RideLust

Thumbs Up: Drives a thousand pounds lighter than it is

Thumbs Down: Transmission is still just a five speed

Buy This Car If: You’re looking for America’s best blue-collar muscle sedan

Let’s say you enjoy road trips, the kind of which occasionally take you to a different time zone, just for a weekend getaway. You probably want a car that’s roomy, with enough space for four adults plus luggage. You want a car that’s fast, since the faster you get from point A to point B, the sooner you can enjoy some downtime. You want a car that’s good on gas, since time spent refueling is time not spent driving. Finally, you want a car with some entertainment value, just in case you decide to occasionally take the scenic route. Read More…

Thumbs Up: Contemporary styling, comfortable ride.

Thumbs Down: Heavy on chrome and fake-wood trim.

Buy This Car If: You’re looking for a fuel-efficient crossover that can still carry five adults.

If Goldilocks were shopping Ford’s product lineup for an SUV or crossover, there’s a good chance that she’d settle on the not-too-small-but-not-too-big Ford Edge. It’s got more interior room (and higher build quality) than the outgoing Ford Escape, yet it’s smaller than either the Explorer SUV or the Edge crossover. In fact, for the average American family with 2.4 kids and a dog, the Edge is just about the perfect size. Read More…

Thumbs Up: Solidly built, quiet as a tomb

Thumbs Down: Needs more power for highway driving

Buy This Car If: You want a plush midsize sedan that delivers decent fuel economy.

Sometimes, things are glaring in their omission. If you scan the outside sheet metal of the 2012 Buick LaCrosse eAssist, you won’t find a single “hybrid” badge on it. Ditto on the inside, where the only indication that you’re driving something other than a regular Buick is the available battery meter in the information display. Even the window sticker avoids any mention of the word “hybrid,” although if you look carefully you can see the term”eAssist” used in reference to the engine and the associated powertrain warranty. Read More…

Thumbs Up: May be the perfect American muscle sedan.

Thumbs Down: Thirsty when driven hard (as you’d expect).

Buy This Car If: Your idea of a weekend get away involves multiple time zones.

There are very few perfect things in life. Take enough pictures, and maybe you’ll eventually snag the perfect shot (hey, it worked for Ansel Adams). Try hard enough and you may concoct the perfect breakfast sandwich, to unseat McDonald’s Egg McMuffin (although we doubt that very much). Drive a particular track long enough in the same car, and you may eventually find the perfect line. Read More…

More than 1,500 horsepower, seating for 15 adults and all weather capability. This is what happens when you bring together the big guns of the SUV world in a no-holds-barred performance based shootout. All of these family haulers, the 2012 Jeep SRT8, 2011 BMW X5 M and 2011 Porsche Cayenne Turbo, hit 0-60 mph in under 5 seconds and ungoverned would top at at well over 160 mph. So, this begs the question – does the world really need SUV’s that have the ability to take on some of the worlds premier performance cars? Motor Trend Magazine recently gathered these bad boys up to find out the answer to that very question. Click through and enjoy.

Source: MotorTrend.com

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Thumbs Up: The most entertaining Buick since the 1987 GNX.

Thumbs Down: Needs more power; creaky plastic dash.

Buy This Car If: You want a compact domestic luxury sedan with a dash of sport.

For those of us in a certain demographic, the name “Buick” conjures up images of under-damped land yachts, leisurely driven by septuagenarians on their way to a 3:00 dinner at the Old Country Buffet. For driving enthusiasts, Buick hasn’t built a car of interest since the 1987 Regal-based GNX. The GNX has become the stuff of legend, with clean examples still trading hands at semi-insane prices. Still, the 1987 GNX was capable of a 0 to 60 sprint in under 5 seconds, and in stock form could run the quarter mile in 13.5 seconds at 102 miles per hour. Back in 1987, that wasn’t just fast, that was stupid fast. Read More…

Thumbs Up: Goes like a V8, drinks gas like a V6.

Thumbs Down: Interior not up to Ford’s usual standards.

Buy This Car If: You want a sporty but (relatively) frugal AWD American sedan.

The American motoring public had never seen anything like the original Ford Taurus SHO, launched in 1989. It was a genuine sport sedan, in family sedan disguise, built and sold by a major U.S. automaker for thousands less than the competition from Germany. It featured a Yamaha-designed, 24-valve, 3.0-liter V-6 good for 220 horsepower and mated only to a five speed manual transmission. Quick for a sedan of its size (by 1989 standards, at least) the SHO could dash from 0 to 60 in just over 6.5 seconds and topped out at 143 miles per hour. The original SHO was a huge hit, and Ford had no trouble selling through its build quantity of 15,519 units. Read More…

Thumbs Up: Stellar interior, great content for the price.

Thumbs Down: Vague, over-boosted steering.

Buy This Car If: You want a domestic luxury alternative to the Cadillac SRX.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, Lincoln can’t get any respect. Ford’s luxury brand spent years mired in mediocrity, and now that it’s stepped up its game no one seems to know about it. Perhaps it spent too many years living in the shadow of now defunct Mercury, or perhaps it’s trapped in a time warp between its traditional (and aging) customer base and the younger luxury buyers it hopes to attract. Quirky styling aside, the Lincoln products I’ve driven offer a solid build quality and a surprising amount of content for the price. Read More…

Thumbs Up: Comfortable, quiet and reasonably priced for the segment.

Thumbs Down: Meaty A and B pillars impact visibility.

Buy This Car If: You want a luxury crossover with a unique sense of style.

Shortly before its demise, GM used the slogan, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” to shill for its near-luxury division. While the slogan took some artistic license back then (there was a reason why Oldsmobile went out of business, after all), the motto would be very appropriate to use for Cadillac today. After decades of obscurity, bizarre product choices and cars designed exclusively for those who hated to drive, Cadillac has turned a corner. Read More…

Thumbs Up: The first truly new automotive technology in decades.

Thumbs Down: New “lower” price makes car more expensive.

Buy This Car If: You want an electric car that has a virtually unlimited range.

Even before the current post-crash-test fire media hype, the Chevrolet Volt was the most misunderstood and politicized car in the history of the automobile. Detractors called it “just another hybrid,” without bothering to learn what makes the Volt different from ordinary parallel hybrid automobiles like the best-selling Toyota Prius. Worse, they panned it for “only” getting 37 miles per gallon in generator mode, or “only” having a battery range of 35 miles, missing the point of the car entirely. General Motors was upfront during both the development and the launch of the car: for an admittedly narrow range of the population, the Volt is the perfect automobile. For the rest of us, it’s a very good choice for a four-seat sedan that blends battery power and range-extending generator power. Read More…