First Drive: 2012 Toyota Yaris

Old School Toyota goes the tried-n-true route with its new Yaris By John LeBlanc QUEBEC CITY, Que. — If you’ve been shopping for a new subcompact, chances are, you’ve likely discovered small cars aren’t so small anymore. What use to be considered bottom-feeder econoboxes are now available with “big car” features with luxuries like heated […]

The Crank: Can Kia transcend beyond its price-point marketing?

  Arguably—and even with no new cars to present—Kia’s presser at last week’s L.A. show was the best in a long day’s worth of corporate droning on.   For starters, Kia promised 15 salient points in a media-friendly 15 minutes, getting us all up-to-date on the tsunami of new models, the progress of its recently-opened […]

From the Fleet: 2012 Infiniti M35 Hybrid

FROM THE FLEET are brief synopses of manufacturer-supplied rides that happen to end up in my laneway – JL The auto industry’s recent niche-within-a-niche product strategies have left us with some weird and quite often oxymoronic mutant forms of four-wheeled transportation. Strange car type combos like “four-door coupes” and “sports activity vehicles” come immediately to […]

Road Trip: 2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

Roughing it in the Rubicon How does Jeep’s retro Rubicon stand up as a weekend warrior? By John LeBlanc PICTON—I view tent camping as a retro form of human living. So it only made sense to borrow a Jeep Wrangler for our family’s annual weekend here at Sandbanks Provincial Park, on the shores of Lake […]

The Crank: Do racing automaker CEOs help or hinder car sales?

By John LeBlanc Standing up in front of government officials or at auto shows is where we usually find the head of car companies. But Toyota and Aston Martin have released a video of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and his Aston counterpart Ulrich Bez not in pinstripe suits behind a podium, but wearing Nomex behind […]

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