Automotive Reviews
Posts tagged AWD
2005 Ford Freestyle
Dec 7th
Wagon fans, rejoice! The full-size station wagon is back! For that lunatic fringe of unabashed station wagon fans, the Ford Freestyle is just what we’ve been looking for. Forget the Dodge Magnum, whose butch posturing is just masking the fact that it’s a station wagon. The Freestyle is a big wagon in the Country Squire tradition, and it’s proud of it.
Well, maybe that’s overstating the case a little. After all, it’s wearing SUV-style contrasting color fender flares and tall tires instead of fake wood down the sides, and Ford calls it lots of things but never a “station wagon.” But we all know what this big boy really is, even if Ford’s afraid to admit it. The Freestyle hits the streets just in time to serve the needs of buyers who like the spaciousness of a full-size SUV but are tired of the poor handling and fuel economy common to those vehicles. The Freestyle shares underpinnings with the Ford Five Hundred sedan, as well as a 3.0 liter V6 engine, available all-wheel drive and an SUV-like high seating position. More >
2006 Honda Ridgeline
Dec 7th
Driving the all-new Honda Ridgeline around Detroit, Michigan was an interesting experience. The Ridgeline got more dirty looks than a Hummer at a Greenpeace convention. It’s no surprise that the union boys hate this truck; the area is the home of the Ford F-150. It’s not an easy thing, being a full-size truck with a Japanese badge on the tailgate. Even established compact truck builders like Toyota and Nissan are seen as interlopers who can’t possibly understand the needs of a full-size truck buyer. And Honda? Purveyor of the frugal Civic and Insight? Forget about it.
With that in mind, we hazed our Ridgeline hard. You know how it is. The full-size truck market is tough turf, and any newcomers gotta be jumped in. Even though the Ridgeline is technically a mid-sized pickup like the Dodge Dakota, it’s messin’ around in Ford F-150, Dodge Ram and Chevy Silverado territory, and it’s gotta prove itself. So…does this “new kind of pickup” have the steel to stand up to the local big boys, or will it get beaten down like the rest of the pretenders? More >
2005 Subaru Baja Turbo
Dec 3rd
Although it’s probably going to be gone by the end of the year, I just had to slip in a writeup of perhaps one of my favorite cars ever. I tried to think of something (within reason) that the Subaru Baja Turbo couldn’t do, some automotive chore that was just outside of its ability. I have yet to come up with one. The Baja Turbo is an odd duck of a car/truck that can haul dirt, play taxi, hold its own in stoplight Grands Prix, cruise on a road trip, attack the worst winter weather or dodge cones on an autocross course with equal ability.
This car/truck’s existence shouldn’t come as a surprise, of course. Subaru has been charting its own course through the automotive landscape since the first cars appeared on our shores thirty years ago. After products like the 360 bubble car, BRAT car-pickup, Buck Rogers-styled XT and the Outback SUS “sport-utility sedan,” a four-wheel drive station wagon with roof-mounted lights and the cargo area chopped into a cargo bed doesn’t even push Subaru’s peculiarity boundary. The Baja Turbo isn’t a car for everyone–but it’s probably the perfect car for just a few people. More >