The King Of Crossover Comfort
We like luxury crossovers. They ride nice, handle better than their big brothers, pack all the latest luxury goodies and can transport the whole clan through Mother Nature’s worst all the way to grandma’s house. Lexus likes luxury crossovers too. Mostly because they invented the segment with the 1998 RX 300 and have since infiltrated American suburbia with more than a million of them. But maintaining volume like that gets harder by the day and the RX has had to fend off increasingly tough competition in recent years, so Lexus set out to reset the bar with their thoroughly re-engineered 2010 model. Does the Crossover King still sit on the throne or do those ambitious new members of the court from Audi, Cadillac and BMW have a chance at claiming the big seat? Without a proper comparison test we can only answer that question with speculation, but we can tell you the new RX is ready to defend its title. Read more…
Ford finally unmasked the 2011 Explorer today. About time too, because the slow reveal over Facebook was really starting to try the patience of Executive Editor Dye (who still hasn’t joined the 21st century with a Facebook page). But now we have the pictures and the story behind them. Click through for our first impressions. 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 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…
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…
Bringing Value and Efficiency to Midsize Crossovers
Five years ago we reviewed the first-gen Equinox and had mostly good things to report about Chevy’s first crossover. Sure we noted a few ergonomic foibles and suggested that something closer to 250hp would earn more praise than we were willing to lavish on the 185hp mill in all Equinoxs at the time. But the general consensus around here was the Equinox was a nicely sized people mover that looked good and topped out around $30k. That market has proved a popular place among automakers since almost every one of them now offers a vehicle that we could sum up the same way. And as they were introduced they all put the Bow Tie offering a little further behind the curve. But at the 2009 NAIAS GM decided it wanted to lead the crossover pack instead of follow and debuted the 2010 Equinox with the right hardware to get it done. A few months later GMC dropped in as a player in the segment with its mechanically identical Terrain. Sure, the numbers are impressive, but how do they drive? We spent time in several versions to find out. Read more…
Let The Good Times Roll
My second car was a 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula with T-Tops and a lumbering LT1 small-block with enough torque to bring a smile to my face anytime I pulled away from a stop. Of course the steering was lifeless, the handling was nonexistent and the brake pedal felt like an air mattress foot pump. But none of that mattered because it looked good and went fast and it, along with its Chevy Camaro twin, hailed from the glory days of the Muscle Car. Both Living Legends to a young male with a horsepower fetish. So I was as sad as anyone when the F-Body was retired after 2002. But practically as soon as the last car rolled off the assembly line fans started to assume we’d see a new Mustang competitor soon. Several years passed until GM, keen to prove it was in the midst of a design renaissance, rolled a new Camaro concept onto the stage at the 2006 NAIAS. Personally I might have preferred a reborn Firebird, but this extroverted modern muscle car looks so retro right I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one. And now I have—two actually. Read more…
Hyundai Turns Its Attention From Luxury To Sport With The Genesis Coupe
Watching Hyundai’s meteoric rise from “That Korean Car Company” to “That Global Powerhouse” has been exciting for everyone—at least everyone not employed by another automaker’s sales and marketing department. We recently watched the hard charging company lead a successful foray into the heady waters of the luxury car segment with their Genesis sedan. Now hot on the heels of the positive buzz they earned from meeting that challenge comes a Genesis of another sort.
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With the Crown Victoria being completely phased out at the end of 2011 Ford needed to prep another car for Police duty, or lose that market to Charger and Impala / Caprice completely. Enter the 2011 Ford Police Interceptor Concept. Think of it as a tough as nails Taurus. Read more…
We’ve always been a fan of the Ford Edge and it’s Lincoln MKX twin, but we’ve also always wondered what they would look like if Ford just took one more step away from the cautious line it’s been toeing for the better part of the 2000’s. Well now we know, and it looks like Ford loosed the cuffs on Dearborn’s imagination a bit. Read more…
