Not Your Average Golf Cart; 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport
Every year in the automotive industry, auto makers generate waves of marketing campaigns touting their latest and greatest as groundbreaking and innovative, yet behind all the hype is a car no more spectacular than the last blandwagen it replaced. Then comes the little giant from the San Francisco Bay area, Tesla Motors, kicking the doors [...]
Green Technology; 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid
For years Vancouver has been recognized globally as one of the “greenest” cities in the world, so when Porsche’s Cayenne S Hybrid made its way around it seemed like the perfect time to hop on the eco-bandwagon and see what all the fuss is about.
2011 Audi Q7 3.0 Sport: Approachable Luxury
The 2011 Audi’s 2011 Q7 has come on the docket, along with the opportunity for Chris and Justin to make their way up to Royston, BC on Vancouver Island for a weekend at The Kingfisher Inn and Spa. Along with a chance to see how much wood a Q7 can fit.
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Review – Honest, Simple and Refreshing
It’s a grey and dismal morning in Vancouver as I rocket across the Oak Street Bridge to a training seminar. The wipers are flinging away sheet after sheet of rain, and the seat heat is working overtime warming me after a very wet and unpleasant dog walk earlier this morning. It’s been less than 24 [...]
BMW 535i xDrive Gran Turismo Review – Niche Transcendent
Headed from Vancouver to “The Private Sun Peaks Unofficial Gay Ski Week”, we’re about as niche a market as it gets. Equally niche, if you believe the reviews, is the car we’ve chosen for the drive – BMW’s 535i xDrive Gran Turismo. There are important points to that wordy name, but, right now, thundering the fastback through the wintry hills and hairpins on all-season tires, the most pertinent is the xDrive.
2011 Ford Fiesta – Fiesta de Renaissance
We’re rollicking through the corners in the 2011 Ford Fiesta 5-Door SES hatchback, and it’s responding like a European small car should; as nimble, quick and solid as a Eurovision dance star… And, who hasn’t wanted to be in one of those?
2010 Lexus GX460 Review – Luxury Hiking Boots
We are wafting, and I choose that term carefully, in perfect comfort down a gravel road. Washboard’s teeth clattering jackhammering soaked up somewhere well below us in the Lexux GX460′s plush suspension. There are many that would fault the GX460′s body-on-frame construction and solid rear axle suspension as ride-killing off-road pretence in a vehicle generally [...]
Buick Regal CLX Review – A Sport-Sedan Regent
There it is, sitting low and wide in the parking lot in front of the NK’MIP desert Cultural Centre in Osoyoos. From the rear and sides your casual glance would mistake it for a BMW 3 series; with graceful lines, a coupe-inspired silhouette belying four doors and purposeful stance. You’d be wrong of course, and that’s apparent the moment you come around front and are confronted with Buick’s instantly recognizable waterfall grill and badge… meet the new 2011 Buick Regal.
2010 BMW 750i – Taking BMW to the Laundry
Planning a marathon drive from Vancouver to Napa Valley for a lunch at The French Laundry, our minds were pointed in a different automotive direction. With a scant 5-days to cover approximately 3,200kms in 5 days – plus time for a near daylong dining experience – our first thought was BMW’s new Z4, but then BMW’s 2009 750i captured us with50 hours behind the wheel and we can definitively say we’ve been spoiled for any future road trips by three-star treatment.
2009 Mini Clubman Review
The Mini Clubman is longer, has 3 more doors and rear passenger seats that can actually fit adults, but does that make it better? Neil Johnston of http://OutDrive.ca takes to the roads to find out, in a review that features the first use of the phrase “assless chaps” in automotive history.
2009 BMW M3 Coupe – Perfection Practically
Photos: Kevin Miklossy The menacingly flared and arched exterior is pure alpine white, which on this car makes it as sinful as a “little white lie” that leads to Armageddon. The interior is swept with Fox Red Novillo Leather, the colour of mad illicit flings and blackmail. The roof is composed of carbon-reinforced plastic. The [...]
2009 VW Tiguan SE 4Motion – Not Tig-u-yawn
The Tiguan is undoubtedly late to the cute-ute SUV market, and to make up for that it needs to make a remarkable and dramatic entrance. What we get though is a well finished, refined and versatile family car in off-roader Touareg drag for a premium price. If you’re looking at the Tiguan as a Touareg [...]
2008 Pontiac Solstice GXP – Sex Toy
There are inconsequentials you need to overlook, mainly the fact that you’ll be driving the most phallic object on the road, oil trucks included. Roof down, the Solstice presents a near perfect sex-toy profile. So really the first thing you’ll need to do after purchasing your Solstice from the big-three discount bin is cue up the Ambiguously Gay Duo soundtrack on the iPod.
