Fuel Infection
Automotive Reviews
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 >
2010 Honda Element Dog-Friendly Edition
Dec 8th
The multi-tasking, category-busting Honda Element is no longer the only boxy, upright vehicle on the market–Scion, Nissan and Kia are fielding boxes of their own these days. The Element got in at the ground floor of more than one trend, in fact. In addition to being one of the first aggressively cubist vehicles of the new millennium, it was also one of the first crossover vehicles, combining SUV and automotive traits into a versatile package.
With the market nearing saturation with both crossovers and box-cars, does the Element, which hasn’t changed significantly since its 2003 introduction, still have anything to offer? As a matter of fact, it does. This cube has always stood out from the rest of the square cars by being larger and more capable. Thanks to reverse-opening rear doors and clever interior design, the Element does a good job of thinking outside the box, if you’ll forgive the pun. For 2010, Honda updated the Element with new “Dog-Friendly” edition designed to appeal directly to the four-wheeled family members of Element buyers. More >