I spent a good chunk of Monday evening tooling around the city in a new, mainstream midsize sedan, but let’s park that jealousy at the door right now, folks.

This car was a modern twist on the “sensible sedan with a sport package that’s nearly all appearance flourishes” we’ve all become used to. The Camry SE Hybrid takes most of the standard SE’s looks — spoiler, side sills, complex grille and all — then throws in a few optional goodies as standard kit for good measure. It also makes the “sporty” Camry arguably sportier.

A Twitter discussion broke out later that night, centered around a question that nagged me my entire time behind the wheel. Who buys this particular trim? (Read More…)

A week or two ago, a friend dropped me a line on GChat (oh sorry, it’s Hangouts now). She told me she and her husband were expecting their first child and they were going to trade one of their cars for a crossover/SUV. She wanted my recommendations.

I tossed out the usual suspects in the two-row and three-row categories (and in the $20K-$40K price range), based on what I’ve driven. I also mentioned a few models I have yet to drive that have been highly recommended throughout the automotive press.

I was intentionally a little vague because, as I told her, the final decision would come down to variables unique to her and her husband – what they feel is best for their finances, how they both like driving each individual car, their styling preferences, what features they want, et cetera. But a day later, something popped into my head. I realized I hadn’t considered a key factor: the brand, or more accurately, the brand/dealer experience.

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Earlier this week, our Junkyard Find was a totally rad 1989 Chevrolet Camaro RS, complete with interesting personal touches applied by an owner who was quite familiar with taste and elegance.

In the comments, things quickly turned to the nature of the automobile during a dark and Malaisey period — 1979 to 1989. A question bubbled to the surface for me: Were there any lustworthy American cars made in that period? Let’s find out.

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At some point in our lives, usually a very early point, the number of coins we have to rub together couldn’t buy a half-decent meal, even on Whopper Wednesday. Strapped for cash, working a retail-type job, returning empties for cans of cheap swill, college or university sucking every last cent from your wallet — does this describe a certain period in your life?

It probably does. And it’s usually a pretty exciting period, too. Around this time, the urge for vehicular freedom grows so great, we’re pulled like a compass needle towards third-hand used car lots, those bastions of sagging suspensions and blossoming rust, in search of bargain basement wheels. Top of mind: finding something that doesn’t scream “dud!” to everyone within eyeshot. Runner up: finding something that won’t become a 3,000-pound paperweight in a month’s time.

Whether it came from a used car lot or a relative eager for an easy cash sale, this first (or second, or third) vehicle came equipped with a low, low price and, more often than not, a laundry list of unfulfilled maintenance work. Still, you paid a price that ensured your ride wasn’t a total beater, right? (Read More…)

It’s a pretty safe bet that the majority of readers (and writers!) at TTAC wrench on their own wheels. Those who don’t likely don’t have the facilities in which to do so. Condo living, overbearing HOA, whatever. To you, we extend our deepest sympathies.

Today’s QOTD you get to dream … and spend imaginary money. Given half the average price of a new car in America to spend — half of $33,560 — how you would kit out your dream garage?

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The TTAC Slack chat got to talking about Datsuns this week and, among mentions of the 280ZX Black Gold and 260Z, Datsun vault of knowledge Chris Tonn posted a picture of a late-Seventies 280Z.

It looked utterly terrible with its gigantic bumpers, and I soon became nauseous. But once that went away, I was left with a relevant and overarching question: Which car models were most negatively affected by the giant American bumpers of the 1970s?

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There’s no shortage of ways our fellow drivers send our blood pressure soaring. In our day-to-day lives, other motorists’ apparent inability to pilot a car or truck in a fashion befitting an organized and intelligent society never ceases to amaze.

Often, the thing that annoys us most is watching others fail at the thing we pride ourselves for doing well. It makes sense. Skilled chefs probably aren’t too keen on other peoples’ cooking. And when you’re behind the wheel, dear reader, there’s always something you know you’re capable of doing better. Maybe it’s a superior talent at backing a car into a parking space, instead of pulling in nose-forward.

Or maybe it’s your ability to, let’s see, accelerate to highway speeds on an on-ramp before merging. Going on personal experience, this is one of the hardest things a driver can do.  (Read More…)

We’ve all got ‘em. Whether it’s that vapid ear worm song from the ‘90s or a TV show you won’t dare tell anyone you watch, we’ve all got some sort of vice in our closet.

Being gearheads, we’ve a few cars to count among our guilty pleasures too. Mine? Well, it has to do with General Motors … and a whole lot of electronics.

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Corporate cousins Hyundai and Kia are an interesting pair, as neither division seems content to emulate the other. It seems odd at first, given how closely matched both brands are in purpose and reputation, but badge engineering fell out of favor long ago.

