Reviews : Car Reviews And News

Volkswagen is sitting on an opportunity. Actually, opportunity is not the right word. Considering the outside forces currently acting against them, they have an outcome to determine for themselves. I won’t go into detail about those outside forces, but I’m going to weigh in on the type of outcome they can potentially make for themselves.

When Jaguar first announced that they’d be entering the already crowded luxury SUV market, there were lots of people out there wondering if it would be the right move for a brand whose heritage is steeped in sports cars like the classic E-Type and the modern classic F-TYPE.

Frankly, today’s automotive marketplace offers few choices when it comes to drop-tops. Cruising convertibles for four passengers are particularly rare these days. The days of going for a drive, with no place to go, the top down and the wind in your hair are few and far between.

About a year ago, I had the opportunity to spend a week with a C7 Corvette Stingray, and I absolutely fell in love with the car. The current generation of Corvette not only looks amazing, it’s on a performance level with cars costing significantly more money.

Today’s pickup trucks have to be big and durable and tow an RV, while carrying a palette of bricks in its bed. Right? WRONG! The small truck segment is back and growing, proving that bigger doesn’t mean better.

Over the last several years, Lincoln has worked diligently to become relevant to today’s buyers, bringing to market a series of cars which have finally started to differentiate themselves from their Ford counterparts, and to compete with European and Japanese luxury car makers. 

Driving is supposed to be fun, or at least that’s what I believe. We spend far too much time inside our vehicles for us not to get some pleasure out of them. That’s what the Mini brand counts on.

When Lexus introduced its RC luxury sports coupe a couple of years ago, there were two cars which looked very similar on the outside, but had very different personalities in terms of performance and ride. Now, the muscular RC F, sporty RC 350, and winter-friendly RC 300 AWD are joined by another brother – the RC 200t, a car that is visually and functionally very similar to the RC 300 and 350 – though with a smaller, lighter engine, focused more on fuel economy.

There’s a delightfully entertaining thing on YouTube that I’d stumbled across called the Tough Truck Challenge from the Clark County Fair in Ridgefield WA. As you can imagine, it involves putting a truck through the paces on an offroad course, but there’s one stand out video that features an older Durango being beaten to the point of limping away.

Whoever says money can’t buy happiness lied. Because if you have roughly $200,000 to spend, you can buy a lot of happiness and a lot of horsepower. I was fortunate enough to spend a week with the 2017 Audi R8, which offered up plenty of happiness.

What happens when you take the lovable Mazda MX-5 Miata and change out the engine and exterior design for a little Italian flair? You end up with the 2017 Fiat 124 Spider. I recently had a chance to drive the new roadster in sunny San Diego to not only see if the new car is any good, but also to see how it compares to the crowd-pleasing Miata.

They grow up so quickly, don’t they? Sure, this could apply to anyone (like me) who has children as they grow and mature in the blink of an eye. Why am I waxing so sentimental? Well other than the fact that my daughter is about to start to high school, my tester this week has been growing up and maturing.

Prior to this model year, Nissan wasn’t a brand most truck buyers even had on their radar screen here in the U.S. So it only makes sense that in order to re-engage in this ultra-competitive segment, that Nissan had to do something bold.

The Honda Civic is a steady performer one of the world’s top selling vehicles. It’s that mentality that has kept Honda from really going all out on giving the Civic what it needed. Honda last redesigned their compact sedan in 2011; well that was sort of the last time.

Magnetic name tags are useful. They let you know the names of the suspiciously knowledgeable staff at your local shoe store. They let angry restaurant goers know who to complain about on Yelp. They are a form of identification for those who would otherwise blend into the world of retail.