Latest auto news, reviews, editorials, and podcasts

By on November 28, 2012

We liked the Boxster S when we briefly drove it during a stage-managed event designed to show off its best characteristics. The Cayman should be even better.

(Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

The late Gore Vidal was fond of saying, “Gratitude can be a complicated thing.”

He was right. Whether you are a hater, or simply a chronic critic, the act of complimenting those who follow the beat of a different drummer is usually not within the tip of the human tongue.

We want things our way… and sometimes we’re just plain wrong.

(Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

My experience with the Lexus IS-F was both impressive and rather sterile. I was put in mind of Samuel Johnson’s observation regarding Milton’s Paradise Lost: “[it is] one of the books which the reader admires and puts down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.”

The same might be true of the IS-F… but here’s a fast Lexus that’s not just longer, it’s wider. And taller. And just plain big.

(Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

Yes it is that time of the month, the time for our acclaimed monthly rendezvous: the World Roundup, now in its 8th installment.

Last month the Ford Focus’ success in China made the headlines, and in October it does again…but the heat is also on in Japan and Austria… (Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

Smart asked fashion designer Jeremy Scott to come up with a special version of the smart fortwo electric car.  Much to the horror of Daimler engineers who were used to fashion designers submitting patches of interior materials and color schemes, Jeremy Scott did put his trademark on the car: Wings, sprouting on both sides, and likely wreaking havoc with the CW coefficient. (Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

Duncan writes:

Hi Sajeev,
I have a question about a 4L60-E transmission in a 2001 Chevy Suburban K1500. The truck has 159k miles. The previous owner purchased the truck 7 years ago with 90k miles and hasn’t changed any fluids in that time other than oil – I don’t know anything about the truck’s early history. (Read More…)

By on November 28, 2012

Driven by a rebounding economy and an after-Sandy pop, auto sales in November will be be  “highest since February 2008,” expects Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at TrueCar.com. Sales chiefs at major automakers agree. (Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

A $25,000 EV with more torque than a Corvette? GM’s got it, and it’s not the Volt.

(Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

The Kia Cerato is already on sale in world markets, but we’ll be getting our first taste of it, in the form of the Forte.

Expect a three-car lineup, similar to the Elantra, with a hatchback and even a coupe model. No word on whether the hatch is based off the Cerato, or the European Cee’d.

By on November 27, 2012

A sports car. A luxury car. A truck. A car for third-world nations.  And yet CCS never gave me a project that said, “lower your standards and design a great rental car” for a week of studio work.   Does anyone design anything with unloved dispensability in mind? But I see it that way: leaving the design world to (eventually) to flash my MBA with an occasional corporate trip…with the obligatory rental car.  But how pretty is the Queen?

The fleet queen that is. (Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

In-car entertainment and navigation systems bamboozle customers and ruin the out-of-the-box experience.”You see a lot of people get into the vehicle, and they can’t figure out the damned system,” Mark Harland, manager of GM’s connected customer team, told Reuters. “They get frustrated, and they get online and bash it, and that ends up on J.D. Power and Associates.” GM decided to do something about it. Will it make the damned systems more intuitive? No, it throws 25 people into the fight against technological ignorance. It has been tried before … (Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

For 2014, the Chevrolet Impala will get a price hike of $850, and the return of an iconic badge that had been absent for years.

(Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

Shai Agassi thought Better Place was the secret sauce to spice up electric vehicle sales: Swappable batteries as a service, the answer to high battery prices (hidden in a pay-as-you-go model,) range anxiety and long charge times. Instead, Better Place emerges as a novel way to destroy money. Better Place posted third-quarter loss of $71.2 million, greater than $65.8 million a year earlier. The total loss for the January to September period stands at $203 million, Reuters says. Better Place accumulated losses of $561.5 million. (Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

Honda/Acura fansite Temple of VTEC has a series of spy photos of the Acura RLX taken in China, revealing the car’s interior details, and one lone exterior shot.

(Read More…)

By on November 27, 2012

Mahindra Tractor in Ferrari livery

Mumbai tractor moguls Mahindra & Mahindra hope to emerge as owners of Aston Martin by the end of the week, but Italy’s InvestIndustrial shares the same aspirations, reports Reuters from the sidelines of the bidding war for the British sports car maker. While the world waits for the hammer to come down, scientists make a perplexing discovery. (Read More…)

Recent Comments

  • Lou_BC: @Carlson Fan – My ’68 has 2.75:1 rear end. It buries the speedo needle. It came stock with the...
  • theflyersfan: Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the...
  • A Scientist: When I was a teenager in the mid 90’s you could have one of these rolling s-boxes for a case of...
  • Mike Beranek: You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in...
  • Mike Beranek: ^^THIS^^ Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the...

New Car Research

Get a Free Dealer Quote

Who We Are

  • Adam Tonge
  • Bozi Tatarevic
  • Corey Lewis
  • Jo Borras
  • Mark Baruth
  • Ronnie Schreiber