These are not the stereotypical twins you can’t tell apart without asking to see a birthmark. Kia fields a large front-drive sedan above the midsize class, and a premium rear-drive sedan above that. Hyundai is content to have its new Genesis brand handle all luxury big car activity. Kia sells a minivan, Hyundai’s short-lived Entourage is a fading memory. Kia offers a funky neo-ute, the Soul, and a dedicated hybrid sort-of crossover, the Niro; Hyundai’s utility stable plays by the rules. The Hyundai Elantra GT hatch, based on the overseas i30, does not have a doppelgänger in the Kia ranks, nor does the Kia Stinger have a double in the Hyundai showroom (that’s Genesis’ responsibility).

As we learned from Kia’s VP of product planning yesterday, there are some things the brand won’t copy from its Hyundai Motor Group companion. Which begs the question: what’s something Kia should be doing, but isn’t? (Read More…)

Yesterday, the B&B collectively lit up the Buy/Drive/Burn article regarding $45,000 coupes in praise of the V8-powered 2018 Mustang GT. While munching on all the delicious clicks, I thought about the QOTD published back in December 2017. In that post, I asked you, our dear readers, to rank all seven generations of the Chevrolet Corvette. See where this is going?

Today we want to know where you rank all six generations of the Ford Mustang. Line up your ponies!

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Uh oh. We’re talkin’ size today. That’s right, a topic tailor-made for awkwardness, embarrassment, even shame — something best not spoken of in polite company. Just amongst your close friends and, perhaps, a doctor… whose brother is a salesman.

The fact of the matter is, sometimes we don’t fit in the cars we love. Or, we can’t cram our gangly or girthy frames into a less desirable car with several redeeming qualities, thus striking it from our mental list of automotive “maybes.”

It’s happy times for those whose height or weight deviates from the norm. Vehicles in all segments are growing like Western nations’ deficits, stretching in wheelbase and expanding in interior room, providing us all with far more comfortable cabin than the vehicles of yesteryear. Remember the Ford Contour? Midsize, my ass. (Read More…)

Yesterday, Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 in a snazzy new Chevy. For this race season, GM has selected the Camaro ZL1 nameplate to represent the brand in NASCAR.

Of course, it’s been ages since any stock car bore more than a passing resemblance to its showroom counterpart. After all, rear-drive V8 Toyota Camry sedans are in notably short supply at my local dealer. The scourge of stage racing and a dwindling fan base are topics best left to another day.

This brings us to our QOTD for today – does a manufacturer’s investment into racing have any bearing on your buying decisions?

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Amid the Chicago Auto Show hoopla last week came reports that Mercedes-Benz was considering dropping out of next year’s Detroit Auto Show, news that has since been confirmed. I was invited to a dinner with journalists by an OEM during the Chicago show, and while eating, the PR guy posed a question – “Does the auto show still matter to you guys?”

Immediately, all in attendance agreed that the shows are as important as ever to consumers and the dealers who sell them cars. Which makes sense – the shows are usually run by dealer associations, with the intent of generating sales leads.

For us in the media, though, it’s been an open question. Thanks to changes in technology and how both journalists and PR departments do their jobs, many journalists now find it easier (and cheaper) to cover the shows from home (especially if they snagged embargoed material in advance).

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In my QOTD post two weeks ago, I asked you to share the story of the most unreliable vehicle you’d ever owned. Most of you were quick to point out that I should’ve turned that into several different Questions of the Day, so you could specify different types of unreliable vehicles. The sheer number of comments (over 240 of them) showed me that the B&B love to share a bad story.

I see no reason not to return to form this week, and ask you about your worst childhood automotive memory. Mine involved a GMC Safari — in a situation which was nowhere near as decadent as above.

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For a number of reasons, you’ll find more than a few weather and storm-related accounts populating my Twitter feed. The power and beauty of Mother Nature, if that’s a correct term in this day and age, amazes and frightens us all, and such accounts provide just the sort of non-political diversion one needs to stay sane in 2018. To remind us of our inconsequential status in the Grand Scheme of Things. Violent storms, blizzards, and gorgeous sunsets know no partisan hackery.

Last night, a perfectly creepy photo of an ominous, rotating wall cloud popped up in my feed, dark against the fading daylight, menacing. You could imagine the gathering winds buffeting that dirt road and surrounding fields, rippling the plants like storm-tossed waves. Through this image, just like with so many others, you could sense the photographer’s excitement and apprehension as the cloud threatens to spawn the most terrifying of weather phenomenon: a tornado.

Naturally, I  complimented the photographer on his great photo of a Toyota Camry. (Read More…)