It’s the forties all over again, except this time the war is over automobile sales. One by one, vehicle manufacturers are chasing the sometimes elusive goal of producing cars that deliver 40 miles to the gallon on the EPA’s highway cycle. The fact that they only rarely achieve that number in real-world driving is irrelevant. In the current environment, the magic 40 is an important key to unlocking buyers’ pocketbooks. …
My first ever car review was the Suzuki Kizashi, a car I praised. My Uncle Dan decided to chime in to the blog world and wrote, “I still love Buick-Nice try kid-good writing Dan.” Now to understand the true hidden meaning of that you would have had to live in my house during holidays when the men would gather in one room and dispute which vehicle was the best. Names …
In the near-luxury car corral, it has become an article of faith that you cannot simply ride with the herd; you need a spirited showoff to rope in the customers. Thus it is that BMW has its high-performance M versions of the 3-Series and 1-series. Similarly, there is an AMG version of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and an S version of the Audi A4. Acura chips in with its SH-AWD sibling …
It’s been a couple of years since Hyundai took the automobile industry by surprise by introducing the Hyundai Genesis, which was the first attempt at anything other than an economy car by the South Korean company. The Genesis could best be described as “entry luxury” in category, and as a rousing success in fact, because in its debut it won the 2009 North American Car of the Year award. Not …
Most consumers seem to want sedans that blend sporty handling and ride with comfort and power. Our crumbling roads and highways don’t reward performance, but luxury sport sedans can control ride to avoid sharp shocks and jolts. Audi’s 2011 A4 Quattro sedan does a great job of that. The A4′s front and independent rear suspension deliver a sporty, well-connected feel and driving experience. But they also control the sharply creviced …
Volvo has gone all swoopy on us, with sleek new styling that sets its compact S60 apart from most competitors. I like the look and the attractive, modern and stylish interior the Swedish carmaker has created for the early release 2012 model. I tested the T6 AWD version, which features a turbocharged 3.0-liter I6 engine that generates 300 horsepower. A T5 model with a 2.5-liter I5 motor and 250 horsepower …
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 …
There were three distinct reasons why I was ready to be impressed by the 2011 Chrysler 300. First, when the 300 was resurrected for a reintroduction five years ago, the look was abrupt and bold, and bricklike. I’m all for abrupt and bold styling, but I am definitely not a fan of designing vehicles to resemble a brick. The Chrysler 300 turned out to be North American Car of the …
