Critical Praise Ignored, Mazda 3 Sales Keep Falling
“It’s the one to have,” we said of the 2017 Mazda 3 on the last day of November, “but not the one you’ll buy.” Pat TTAC on the back for such an accurate forecast, as the very next day, Mazda revealed...
View ArticleAce of Base: 2017 Mazda3 4-Door Sport
Sometimes a manufacturer churns out a base trim that — all things considered — might just be the primo choice for that particular model. Here’s an example. When we started this nonsense Ace of Base...
View Article2017 Toyota Corolla iM Review – Know Your Place
Long, long ago (2003), in a land far, far away (Torrance, California), Toyota’s American division woke from a fever dream of beige sedans, took a long, hard look at its life, and promptly embarked on a...
View ArticleChicago 2017: 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT Drops the Cute Act
Hyundai lifted the veil on the next-generation Elantra GT today at the Chicago Auto Show, revealing a compact hatch that dispenses with the “cute little car” template. For 2018, the Elantra GT grows in...
View Article2017 Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback Premier Review – Now Can We Forget About the...
It’s not easy to live down past embarrassments. In a junior high school basketball game, I banked in a free throw. Two decades later, do you think my older brothers have forgotten? More than two...
View ArticleKia Quietly Kills Off a Model You’ve Already Forgotten About
We’re not talking about the K900 flagship sedan, as Kia’s luxo barge actually gets people talking — mainly due to its slow sales and LeBron James connection. No, the model lying in the casket this...
View ArticleThe Mitsubishi Lancer Lives! (Sort Of)
As Mitsubishi prepares to launch a new small crossover, the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Mitsubishi’s car lineup continues to shrink. The Galant died in 2012. The Mitsubishi Lancer, it was revealed...
View ArticleNew Four-Cylinders on the Way from Mercedes-Benz
Like Steve Austin’s doctors, Mercedes-Benz engineers realized they had the technology to make the brand’s four-cylinder engines better than they were before. Better, stronger…smaller. As the automaker...
View ArticleMercedes-Benz A-Class is Coming, Could Start Below $30,000: Dealers
Get ’em young and get ’em poor upwardly mobile. That seems to be Mercedes-Benz’s rationale behind the upcoming A-Class sedan, which should arrive in the U.S. later next year. According to dealers who...
View Article2018 Hyundai Elantra GT First Drive Review – Sidle Up to the Hatch Buffet
Years back, a neighbor of mine worked as an electrician’s apprentice while we both occupied different corners of a sketchy four-plex. Good guy. When an emergency arose, especially if the emergency was...
View ArticleWe Know Crossovers Are Killing Midsize Sedans, but Now Compact Cars Are...
Through the first-half of 2017, midsize car sales plunged 18 percent as nearly every nameplate in the category suffered from declining sales. Year-over-year, sales of the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord,...
View ArticleQOTD: Do We Deserve an American Small Car?
If you’re a believer in the idea of authentically American small cars, then you’ve had a rough couple of years. The last compact or subcompact to be engineered ground-up by an American corporation was...
View ArticleHyundai Rolls Out Pricing for Crossover-fighting 2018 Elantra GT; Entry...
Hyundai, as we told you last month, has a pretty competent little hatchback on offer for 2018: the newly restyled, revamped, and (Hyundai hopes) reinvigorated Elantra GT. Sporting a mature...
View Article2018 Hyundai Elantra GT GLS Review – Wouldn’t You Really Rather Have a Car?
Back in late June, Hyundai’s Canadian division bundled myself and a group of fellow journalists into a Quebec hotel, then proceeded to explain how crossovers are eating the compact car’s lunch. The...
View ArticleWill Buyers Wait Until 2022 for a Next-generation Honda Civic?
The lifespan of an average car-model usually lasts a half-decade before the automaker shells out for a full redesign, unless it’s a Nissan Frontier or Lincoln Navigator. That’s more or less the rule at...
View ArticleHyundai Accent Ditches Hatchback for 2018 Redesign
With sales slipping, Hyundai has decided to trim some fat on the fifth-generation Accent. While a hatchback remains available for the rest of the world, the automaker has indicated the U.S. will...
View ArticleFourth-generation Ford Focus Goes Upmarket, Spawns an Active Variant Of Course
Rarely does one hear an automaker point out that the next generation of a popular product is headed downmarket. Even when a vehicle is repositioned in a lower end of the market, “downmarket” is the...
View ArticleThis Is the Next Mazda 3…‘s Silhouette
The 2019 Mazda 3 will be previewed by a concept at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show on October 24th. Realistic enough to represent an accurate vision of what the fourth-generation Mazda 3 will look like, but...
View ArticleOnce Again, Canada Gets a Mercedes-Benz the Americans Can’t Have
There’s more to living in Canada than just higher taxes, polar bear incursions, and brutally cold weather. For some reason, denizens of the Great White North are allowed to enjoy more choice at the...
View ArticleAlready a Gas Sipper, the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta’s Fuel Economy Nears the Head...
The next-generation Jetta, now virtually indistinguishable from other cars when viewed from the side (but unmistakably Volkswagen in its front and rear styling), has plenty of newness on offer, having...
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