2008 Ford Focus SES – Tell Me How You Really Feel
I was tantalized by the Microsoft Sync system. I’m a techie at heart and those similarly afflicted will understand the magpie attraction to glittering circuit boards and voice recognizing silicon. That saw us sign up to review Ford’s 2008 Focus SES, a car that has caused me more consternation than any other I’ve driven. For [...]
2009 Volvo XC90 Design-R: Santa’s Got a Whole New Sled
Egg Lake, BC — It’s -36, Celsius or Fahrenheit, take your pick no conversion is necessary. That’s at 10AM. In the sun. The air has warmed since it hit -38 last night. What possessed us to test the Volvo XC90 Design-R in such temperatures? An attempt to test this luxury SUV at the limits of human endurance? In a way yes, it’s my annual pilgrimage north for a pre-Christmas family visit.
2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid – Halfway to the Future
Lincoln Steffens, an American Journalist of the Muckraker school, is likely most famous for is 1921 quote, “I’ve seen the future, and it works.” Well, this week driving the 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, I can say I too have been to the future, it works, and surprisingly I quite like it. Muckraking, at it’s inception [...]
2009 BMW 128i – The Object of My Compression
Consider the following; narcotics sold by the gram, LSD sitting on a small stamp of paper, and carbon masses compacted to tiny shimmering diamonds. It seems incongruous that North America has lauded massive displacements and huge footprints for so long. Clearly the good comes in small packages. That brings us to the BMW 128i, which unexpectedly (given its stature) it’s not a simpler, lighter, smaller BMW, but a grownup beemer condensed to gold-like density.
2008 Cadillac CTS 4 – Waiting for Harmony
According to Wikipedia, “Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm.” In 1863 in Paris it meant artistic revolution. If BMW, Audi, Infiniti and Lexus represent the homogenous and conservative “Salon de Paris” of the automotive world, then Cadillac is a “Salon des Refusés” of one with the bold 2008 CTS 4.
2008 Audi TT Coupe – TT? No, Tee-Hee
First displayed as a concept at the 1995 Frankfurt Auto Show, the original Audi TT traded heavily on its looks. Self-obsessed as an ouroboros, the TT attracted graphic designers, architects, and Bret Easton Ellis fans like stylish iron filings to a magnet. Unfortunately, reviewers coveted the outgoing car’s driving experience as much as syphilis. For 2008 Audi has wisely chosen the extreme makeover path for the new TT, and while the Apple Macbook Air set may be disappointed, the rest of us will be rejoicing.
2008 Suzuki SX4 Fastback – The Cute’Ute
Belting through traffic, I feel as if I should be slaloming wash lines, market carts and pavement cafes, rather than behemoth SUVs, Cube Vans and moderately enraged drivers… one of which happens to be our cameraman in a pursing BMW 535xi. There’s Italian city car flair to the Suzuki SX4, and for good reason; it and the Fiat Sedici are the result of a joint project between the two automakers. Japanese implementation and Italian design wrapped up in a CUV (Cute Utility Vehicle) complete with all-wheel drive – that’s a combination that makes the SX4 possible the best of all worlds.
2008 Volvo V50 T5 – Not Your Aunt June’s Sp-agen
Pulling into the parking space a friend, Chris, loudly exclaims, “Very dyke to see you!” With an opener like that I can’t resist, “Yes, it’s boxy, but good. Would you like to ride my ‘vulva’.” So much for political correctness, but face it, the 2008 Volvo V50 T5 is fighting a few brand identity issues [...]
2008 Audi Q7 – The Trojan XL Package
Let’s get it out of the way; at OutDrive we’re as convinced by performance SUVs as the Pope is of gay marriage. If you need to carry loads, then you want a truck. If you need to carry kids, then look to the station wagon or, gasp, minivans, to fill the gap. Need performance on the school run – and who doesn’t? There’s the sport-wagon. Unlike the Pope, however, we’re willing to give it all a try, and bearing the heavy burden of convincing us is Audi’s 2008 Q7.
2008 Infiniti G37S Coupe – The Art of War
In Plasma Red, the 2008 Infiniti G37S seems painted with the spilled blood of the BMW 335i Coupe. One wonders if Infiniti hasn’t delved into Sun Tzu’s 6th century BC military treatise, to guide its battle. The G35 couldn’t have pulled this off, especially with BMW throwing a 300hp/300lb-ft torque twin-turbo grenade into the luxury sport coupe fray. The G37S, however, is a warrior as deeply disciplined in the ways of the road and refined in the art of sport coupe war as any of the competition.
2008 Volvo S80 AWD – ‘Traction Hero
The rain falls in sheets driven by near gale force Pacific winds. A Mercedes C-Class with a 4MATIC badge shoots by in a fit of “Schnell! Schnell!” Not an advisable action, North Vancouver’s Upper Levels Highway is run through with broad streams. Ahead the Mercedes slithers, hydroplanes and brakes. It’s my turn to pass, the [...]
