Automotive Trends

      The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder, but car cruise season hasn’t come to an end yet. Tag along with us as we exercise the digital SLR on all the shiny metal that showed up for the 2010 Faith Missionary Church Car Show in Flushing, Michigan. Bonus points to the reader that spots the Automotive Trends’ feature car. Better grab a snack, this gallery is extensive! Read more…

All Things To All Men

      Our review of the 2007 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged wasn’t exactly a glowing compilation of superlatives and conjunction. In fact, it emphasized several things that the Rover didn’t do well. So now that Land Rover has stepped out from the corporate umbrella of Ford Motor Company and into the tent of Tata, the manufacturer of the world’s cheapest car (the Tata Nano), does the proud Range Rover stand a chance of making it back to the position of its former glory? Read more…

      Michigan’s Little Bavaria puts on quite a show for the classic car enthusiast. The Frankenmuth Auto Fest is a three day festival dedicated to the celebration of the classic automobile. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to put on a pretty good show as well. Just as your trusty auto scribes were making their way to the show, the skies opened up and poured out their abundance. Determined not to come away empty-handed, Gernand and I pressed on and managed to snap a few shots from the show before the digital SLR had to be stowed for fear of excess moisture accumulation. So grab your galoshes and raincoat and wade through our gallery. It’s worth it! Read more…

Buick Proves It Knows How To Do Entry-Level Luxury

      In the 1980s, Buick’s jingle declared that “the great American road belongs to Buick.” As had been true for decades, this tagline was not an empty claim. Buicks from that era soaked up the pavement, comforting occupants in plush tufted couches that were passed off as car seats. However, it was during this time the once powerful line-up of LeSabres, Electras and Riveras was joined by smaller cars propelled by relatively crude 4-cylinders bearing the names of SkyHawk, Skylark, Somerset and Century. Read more…

Not Intended for Retail Sale Within the United States.

       Sometimes the automakers will tease us and not mention that little tidbit right away, but no there it was third sentence of the press release “the Cruze hatchback will not be offered in the US market.” It is rather disappointing that yet another beautiful car from the General will not be coming to our shores because the buying public in this country won’t look at anything hatchback or wagon-ish unless it has all-wheel drive and is riding on stilts! And it is beautiful. Read more…

      Quick on the draw this afternoon Design Editor Gernand nabbed this shot of what looks like a prototype mule of the Ford Mondeo. What is a Mondeo doing on this side of the pond you may ask? Well, and this is all speculation, but this may just happen to be an early drive mule of what will become the 2014 Ford Fusion / Mondeo. Ford has already stated that the next Fusion / Mondeo will extensively share components in all areas except where specific market regulations demand otherwise. And while Gernand was unable to snap a front end shot, he did say that the front camo seemed to be hiding a Taurus-like nose. Hard to speculate from this angle, and odds are the actual styling for the 2014 model isn’t even close to set. It’s also hard to say what will be under that hood of this car once it comes to fruition in a few model years, but if our money was on the line it would be a pair of 4-cylinders with at least one being an EcoBoost. Ford has already promised to proliferate the EcoBoost tech throughout the line and it makes sense that they would save development dollars and only set up the car for 4-cylinders like what Chevrolet will most likely do with the next Malibu and what Hyundai has already done with the Sonata. Keep your eyes on Automotive Trends and we’ll keep our eyes on the road so you’re up to date on Everything Automotive!

        If you’re scouring the Internet for a classy podcast that will simultaneously educate and enlighten Google has definitely dropped the ball on you. However, if you’re content with eavesdropping on three car guys chatting about Everything Automotive then you’re in luck. Episode 10 covers our opinion of Fiat’s return to the American market, the latest Mazda design concept and the finer points of Buick’s four-cylinder LaCrosse. Come to think of it, maybe Google didn’t steer you wrong after all, because we can’t think of a better way to pass an hour and 13 minutes. 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…

      Overcast skies failed to stop dreamers from cruising Woodward. Nor did it keep our own Design Editor from hitting M1 (Woodward Avenue) in his ’68 Cadillac. Grab a snack and enjoy the gallery. You don’t even have to get wet.  Read more…

      If you travelled to downtown Flint for the Back to the Bricks car show you were far from the only one, as Design Editor Gernand found out. Record numbers of spectators and rolling pieces of art (cars) flocked to brick-paved Saginaw Street for the show. Gernand even managed to pull himself away from the all-Buick street long enough to take a tour of the newly renovated Billy Durant Hotel where they had a few vehicles from four of the seven divisions of Durant Motors parked out front. So if you were lucky enough to stroll the bricks take a walk down memory lane in our gallery. If, like this editor, you were called away to an important wedding in North Dakota, then you really better hit the gallery to see what you missed! Read more…