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.
What We’re Testing: BMW 535i xDrive Gran Turismo
Our tester this week is a 2011 BMW 535i xDrive Gran Turismo, so we’re not suffering any lack of opulence. The thing is, we’re aiming to take the Gran Turismo to the Unofficial Sun Peaks Ski Resort Gay Ski Week; current known attendance – five. The sticking point is the GT arrived with all-season tires. [...]
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.
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 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 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.
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.
