Reviews : Car News And Reviews

Even though it’s early in the model year, it will be tough to bump this vehicle off my favorite list for 2019. This week, I’m behind the wheel of the new Ram 1500, which won the North American Truck of the Year (NATOY) during the 2019 NAIAS in Detroit.

The week that the Lexus LS 500 turned up at our offices for review, Chicago was enduring an awful stretch of winter weather. From freezing rain, to snow and ice, to sub-zero temperatures, it wasn’t exactly the ideal week for driving or taking pretty exterior photos.

In the history of automotive advertising, the Kia Soul hamsters are legendary. The adorable human-sized hamsters that loved to party were the ideal way for Kia to launch this cute and quirky compact car. It showed a youth invasion was coming, and Kia was there to capture the next wave of drivers and car buyers.

The mid-size pickup market is growing quickly; over 80% in the last four years with Toyota’s Tacoma, GM’s Colorado and Canyon, and Nissan’s Frontier leading the way. Ford, once a dominant player here, decided in 2011 to exit the segment when they killed the last generation Ranger in the United States after seeing sales slide from a high of 348,000 trucks in 1999 to 70,000 in 2011.

I’ve long thought the Toyota RAV4 was a solid and dependable ride for everyday driving. But with the new 5th-generation model due out for the 2019 model year, the RAV4 isn’t just a good vehicle, it’s a great one.

Could there be a better way to close out 2018 than with a week-long review of Ford’s brilliantly revised Pony Car? Actually there is, and it’s called the Mustang GT Performance Package 2. When I first drove the new GT back in 2017, I was deeply impressed by the heavily revised Mustang. 

With winter pretty much upon us, thoughts of warmer days take hold, and with them memories of various off-road adventures we have undertaken. Take the Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road Premium for instance, which serves as a time capsule both in the bright green foliage around it, and within the vehicle itself.

Chrysler discontinued the 200 midsize sedan. Ford announced that this will be the last generation of the Fusion midsize sedan. Sales of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord midsize sedans aren’t what they used to be.

If glamping is a real word, then I guess gloff-roading is now too, because Rolls-Royce Cullinan is the most glamorous, luxurious, and pampering off-roader ever created. After all, what would you expect from an SUV named after the largest diamond ever mined?

If the Audi TT were an exotic animal, it would probably be a flying squirrel. Small in stature, yet ferociously unafraid of swift flight, it rambunctiously leaps from place to place; an adorable little acrobat with loads of personality and a “never-say-die” look in its eye.

Ask yourself this simple question: Is this the golden age of performance automobiles? We tend to think so. Fuel prices remain relatively reasonable, engineering advancements have provided us with more forced induction solutions than we can shake a piston at, torque-vectoring is not just brake-driven but power oriented as well, and automakers are taking unassuming family cars and are making performance models out of them.

On the surface, the idea of putting a 707 horsepower engine into a Jeep Grand Cherokee is insane. Like the folks who shoehorned the 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI into the truck need to be put in straight jackets and locked up for good.

It’s not often that one of the big talking points of a vehicle involves the sound system. But that’s exactly the case with the completely redesigned 2019 Acura RDX. Don’t get me wrong, the new look of this midsize SUV are stunning.

“It’s about damn time,” should have been Ford’s product punchline for the F-150 Power Stroke pickup, because every time I spoke with someone about this diesel V6 option, they said the exact same thing. No comments on the color.

While Cadillac continues to be dedicated to its luxury sedan roots, it has gradually reimagined itself as a more modern automaker, emphasizing performance, technology, and even utility in its most recent vehicles. On a mission to complete its reinvention, Caddy plans on releasing a completely new vehicle every 6 months through 2020.