Author Archives: Benjamin Hunting

Volkswagen has found itself on the outside looking in when it comes to the current SUV zeitgeist that has seized American car shoppers. The all-new 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan compact sport-utility vehicle, in combination with the full-size VW Atlas, is intended to address that oversight and snag a larger slice of customer affections (and paychecks) than the previous Tiguan and the ignored Touareg were able to claim.

Continue Reading

Is it hard to get excited about the all-new 2018 Toyota Camry? After all, this is a car that has been at the top of the mid-size sedan heap for decades, reaping handsomely the rewards having sown so much loyalty amongst families seeking affordable and above all reliable transportation. How much better can it get, really - and how noteworthy would an improvement actually be when it's already such a dominant force in its class?

Continue Reading

Is it ok to be late to the party if you make a stylish entrance? That would appear to be the question asked by the new 2018 Hyundai Kona, the Korean automaker's first 'cute ute,' a subcompact crossover aimed at the growing slice of buyers trading in sedans for the all-wheel drive hatchbacks on stilts that are taking over the industry. The Kona's appearance in showrooms might lag chronologically behind options like the Jeep Renegade, the Mazda CX-3, and the Honda HR-V - we're unlikely to see it go on sale in the United States until the first quarter of 2018 - but Hyundai has pegged its hopes on pairing strong value with appealing design in its bid for the affections of space-seeking shoppers.

Continue Reading

Hyundai's sport-utility portfolio grew by one today with the unveiling of the all-new Hyundai Kona subcompact people mover. With crossovers commanding an ever-larger slice of customer dollars across the entire industry, it was only a matter of time before Hyundai added a smaller, more lifestyle-oriented option to its popular line-up of SUVs, which currently includes the Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Sport, and the Tucson.

Continue Reading

What a cruel joke the American automotive market continues to play on the once-proud station wagon. At a time when new car buyers seem determined to turn their backs on traditional sedans in favor of SUVs and crossovers of all shapes and sizes, manufacturers are equally resolute in their desire to leave the just-as-practical wagon in the lurch. Audi, a company which produces beautiful long-roofs that are sold everywhere but here, has been forced to play the game, too. In doing so, however, it's tapped into a level of style that has produced some of the most appealing luxury options for the cargo-friendly set: the Audi A7 / S7 twins, and their new, more affordable siblings, the 2018 Audi A5 and S5 Sportback.

Continue Reading

The original Honda Ridgeline's career arc looked much more like that of a sports car than a truck: after a strong start out of the gate in the mid-2000s, consumer interest in this unique not-quite-a-truck, not-quite-a-crossover trailed off until it was axed less than 10 years into its production run.

Continue Reading

When is 'more' simply 'too much?' That's the question I found myself asking again and again from behind the wheel of the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, a luxury sport sedan seemingly so intent on occupying extremes that I wouldn’t be surprised if its Italian masters came out with a Vanilla Ice Signature Edition further down the line. Chugging Mountain Dew and challenging horses to straight-line tests of speed from the back of a sport bike might not be in the Quadrifoglio's repertoire, but this sultry turbocharged weapon alternately frustrated or frightened me nearly every time I picked it up, no matter how longingly my eyes caressed its outrageous curves.

Continue Reading

The new 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 is the first legitimate challenger to the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro's all-terrain dominance since the latter hit the scene as a 2015 model. While in the past the Nissan Frontier PRO-4X and the Colorado Z71 each upped the ante of what was possible in a mid-size pickup once the pavement disappeared, they were truly competitors to the more modest Tacoma TRD Off-Road, with the TRD Pro representing a higher level of capability.

Check out these 5 things you need to know about the Colorado ZR2 and see if it's enough to sway you from choosing Toyota's strong-selling mid-size marvel.

Continue Reading

In the world of sports car design the mid-engine layout is king, which makes the 2017 Porsche 718 Cayman S one of the reigning blue-bloods of the high performance niche. Perfectly balanced, and from a certain perspective affordably priced, the Cayman family of compact coupes has given Porsche a strong throne from which to command its sub-911 empire.

Continue Reading

You don't have much time to acknowledge the bear sitting upright on the side of the highway when you're behind the wheel of the 2018 Subaru WRX. There's something about being hammer-down on the zigzag roads that wrap around the river leading into the town of Kaslo, British Columbia - almost like someone had stretched out an enormous tangled slinky and then abandoned it in frustration - that does wonders to focus the mind on the task at hand. At these speeds, you do you, and the bear does whatever it is 600 lbs of black-furred muscle does when it encounters 3,300 lbs of screaming bright blue metal that vanishes around the next bend in a burst of gravel and off-throttle turbo-whump.

Continue Reading

It's easy to love electric cars when the sun is shining and the mercury is comfortably pegged at a balmy 75 degrees, but dial back the seasons to the starker setting offered by winter's chill and things get a little more complicated. I'd been excited by the prospect of the Chevrolet Bolt since it was first announced - finally, an affordable EV with real-world range - but I was somewhat nervous as to how it would handle the ice palace climate of my native Montreal, where you can use your back porch as a deep freeze during January, February, and most of March.

Continue Reading

The sun has long since set on the stretch of Colorado 141 that I'm driving, eyes bleary, windshield smeared with grease and cheese from the pizza sitting on that dashboard that I scored in Grand Junction just before the entire city rolled up its streets and shut down for the night. I've been awake since four a.m., a victim of weather and mechanical gremlins forcing me out of the skies not once, but twice today, and sending me down this lonely road far later than planned. 'Detroit Rock City' is playing on the radio as I push Chevy's latest pickup as quickly as I dare through the mountain passes, frantically racing sleep and exhaustion to the warm bed waiting for me while lightning frames the peaks that tower above with shocks of light, when I see it: walking down the opposite shoulder, looking right at me. Is that a damn bear? Yeah, that's a damn bear.

Continue Reading