Reviews : Car Reviews And News

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.

There’s a huge market out there for small SUVs and crossovers, so it only stands to reason that just about every automaker has an entry in this space these days. While I haven’t driven every SUV for the latest model year, the 2017 Kia Sportage SX Turbo is my favorite so far.

It’s about freakin’ time! That’s what I have to say about my tester this week. The Audi Q7 returns, after taking a year off and does so in grand fashion. Having gone almost a decade with the same exterior, and essentially just an occasional refresh, this seven-passenger luxury SUV was looking a little long in the tooth.

For as long as I can remember, the Hyundai Elantra has been one of those cars that I’d see driving down the road without giving it a second look. They’ve always been pretty serviceable little cars, but never much to look at inside or out.

The Tacoma TRD Off-Road isn’t a new vehicle to us here at 95octane. Paul spent some quality time in the Tacoma line last year, but there was one thing those vehicles didn’t have. We even reviewed the TRD Sport and it was missing the same thing.