Backstory Right up until the Kia Telluride came out, if someone asked me what was my go-to three-row crossover choice, I would have said the Highlander in XLE trim. Several years ago I had the XLE and Limited trims nearly back to back to review, and put 700+ miles on the Limited model. This included […]
Preamble When a five-door hatchback like the Elantra GT, rolling on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires and with a manual transmission is dropped off for you, you have expectations. More so, given that Hyundai, for more than a decade, tends to deliver a lot of value for the money. To that value point, this is […]
Preamble I would have to go back and check the dates to be sure, but something like three and half years ago I reviewed the Mazda CX-3. To cut to the chase, my take on Mazda’s small crossover was not favorable at all. It was smaller than a Mazda3 yet cost more money. My opinion […]
There are three overriding memories from attending the launch of the current generation Lexus GS in Las Vegas. Number one was the Mandarin Oriental where we stayed, though for less than 48 hours. Number two, being driven for three laps on the infield course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by Jon Capps in an LFA. […]
Mazda sold 50,741 Mazda3’s in calendar 2019. How many were manuals, I can not say as Mazda doesn’t break that out. There were less than 250,000 manual transmission vehicles sold in the U.S. in calendar 2019. So, let’s just say that this one was delivered in “enthusiast spec”. Exterior The 2020 Mazda3 is flat out […]
Preamble The contrast couldn’t have been more different. When the people at DriveShop dropped off this RX450h, they were picking up the Toyota Land Cruiser Heritage Edition. From old school V8, body-on-frame with a real locking center differential, to a 21st Century unibody soft-roader with a hybrid drivetrain. I’ll be honest. For the first two […]
Toyota Land Cruiser needs no introduction. Legendary longevity and reliability of the Land Cruiser are known worldwide. While most of that is focused on the 60, 70, and 80’s series Land Cruisers, the latest 200 series is still held to that standard. The 200 series may look and feel softer than its predecessors but a […]
My last go-around with the Lexus IS series wasn’t great. More about the circumstances than the car itself. I had an IS200t RWD on Summer performance tires show up in early December of 2016 when it snowed. The car was undrivable. That is not hyperbole. The traction control was so overwhelmed that it was stuck […]
Preamble Full sized executive sedans from Germany always had a bit of an aura to them. Their heyday was the mid to late ’70s into the early twenty-oughts. The Mercedes S Class was identified as an “old money” car. The BMW 7 Series, was always interesting. It didn’t always fall into the classic “executive” stereotype. […]
The delay in writing up this review makes for an interesting perspective. As I write this it is late April 2020 and we are in week five or six of lockdown because of COVID-19. Whereas back in February when I had the vehicle in for review, a three-row crossover was one of the hottest segments […]