Automotive Reviews
Posts tagged crossover
2011 Kia Sportage
Apr 25th
Man, do you remember the first Kia Sportage? Like the Suzuki Vitara and Toyota RAV4, this compact SUV started life as a two-door, bare-bones, ultra-compact trail crawler of questionable merit. Look at it now! The Sportage is all grown up, with four doors and a handsome, modern body that marks it as a member of the growing compact crossover market. Everything but the name has changed.
To give Kia’s new do-all a workout, I took it right out of its urban-erranding environment and used it for a roadtrip halfway across the country. It’s not unthinkable that a crossover might be pressed into service for long-distance trips, after all; the more carlike ride and better fuel economy than the average SUV mean that it’s actually a decent choice. More >
2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport
Apr 2nd
Mitsubishi’s new compact crossover is typical of the breed; it’s got decent handling, decent fuel economy and is capable of hauling a fair amount of cargo. Really, it’s a glorified compact station wagon, but the advent of the SUV age made small wagons unfashionable. So, instead of a Mitsubishi Lancer wagon, we get the Outlander Sport. Essentially it’s the same thing, just a bit taller. My tester was a base model and lacked even all-wheel drive.
And then the season’s biggest snowstorm rolled through. Pretender to the SUV class or not, the Outlander Sport was on the spot. Eight inches of snow or not, there were errands to be run and a snowblower that wasn’t going to transport itself across town to help clear Grandpa’s walk. With just front-wheel drive and all-season tires, the Outlander Sport might as well have been a Toyota Camry. More >
2011 BMW X5 XDrive 35d
Mar 27th
When BMW introduced its first SUV, the X5, in 1999, it seemed like a pointless departure for the brand, a bit of bandwagon-jumping that was at best superfluous and at worst ridiculous. BMW proved everyone wrong, though; the X5 combined BMW’s automotive handling expertise with just enough towing capacity and off-road ability to take the sport-utility class to the next level. Other high-end SUVs have followed the X5′s lead.
These days, the X5 is more of a large, wide station wagon that can go anywhere than it is a truck of any sort. It’s still got the ability to tow and haul, of course, but with a fresh redesign that adds more painted surfaces in place of utilitarian plastic, the X5 is unlikely to be anyone’s workhorse no matter what its towing capacity is. After spending a week with the diesel-powered X5 XDrive 35d, it’s clear that this sport-ute is more about a comfortable ride and a high-style arrival than it is about tackling muddy ditches. More >