Welcome back, all you journalism fans. It’s time for the lightning round in America’s hot new game show, “How to Review a Mercury.”
For the first question, pick how you’d describe the 2006 Mercury Milan.
Choice A: “It’s the best car Mercury’s made in years.”
Choice B: “It’s an overpriced Ford Fusion.”
Choice C: “Is Mercury still around?” Read more…
For a long time, there was nothing grand about Suzuki’s Grand Vitara.
This small, ugly vehicle was the red-headed stepchild of SUVs, constantly getting one-upped by the Ford Escape, Honda CRV, Nissan Xterra, Jeep Liberty and other great competitors. The only good reason to buy it was the price, and even that was coming under attack as competition among mini-SUVs reached a white-hot frenzy, translating into dirt-cheap prices for vehicles that were much better than this one. Read more…
The Fusion Is Good, Are The Milan and Zephyr Better?
We have driven the Ford Fusion and formed a generally positive opinion about its fresh styling, 6-speed automatic and surprisingly good road manners. It’s a competitive car at its price point and they’ve been selling well-a rare piece of good news at Ford lately. Because we liked the base model so much, we skeptically asked ourselves why people would want to pay more for the Mercury or Lincoln version of the same car. We ordered up a sample of each and gave each car a week to convince us why it’s worth the premium. Read more…
Funny Name For A Serious Contender
To satisfy my not insignificant curiosity I turned to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see just what a Vitara is, because, as is often the case, no one here had a clue. As it turns out, neither does Webster. About the closest match was Viterbo, which I thought might be some kind of forced induction, but is actually someplace in central Italy. So I looked up grand and found several definitions, one of which is “very good”. Now we’re getting somewhere. It appears that whatever a Vitara is, this one is very good. Judging by the vehicle I just spent a few days with, a Vitara is a small SUV that can now compete with anything in its class without excuses. Read more…
Bye Bye Bubbles
Which came first, the razor or the car? Our crack research team dove into the history books to find out. When they reported back they all had smooth clean-cut chins and a $1,200 fuel bill. They were dismissed immediately. Read more…
POTEAU, Okla. — It looked like Christmas shopping season in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
Evidently there’s not much to do on a Friday night in Poteau — other than huntin’ and fishin’ in the nearby mountains — so it seemed everybody in town had shown up at Wal-Mart to meet their buddies and share a little gossip on this cool April night. I had to hike from my faraway parking spot to get inside, where the locals were talking a lot more than they were shopping. Read more…
The Original Standard of the World Crossover
The last SUV to occupy this space was lauded for not compromising, for retaining its body-on-frame roots, and for its V8 strength. But that SUV also felt more at home at a rodeo vs. Rodeo (pronounced Roe-day-oh, they tell me) Drive. However you say it, the Cadillac crossover is a compromise. A little bit of this, a little bit of that and whammo, a CTS off its diet. Read more…
Finally A Saab To Be Proud Of?
It’s been anything but smooth sailing for Saab since being acquired by GM in 1990. The quirky Swedish automaker has often been criticized for relying on outdated, back-of-the-pack products that cause it to lose money on a scale that impresses even Mike Tyson—and that’s not easy to do. Most of the time Saab opponents seem to outnumber supporters 100 to 1. The latest death threat came from Jerome York, a newly appointed GM board member and investor Kirk Kerkorian’s right-hand man, who called for the company to cut its losses and dump the brand. The latest rumors suggest York has since warmed up to Saab and now believes, as many others inside GM do, that the future business case for the troubled brand might be enough to turn the dim light at the end of the tunnel into a new dawn for Saab. The 9-3 SportCombi we recently tested suggests Saab’s sun may rise sooner than expected. Read more…
There was a time when “compact truck” really meant “claustrophobic, micro-sized, knee-crunching truck that should only be bought by anorexic contortionists.”
But today’s compact trucks — well, there’s nothing compact about them. Read more…
