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When Mazda brought its four-cylinder Mazda5 mini minivan to the North American market for 2006, Canadians were all over it like gravy on French fries. Here was a compact, fuel efficient, fun-to-drive and stylish six-seater with a price that played to our pragmatic sensibilities. And with an available manual transmission, there was nothing like it on the road.
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The 2011 Ford Edge is available with a bunch of high-tech comfort and convenience features, including SYNC, MyFord Touch, and touch-sensitive centre stack controls, all designed to reduce driver distraction without reducing the vehicle’s functionality. What does it say about me, then, that my favourite part of the redesigned interior is the big, analog speedometer that anchors the instrument cluster?
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Back in the earlier days of motoring, luxury automakers often faced a dilemma. Well-heeled customers could be hard to come by, especially when the economy soured. One solution was to offer a smaller, less-powerful and less-expensive model that would appeal to a fresh round of buyers – but the plan often backfired. Wealthy buyers didn’t want to see their vehicle’s logo on one driven by a mere mortal, and often left the brand for one that remained more exclusive.
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Most reviews of the BMW 3 Series include two things: a reference by the reviewer to the car being the most desirable in its class, and comments from readers that BMW must be paying auto writers for so many unanimously positive opinions of the car.
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When it comes to crossover vehicles, the compact category is where most of the action is, with just about every carmaker fielding an entry in order to grab a piece of this very popular pie.
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What would Sheldon drive?
If that super-geek astrophysicist on the hit show, Big Bang Theory, were to buy some wheels (that’s assuming he can drive, which he probably can’t), I’d bet the farm on it being a 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid. Continue reading
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Chrysler, it seems, is perpetually in financial trouble, a strange thing for a company that has been capable of producing successful vehicles. Take the ubiquitous Grand Caravan minivan, or the LH sedans (Intrepid, Concorde, New Yorker, 300 M, Eagle Vision and LHS, sold at various times from 1993 through 2004), both vehicles that brought something new to their respective market segments (or were instrumental in creating them, in the case of the original Caravan).
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I’ve been thinking for a while now about what might replace our 2004 Mazda6 Wagon in the next year or two. With our kids being six and nine years of age, we still need cargo-carrying capacity. We have found that our Mazda’s seating for five and nearly 1,000 litres of cargo volume behind the seats meets our needs nicely, so we’re not interested in a van. And in the interest of car-like handling, we’re trying to steer clear of most crossovers; but that’s getting increasingly difficult as the traditional affordable wagon has all but disappeared from the market.
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As the only diesel-powered compact wagon available in Canada, the VW Golf wagon TDI offers a rare combination of outstanding fuel economy, generous cargo capacity, and everyday driveability at a price starting under $30,000. The fact that this alternative fuel wagon was voted Best New Family Car in the 2010 AJAC Canadian Car of the Year Awards, and the VW Jetta TDI sedan was voted Best New Family Car in 2011, says a lot about how good today’s diesel engine technology has become.
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The Honda Civic-based Acura CSX is the most recent of the brand’s entry-level offerings, following the 1997 1.6 EL and 2001 1.7 EL; previous to the EL, you can count the Integra, which was part of Acura’s original line-up in 1986, as one of the CSX’s ancestors, too.
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