Automotive Trends

      As I was zoom-zooming down US-23 this morning I spotted a convoy of Ford Expeditions and a Lincoln Navigator heading north. Seeing convoys out of Dearborn is not an uncommon sight in this neck of the woods, but it has been some time since this pair of vehicles has had any street time. Which got me thinking that Ford might just be readying these family haulers with new engines for the 2012 model year. Ford has four new engine possibilities, two V8s and two V6s, with one carrying the EcoBoost moniker, which could easily be shoe horned into the engine bay of the Expedition / Navigator twins. I submit the following for consideration: 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 How You Make A Sports Sedan Better!

      Wagons are not the most popular body style in these United States of America. But there was a time when station wagons as large as barges and covered in an acre of faux wood ruled the highways. They were powered by V8s and used a body-on-frame, which meant that you could haul the family, their stuff, and tow a trailer to grandmother’s house simultaneously. That all changed when Chrysler introduced the world to the minivan in 1984. Ever since, car designers’ pens rarely draw the formidable 2-box shape of the station wagon. Stare as one might at the ink blots that are the tall-roofed SUVs and jellybean-shaped crossovers, these are not true wagons. But just as all hope was seemingly gone, Cadillac of all marquees has come to the rescue and delivered us a long roofed version of the popular CTS. Is it all we could hope for and more?
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      The crew had plenty to talk about this week, at least until technical difficulties shut down the whole operation in the middle of our recording session. No matter, equipment was replaced, settings were tweaked and at least two out of three editors regrouped a few days later to put the finishing touches on our latest round of brilliant banter. Click through to listen for yourself.  Read more…

      The news out of Dearborn today is the 2011 Lincoln MKX has officially received its EPA ratings. With its sole engine option, the 3.7L V6, the MKX is rated at 19-mpg city and 26-mpg highway. The 3.7L is the same V6 featured in the base 2011 Mustang–rated at 31-mpg highway in that application. Featuring TiVCT, the V6 produces a healthy 305-hp and 280 lb-ft of torque. Like its stablemate, the Ford Edge, the MKX will channel its power to the tarmac via a 6-speed SelectShift (read: equipped with paddle shifters) automatic transmission through either front-wheel drive (wrong-wheel drive) or all-wheel drive. Read more…

      Happy Independence Day from the Editors of Automotive Trends!!

      The Chevrolet Volt is probably one of the most hotly anticipated vehicle launches of this decade, and GM is set to deliver on its promise of having the Volt on the road by 2010. That plan is to roll out 10,000 Volts by the end of calendar year 2011, with another 30,000 Volts to follow in 2012. The first units will be available to California, Washington D.C, Austin, Texas and the New York metropolitan areas yet this year. Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the balance of Texas and New York will start receiving units in the first quarter of 2011. The rest of the USA will have to wait about a year for production to ramp up. To make sure that GM’s dealer network is ready for the Volt, GM is requiring special sales and service training, as well as the installation of a 240-volt charging station before a dealership can receive a Volt for retail sale. As with any good thing in life, I guess some things are just worth waiting for. We’ll let you know when we get our first go with a production spec Volt! Read more…

      The Audi Le Mans Concept car, on display at the 2004 NAIAS, was very appropriately named for that little endurance race that Audi tends to win now and then. The Le Mans plainly signaled what the production R8 sports car would look like, sans show car specific LED headlamps. The structure was composed of an aluminum space frame wrapped in carbon fiber and alumiunm body panels. Powering the concept was a 40-valve twin-turbocharged 5.0L FSI V10 cranking out 602-hp and 533 lb-ft of torque. Channelling the power to all four wheels (quattro) was the six-speed sequential manual gearbox from the Lamborghini Gallardo.

Traversing the Chasm Between Station Wagon and Suburban.

     As Senior Editor Muxlow readied himself to depart with my Olds Custom Cruiser wagon, I gently reminded his infant son that ‘this is not your father’s Oldsmobile’ just to be sure I would actually get it back. The logistics of delivering a test vehicle often require a vehicle swap among editors, so when Muxlow dropped off a Red Jewel tintcoat (think maroon) 2010 Chevrolet Traverse LTZ, I offered up the trusty wagon in trade. Considering these two family vehicles are separated by nineteen model years, the Chevrolet Traverse had me asking the question, “How did we get here?”.  The Traverse is a V6-powered, front or all-wheel drive crossover with uni-body construction. Isn’t this configuration the combination of the worst of the car and truck worlds? Surely a vehicle with the construction of a car and the high center of gravity of a truck is a recipe for mediocrity. But to fully understand the answer to this question we must back up a few years. Read more…

     It’s been a few weeks since the gang last chimed in but we’ve got plenty to say in Episode 6 as we chat about video games, minivans, cars that grow with every revision and why 510hp can make a leather-lined luxury tank seem worth its $100k asking price. Senior Editor Muxlow may have spent much of the podcast with farm machinery on the brain–we think his recent lawn mower purchase is to blame–but at the end of the 54 minutes cars still ruled the day. So click through and never fear: we’ll get Muxlow back on his meds and return next week with even more useless banter. Read more…