2016 Lexus RC-F in Molten Coral
We’re coming up on nearly a decade since Lexus first officially announced its attempt to take on the Ms, AMGs and RSs of the automotive world. Toyota’s premium brand selected F as its official designation for performance-oriented variants of its well-built but staid vehicles. Until the arrival of an LC-F at some future date, the RC-F can arguably be called the current Lexus performance herald.
2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD
The idea of the off-road vehicle is by no means new, but it used to be that people that wanted to go bouncing around in sand dunes, crawling through canyons or racing through the desert would basically have to build their own. Aside from the Jeep Wrangler and its predecessors, almost no factory-built truck had real serious off-road capability. However, in the past decade we’ve seen automakers go from building hot-rod trucks like the Chevy Syclone, Ford F-150 Lightning and Dodge Ram SRT-10 to more serious off-roaders like the F-150 SVT Raptor and this Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road.
2016 hyundai sonata phev
If you’ve been following along over the past year or so, you’ve probably noticed that I’m quite enamored with the current generation Hyundai’s midsize sedan, the Sonata. Since early 2015, I’ve driven the 1.6-liter turbocharged Eco, the 2.0-liter Hybrid and now the newest member of the lineup, the Plug-in Hybrid. The Sonata PHEV is the first Hyundai-branded model sold in North America with a plug and it’s one of only two plug-in hybrids in the midsize family sedan segment, the other being the Ford Fusion Energi.
2016 Lexus RX 450h F Sport
For most of its nearly two decade history, the midsize RX crossover has been the best seller in the Lexus lineup by a fairly wide margin. Like other Lexi prior to the current generation, it also had generally inoffensive, but uninspired design. That all changed in 2015 with the debut of the fourth-generation RX including the hybrid RX450h F Sport that I recently drove. Whether you like the new design direction or not, this latest RX is at least less likely to get lost in a crowd.
A good rule of thumb when attending an auto show is that the more radical looking a concept car is, the less likely it is to ever make it to production. Virtually every major brand is guilty of producing pieces of rolling sculpture that end up doing little more than introducing a couple of new design cues that end up on more mainstream models. When we first saw BMW’s Vision EfficientDynamics concept at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, it seemed to fall squarely into this category. Nevertheless, five years later something very much like that concept emerged as the first-ever i8.
The luxury vehicle market today shares a very important characteristic with the market for more mainstream models. While enthusiasts may prefer the cars, especially sporty, performance oriented models, crossovers are where the big money is at. For all the strategic issues that Ford’s upmarket Lincoln brand has had over the past couple of decades, they at least seem to have recognized this truism. Thus instead of a BMW and Cadillac-chasing rear drive sports sedan or coupe, we have the new MKX midsize crossover and frankly that’s not an entirely bad thing.
If a vehicle is built continuously for 75 years with updates every decade yet it’s still instantly recognizable as the original, can it be considered retro? That’s certainly a question that applies to the Jeep Wrangler. Today’s Jeep Wrangler has a direct lineage back to the Willys MB/Ford GPW that supported millions of allied troops in World War II and the conflicts that followed. Today’s Wrangler is immediately recognizable and shares many of the attributes of those originals, but is also different in so many ways.
2016 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk
Last year Fiat Chrysler Automobiles launched two B-segment SUVs based off the same platform but with very different designs and personalities. The more stylish Fiat 500X that I drove recently is targeted at a mainstream audience that wants the high-riding look of a utility with a modern look but has no intention of ever tackling anything more challenging than a gravel driveway. For those that actually want a real off-road capable SUV in a small package, there is the Jeep Renegade Trailhawk.
To a large degree, the 1998 “merger of equals” between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. was generally considered an unmitigated disaster. Just like any other failed marriage, great kids can result from the collaboration. In this case, what is now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is still earning dividends from its LX platform which includes the 300S sedan I recently drove.
If you’re the type of driver that inclined toward cars like the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro or Dodge Challenger but regularly need to bring along more than one adult friend or strap kids into car seats, Dodge has an alternative for you. In many respects, the Dodge Charger is the family pony car. After spending a week with a 2016 Charger SXT Black Top Edition, I can attest that it has the feel these drivers would be looking for.
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