Ivory Soap used to advertise that its product was 99 and 44/100ths-percent pure.
Mazda could have said the same thing about the Miata when it was introduced in 1989. The first Miata was about as pure as sports cars could get, offering only the bare necessities of transportation so that it could focus on its core mission: fun for the driver. Read more…
No, you don’t have to plug it in.
That’s the answer to the question lots of people asked about the 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. They simply couldn’t figure how a big, muscular SUV with great power and acceleration could get the same gas mileage as some four-cylinder compact cars.
But, thanks to the miracle of gas-electric hybrid technology, that’s exactly what this SUV does. Read more…
TALIHINA, Okla. — It’s sunset on the Talimena Scenic Drive, a two-lane stretch of asphalt that winds through one of the most gorgeous landscapes in middle America: the ancient Ouachita mountains in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas.
I’m hours away from the constant craziness of big-city life, having traded pollution and traffic gridlock for miles of wide-open roads and pure, 75-degree mountaintop air, if only for a weekend. There’s virtually no civilization out here aside from a few towns that could make the cover of the Saturday Evening Post if they were a bit less scruffy, and the views from around each bend take my breath away for their Ansel Adams-style serenity. Read more…
POTEAU, Okla. — It looked like Christmas shopping season in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
Evidently there’s not much to do on a Friday night in Poteau — other than huntin’ and fishin’ in the nearby mountains — so it seemed everybody in town had shown up at Wal-Mart to meet their buddies and share a little gossip on this cool April night. I had to hike from my faraway parking spot to get inside, where the locals were talking a lot more than they were shopping. Read more…
I usually detest driving big cars.
It’s not because they’re ugly or slow — which many of them are — but because they remind me of my grandma’s car, an old Chrysler Fifth Avenue that wallowed through corners like its suspension was made of oatmeal and rubber bands. It felt more like piloting a boat than driving an automobile. Read more…
There was a time when “compact truck” really meant “claustrophobic, micro-sized, knee-crunching truck that should only be bought by anorexic contortionists.”
But today’s compact trucks — well, there’s nothing compact about them. Read more…
It looks like Mitsubishi is learning from the old advertising mantra that, indeed, sex sells.
While the Eclipse was a hot, voluptuous car in the late 1990s, it morphed into something more dull in the generation that lasted until 2005. It seemingly changed from a Brazilian bikini model to a mousey librarian, trading in its sports-car looks and hard-nosed performance for a softer ride and boring styling. Read more…
Until now, it’s been easy to compare the Mercury Mountaineer to its near-identical twin, the Ford Explorer.
Mercury’s new 2006 Mountaineer, though, would make a better comparison with the bigger Lincoln Navigator.
The Mountaineer is still based on the same platform as the Explorer. It looks pretty much like the Explorer, has the same amount of space as the Explorer and is even assembled in the same factories as the Explorer — Louisville, Ky. and St. Louis, Mo. Read more…
If you’re the shy type, don’t ever ride in this Chevy.
From the moment you step inside this wild truck — a power-top convertible, no less — you become the center of attention wherever you drive.
People roll down their windows at stoplights to ask what it is; you can’t fill the gas tank without being interrupted at least twice; little kids stare at it with open-mouthed amazement; and cops pull you over for no apparent reason. Read more…
When Chrysler introduced the Pacifica in 2004, it was a fantastic family vehicle with only one problem.
Many families couldn’t afford it.
Chrysler tried to make the Pacifica an upscale station wagon with leather seats, fancy technology, and lots of luxurious features to guarantee people knew that Chrysler was now owned by Mercedes. It was a great vehicle — still is — but its starting price over $30,000 was more than many families could stomach. Read more…
