Auto News & New car review

The Jeep Patriot is an all-new compact SUV with plenty of room inside, using a powerful and economical 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that gets an EPA-rated 25 city and 29 highway miles per gallon, with four-wheel drive and a five-speed manual transmission.

It’s basically built on the platform of the Dodge Caliber, but you’d never know it. It’s unmistakably a Jeep, and looks like a cross between a Liberty and the new Compass; or maybe a three-quarter scale version of the big Commander. Read the rest of this entry »

You should be aware that when reviewing 2009 Hyundai Sonata reviews, what is said regarding a vehicle can typically be applied to the entire generation. A generation is made up of similar vehicles from one year to the next. When a vehicle undergoes a redesign, it is considered a new generation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Lamborghini Gallardo surprised us in a number of ways, but mostly in terms of its refinement and quality. The Gallardo is a bit intimidating initially, due to its radical styling, its dimensions, the sound of its highly tuned Italian V10, and advanced features such as its available E-gear electronic gearbox. But the Gallardo quickly became our friend and bonded as a teammate, more so than, say, a Viper or even a Corvette. Granted, it has a couple of quirks related to some of its most exotic performance options, but we were impressed with its drivability in traffic and by the ergonomic excellence of its interior. The more time we spent with the Gallardo, the more we came to love and enjoy it. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, it just hit us: eccentric. That’s what the Maybach 62 Landaulet is, in a word. In fact, you could apply that to the whole Maybach venture. Like Dennis Hopper said in the Keanu-tastic action flick Speed, “Poor people are crazy, Jack. I’m eccentric.” Daimler is evidently hoping that there are enough “eccentric” people in the United States to warrant bringing over the head-scratchingly-strange Maybach 62 Landaulet to the American market. Read the rest of this entry »

Suzuki forsakes its image as a small car manufacturer with the introduction of the XL7 crossover SUV. The 2007 Suzuki XL7 is all-new. Save for elimination of the hyphen the 2007 XL7 only shares its name with the old XL-7.

The new XL7 is longer, wider and more powerful than the outgoing model. If its look seems faintly familiar that’s because it’s based on the same platform as the Chevrolet Equinox and Pontiac Torrent models from GM, though it shares no sheetmetal with them. The XL7 is assembled in Canada alongside the Equinox and Torrent. The XL7’s V6 engine is built in Japan, however. Read the rest of this entry »

Nissan calls its latest Maxima a four-door sports car, a description that once graced previous generations of the car. I’ll have to wait until I drive one to see if that’s true, but after poking around in the all-new car at the auto show today I can say it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Nissan simply called the car a full-blown luxury sedan. Cabin quality is palpably better than in the latest Altima — not a quality-lightweight itself — and the leather seats would feel at home in any Infiniti product. Read the rest of this entry »

The SRT group takes ordinary vehicles and turns them into high performance muscle machines; they have three cars and a Jeep named SRT-8, all using the 6.1 liter Hemi engine.

The least likely of the trio is the Dodge Magnum, the station wagon we’re not supposed to call a station wagon. Read the rest of this entry »