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 [...]
2008 Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan 2.0T – Swede Deal
Saab has always attracted a slightly eclectic and literate fan base. The official stamp of brand quirkiness, the late Kurt Vonnegut, was the owner and manager of “Saab Cape Cod”. Saab has come a long way from the oil-gas mix, two-stroke, two-door sedans Vonnegut blames for robbing him of a Nobel Prize for Literature in, “Have I Got a Car For You”. Luckily for us, we’re not in a temporally twisted parallel universe where Vonnegut sold the equivalent of a 2008 9-3 Sport Sedan 2.0T, otherwise his excellent non-Nobel literature may never have been penned.
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS – Looking Up to the A-List
For the record, Mitsubishi Lancer is not the screen name of a d-grade Japanese porn star – though it could be. The previous Lancer was a lubberly and uninspired sedan whose chief attractor was “well equipped for the price”. For 2008 the Mitsu has been to the gym, buffed up, and come back with A-list looks and retained the equipment to boot. Now the Lancer is drawing admiring glances from boy racers, but the question is whether this make over is only skin deep?
2008 Volvo XC70 – Snow-mobile
Looking rugged enough to grace a Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogue, the redesigned for 2008 Volvo XC70 hails from Sweden, a land that knows about a fate few Canadians escape – winter driving. A number of lukewarm reviews for this all-wheel drive station wagon have been written in sunny California, but what happens when the XC70 is held to a more Nordic standard of performance?
2007 BMW 335xi Sedan – Dashing in the Snow
I’m coming out… as an automotive writer who names his cars. Not all of them, just the special ones. Solid, handsome, well put together, sensible, athletic, and with a hint of Germanic menace, if the 2007 BMW 335xi has a screen name likely it would be “Günther”. And, for the record, he’s kind of hot.
2007 MINI Cooper S Review – Double Agent
For the past week I’ve been humming Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die, the Propeller Heads’ version of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and the Avengers theme. My iPod has even been afflicted with a playlist called iSpy. For this I blame BMW Canada for loaning me the 2007 Mini Cooper S, which I’ve concluded is the near perfect car for a gay super-spy.
Top Gear – Clarkson on “Massively Homosexual” Automotive Design
Jeremy Clarkson, of Top Gear fame, recently ranted in the September 2007 issue of the magazine, that automobile interiors would be better if they drew on home interior design, rather than say standards for safety, easy of production, cost effectiveness and (in some cases) common sense. Attempting to prove this in a television piece (possibly [...]
2008 Dodge Avenger SXT – Rental Return
I’m clocking across the face of L.A. in rush hour traffic on a fools errand. A late flight, then later still picking up the Dodge Avenger SXT has the voice on the other end of the phone saying there’s no way I’ll get from LAX to appointment on the far side of Brea by closing.
2007 Audi S8 – The Gentleman’s Express… Fortified
Here’s a switch, at one of Vancouver’s most premium French restaurants, Le Gavroche, Kevin and I are arguing over who gets to drive rather than who gets to drink. Somehow I suffer through a $140.00 bottle of wine, but it’s a sacrifice. Sitting out front is a truly premium gentleman’s expresses, the 2007 Audi S8, a car that forces such hard choices.
