When she had a point to make, my mother often relied on adages. If I wanted something spendy — a pair of Levi’s, say, instead of the usual jeans from Sears — she’d say I had champagne tastes on a beer budget. Fair enough. Even...
Bathed in a look-at-me color called Sunshine Orange and equipped with a six-speed manual transmission, Subaru’s Crosstrek seemed to promise a week of fun. I harbored hopes that the little all-wheel-drive hatchback would drive something like a lifted version of Subaru’s sprightly WRX. I should…
The day after Christmas, we left Portland on the heels of an ice storm. For the first 40 miles of our journey, our tires conducted delicate negotiations with the road surface. We were driving a 2018 Toyota RAV4 Adventure, a new trim that, with its...
For 2018, Chevrolet packs a big one-two punch with a pair of key crossovers. In December, we reviewed the compact Equinox whose recent redesign grew 2017 sales by 20 percent. Today, we address the all-new midsize Traverse. Its December 2017 sales bested the previous year’s...
Since Chrysler invented the minivan, it’s fitting that it would first to offer a gas-electric hybrid option. For most manufacturers, the minivan is buried in the dead-letter box. Most exited the segment long ago. But Chrysler believes in the minivan. Until late 2016, it offered...
There’s an image in my head of a herd of Lexus LX570s ambling along an off-road course set up at ski resort somewhere in the Northwest. I don’t remember the exact location, but the image of a string of three-ton brutes crawling down into a…
For automakers, the compact crossover class is the land of opportunity. Take Chevrolet. Its five-passenger Equinox is its second-best seller, behind only the Silverado pickup. In 2016, the Equinox was the country’s 15th best-selling vehicle. But then, for 2018, Chevy launched the third-generation Equinox. The...
Whether you call it kismet or good timing, the 2018 BMW X1 arrived just in time for a cross-border jaunt into Canada. I consider that a worthy match. Canada is the next best thing to an Old World outpost, after all, and the X1 is...
Hours after taking delivery of my 2018 Subaru Outback tester, I pulled up behind — loomed over, really — a first-generation Outback. Sitting at that stoplight on North Division, I marveled at how small and boxy that first, mid-‘90s Outback had been. And at what...
Automakers play in a complicated world. They must serve global markets with products responsive to the shifting sands of consumer demand and government regulation. Even the best can find themselves lacking a viable product in a key market. Increasingly, they are addressing their vulnerabilities by...
Not long ago, the subcompact segment was the final refuge of vinyl seats, hand-cranked windows and manual door locks. Good luck to shoppers who hoped to find anything like the latest and greatest. Who craved a quiet, comfortable ride or an engaging driving experience. Who...
Because catching eyes is what it does, Lexus’s LC 500 got Hutch’s attention right out of the gate. Hutch is our UPS guy so he gets an early look at our Coming Attractions. “Tell me when you write about this one,” he said: “I want...
Now and again we encounter a car that thumbs its noses at convention. A car so unique it relegates traditional virtues like comfort, utility and performance to the back seat. Usually, it’s a truck powerful enough to tow a rolling mansion. Or a muscle car...
Following last week’s wild romp in Honda’s Civic Type R, let’s dial it back a bit with a look at Toyota’s take on the modern sports car. The Toyota 86 is an affordable ($26,255) no-frills sport coupe now enjoying a second life. The 86 arrived…
Honda’s compact Civic is a safe, comfortable and well-behaved ride. The track-ready Civic Type R, is also safe and comfortable. However, well-behaved is in the eye of the beholder. The little hatchback might be considered the rowdy Civic, but that suggests a cuddly side. Instead,...
Infiniti’s resigned 2017 Q60 two-door deepens the company’s portfolio of coupes that make powerful first impressions. The string began with the 2002 G35 coupe and has evolved through a succession of striking, slippery-silhouetted two-doors that culminate with the Q60. There’s a fair amount drama at…
As Acura knows, it’s not hard to lose your footing in an industry as fluid as the car game. Honda’s premium brand burst onto the scene in then late 1980s with a stable of cars that were innovative, well engineered and fun to drive. Those...
Rooting for the underdog is as American as free fireworks. We can’t get enough of the against-all-odds success story. And so it follows that every red-blooded American ought to be cheering on the latest from Hyundai’s premium brand Genesis. The 2018 Genesis G80 Sport defines…
Last week, we reviewed one of the rowdier players in the compact segment, Honda’s Civic Si. Today, let’s check in on one of the segment’s better-behaved nameplates, the 2017 Toyota Corolla ($18,500). The Corolla family hosts no corollary to the tautly suspended 162-horsepower Si. The…
During development of the 10th-generation 2016 Civic, Honda benchmarked small cars from BMW and Audi. The strategy was driven by Honda’s wish to reinvigorate the Civic, to subject it to a process of “dynamic rejuvenation.” With that goal, Honda engineers took a deep drive the...
Perhaps you’ve noticed the recent flurry of hybrid reviews in this space. It’s not because hybrids are flying off showroom floors — though their market share continues to inch upward — it’s more because carmakers have seen the future. To wit: The internal-combustion engine is…
Say you’re a carmaker needing a locale suitable for building and testing a car durable enough to handle winter’s worst and stout enough to venture comfortably off-road. If you were Volvo, you’d be home free. Sweden’s harsh winters and timbered terrain provide an ideal test…
Kia just added another rig to the roster of cars best ignored by shy people. The redesigned 2017 Kia Sportage is a sure-fire attention-getter. It’s a splashy compact crossover with the devil-may-care charisma of its Seoul hatchback sibling. The Sportage crams more action into its…
Of all the reasons for owning a Mazda CX-5 — and they are numerous — the crossover’s performance cred heads the list. The CX-5 ($24,045) is a resolute outsider in the compact crossover segment, where utility normally drives the action. Its rigid and lightweight platform,...
It was sunny in Seattle the day we arrived to test Audi’s newest product, a four-door hatchback called Sportback. It was one of those days that unsettle the locals. They’d rather we didn’t falling in love with their city and move in to jam already-crowded...
