This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Escort Radar for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I can remember the station wagon we had when I was a kid, with its bench seats and not much else. Pop open the hood and there was an engine. Just an engine. Nowadays cars have a dozen computers and so much tech that the engine compartment is solid and you can’t even see the…Read More
Head to a dealership and you can test drive a car or two, but it’ll probably take you hours to go through the process. Instead, car companies are starting to bring the vehicle inventory to us, the driver, and that’s a nice change. Kia Motors USA has always been great at outreach (I’ve enjoyed Kia test drives at the Dad 2.0 Summit, for example) and so when the company added Lakewood, Colorado to its touring…Read More
I’ve had a soft spot for the Nissan Maxima ever since it was my parents car of choice for well over a decade, an early 90’s model that just kept going and going, showing its age but still proving extremely reliable. Nissan’s come a long way since that early version of the Maxima, and the latest model, the 2016 Nissan Maxima SL, looked very BMW-esque from the outside, and definitely luxurious on the inside. My…Read More
Just wrapped up a week with the 2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid – Limited AWD and was particularly interested to give it a solid test drive because of all the cars on the market, this is the one that seems the most logical choice for the next vehicle after I’ve finally burned out on my Toyota Highlander Hybrid. With 119k miles, it’s still going great, but as my oldest child heads off to college, it’s feeling unnecessarily…Read More
While it’s fun to coordinate vehicle loaner periods with road trips, my 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander loan phase coincided with, well, nothing special. Which was great, because it gave me a chance to really try out the shiny red SUV in my day-to-day routine, including driving to and from school dropoff, heading to the gym, and using the GPS navigational system to find a meeting locale in Denver, about 25 miles from my home base in…Read More
Living in Colorado, plenty of people are starting their springtime ritual: The Changing of the Tires. If you’re in a similar terrain, you know the drill: late fall marks when you switch from regular tires to snow tires, and late spring is when you reverse the process, switching from snow tires back to your regular “summer” tires. That’s usually a good time to consider replacing any tires that are looking bare or low on tread. Not…Read More
When I told the team at Lexus that my daughter and I were heading down to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs for a short holiday, it was a nice surprise when they came through with a suitably luxurious car for our drive down to the Springs, a car that would fit in perfectly with all the cars driven by people staying at one of the very few five-star luxury hotels in Colorado. The car they…Read More
I’ve traveled so much in my life that I tend to really travel light, each time I get home evaluating whether I used everything that was in the suitcase for a trip and constantly seeking to shed additional gear and wardrobe options in the interest of being as streamlined as possible. While I’m Super Dad in that regard 🙂 that is not always true of the rest of my family and many is the time…Read More
I had to head up to Kalispell, Montana for a week and since I like road trips, I decided to drive to and from my home in Boulder, Colorado. Estimated distance, one way: 970 miles. Once there, I had an almost daily 2-3 hours drive to an even more rural location, so at least another 500 miles while in town. A lot of driving, for sure, and I didn’t want to put 2500 miles on my own car,…Read More
I’ve had a chance to enjoy another new car this week, a “soul red” 2016 Mazda 3 S 5-Door Grand Touring. With a base price of $26,495 for the 5-door sport edition, the Moroney (car pricing sticker) indicates that the total MSRP of this vehicle as configured was $30,270. And it’s a nice, pleasantly sporty car for the money, a car that has a lot of very modern features and capabilities built around its traditional gas-powered…Read More
My Toyota Highlander now has 115,000 miles on it, which translates into just under five circumnavigations of the planet. That’s a lotta driving and I’m definitely a driver and enjoy being on the move, even long drives across country. With all of that, I’m also a very safe and patient driver — no road rage here! — and cruise control is definitely my best friend when it comes to driving, with me constantly tapping it at…Read More
With a starting price of only $17,250, the 2015 Hyundai Elantra is more of a starter car than I usually drive, but when I realized I needed to head up to the Glacier National Park area and was going to be behind the wheel, I figured it’d be smart to rent a car rather than put all those miles on my own trusty Highlander. Fortunately, Hertz had a killer deal through AAA and it worked…Read More
When Ford Motor Company approached me about a campaign tied to young adults buying their first car, I turned it into an interview with Greg Cerise, Ford Credit sales and marketing manager. here’s what we talked about… Q: College kids affording new cars? Is that even possible? Yes, it’s possible. It’s important to put as much research and effort into financing as you put into choosing a vehicle. There are ways to start building a…Read More
I seem to be doing a lot with Ford Motor Company recently. First it was the terrific 2016 Platinum Adventure Tour through Yellowstone National Park, and yesterday it was a tech demo for the Front Range Bloggers group on Facebook that I run. The demonstration was part of Ford’s Smart Mobility Tour where the company highlights some of its amazing smart assist tech that’s making cars smarter and safer (even as we drivers are getting dumber,…Read More
I was already heading up to Montana when Ford asked if I’d like to be part of the Platinum Adventure Tour campaign that the company is using to roll out the 2016 Ford Explorer’s new Platinum edition. The leg I’d be driving would be Big Sky, Montana to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a modest 200 miles or so, but through some of the most beautiful parts of the United States: Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National…Read More