Automotive Trends

Finally A Sports Car For Full Nesters     

     Not everyone has bags of disposable cash sitting around after their kids have moved out to pursue family, fame and fortune. Some people have responsibilities at home in the form of children, who are more interested in passing next week’s spelling test than working up the corporate ladder. And unfortunately—due to the need to transport their respective bundles of joy—mom and pop’s inner enthusiast just isn’t being satisfied by the sport-package equipped minivan. It would be nice if there were a sports car that could seat more than two people and be affordable at the same time. Nevertheless there are rules to the world we live in and that anomaly just doesn’t exist—does it? Well we’re happy to report it does, and it’s available at your local Mazda dealer for less than most minivans. Read more…

     Welcome to the refreshed Automotive Trends! Our creative team is proud to bring you their latest vision for Everything Automotive. We plan to utilize our new more robust features to offer you the same stunning photography, entertaining reviews and insightful commentary you’ve come to expect from us in a package that’s fresh and, frankly, sexy as all get out. So put us at the top of your favorites list and check back often as we roll out the goods over the next few weeks.

    The North American Auto Show is the domestic auto show event of the year and covering the show is a delicate art that involves comfortable shoes, carefully executed schedules and precisely planned drop offs of all the “stuff” automakers load us down with. Every year the media days leave us with memories and unique experiences that consistently rank as the high point of our auto year. In fact, some are so good, we can’t help but share them. Read more…

Production Vehicles Dominate Day Two    

     Yesterday was the time for automakers to show off their visions for the future, today was about this years’ new production vehicles. Read more…

Year Of The Car Indeed    

     Ford is calling 2004 the year of the car and by the look of things on opening day in Detroit, that slogan applies to the entire industry. Ford used its press conference to roll out several significant production products including the Ford Five Hundred sedan, Freestyle crossover and Mustang coupe. A tidy but rugged off-road concept showed up wearing the Bronco nameplate and the King Ranch edition of the F-150 also made its public debut. Read more…

The Muscle Car Lives

     We have discovered a fail-proof litmus test of automotive enthusiasm. If you sit behind the wheel of a Mustang Mach 1 while you blip the aluminum throttle pedal, watch the shaker hood torque to the right, listen to the burly exhaust note, and the hair on your neck does not stand up, you are dead–or might as well be. That result means you are one of the millions who prefer a Camry to a Camaro and there’s no point in you reading the rest of this review because you’ll just dismiss the Mustang as cramped and loud. Now we’re the first to admit the Camry is as near to perfection in automotive transportation as you can get, but we are part of that ever-shrinking minority that will trade off a good chunk of perfection for a big dose of muscular styling and a throaty V8 to back it up. Call us old-fashioned, but we’ll take a Mustang over a pocket-rocket any day of the week-especially a Mustang this good. Read more…

For The Boy Racer In All 60 Year Olds   

     The side of our brain that is based in reality tells us there is probably no need for a hot-rod version of a car whose buyers are all well over the hill and don’t drive much faster than 45 mph. But on the other side of our brain, the one that has been completely consumed by horsepower and speed, we think maybe there are enough buyers to create a big-wheeled, high-horsepower full-size domestic sedan. After all, Chevrolet did it in the mid 1990s and found a loyal group of buyers who fell in love with the Corvette powered Impala SS. It’s unfortunate, but the SS isn’t around today, though Mercury thinks it can make enthusiasts lust after its 2003 Marauder the same way they did for Chevy’s long gone Super Sport. Read more…

Jaguar’s X-Type Proves That Good Things Can Come In Small Packages

     When it comes down to it, the auto business is actually quite simple. Develop a product that can be sold for a profit and then sell as much of that product as you can for the largest possible profit. It only gets complicated when a company hits a “glass ceiling” of sorts. Like in biology, the automotive market has a carrying capacity. In other words, there are only so many consumers who can afford to drop at least $50,000 on their vehicles. And during the late 90’s Jaguar showrooms offered few choices, and none of them even close to the magic $30k mark. Jaguar decided to try something it had never done before. Combine all of the style, elegance, comfort, and prestige that make a Jaguar desirable in a package that could be sold for under 30 grand. The X-Type is that product and though its success in the sales department is not the subject of this article, its success as an entry-level luxury car is. Read more…

Comfort And Utility In Near Perfect Harmony    

     In 1997 Lincoln made its best decision in several decades by debuting a leather-lined, dripping-with-chrome version of the Ford Expedition. Lincoln’s marketers called it the Navigator and their bean counters called it the cash cow. Buyers flocked to their local Lincoln showrooms and happily forked over piles of cash for the chance to drive the biggest—and only—luxury sport utility vehicle on the road. Fast forward to 2003 when seemingly every manufacturer offers a luxury SUV, nearly all of which had eclipsed the first generation Navigator in both content and power. What’s a manufacturer to do? Raise the bar in every area, of course; and that’s precisely what Lincoln has done with the 2003 Navigator. Read more…

A Time Machine On Wheels    

     These days people will try anything to turn back Father Time’s clock. Most every city in the country houses a doctor or twelve that will inject you with Botox, suck your fat out through a tube or prescribe pills that promise to firm up sagging skin. These remedies might do the trick for a while, but they are still only temporary. Ford, however, would love to sell you a more permanent solution. They call it the Thunderbird, and it’ll take you back through the years faster than you can say, “I need a facelift”. Read more…