Automotive Reviews
Archived
Back-catalog of reviews written before 2008.
2006 Isuzu i350 Crew Cab
Dec 23rd
When you’re not sure of where to go next, it never hurts to take a step back and see where you’ve been. Isuzu is doing just that for 2006. We’re probably not the only enthusiasts who are happy to see that Isuzu is back. After a few years of declining sales and a shrinking porfolio, the brand’s future has been somewhat in doubt lately. Things aren’t completely grim, however; in the commercial market, Isuzu’s one of the best-sellers, and it’s been producing joint engineering products with General Motors for quite some time. It’s the Japanese brand’s SUVs that have faltered. In an effort to spread its sales base out again, Isuzu is returning to the pickup truck market that helped it get its foot in the door in the U.S. market in 1972. The i280 and i350 mid-size pickups are thoroughly modern, tough vehicles that come ready to work.
Don’t look at the i350 and assume that it’s just a thinly-disguised Chevy Colorado, either. The Colorado was jointly developed with Isuzu in the first place, and Isuzu was actually selling this vehicle in Thailand before the Colorado ever went on sale. So who did it belong to first? You be the judge. More >
2005 Kia Spectra5
Dec 23rd
Down in the automotive trenches, bells and whistles don’t matter much. Oh, sure, seat heaters and navigation systems are great, wonderful toys, but they don’t make the traffic any kinder, or the lines at the Wal-Mart any shorter. No, when you’re really in the thick of it, in the dog-eat-dog world of daily errands in suburbia, it’s the hardware that truly matters.
We had a pretty serious fight on our hands. Groceries and housewares had to be picked up and shifted from one end of Metro Detroit to the other. We were staring down the barrel of some of the nastiest roads Southeastern Michigan had to offer, about to cross the most heavily-traveled roads in the region…and it was ten minutes before rush hour hit. It was a task for a Marine battalion, but it was just us and the new Kia Spectra5. More >
2005 Ford Ranger Edge Tremor
Dec 8th
Consider the case of the Ford Ranger. It’s old. It’s outdated. Every other compact pickup truck on the market has grown larger, more powerful, and more refined in recent years, and some of them have gone through an entire generation or two since the last significant update to the Ranger in 1993 or so. And yet every time we slip behind the wheel of a Ranger, we’re struck by the just-rightness of it. Has Ford really been neglecting its compact truck for the past decade, or have they chosen not to mess with a good thing?
Ranger STX pictured.
For 2005, another round of evolutionary changes includes skid plates for 4×4 models and new 15″ and 16″ wheels. That’s it? Yup. The compact pickup market has softened in recent years, eaten up by SUVs and increasingly people-friendly full-size trucks, and the Ranger still manages to outsell its competitors. It’s been the best-selling compact pickup for seventeen years, so clearly Ford’s done something right. More >