600 Miles Later We Learn What The Evo Isn’t Good At
I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. Among the worse was a three-hour cross-country van trip through Mexico in a 20-year-old van. A trip like that will make you appreciate things like suspensions, air conditioning and even the Michigan DOT. Recently I embarked on a road trip that didn’t jar loose all the fillings from my teeth but did take a toll on the overall condition of my already weakened body. Read more…
Big Power In Mazda’s Little Hatch
The evidence against turbo-haters is growing rapidly. In the past few years we’ve seen automakers turbocharge tiny engines to make far more power than anyone would have dreamed even 10 years ago. And still more impressive than the mighty dyno figures is the civility of the power. Turbo lag is far from the enthusiast slayer that it once was. Read more…
Inspired by…Gene Roddenberry?
The CX-7 is Mazda’s first real foray into the ever-expanding crossover SUV market. Yes, they had made a go with the Tribute, but under the direction of the Ford design studio, let’s just say, they weren’t all speaking the same language. But now Mazda is serious with an entry that ties its roots back to the family. Chief among these are the RX-8 and the MX-5, favorites among the AT staff. Editor Dye has sworn that an RX-8 will find a home in his garage someday. We’ve never yet turned an MX-5 down and on more than one occasion found a way to tease out every ounce of handling prowess it could muster. Read more…
GM’s Sexy Twins Get Some Spunk
The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky are gorgeous vehicles, and if you don’t agree you must work for Mazda. So, considering their perfect proportions and confident handling, producing a follow-up to the uber-successful roadsters can mean only one thing: more power. And GM was happy to provide lots of it. Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: 2.0T, 2007, GXP, Pontiac, Redline, Roadster, Saturn, Sky, Solstice, sports, turbocharged
What Is The Technical Term For Quirky?
Someone once describe Saab engineering to me like this: When the Germans do it, it is an engineering wonder, but when the Swedes do it, it is just plain quirky. After spending a couple of days behind the wheel of a Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible I must say that the Swedish engineers are clever, but a few of their ideas left me scratching my head. Read more…
The Almost Audi?
This is not your run-of-the-mill Volkswagen Rabbit. This is the so-called friend of Fast VW GTI. No cute face here. Like the racy Volkswagen Jetta GLI that we spent some time in last fall, the face is familiar but the demeanor is polar opposite. The question is does the Rabbit-based GTI produce the smile-per-mile quotient that the GLI did? Read more…
Gotta Love It
The latest Jetta is a competent car but its ultra-reserved styling and serious lack of go power combine to make it an ultra serious bore to drive. It’s the automotive equivalent of watching Sen. Joseph Lieberman give a speech about the latest techniques in stem cell research. Needless to say, the enthusiasts among us aren’t knocking down VW’s doors looking for beige 5-cylinder Jettas. Volkswagen is smart enough to know this and that’s precisely why the GLI exists. It packs strong turbo power, decidedly unreserved 18” wheels, and it’s not available in beige. For the time being the GLI is the sportiest offering in the VW lineup, at least until the new GTI arrives, so we had high expectations. Did we find some substance under all that style or is the GLI little more than a cosmetic package? Keep reading. Read more…
In A World Of Unleaded Regular, This One Is Premium
It isn’t often that a car in our fleet is referred to as brilliant. Nor is it often that we sing the praises of one that is deemed “entry-level”, featuring an automatic tranny, front-wheel drive, and merely a four-cylinder engine. But the A3 brings out the best in all of these descriptions. Read more…
Who Needs A V6?
The Passat used to be Volkswagen’s entry in the affordable family sedan market, but the past few years have seen the once affordable German sedan drift upwards until the current V6, and especially the former W8, landed firmly in entry-level luxury sedan territory. Add in the luxo-liner Phaeton and the plusher-than-ever Jetta and it looks like VW has forsaken its history as a builder of affordable transportation. 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…
