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The 2005 Porsche 911 marked something of a return to the traditional for this storied sports car. Gone were the controversial “fried egg” headlight clusters of the previous generation (the 996), and the overall styling of this car, code-named the 997, was more reminiscent of the 993 car – the last air-cooled 911 – which had been replaced in 1999.
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Talk about vindication.
The last Subaru Impreza I drove left me totally underwhelmed. Plain-Jane looks and an uninspired driving experience had me muttering things like “Why couldn’t Subaru inject some WRX fun into their entry level models?” Was I being too harsh on the poor $20,995 Impreza? Continue reading
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Finding that one ‘do-it-all’ car is tough. Pick a fun car, and it’ll have a tiny back seat and no trunk, while a more practical choice may offer no driving satisfaction whatsoever.
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What’s the secret behind buying an economical car? Price is certainly a factor, but so is functionality. The most economical car may well be the one that does what’s needed of it without overkill. And that brings me to the 2011 Kia Rondo.
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It doesn’t look it, but the 2011 Kia Forte5 is a little bit retro. The prevailing trend is for new cars to be more refined and more grown up than the ones they replace, so it’s easy to get used to the concept of a compact that drives more like a mid-sized car.
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The importance of compact cars means that very few designs in this class languish for more than five or six years. Even that’s a change from the 1980s and ’90s, when many little cars were redesigned every four years. The Hyundai Elantra, though, never followed that four-year cycle though, being redesigned every six years at the soonest. Continue reading
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You would think Canada has enough small cars already, but Toyota disagrees, as it launches its value-oriented Scion brand north of the 49th for the 2011 model year. Their argument seems valid: Canada has a big appetite for little wheels. It’s odd enough that the U.S. market got Scions before us unlucky Canucks, but even more eyebrow-raising is that the company waited nine years before officially introducing Canadians to the brand’s three-model line-up.
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Hyundai’s history in the subcompact segment started in the mid-1980s, with the introduction of the Excel. The 1995 model year brought with it an all-new subcompact, the Accent, which was redesigned into its third generation in 2006. This review picks up on that third-generation model as Hyundai prepares the fourth-gen, 2012 model for its introduction.
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If I had to come up with the ultimate definition of a “hard sell,” I’m guessing it was the day that someone stood before the bigwigs at Porsche and suggested they build an SUV. Of course you know the rest of the story: the Cayenne skyrocketed to success and still remains the company’s best-selling model in Canada.
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What’s the deal with minivans? Many people seem to think they’re terminally uncool, yet these people-movers still sell pretty well despite the surging market for seven-seat SUVs and crossovers. Of particular interest is the continuing success of Chrysler’s minivans. The former Chrysler Corporation arguably invented the minivan back in the early ’80s, when these family haulers quickly became more popular than leg warmers and frizzy hair.
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