I grew up in Southern California, I like cars. It’s somewhat of an inevitability when you live in such a car-oriented culture, a sprawling city where public transport just doesn’t really work very well. That’s okay, I had a license and my own car from the day I could manage to drive within the law, as did my buddies. From a Chevy Nova to a Chevy Malibu to a Mazda RX-4, the first few years…Read More

If you’re a regular reader of my site, you already know that I get to drive a lot of different cars and write about them. Most recently, it was a silver 2018 Jeep Compass 4×4 that graced my driveway for a week as we took it through its paces in Colorado suburban life. This time, however, I didn’t get behind the wheel of yet another SUV but rather a surprisingly luxurious 2018 Toyota Camry. A…Read More

Few automobile brands are as fabled as Jeep. If you don’t know, Autoweek has a nice recap: “Jeep’s early history is legendary. Its role in helping defeat the Axis powers during World War II is undeniable. On the battlefield, the Jeep was fast, nimble and tough. It could handle nearly any terrain, and when it did get stuck, it was light enough for soldiers to lift free. It towed anti-tank weapons that could be deployed…Read More

Most cars are pretty dull colors. White, black, grey, dark blue, those encompass most of what you see on the road, and I’m just as susceptible as the next car buyer too: My last few cars have been white and blue and my current vehicle is, yes, white. Boring, I know. That’s why when I was loaned a bright yellow 2017 Jeep Renegade my first reaction was “Wow!” and, well, my 13yo daughter immediately requested…Read More

Sometimes the stars are in alignment or something and things happen in an eerie but oddly appropriate way. Like getting a bright orange vehicle to test drive on Halloween weekend, as I did when the startlingly orange 2017 Jeep Compass Trailhawk showed up in my driveway. Jeep calls this color “Spitfire Orange” for reasons that escape me, but whatever its official name, it’s hard not to grin at the cheery vehicle: It’s one of those…Read More

After a wave of luxury SUVs with $50,000 price tags, it was a breath of fresh air to have a week behind the wheel of a more modest budget crossover, the 2018 Toyota C-HR. It’s a little car – perhaps a bit too little for some families – and while it’s not powered by a big engine offering a performance drive, it’s still reasonably responsive and typically well designed and engineered by Toyota. There are…Read More

Subaru is one of the car companies that I think has come the longest way in the last 20-30 years, transitioning from a low cost vehicle manufacturer that eschewed all comforts into a brand with vehicles ranging from entry level up to fancy sedans and sports cars. Living in Boulder, Colorado, it’s also impossible not to see Subaru vehicles on the road and in every parking lot: It sure seems like the Subaru Outback and…Read More

My oldest has her own car, and I’m always interested in watching how she manages one of the least obvious, but most important parts of car ownership: all those darn ancillary expenses. Whether it’s gasoline, oil changes, new tires or general maintenance, I’m convinced that she hasn’t yet realized cars cost more than just the initial sticker price to drive it off the lot. Thing of it is, in our culture car ownership and driving…Read More

When I divorced all those years ago, I ended up with two of our cars: a Toyota Prius and a Volvo XC-90. The Prius proved to be too small for my three kids + gear, and the Volvo? I never really liked the vehicle and found it uncomfortable and clumsy. It was time to upgrade, so I purchased a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. This was back in 2008, and I drove the car until just a…Read More

I know it’s not just me; every time I look at the front grill design of the 2017 Toyota RAV-4 in white (uh, “blizzard pearl”) I see the headgear of a Stormtrooper from the Star Wars universe. I kid you not, check this photo out: I don’t want to say that the Toyota design team might have spent one too many late nights catching up on the Star Wars saga, but the similarities are sufficiently…Read More

It’s one thing to look at a map and say “hey, that’s just a few inches, it won’t be that long a drive” and actually get behind the wheel for a substantial road trip. Fortunately, I have lots of experience with long haul drives and have actually hit all of the lower 48 states of the United States by car. Not on the same trip, however. Yeesh! When I learned I needed to drive from…Read More

I’m an old hand at road trips and long drives, having logged thousands of miles behind the wheel in various vehicles, on routes taking me north and south, east and west. Being based in the center of the country, it’s easy to head just about anywhere. Long drives are relaxing too, particularly with cruise control and audio books, it’s almost a meditation as the miles recede into the rear view mirror. This latest trip is…Read More

Acura has been the luxury brand of Honda Motor Company since 1986. The brand has become known for its luxury appointments and comfortable ride, a “practical luxury” line of vehicles that compete effectively against others in its class. The secret strength is that the Acura vehicles are also built upon both the reliability and low maintenance cost of the entire Honda line. Somewhere along the way, however, Acura stopped keeping up with the rest of…Read More

A hybrid minivan? I was surprised when I first learned about Chrysler‘s plans to not just end of life the Town & Country (our first minivan, many years ago) but to take all that the company learned about minivans and modern family vehicle life and produce the Pacifica instead. First Pacificas off the line were back in 2004, but that wasn’t quite the same thing. It’s with 2017 that the Pacifica has become that oddest…Read More