cars

2016 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring AWD – It’s the Crossover With Zoom-Zoom

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Mazda reviews and tagged 2016 Mazda CX-5 car reviews crossover ford escape honda cr-v mazda review on by (updated 3143 days ago)

2016 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring - 1 of 24The typical American car buyer is a fickle beast, constantly evolving and chasing the latest fashion. You might think that as the second biggest purchase that most people make after their home, selecting a vehicle would be a more rational decision, but in reality it is often far more emotional. That’s probably why the crossover utility vehicle has become one of the hottest segments in the market with the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape each selling more than 300,000 units in 2014 and numerous other models in the segment topping 200,000. For Mazda, the compact CX-5 is the brand’s second best seller, just behind the Mazda3 and selling nearly twice as fast as the midsize Mazda6 sedan. I recently got to spend a week with the 2016 CX-5 Grand Touring AWD to see if it lives up to the brand’s fun-to-drive philosophy and came away impressed.

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2015 Lexus RC350 F-Sport

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Lexus reviews and tagged 2015 lexus rc350 car review car reviews coupe lexus luxury review on by (updated 3143 days ago)

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After debuting in 1989 with two sedans, the Camry-based ES250 and the big rear-wheel drive LS400, Lexus began to grow its lineup in 1991 with the sleek and stylish SC400. The original SC had a nine-year run before being replaced by a the bloated and lifeless second-generation model which is best forgotten. Now, after a suitable cooling off period, Lexus has returned to its roots with a new coupe more in keeping with the original and it gets a new RC badge. Does the 2015 RC350 F-Sport take Lexus in a new direction? Read on.

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Would Lincoln Ever Challenge for Overall Le Mans Victory?

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Ford Lincoln racing the business and tagged dan neil facebook ford gt le mans lincoln lmp1 motorsports on by (updated 3442 days ago)

Lincoln_LE_MANS_6A day before the 2015 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford announced that the company bearing his family name would be partnering with Ganassi Racing to field four of its new GT supercars in the French enduro next year. Wall Street Journal auto critic Dan Neil wrote about this on the newspaper’s website on Sunday after the race. More interesting perhaps was what he wrote when he linked to his Journal piece on Facebook.

There he said that he felt the GT should be badged as a Lincoln rather than a Ford to help support the premium brand. I’d like to suggest a different strategy for what Ford might be thinking here. Full disclosure, when I left the Ford communications team in mid-2014, I was privy to some future product information which had not yet been revealed at the time including the Lincoln Continental, Ford GT, Focus RS and Shelby GT350. All of that information has now been publicly announced and what comes next is pure speculation on my part with no basis in fact.

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Ford GT Officially Heading Back to Le Mans in 2016

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Ford racing and tagged 2017 ford gt 24 hours of le mans endurance racing ford ford gt ford gt40 ford performance ganassi racing gt le mans lm-gte multimatic tudor united sports car championship world endurance championship on by (updated 3444 days ago)

FORD_LE_MANS_14In early 1963, Ford Motor Company very nearly acquired Ferrari. Fortunately for automotive enthusiasts the world over, Enzo Ferrari rebuffed the offer from Henry Ford II at the last possible moment. There is no way of knowing what would have happened if the Dearborn automaker had succeeded in subsuming the then tiny Italian sports car manufacturer and racing team. However, we do know that the rejection spawned one of the greatest rivalries and some of the greatest cars of the past half century. The day before the 2015 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, starting with “We’re Back!” Henry Ford II’s nephew Bill announced the next stage in that rivalry with a 2016 return to Circuit de la Sarthe powered by the all-new GT.

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2016 Acura ILX Premium A-Spec

This entry was posted in Acura Carmakers cars reviews and tagged 2016 acura ilx acura car review car reviews dct on by (updated 3143 days ago)

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As Honda Motor Company’s premium Acura brand comes up on its 30th anniversary next year, it continues to have a bit of an identity crisis not dramatically different from that suffered by Lincoln. Honda has never really had a clear idea about what the brand was supposed to represent, in fact when it debuted in 1986, there wasn’t even a logo. While a stylized pair of calipers have long since represented the “A,” Acura remains as indistinct as ever. Following the launch of the new midsize TLX sedan, last year, the entry ILX got a mid-cycle revamp earlier this year. Does it finally have the character it deserves?

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BMW i3 REX – Carbon Fiber EV at an Almost Affordable Price

This entry was posted in BMW Carmakers cars electric Hybrid reviews technology and tagged 2015 bmw i3 battery car reviews electric electric car electric vehicle EV i3 lithium lithium ion plug-in vehicle on by (updated 3143 days ago)

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In November 2008, I sat with a group of journalists on a hotel terrace in Beverly Hills to learn about BMW’s Project i which had the aim of a building a 21st century megacity car. In the middle of the terrace sat a fairly conventional-looking grey MINI hatchback that frankly didn’t look all that advanced. However, the lessons learned from that car and the other 500 examples just like it, led directly to the BMW’s first true, next-generation automobile, the i3.

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2016 Chevrolet Camaro – Game On!

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet and tagged #camarosix 2016 Chevrolet Camaro camaro camaro 6 ford mustang mustang on by (updated 3472 days ago)

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Long before there was iPhone vs Android or Mac vs Windows, there was Mustang vs Camaro. Nearly 50 years after it began, the battle of the pony cars rages on in Detroit. The all-new sixth-generation Ford Mustang debuted in December 2013 and went on sale last four. In response, Chevrolet has just revealed its own sixth-generation, rear-drive, 2+2 sports coupe at a rainy special event at Detroit’s Belle Isle park.

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2015 Ford Shelby GT350 – Built From the Wheels Up

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Ford technology and tagged 2015 Ford Shelby GT350 2015 ford shelby gt350 mustang brakes carbon fiber ford mustang suspension on by (updated 3482 days ago)

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2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Shelby-badged Ford Mustang, the 1965 GT350. With an all-new Mustang having hit the streets last fall, 50 years after the original, the first true GT350 since the 1960s is now in the final stages of development and it promises to be truer to the spirit of that first model than any of the cars to wear that badge since.

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2015 GMC Canyon SLT 4WD

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars GMC reviews Trucks and tagged 2015 2015 gmc canyon car review car reviews gmc midsize midsize pickup truck pickup on by (updated 3143 days ago)

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My first vehicle that I ever bought with my own money and had registered in my name was the direct progenitor of the most recent vehicle I’ve had a chance to drive. Just shy of 30 years ago as I entered the second half of my freshman year at was then GMI Engineering & Management Institute (since renamed to Kettering University) I bought an 18-month-old 1984 GMC S15 pickup. All these years later, the most compact pickup you can buy from GMC is now called the Canyon and frankly it’s not so compact anymore. Does this midsize pickup make sense anymore?

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2015 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel – Exceptional Real World Efficiency

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Chevrolet reviews and tagged 2015 chevrolet cruze diesel car review car reviews chevrolet chevy cruze diese on by (updated 3143 days ago)

2015 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel - 7 of 26In the early-1980s, General Motors almost single-handedly poisoned the American market for diesel-engined passenger cars for more than a generation. Aside from the most hardcore Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz fans, most American drivers were so put off by the failures of the Oldsmobile diesel V8 that they wouldn’t even consider a diesel in anything but a heavy-duty truck for nearly three decades. Thus it was fitting that GM should be the first Detroit-based automaker to reintroduce a diesel-powered car with the 2013 debut of the Chevrolet Cruze diesel.

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