old joke about an artist displaying his latest painting, which looked a lot like a blank, white canvas until he was asked about it, and explained that it was a white cow, eating marshmallows, in a snowstorm. I spent a week trying to find artistic backdrops during a Minnesota winter week’s test-drive of a Mercedes CL550 Coupe, but every time I got focused, I thought about that …
PALO ALTO, Calif. —The North American introduction of the 2011 Hyundai Equus was well orchestrated, but in a way, I felt like I had cheated. I had gotten a brief, and swift, early sample of the Equus, which was definitely more impressive than anything we could do on the twisting mountain roads near Palo Alto. A couple of months before the late-August introduction of the Equus in North America, I …
Anyone who has ridden in a new vehicle in recent years can appreciate all the creative technology in navigation systems, and the ability to link to cell phones, and miniaturized musical devices. But with the new 2011 Ford Edge the emphasis goes beyond the numerous styling and driveability changes. Think of the 2011 Ford Edge as the most futuristic multiple-connectivity device on the planet, and it just happens to come …
