28 Year Old Males Rejoice! The Cool Scion Just Got Better
Graphic artists, computer programmers and aspiring music industry professionals turn down your iPods and pay attention. Scion has some big news for you and your spiky haired twenty-something friends. The handsome tC coupe that debuted in 2004 and has since brought Scion more than 40% of its sales is finally getting a well deserved redesign that focuses on improved fuel efficiency, overall refinement and, here’s where we get interested, increased performance. Scion recently invited us to a college campus teeming with its target buyers to get some seat time in the vehicle that officials hope will rejuvenate the brand’s stalled sales and lead the company into a new dimension of success. Read more…
The King Of Crossover Comfort
We like luxury crossovers. They ride nice, handle better than their big brothers, pack all the latest luxury goodies and can transport the whole clan through Mother Nature’s worst all the way to grandma’s house. Lexus likes luxury crossovers too. Mostly because they invented the segment with the 1998 RX 300 and have since infiltrated American suburbia with more than a million of them. But maintaining volume like that gets harder by the day and the RX has had to fend off increasingly tough competition in recent years, so Lexus set out to reset the bar with their thoroughly re-engineered 2010 model. Does the Crossover King still sit on the throne or do those ambitious new members of the court from Audi, Cadillac and BMW have a chance at claiming the big seat? Without a proper comparison test we can only answer that question with speculation, but we can tell you the new RX is ready to defend its title. Read more…
More Power Never Hurts, Except For When It Does
We love the Mazda3. In 5-door or sedan form, with an automatic or a manual, it has been among our favorite small cars since its debut as a 2004 model. No surprise then, when Mazda added another 100 hp and almost doubled the torque in the MazdaSpeed3 model we were big fans of their hot hatch. And even though they tried to ruin the latest 3’s front end by duplicating the styling of a Baleen Whale, there’s still no denying it’s a winner. So we expected our latest go in the second-gen MazdaSpeed3 to result in a review that read like a love letter to Mazda. Read more…
Hyundai Shakes Up The Midsize Sedan Segment With Style
Shoppers weren’t kind to Hyundai’s Sonata in 2009. After convincing almost 150,000 people to pick one up in 2007, Hyundai saw sales drop to 120k last year. Sure, the new car market sank like Lindsay Lohan’s career during the worldwide meltdown but you must remember through it all Hyundai actually increased its sales and set a company record in 2009. Of course, if you’re a regular reader you’re enlightened enough to know the previous Sonata was about as competitive as Tiger Woods post-scandal. If you stumbled onto the site thanks to our friends at Google allow us to inform you. The Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu rule the mid-size sedan segment and sell a bazillion cars annually because they are all varying levels of good. The Sonata, even after some substantial improvements in ’09, just couldn’t compete at the same level. But Hyundai has set a course for automotive world domination, and after driving their reborn 2011 Sonata, we don’t expect them to be caught with an uncompetitive product again. Read more…
This Is The ML You Want
Yeah that ML550 and its 382 hp V8 may be calling your name from across the showroom, but we urge you to resist. There’s a better ML tucked over in the corner that we think most people will fall for after a single test drive—even though it’s wearing badges that few consumers recognize. To tell you the truth, we wouldn’t have a clue what BlueTEC meant either if we didn’t spend our days reading press releases. But based on our experience with the new-for-2009 powertrain, all you really need to know is anything wearing BlueTEC badges is powered by Mercedes’ best diesel engine ever. And considering the praise we heaped on this engine’s predecessor in our 2006 review of the E320 CDI sedan, that’s saying something. Read more…
Bringing Value and Efficiency to Midsize Crossovers
Five years ago we reviewed the first-gen Equinox and had mostly good things to report about Chevy’s first crossover. Sure we noted a few ergonomic foibles and suggested that something closer to 250hp would earn more praise than we were willing to lavish on the 185hp mill in all Equinoxs at the time. But the general consensus around here was the Equinox was a nicely sized people mover that looked good and topped out around $30k. That market has proved a popular place among automakers since almost every one of them now offers a vehicle that we could sum up the same way. And as they were introduced they all put the Bow Tie offering a little further behind the curve. But at the 2009 NAIAS GM decided it wanted to lead the crossover pack instead of follow and debuted the 2010 Equinox with the right hardware to get it done. A few months later GMC dropped in as a player in the segment with its mechanically identical Terrain. Sure, the numbers are impressive, but how do they drive? We spent time in several versions to find out. Read more…
Let The Good Times Roll
My second car was a 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula with T-Tops and a lumbering LT1 small-block with enough torque to bring a smile to my face anytime I pulled away from a stop. Of course the steering was lifeless, the handling was nonexistent and the brake pedal felt like an air mattress foot pump. But none of that mattered because it looked good and went fast and it, along with its Chevy Camaro twin, hailed from the glory days of the Muscle Car. Both Living Legends to a young male with a horsepower fetish. So I was as sad as anyone when the F-Body was retired after 2002. But practically as soon as the last car rolled off the assembly line fans started to assume we’d see a new Mustang competitor soon. Several years passed until GM, keen to prove it was in the midst of a design renaissance, rolled a new Camaro concept onto the stage at the 2006 NAIAS. Personally I might have preferred a reborn Firebird, but this extroverted modern muscle car looks so retro right I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one. And now I have—two actually. Read more…
Hyundai Turns Its Attention From Luxury To Sport With The Genesis Coupe
Watching Hyundai’s meteoric rise from “That Korean Car Company” to “That Global Powerhouse” has been exciting for everyone—at least everyone not employed by another automaker’s sales and marketing department. We recently watched the hard charging company lead a successful foray into the heady waters of the luxury car segment with their Genesis sedan. Now hot on the heels of the positive buzz they earned from meeting that challenge comes a Genesis of another sort.
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It’s Official: Buick Is On A Winning Streak
At the end of our first day with the LaCrosse we were relieved to discover something: the Enclave wasn’t a fluke. It turns out that Buick designers can transfer their big crossover’s flowing curves, spot-on proportions and upscale detailing to a midsize sedan with stunning effect. Of course it takes more than a pretty face to make us go weak in the knees and type up a love letter to Buick. Fortunately, like the Enclave, the LaCrosse’s beauty is more than skin deep. Read more…
Electricity Powers The Stars In Detroit
From our vantage point it appears that Ford can do no wrong and for evidence of that claim we’d like to submit Exhibit A: Ford’s sweep of the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards. Absolutely nobody was surprised that the tech-heavy Fusion Hybrid wooed the judges, but the jaws of automotive journalists everywhere (not to mention GM Executives) hit the floor when Ford’s quirky little Transit Connect pulled off a stunning upset and beat out the Chevrolet Equinox for Truck of the Year. That’s right, the underpowered panel van from Europe beat out Chevrolet’s hot selling 32mpg Equinox, much to the delight of flower shop delivery guys everywhere. As Exhibit B we submit the 2011 Ford Focus. The days of building one Focus for America and another Focus for the rest of the world are over. This car was developed to be sold in more than 120 countries around the world with minimal differences and annual production north of 2 million units. A new Direct Injection 2.0-liter I4 and a selection of 6-speed transmissions will provide more power and improved fuel economy compared to the current Focus. Read more…
