review

2015 Toyota Camry XSE – It’s Not So Beige Anymore

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars reviews Toyota and tagged 2015 camry car car review car reviews review reviews toyota on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Over the years certain brands of cars have become inexorably associated with colors. Regardless of what is sprayed on in the paint shop, a Ferrari is always a deep scarlet red at heart. Anything built on the north side of the English Channel should be a dark green. High performance cars wearing a three-pointed star or four rings are silver arrows. The Toyota Camry? Beige through and through.

Beige is not an offensive hue. Quite the opposite in fact, it may well be the best camouflage color in the known universe. Instead of garish swirlies that are guaranteed to attract attention, automakers should just paint all their prototypes beige and spy photographers would never even see them.

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2015 Honda Fit EX-L – It’s Bigger On the Inside

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Honda reviews and tagged 2015 car review car reviews fit honda review on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Given my work in the auto industry over the years, I frequently get asked for car buying advice. If I determine that the person asking the question is need of a new small car, my goto response for the past half dozen years has consistently been to get a Honda Fit. Last year, Honda introduced an all-new third-generation Fit and I just spent a week driving one and unsurprisingly, it will continue to be the small car I’m most likely to recommend.

When my daughter was in the market for her first new car seven years ago, she checked out all of the small cars available and quickly dismissed the Chevy Aveo, Toyota Echo and Scion xA and xB. At the time, the Fit was a revelation in the segment. A few years earlier MINI had demonstrated that Americans would pay a premium price for a well-built, fun-to-drive small car. As fun as the MINI was, it’s back seat was too tight to be useful and it was a bit pricey. The first-gen Fit on the other hand, could be had starting at just over $14,000 and even a loaded Fit Sport was less than $18,000.

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2015 Hyundai Sonata Eco – You’ve Come a Long Way

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Hyundai reviews and tagged 2015 hyundai sonata eco car reviews cars hyundai midsize sedan review turbocharged on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Growing up in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s was a bit peculiar for someone that would ultimately become a gearhead like me. In those days, automotive emissions and safety regulations were not as stringent as the corresponding American rules. The Canadian auto market has long been about one-tenth the size of the south of the border and in those days it took on something of the flavor of the minor leagues.

Sure we had access to all the major league players like Ford, Chrysler, GM, Toyota, Datsun and the Europeans but we also had some up and coming players that were honing their skills in a less demanding league, others that were in their waning years and on the way out, and some just plain oddballs like TVR. We even had access to 12-cylinder Ferraris and Lamborghinis that were only available via the grey market in the U.S.

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2015 Acura TLX – Nice, But Not Special

This entry was posted in Acura Carmakers cars reviews and tagged 2015 2015 acura tlx acura car reviews review tlx on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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It’s been nearly three decades since Honda became the first Japanese automaker to launch a separate premium brand. The original Acura Integra and Legend hit the streets four years before the first Lexus and Infiniti dealers opened their doors for business. Yet, despite that head start, Acura has never quite managed to define itself as a brand. I recently spent a week with the all-new 2015 TLX sedan to see if it provides any additional clarity.

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2015 Kia K900 V8 VIP – Who Woulda’ Thunk It?

This entry was posted in cars Kia reviews and tagged 2015 Kia K900 car review car reviews k900 kia luxury car review on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Twenty-seven years ago, the first Kia-built cars arrived on American shores badged as the Ford Festiva. At the time, it was hard to imagine that barely a quarter century later, the manufacturer of those low-budget, minicars would be producing a full-size luxury sedan could credibly be compared to some of the best cars in the world. After spending a week with the 2015 Kia K900 V8 VIP, I’ve come to some conclusions about whether the South Korean automaker has succeeded.

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2015 Lexus RX450h – The Luxury CUV Pioneer Stays Calm and Carries On

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Hybrid Lexus reviews and tagged 2015 2015 lexus rx450h car review car reviews hybrid lexus review rx450h on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Scan the model lineups of every premium automotive brand available today and it would be hard to fathom that as recently as 1997, the luxury crossover utility vehicle didn’t exist.  That was the year that Toyota’s premium Lexus brand launched the original RX300 into what marketers like to call a white-space segment and spawned a revolution. The RX is now into the waning years of its third-generation but it remains a segment leader and I recently spent a week driving one.

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2015 Mazda6 Touring – A Sedan Saving the Stick

This entry was posted in cars Mazda reviews and tagged 2015 2015 Mazda6 car review car reviews mazda midsize sedan review on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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The 2015 Mazda6 represents an endangered species. Don’t worry, Mazda is in no immediate danger of going defunct, in fact it’s currently in a real renaissance period. What makes this particular car a dying breed is the fully manual gearbox.

For the 2015 model year, the number of midsize sedans available in America with a three pedal layout has dropped by nearly half. Both the Ford Fusion and Hyundai Sonata have lost their stick shift options as a result of extreme customer apathy, leaving only the 6, the VW Passat and the Honda Accord.

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2015 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ 5.3-liter, Trucks Have Come a Long Way

This entry was posted in cars Chevrolet reviews Trucks and tagged 2015 2015 chevrolet silverado car reviews chevrolet full-size truck review silverado on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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Watching the evolution of the American pickup truck over the past 25 years has been a fascinating experience. Some time I recently spent with a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado demonstrated clearly just how far these most utilitarian of vehicles have come.

When I got started in the auto industry as an engineering student in the late 1980s, technology and trucks were two words that simply didn’t go together. Also not part of the truck equation were driving dynamics, braking performance, refinement or any kind of sophistication.

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2015 Cadillac ATS Premium – It’s Way Better Than the Caddies I Grew Up With

This entry was posted in Cadillac cars reviews and tagged 2015 cadillac ats cadillac car review car reviews review sport sedan on by (updated 3150 days ago)
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For 2015, the Cadillac ATS and the rest of its siblings have abandoned the wreath surrounding the crest

Paraphrasing one of the last tag-lines from the now defunct Oldsmobile, “the 2015 ATS is absolutely not your father’s Cadillac, and that’s a very good thing.” In fact this ATS is the antithesis of what Cadillacs were when I was growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Back in those days, Caddies defined the term land yacht. Actually aircraft carrier might have been a more apt description. When I was high school in the early-1980s, a friend of our family stopped by our house one day to show off the new Caddie that he had bought himself as a retirement gift after putting in his 30 years in one of the local steel mills.

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2015 Chrysler 200C V6, Finally a Real Midsize Competitor

This entry was posted in cars Chrysler reviews and tagged 2015 chrysler 200c car reviews chrysler midsize sedan review technology on by (updated 3150 days ago)

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When Chrysler unveiled the new 2015 200 midsize sedan at the Detroit Auto Show last January, the team from Auburn Hills was clearly trying to expunge the final remnants of the company’s lost decade under first Daimler and then private equity ownership. Chrysler’s new mainstream family sedan was certainly a huge leap forward from its disappointing predecessor in the aesthetic department, but could it compete with the class leaders from Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Ford? The only way to find out was to drive one.

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