A trip to Key West, Florida will confirm it. There is a market out there for flashy convertibles with high style and little need for performance. The number of rental-grade pony car convertibles in the southernmost point of Florida is nearly enough to make one decide to rent a white Camry sedan just to be different. Certainly Ford and Chevy don’t expect normal customers to buy a base convertible. Or do they? Read more…
True station wagons are a rare bird in the United States automotive landscape. Americans want their wagons high-riding so they don’t feel like they’re driving their grandparents Ford Country Squire to work. Our European brothers, however, embrace the wagon because of its low riding sedan characteristics and added utility. Watch as Editor Muxlow defends the honor of the station wagon to the land of the red, white and blue. Read more…
The good news about the new Acura TL is that it’s a nicer version of the Honda Accord. The bad news? It’s a nicer version of the Honda Accord. That’s the contradiction of the TL, which has been refreshed — and made a lot prettier — for the 2012 model year. It takes a fantastic, fun, ultra-reliable Accord and spiffs it up for the luxury market, packing it full of cool gadgets and adding sound-deadening materials to make it quiet on the highway. Read more…
Let’s get one thing out of the way. If you want the best minivan for sale today, you want a Honda Odyssey. But what if you’re looking for the best value? That’s where things get complicated, and Dodge has made the decision more difficult with an improved Grand Caravan for 2011. Read more…
There is no shortage of luxury crossovers. From Lincoln to Lexus any self-respecting automaker with their head in the game is trying their darnedest to combine luxury sedan dynamics with “I’m not a wagon” styling. Audi got into the midsize crossover game in 2009 with the Q5 and we liked what we saw. Apparently consumers did too since the Q5 is now Audi’s second bestselling vehicle behind the ubiquitous A4. Lately we’ve driven our fair share of these oh so vogue vehicles including the Lexus RX and the Cadillac SRX and decided to take a closer look at Audi’s offering. We were secretly hoping we’d get to plant our curious keisters in the newly available for 2011 2.0-liter turbo and 8-speed automatic model, but because beggars can’t be choosers we didn’t complain when Audi delivered a V6-powered Q5 for our evaluation. Read more…
Since our weeklong foray with the Cadillac SRX 2.8 Turbo, GM has decided that Cadillac dealers no longer require the services of this “premium” offering of their midsize crossover and have decided to cancel the 2.8 Turbo engine offering after one year. Without tipping my hand too far here, I have to say we are inclined to call this a smart move. But let’s delve into the details a bit before we bury the hatchet on Cadillac’s troubled turbo crossover. Read more…
The Venza had a lot going for it heading into this review. My colleagues and I had already determined that its bold grille, modern crossover proportions and over-the-top 20” wheels made it the best looking Toyota among the current crop. Not exactly a hard fought victory, we realize, but bonus points nonetheless. Plus we knew our particular model would be powered by the optional V6 that has been praised in everything from the RAV4 to the Camry, so we expected that to help seal the deal. Add in the fact that this particular crossover isn’t even tall enough to adversely affect handling all that much and we were fully expecting to write a review praising Toyota’s family hauler. And then over the course of a week we found ourselves distracted by some glaring faults and by the end we were left questioning, of all things, Toyota’s hard-earned and long-held reputation for unbeatable interior execution. Read more…
After a barrage of new and updated product revealed by the Chrysler Group over the past few months, the Chrysler brand finally gave the world a live look at its next generation flagship model, the 300 sedan. While clearly evolutionary as compared to its award winning 2004 predecessor, the 300 appears to refine the model’s best attributes while correcting some of its most glaring faults: base powertrains and interior refinement. Read more…
People often talk about the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry as if they’re interchangeable, like two different versions of vanilla. They’re not the same, though. They’re both from Japan; they both have great reputations; they’re both among the most popular cars in the world. But the similarities end there. Read more…
Down In Power, But Still A Contender For The Sports Sedan Crown
In case you haven’t noticed, horsepower numbers are ballooning like Al Gore after public office and the new threshold for contenders in the sports sedan race is something north of 300 horses. Competitors from Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti and Lexus all offer up power ratings starting with a three, and even though Audi’s standard A4 can’t play with the big boys you can step up to the supercharged S4, which is available for about a grand more than the C350 that is the subject of this review and could certainly be considered a competitor. The problem for Mercedes is that their class entrant only puts out 268 hp, so even before delivery we were preparing to treat it as an entry-level luxury car instead of a true sports sedan. But when our baby Benz showed up wearing bright red paint, AMG wheels and cross-drilled brakes we knew the boys in Stuttgart weren’t going to let a horsepower deficit keep them on the bench. Read more…
