Automotive Trends

      Holy crap!
     German engineering, 340 horsepower, a lowered suspension, six-speed manual transmission, gorgeous body, and a convertible top that lowers with the push of a button — it’s got everything, plus a relatively comfortable back seat. What else can you say about a car like this? Read more…

        Remember Daewoo? It was the Korean carmaker that tried selling low-priced cars here for about three years before going kaput.
     Or so we thought.
     Thanks to the global tentacles of General Motors, Daewoo is undergoing a resurrection of sorts in the United States, only not under its own name. Chevrolet sells one Daewoo model as the entry-level Aveo, Suzuki sells another as the midsize Verona, and now Suzuki is selling a third Daewoo derivative called the Reno. All three are decent cars with incredible price tags. Read more…

         If you’re looking for a midsize sedan with a hint of luxury, good luck. You’ll need it with the glut of choices available.
     Today’s highways are packed with comfortable, good-looking sedans under $35,000. On the low end there are Camrys, Accords and Maximas with leather seats, navigation systems, and lots of fancy doo-dads. American cars like the Chrysler 300C and Ford Five Hundred offer a little more space for the money — not to mention more attention-getting styling — but they lack the appeal of a luxury brand. For that, there are plenty of solid cars from Infiniti, Lexus, Lincoln, Cadillac and Acura. Read more…

All Aboard, This Ship is Pulling Out

     So what is the Aviator, a 7/8ths Navigator, or a rebadged Mercury Mountaineer/Ford Explorer? Well, about a year ago we took a Mercury Mountaineer to the northern part of Michigan’s mitten for a long weekend camping to determine its place in the stable. With that in mind, one can easily see we’re long overdue for an extensive jaunt across country. With that we packed up our gear, pointed the baby Nav north and gave it some gas. Destination: North Manitou Island, for a long weekend of driving, photographing, logbooking, swatting mosquitoes, and sleeping upon a fairly lumpy piece of good ole terra firma. Read more…

         After driving some revolutionary full-size trucks this year — fantastic trucks like the new Ford F-150 and Nissan Titan — I had high hopes for the next-generation midsize truck from Chevrolet.
     Those big trucks raised the bar for comfort and refinement in a pickup, making them drive more like cars without sacrificing truly heavy-duty performance. Is it unreasonable, then, to want the same thing in a smaller pickup? Read more…

        When you grow up in rural East Texas, you know what loyalty is. It’s what a man feels for his pickup truck.
     As a boy, it wasn’t uncommon for me to hear someone say, “My daddy drove a Ford ’til he died, and I’m gonna drive a Ford ’til I die,” or some variation with either Dodge or Chevy. Texas men are more devoted to their trucks than to their wives. Read more…

     Lexus has built its reputation on cars that are well-engineered, comfortable, refined, reliable and — let’s be honest — remarkably bland. Read more…

     For a guy who grew up in Texas, I’m an oddball. I don’t like trucks.
     It seems like pickups are divided into two distinct categories, neither of which tickle my automotive fancy. The first is the giant, full-size truck that can tow just about anything and drive just about anywhere, which is great for those weekends when you need the power and cargo space that only these brutes can offer. Only problem is having to drive them the rest of the week, which means spending a fortune in gas and barely squeezing into parking spots at the SuperMart. Read more…

       When it comes time to test a low-priced SUV, I’ve learned not to expect too much. After all, most of them are just overgrown versions of cheap economy cars. Read more…

The Best Gets Even Better

     Alas, our number finally came up for a chance to have a go at the latest edition of Ford’s top seller, the F-150. Upon taking delivery of our well broken in pre-production model Lariat SuperCrew 4×4 we promptly declared that this truck was huge and got the most obvious part of our evaluation done. Greenies, tree huggers, environmental wackos and otherwise small car weenies need not continue reading. Read more…