Slow and Stylish Wins The Race
Can’t you just imagine a Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps three or four years ago, where all the car companies gathered together for the annual tradition to give thanks for their blessings.
“I’m most thankful for my luxury SUV,” Cadillac said. “It’s keeping the lights on in Detroit.”
“I second that,” Porsche said. “Who knew there were so many people willing to pay crazy money for a 5,000-pound brick—and an ugly one at that!”
Of course, it would be about this time that Audi realized it had seriously missed the boat on the whole giant-SUV craze.
“I’m thankful for Grandma’s health,” Audi blurted, trying to change the subject. Read more…
Better Than Expected
Driving a Mazda MX-5 Miata with an automatic is like dating a cross-eyed supermodel. As long as she keeps her lids latched you’ll be the envy of bachelors everywhere, but the moment her pupils start peeking her seemingly perfect package is forever flawed. The same scenario will haunt owners of the slush-box Miata. When your car buddies see you pull up in the poster car for roadster perfection they’ll stand ready to congratulate your wise purchase. As soon as they see the automatic shifter they’ll slap you silly—Jerry Springer style. And as enthusiasts, clear cut condemnation of any Miata with an automatic seems warranted. With a computer making the decisions that elemental “oneness” between man and machine is lost. Read more…
Gotta Love It
The latest Jetta is a competent car but its ultra-reserved styling and serious lack of go power combine to make it an ultra serious bore to drive. It’s the automotive equivalent of watching Sen. Joseph Lieberman give a speech about the latest techniques in stem cell research. Needless to say, the enthusiasts among us aren’t knocking down VW’s doors looking for beige 5-cylinder Jettas. Volkswagen is smart enough to know this and that’s precisely why the GLI exists. It packs strong turbo power, decidedly unreserved 18” wheels, and it’s not available in beige. For the time being the GLI is the sportiest offering in the VW lineup, at least until the new GTI arrives, so we had high expectations. Did we find some substance under all that style or is the GLI little more than a cosmetic package? Keep reading. Read more…
The Best F-150 Ever Isn’t Even A Ford
That’s right. The best F-150 you can buy wears a Lincoln badge, and, for some reason, is called the Mark LT. Actually, the Lincoln folks won’t like that statement, but we call ‘em as we see ‘em here. If it looks like an F-150, sounds like an F-150 and drives like an F-150, then logic would dictate it must be Ford’s bread-and-butter pickup. But logic doesn’t always find a home in the automobile business, and that’s why Lincoln can add a little chrome—ok, a lot of chrome—to an F-150, and charge a premium for it. Neglecting the fact that you and I both know this is little more than a trim level on the work-a-day F-150, how did Lincoln’s second attempt to crack the luxury truck code turnout? Read on for that answer. Read more…
Who Needs A V6?
The Passat used to be Volkswagen’s entry in the affordable family sedan market, but the past few years have seen the once affordable German sedan drift upwards until the current V6, and especially the former W8, landed firmly in entry-level luxury sedan territory. Add in the luxo-liner Phaeton and the plusher-than-ever Jetta and it looks like VW has forsaken its history as a builder of affordable transportation. Read more…
The Fusion Is Good, Are The Milan and Zephyr Better?
We have driven the Ford Fusion and formed a generally positive opinion about its fresh styling, 6-speed automatic and surprisingly good road manners. It’s a competitive car at its price point and they’ve been selling well-a rare piece of good news at Ford lately. Because we liked the base model so much, we skeptically asked ourselves why people would want to pay more for the Mercury or Lincoln version of the same car. We ordered up a sample of each and gave each car a week to convince us why it’s worth the premium. Read more…
Har(d)ley-A-Davidson F-150
There is a hitch about special-edition vehicles: They have to keep getting more special or the latest attempt risks being showed up by an earlier version. This commonsense lesson is taught on the first day of Special-Edition Vehicles 101, but Ford must have been asleep in the back row, or at the very least, sketching GTs instead of notes. All of this is relevant because it explains our disappointment with the 2006 Harley-Davidson F-150. In short, we’d rather have a pre-owned 2003 edition in our garage than this latest “greatest” version. Let us explain. Read more…
Bad Badging
The Sunburst Orange Chevy Cobalt in our fleet was wearing the two most revered letters in GM performance history, but we weren’t fooled. You see, Chevrolet actually offers two Cobalt SSs and one of them is worthy of the legendary designation and the other is little more than an appearance package. The subject of this review is the poseur. It may have SS badges glued to an attractive coupe body, but this was no Super Sport. Read more…
Funny Name For A Serious Contender
To satisfy my not insignificant curiosity I turned to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see just what a Vitara is, because, as is often the case, no one here had a clue. As it turns out, neither does Webster. About the closest match was Viterbo, which I thought might be some kind of forced induction, but is actually someplace in central Italy. So I looked up grand and found several definitions, one of which is “very good”. Now we’re getting somewhere. It appears that whatever a Vitara is, this one is very good. Judging by the vehicle I just spent a few days with, a Vitara is a small SUV that can now compete with anything in its class without excuses. Read more…
Stereotype Slayer
We Americans like our stereotypes. For instance, everyone knows the English have bad teeth, the Chinese are short and the French are cheese-eating cowards (OK, that one may be true). Likewise, nobody argues with the American perception that diesel cars clatter like a junior high band, are slower than a chess tournament and smoke like the Marlboro Man. Except Mercedes-Benz, who has been changing consumers’ opinions one test drive at a time since the E320 CDI debuted as a 2005 model. Read more…
