I’m Getting Too Old For This
“I’m getting too old for this,” I said.
“Good, cause I’m assigning you the Buick,” replied Master Chief Dye.
Yeah, I walked right into that one. Accordingly, I got out my cane, my overcoat, and my bowler hat and strolled out to the garage—at an appropriately adjusted pace. The Cardinal Red Metallic LaCrosse parked there like a mother goose watching the little ones play. I think its BINGO night down at the local VFW hall. Read more…
You’ve got to love Jeep. At a time when most SUVs are becoming watered down, carlike “crossover” vehicles, the Jeep Liberty is staying true to its roots as a real off-road machine.
Jeep probably could have sold more SUVs if the Liberty were designed for shopping malls and freeways — places where comfort takes precedence over ruggedness and off-road dependability — rather than building an SUV to tackle the Rubicon Trail. But Jeep continues to look to its heritage, making the biggest changes for 2005 to the Liberty’s most rough-and-tumble model, the Renegade. Read more…
A Homerun Even Without The Hemi
The Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C has been subject to media exposure approximately equal to Scott Petersen being on trial during a Janet Jackson half-time show. Lesser (read: V6-powered) 300s, however, have garnered the equivalent of a below-the-fold sidebar about the best M.C. Hammer tune. We nonetheless know that a healthy number of 300s are being sold sans Hemi power and that there are plenty of people out there who lack the desire (hard to believe) or means (more likely) to buy a top-of-the-line 300C. It is for these people that The Left Lane is challenging the status quo and reviewing a mid-level run-of-the-mill 300 Touring. OK, you know us better than that. Truth is we tried everything this side of bribing Dieter himself (all right, we tried that too) to get our hands on a tire-melting Hemi-powered 300C. The problem was that everyone else in our industry wanted one too. Our Chrysler PR guy suggested a week in the 300 Touring instead. He was confident that the Touring would be sufficient to win us over. He was right. Read more…
Regular Strength CTS Still Cures The Enthusiast Itch
If you’re a regular reader of these pages then you should recall our review of the wickedly powerful CTS-V. Last fall we burned the rubber off the V’s rear tires and came away thoroughly impressed of America’s M5-fighter. Of course, 400hp, Brembo brakes and a suspension tuned at the Nurburgring tends to impress anybody. Consequently, you’ll understand our initial doubts as to the regular strength CTS’s ability to peak our jaded journalist interests. After all, it’s sans the rumbling V8 and other performance goodies that make the V so special. What could be left to impress us? Turns out, quite a lot. Read more…
The new Dodge Magnum is a great station wagon with only one problem: Dodge won’t call it a station wagon.
Instead, the marketing geniuses in Detroit demand we call it an Active Hybrid Sport Crossover Utility Something-or-Another Vehicle, but they’re not fooling anybody. It’s still a station wagon, and a darn good one at that. Read more…
Not Worthy Of The R/T Moniker But Competent Nonetheless
Maybe I’m just an over-demanding automotive enthusiast but when I am scheduled to drive a vehicle, which has the R/T moniker in the name, I anticipate a vehicle that, as the name implies, can hold its own on the Road as well as the Track. Accordingly, you will understand my disappointment when I discovered a 3.0-liter V6 under the hood of my Indy Red Status rated at 200 just-adequate horses. Perhaps my disappointment does not lie with the Stratus but with Chrysler marketers misusing a storied name. It’s the same case at General Motors where Chevrolet offers an Impala SS with a Un-Super-Sport-like 240hp. But I digress. With that off my chest it’s time to focus on the Stratus Coupe. Read more…
When you’ve got a sagging brand like Mercury, what do you do?
If you’re an executive with Ford Motor Company, you take the hot-selling Ford Escape, change a couple of things around, and rechristen it the Mercury Mariner. Read more…
1.) Lower The Top
2.) Put On Sunglasses
3.) Bask In The Glare Of Jealous Drivers
Oh, the attention you can garner driving one of these. It isn’t so much that the Crossfire is an exotic looking car as it is just plain different. A fresh design idea you could call it. Whatever it is, it grabbed our attention, and that of several members of the greater Detroit area. I personally would like to think of it as one of the classiest roadsters to come from an American automaker yet—or at least a formerly American automaker. Though by the time you read this (for the northern half of the country that is) it will more than likely be snowing and well past the season for wind in your hair driving! Read more…
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…
When a car looks as good as the Jaguar S-Type, even the smallest hint of a styling change can be scary.
That’s why I didn’t know what to expect from the latest S-Type, which was freshened for the 2005 model year. Sandwiched neatly in Jaguar’s sedan lineup between the low-end X-Type and high-end XJ, the svelte S-Type has arguably been the company’s best looking car since it was introduced in 1999. Read more…
