Earlier this year, the most important car purchase question in human history was answered by a Accord EX-L V6 Coupe with six-speed manual transmission. Having cleared the 6000-mile mark in said coupe and having put everything from a wheelchair to a Rainsong JM-1000 to a BMX bike in the trunk in the past four months, I’ve learned a lot about the Modern Steel two-door. At some point, I’ll sit down and write up a long-term report.

Today, however, we have an Accord of a different feather. The trim designation is the same: EX-L. The engine, transmission, and body are all from the other half of Honda’s all-too-frequently binary choice matrix, however. A 125-mile trip in a mix of local and freeway conditions gave me the chance to answer the question: What’s the Accord like in a configuration that normal people actually buy?
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It’s hard to believe that, about four and a half months since I broke nine bones and lost my favorite spleen, I’ve already run one wheel-to-wheel race, with several more to come in the next sixty days. Wouldn’t you like to come race with me and become famous? Maybe even win something? Would you like to compete at Texas World Speedway before it becomes a so-called community of so-called upscale homes? Or challenge the famous “Climbing Esses” at night in a BMW? Or be part of a Guinness World Record?

Sure you would.
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What a long, strange trip it’s been! By the year 1999, the VW GTI had been a flop with the critics for fifteen of its seventeen years in the market. Yet the car still had credibility with the people who actually bought it, and it was still considered to be a desirable, premium vehicle. More […]

All the stereotyping of Germans as uncompromising people dedicated to engineering ideals and whatnot aside, it’s slightly terrifying to see how willing the automakers of the Fatherland have been to adjust their product and presentation to fit customer misconceptions. Example Zero: The “E” at the end of Mercedes model designators like “280E” meant Einspritz. Fuel […]

Detroit’s free-fall from perhaps the wealthiest city in the United States to a lawless hellhole most reminiscent of post-colonial Africa has been documented to the point that the phrase “ruin porn” now sits comfortably in the driver’s seat of our national discourse. But it isn’t just Michigan Central Station that has rapidly decayed into pathos.
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(Sorry for the stock photo — had some camera issues during this trip — jb) Moby Dick. Beethoven’s Ninth. Led Zep’s debut album. As much as we’d like to think that greatness is immediately recognized when it appears, the truth is that most of the time it’s widely pilloried. Such was the case with the […]

When the fire department assigned to BMW’s plant in South Carolina spotted a 55-gallon drum behind a vehicle in Lot D, they did what everybody does nowadays: they assumed it was a “chloride granulated bomb”. The area was cleared and BMW temporarily suspended production of the X3, X4, X5, and X6, an action that was immediately applauded by Roundel magazine, the BMWCCA E30 M3 Special Interest Group, and possibly Satch Carlson.
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In a couple of days I’ll have a review of the US-market seventh-generation GTI. Spoilers for that review can be easily obtained by checking out my drive of the Euro GTI from last fall. I’ll also have two articles on the new “TSI” 1.8-liter base Golf and the next-generation TDI, all from the same drive […]

The Kizashi was perhaps the best four-wheeled Suzuki ever built, and in certain trim and equipment levels it represented a real alternative to expensive near-luxury sedans. It’s no longer for sale here, of course, but in one rather unique market it’s been given a fascinating last hurrah.
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Audi is likely to beat BMW’s i8 to the laser-headlight punch with a rather expensive limited edition.
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“A world in which the leading petrostate is a liberal democracy,” The Economist sniffed recently, “has much to recommend it.” Yet it would appear there’s an unexpected side effect to fracking’s political and economic benefits.
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Although my duties as E-I-C pro tem of this august website take up quite a bit of my time, I still have space in the day to do a few other things. It would be nice, therefore, if you supported my other activities as reluctantly fervently as you support my work here at TTAC. And here’s how: For the low, low price of $4.99 and/or $1,599, respectively, you can now buy a magazine and/or a brand-new custom guitar from the skunkworks of my mirror-bright creativity.
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This is a clever video. To save you the trouble of watching it, the story works like so:
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Language NSFW.

Repeat, language NSFW.

Amazingly enough, there was a seven-year-old boy in the truck, as well.
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What follows is a quick guide to some of the changes outlined during the big Chrysler meeting today. Derek will have some in-depth analysis tonight.
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