Author Archives: Benjamin Hunting

Say it ain't so: a week after I grudgingly returned my 2017 Cadillac CTS-V tester it was revealed that Cadillac will be nixing the ATS, CTS, and XTS automobiles entirely in favor of a single replacement sedan to be labeled the CT5. While the CT5 may get a high performance edition of its own one day, the current CTS-V marks the end of the line for one of the more unabashedly dominant sport sedans ever built. The third, and final generation of the Cadillac CTS-V is the most powerful and most refined of the three versions to have been unleashed on American asphalt, and it's a fitting swan song for a car that has continually pushed the limits of four-door performance. Check out these 5 things you need to know about the 2017 Cadillac CTS-V

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The new Genesis brand, launched by Hyundai as a way of capturing the premium dollars lurking outside its more value-focused showrooms, has been making waves on the luxury market for almost a year now. It's been roughly that length of time since I last found myself behind the wheel of the Genesis G90 full-size sedan at its official launch in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and coincidentally, that's also where I picked up my most recent tester as part of a 10-day road trip through the coastal province.

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A lot of what you'll read about BMW's newest 5 Series sedan will devote sizable column inches to lamenting the past - that is to say, the bygone era when BMW cared a little bit more about crossing the finish line first than coddling comfort. Those days are gone, however, as evidenced not just by the 2017 BMW 540i xDrive I drove for a week, but also when examining almost every other model in the automaker's Byzantine line-up.

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The 2018 Hyundai Sonata is here, and while the automaker's mid-size family sedan hasn't been completely redesigned there are a few aspects of its recent refresh that are definitely worth discussing. The Sonata has moved past its challenger status and now sells at or over 200,000 examples every year in the United States, although it's starting to show the same battle scars as other sedans as a result of growing consumer interest in SUVs.

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What is there to say about a car like the 2017 Rolls-Royce Dawn, an ultra-luxury convertible whose price tag can easily approach a half-million dollars? It's certainly easy to run out of superlatives when discussing the Dawn (which replaces the Phantom Drophead Coupe as the ragtop of choice in the British brand's showroom), as the car is rarefied air even in the world of the billionaires who park them in their air-conditioned 10-vehicle garages.

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High performance SUVs are a niche in the family hauler segment, but those that also offer plug-in hybrid efficiency find themselves in an even more vanishingly small subset vehicles. The 2017 BMW X5 40e iPerformance is something of an eco-terrorist, a two-ton electrified conundrum that does its best to convince you it's on Team Gaia all while barely being able to conceal its hardcore Jones for sweet black crude.

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Mazda isn't going to build a coupe version of its iconic MX-5 Miata roadster, so please stop asking. What it will do is try to dip back into the nearly 50/50 split it had on the previous-generation Miata between soft-top and power-retractable hardtop models by way of the Mazda MX-5 Miata RF. Those two letters stand for 'retractable fastback,' and signal to buyers that this unique take on open-air motoring is as close to a fixed-roof Miata as you'll find in the automaker's current showroom.

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Compact hatchbacks like the 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT have never really caught on in America, but it has little to do with their merits. Easy to park, cheap on gas, and remarkably practical, the fickle gods of fashion have long turned their backs on the humble hatch, a state of affairs made all the more ironic by the exploding popularity of small SUVs, which are essentially hatchbacks on stilts.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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