I had high expectations when I stepped inside the Ford Five Hundred, especially after seeing the hot GT and the sexy new Mustang. They prove Ford still knows how to make cars sizzle.
This big sedan, though, left me feeling lukewarm after a week behind the wheel. It’s not a bad car — certainly an improvement over the stale Taurus — but it lacks the pizzazz Chrysler has created with its 300C masterpiece.
Sadly, it could have been so much better. Read more…
A Midlife Makeover For The Best Selling Small SUV
The small SUV class has been doing well for quite some time and the same can be said for Ford’s Escape. Nevertheless there have been some new competitors who are trying very hard to steal the title of Best Selling Small SUV from the Blue Oval. Chief among these is Chevrolet’s handsome new Equinox, which has been well received by consumers and critics alike. Ford knows this and refreshed the Escape for the 2005 model year to try to maintain its lead spot in the sales race. Is the midlife makeover good enough to keep the Escape out front? You’ll have to keep reading. Read more…
Ford Free of Style?
The suits must have finally tired of watching paying customers bypass the Blue Oval store on their way to make a down payment on a Chrysler Pacifica, because it didn’t take long for Ford to jump onboard the crossover train. It may be a few years late to the party but Ford’s entrant is here nonetheless. The Freestyle is the vehicle that the bean counters hope will claim a piece of the ever-expanding crossover pie for the house that Henry built. But to do that it will have to offer generous doses of comfort, value, safety and drivability. A bit of style wouldn’t hurt either. Read more…
Muscle: German Style
Time and time again Audi/VW has shown us that they can build some pretty sweet cars. As evidenced by the A6 we tested back when the snow was still flying. The S4 is no exception to the rule, placing performance, handling, craftsmanship, and stunning good looks high on the priority list. Before I even twisted the key for the first time I could tell this car was going to be hot. Then that V8 fired and all those German stallions started to whinny; my pulse started to race! Read more…
When A6 Is Enough
On your personal list of vehicles most in need of a redesign, the 2004 Audi A6 was probably not in the top five, or even the top ten—actually, it likely wasn’t on the list at all. That’s because despite being introduced for the 1998 model year, the last generation A6 remains as elegant as ever. But Audi is in the process of revising the entire lineup from top to bottom and, as such, the A6 is all new for 2005. Read more…
It’s generally not an ideal practice for any party when a journalist’s first exposure to a new vehicle is a drive in the hot-rodded, top-of-the-line model, because all of the lesser models will appear, well, lesser. Yet, this is exactly the scenario we found ourselves in with regards to Audi’s extensively revised A4 lineup. Our first test car was a fully optioned S4 with a sticker north of $55k. As you might expect, we used adjectives like, “hot” “gorgeous” and “astounding” to describe its V8, 18” rubber, and Recaro seats. So it surprised us as much as it will you, to report that those same praises kept creeping into our conversations during our week with the “base” A4 2.0T. It might have been the slick 6-speed, or the stunning Quartz Gray Metallic sheetmetal. Whatever it was, we liked it. A lot. Read more…
When you test drive a new car every week, sometimes you set yourself up for heartbreak — like when you trade the keys to a Porsche for the keys to a cheap economy car.
That hurts. Read more…
The (Rich) People’s Car
Who would have ever thought that in the same showroom as the iconic, smiling, affordable Beetle, would someday sit a behemoth luxury sedan casting a shadow of nearly 204 inches? And not only is this land yacht uncharacteristically big, it’s expensive too. Before the 2004 model year, a check in either of those two categories would disqualify a vehicle from wearing the Volkswagen badge flat out. But when the silk sheet dropped off the first Phaeton, all long-held stereotypes of what Volkswagens were, dropped with it. The Phaeton was charged with taking VW upscale, and way up scale, at that. To that end, it could be called a success. Volkswagen now offers a lineup that spans from $20k Golfs to $100k Phaetons. Unfortunately, for Volkswagen, it turns out nobody wants a six-figure car that shares a badge with Herbie. Actually, that’s not entirely true, they did sell 64 last month. But a report on subconscious buying habits, this is not. We’re all about the iron here. To that end, we loaned a Phaeton V8 for a week to see for ourselves where it ranks on the luxury sedan scale. Read more…
I’ve always liked driving Acuras. There’s something about the way they mix precision, comfort and value that makes them a perfect compromise — a step above ordinary cars, but not so expensive and outlandish as to make you feel guilty.
Of course, some people say Acuras are nothing but overpriced Hondas. I say that’s rubbish. It’s like calling a Porsche an overpriced Volkswagen or a Mercedes an overpriced taxicab with leather seats. Anybody who’s driven the two knows there’s a big difference.
Case in point: the Acura MDX. Read more…
Soft-Roading
Logically, one would not even consider putting an Audi in a cornfield. But photographers don’t exactly adhere to the same brain patterns when logical thinking is involved. Thus, we tread many a dirt road and cattle path in pursuit of photog satisfaction. Is the allroad (not a typo, Audi is case sensitive) capable of traversing lightly beaten paths while coddling passengers listening to classical music with the A/C purring away? Yeah, something like that, but you will have to read on to find out. Read more…
