crossover

2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk – Polished SUV

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Jeep reviews SUV Trucks and tagged 2015 jeep cherokee car review car reviews cherokee crossover jeep off-road pentastar suv on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk - 1 of 27

The Jeep Cherokee brand now has  more than 40 years of history behind it and in many respects was responsible for transforming the SUV from a minor niche of the automotive market to a mainstream juggernaut. Following a decade during which the former DaimlerChrysler inexplicably re-branded the Cherokee as the Liberty in North America while keeping the original badge intact in the rest of the world, an all-new fifth-generation arrived last year with the old-school badge but some of the most radical changes yet to the skin and the platform.

(more…)

2015 Nissan Juke SL AWD – Don’t Judge This Book By Its Cover

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Nissan reviews and tagged 2015 nissan juke car review car reviews crossover juke nissan on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Nissan Juke Platinum AWD - 7 of 27_lzn

OK, let’s just deal with the elephant in the room right up front. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sadly, when I look at the Nissan Juke, I don’t behold any beauty. In fact, it kind of repulses me. Fortunately, I didn’t let my judgement of this little book’s cover stop me from driving the Juke because it actually has a lot to recommend it.

(more…)

2016 Honda Pilot – Designed to Fracture Wheels, Not Knees

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Honda technology the business and tagged 2016 honda pilot crash test crossover honda iihs pilot safety small offset rigid barrier crash test sorb on by (updated 3177 days ago)

Pilot SOT Action ShotWhen I was in my high school auto mechanics class learning how to rebuild carburetors, grind valve seats and set the valve clearances on a Triumph TR7, I was already dreaming about being an engineer in the industry and developing new cars. One of the most important lessons I learned from those years in the garage was that any engineer should be required to assemble and service a product before it goes into production. It’s become apparent to me over the past 35 years that few if any engineers have ever picked up a wrench. Fortunately, Honda seems to have heard that message and implemented it in the design of the 2016 Pilot crossover.

(more…)

2015 Ford Edge Sport – An Actual Sport Utility Vehicle

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Ford reviews and tagged 2015 ford edge sport car review car reviews crossover ecoboost ford on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Ford Edge Sport - 4 of 33

Two decades ago when the sport utility vehicle was really taking off as a segment in the in the American market, the Ford Explorer was the hottest ticket in town and they were selling as fast as Ford could churn them out. Despite the name, there really wasn’t anything particularly sporty about these truck-based wagons and there was no pretense to actual high-performance or even decent handling. As the 1990s turned into the 21st century, the market shifted from old-school SUVs to car-based crossovers and even sports car stalwarts like Porsche got into the action. Somehow, in 2015 we’re now in a place where despite its high-riding stance, many CUVs can be considered serious performance machines including the all-new 2015 Ford Edge Sport.

(more…)

2015 Kia Soul! – It’s Not Just for Hamsters

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Kia reviews and tagged 2015 kia soul car review car reviews cars crossover kia soul ev soul on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Kia Soul! - 1 of 1A few weeks ago I spent a week with the 2015 Kia Soul EV and came away very impressed by what the South Koreans had achieved. It wasn’t that long ago that Kia was known as a brand that built cheap and frankly not very good cars and SUVs. I liked the first-generation Soul when I drove it several years ago and was even more impressed with the new battery-powered version. There’s just one problem, if you live outside of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Texas or Georgia, you can’t buy one. But fear not, there is a Soul for the rest of us that is still powered by internal combustion of gasoline.

(more…)

2016 Honda HR-V EX-L AWD – The Fit Grows Up

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Honda reviews and tagged 2016 honda hr-v car review car reviews crossover honda honda fit on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2016 Honda HR-V EX-L AWD - 9 of 29Crossover utility vehicles are rapidly taking over the American automobile market. Even as the market as a whole grows, sales of cars are actually in decline. Meanwhile trucks including pickups, SUVs and CUVs are growing. The biggest growth is coming at smallest end of the market with subcompact crossovers going from nonexistent just a few years ago to more than 110,000 in 2014 and 107,000 in the first six months of this year. Several new and very promising small crossovers have just arrived at dealers in the last month or two and are expected to push the numbers way up by the end of the year. Among the new entries are the Jeep Renegade, Fiat 500x, Mazda CX-3 and Honda’s entry into the segment, the HR-V which I just spent a week with.

(more…)

2016 Hyundai Tucson Quick Spin – A Stylish New Compact Crossover 1

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Hyundai reviews and tagged 2016 hyundai tucson car review car reviews crossover tucson on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2016 Hyundai Tucson First Drive - 8 of 23Smaller crossover utilities are the fastest growing segment of the American auto market in the last few years and Hyundai America CEO Dave Zuckowski hopes that the all-new 2016 Tucson will take advantage of that and rekindle the brand’s growth. The first batch of some 9,000 Tucsons has arrived in port from South Korea and are currently going through final quality checks before being shipped out to dealers across America for sale starting August 15. While those are being inspected, I got the chance to spend a couple of hours in a pre-production model on rural roads west of Ann Arbor.

(more…)

Hyundai Will Add a Sub-compact Crossover in 2-3 years

This entry was posted in business Carmakers cars crossover Hyundai and tagged b-segment cuv crossover cuv hyundai sub-compact crossover on by (updated 3202 days ago)

hyundai-creta_678x352_41435382502

The redesigned 2016 Hyundai Tucson will be hitting dealerships in the next two to three weeks but it won’t remain the smallest crossover in the Hyundai lineup forever. During a regional media preview for the Tucson, Hyundai America President and CEO Dave Zuchowski acknowledged that sales of B-Segment crossovers are growing fast and Hyundai wants to be in the segment. However, the new Creta that just launched in India is not suitable for the American market in its current form. Zuchowski didn’t say if the new U.S.-market CUV would be based on an updated version of the Creta or would be something different. He did say that the small crossover would probably arrive here in two to three years.

2015 Hyundai Sante Fe Sport – Plenty of Utility, Not So Much Sport

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars crossover Hyundai reviews and tagged 2015 hyundai santa fe sport car review car reviews crossover hyundai santa fe on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T - 4 of 31

It should come as no surprise when you check Hyundai’s monthly sales report to find the midsize Santa Fe crossover as the brand’s third-best selling model trailing only the Elantra and Sonata. Americans have fallen head over heels in love with crossovers with the segment seemingly absorbing the station wagon and taking more and more of the minivan’s sales. Now in its third-generation, the Santa Fe has grown from the compact original to a midsizer and it’s now made in two sizes. A larger three-row variant has replaced the defunct Veracruz while the shorter two-row version now has a Sport suffix. I recently spent a week with a 2015 Santa Fe Sport learning whether the badge fits.

(more…)

2015 Lexus NX300h – A Surprisingly Dynamic Hybrid Crossover

This entry was posted in Carmakers Hybrid Lexus reviews technology and tagged 2015 lexus nx300h car review car reviews crossover hybrid lexus luxury crossover on by (updated 2946 days ago)

2015 Lexus NX300h - 1 of 27In the mid-1990s the original Lexus RX kicked off the wave of luxury utility vehicles that has now infected pretty much every premium brand short of Ferrari and McLaren. In time, Lexus added rebadged versions of the Toyota Sequoia and Land Cruiser large SUVs and has now fleshed out the lineup with the compact NX crossover. The addition of the NX has inflated Lexus utility sales to the point where they have nearly overtaken car sales, a promise that will likely be completed when the new RX hits the streets this fall. While we wait on the 2016 RX, I got to spend a week driving it’s little brother, the hybrid electric NX300h.

(more…)