Kudos and props to the team at Mitsubishi for loaning me one of their newest SUVs, the 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander, a 4-door sport utility vehicle. The one I got to drive for a week here in Colorado priced out at $29,645 according to the Monroney, and featured a fuel efficient 2.4L 4-cylinder engine and split third row seats. It also had the optional “SE” package ($2600) that added a sunroof, leather seats, roof fails, power driver…Read More

Toyota kindly invited me to a test drive event featuring its 2015 cars, for which they rented space at the beautiful Coors Field baseball park. Separately, I’ve shared some photos from the behind-the-scenes tour of Coors Field, but I also want to write about the cars themselves. I have driven almost exclusively Toyota cars since I was an undergrad, including a Prius, a Tercel, a Supra convertible, a Sienna and my current car, a Toyota Highlander…Read More

I should start right out by saying that I’m not a fan of non-stop always-on Internet access. Sometimes ya just gotta take a breather from the Web, skip the latest email update and take some time off from those favorite websites or Internet-enabled games. If nothing else, it’s essential for your mental health. At the same time, there are also times when you are far away from a Starbucks, public library or other Internet hotspot…Read More

As part of our great spring Southern California holiday, the kind folk at Ford Motor Company arranged for us to have an extended evaluation drive of a shiny new 2014 Ford Escape, enough time to really put the car through its paces. While we had the vehicle we drove all around Orange County (southern Los Angeles), along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway, in heavy traffic (of course) and down to San Diego for some extended…Read More

Here in Colorado we have a very specific task that’s required when the weather finally transitions away from the icy grasp of King Winter and into Spring, with all its chaos and unpredictability: take off the snow tires. Some cars just seem to have less traction than others, so it’s common for Coloradoans to have studded snow tires on their vehicles. While they offer considerably better bad weather (read “ice”) traction, they’re expensive and not…Read More

Thanks to the fine folk at Chevrolet, my recent road trip from Boulder, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico ended up as a chance for me to have an extended test drive of the popular Chevy Cruze, a cute little four door compact. The trip itself was about 800 miles: 320 miles, Boulder to Taos, NM. An overnight at the cool Dobson House “earthship”, then a pleasant 70 miles to Santa Fe, NM, where my…Read More

Had a nice party invitation yesterday via Facebook: a reception introducing the new 2010 model year Ford Taurus redesign, with Ford Exec Director of American Products Frank Davis in attendance. Now, I’m not a big car nut (like a few friends of mine) but I am still interested in cars and concerned about the long-term health of the American car industry as a bellwether for the national economy, so I RSVP’d yes and showed up…Read More

Since I started driving, I’ve owned 10 cars: a Chevy Nova, a Chevy Malibu, a Mazda RX4, a Toyota Tercel, a Toyota Supra, a Chrysler Town & Country, a Volvo C70, a Volvo XC90, a Toyota Prius and now, a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. That’s a lot of cars. I’ve been to auto shows and certainly have the basics of car ownership down, though I’m definitely not a car nut or fanatic. In fact, there are…Read More