Quick Spin: 2012 Lexus IS 350 AWD

By John LeBlanc What is it? The compact, five-passenger IS is Lexus’ stab at the entry-level sports sedan segment, a class invented by the BMW 3 Series in the yuppie-era 1980s. Until the $30,950 front-wheel-drive CT 200h hybrid hatchback arrived for 2011, the $32,900 rear-wheel-drive IS 250 sedan was the least expensive Lexus you could […]

The Crank: Could Detroit be doing better?

By John LeBlanc Compared to just three years ago, the trio of Detroit, U.S.A. automakers are feeling pretty good these days. It was only in 2009 where both Chrysler and General Motors filed for bankruptcy, needing tax payer “bailout” money to get by. All you hear these days from Detroit, though, are record sales and […]

The Crank: Lexus looking to expand

By John LeBlanc After a 2011 the Toyota luxury brand would like to forget (there was that little issue of giving up its 11-year reign as the best-selling luxury brand in the United States), 2012 and beyond is looking very busy (and important) for Lexus.

The Crank: Toyota’s Prius no longer niche

By John LeBlanc Remember when the original Prius went on sale in the late 1990s? As one of the first, mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid cars, the quirky Toyota was considered a cult car at best. Today, 15 years later, the Prius family—consisting now of four models, the original Prius hatchback, the Prius plug-in hybrid, the larger […]

The Crank: Can the French build a true super car?

By John LeBlanc We’ll be getting more, official details later on today, but earlier this week, images of a new super car from France’s Renault were splashed all over the Interweb. Called the Alpine A110-50, seen above, the mid-engine super car is a 50th-anniversary hommage to the original A110 that first appeared in 1961.

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