Automotive Reviews
Christopher Jackson
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Posts by Christopher Jackson
2012 Mazda5
Nov 16th
You’re busy. You’re active. It seems like your every waking hour is sometimes focused only on Doing Things. Well, Mazda’s got a vehicle you might want to look into. The Mazda5 is a micro-minivan whose entire purpose in life is to serve as a mobile headquarters for activities of all kinds. From shopping trips to sporting events, cross-country drives to cross-town moves, the redesigned Mazda5 is prepared for just about anything. These days, it looks snazzier doing it too, thanks to a liberal application of Mazda’s flowing, organic styling.
Though the Mazda5 is sort of a three-quarter scale model of a minivan, it’s still subject to the same influences of that particular market, and these days, it’s not enough to be a big box on wheels. Minivans have discovered style in the past year or three, and the Mazda5 was quickly lost in the shuffle, even as a unique vehicle. More >
2011 Lexus RX 450h
Oct 31st
Appreciating the Lexus RX 450h requires a keen sense of the subtle. What Lexus has done with this vehicle is taken the relatively simple process of propelling a car down the road, made it impossibly complex, and then refined it so that it seems simple again.
Confused? Just check out the power-flow display on the dash, a prominent feature in all of the Toyota/Lexus family hybrids. The complicated dance of electric and gasoline power, battery charging and regenerative braking as well as engine shutoff and re-start, is evident only in the constantly changing power-flow arrows of the display. Without it, you’d never know what this luxury hybrid crossover was up to.
2011 Ford Focus
Oct 20th
It’s hard to believe it took this long for the Focus to get here. If you’re not a car person, you might not realize that the Europeans have been getting the “good” version of the Ford Focus for many years. The Focus sold here was something of a dinosaur, first developed in 2000 and allowed to soldier along with significant updates but missing out on the whole-car redesigns that the European version benefitted from. There was talk of bringing the “Euro-Focus” to the United States, but it’s been a long time materializing.
For 2012, the Focus finally appears in the same form as overseas, and the result is a significant upgrade. The all-new 2012 Focus spans the range of the compact spectrum, with affordable entry-level versions and enough amenities available to turn it into a premium compact.
More >