The Crank: More proof pickups are dumb

By John LeBlanc I’ve never understood North Americans’ fascination with pickup trucks as daily transportation. They’re too big, too thirsty, and, well, they handle like trucks. But what do I know. Just last month here in the Great White North, Ford’s F-series pickup truck was the most popular new vehicle sold—car or truck.

The Crank: How blasphemous is a FWD Land Rover?

By John LeBlanc Hold on to your Wellies: After its world debut at the Paris auto show this Fall, the production version of the Land Rover LRX concept will allegedly be available with traction to its front wheels only. 

First Drive: 2010 Acura TSX V6

[svgallery name=”10_Acura_TSX_V6″] The Lexus of Acuras New V6 adds more luxury to Acura’s compact sports sedan By John LeBlanc Pebble Beach, Calif. – From its inception, we’ve always liked the European Honda Accord-based TSX. Despite being a front-driver in a sea of rear and all-wheel-drive entry-level sports sedans (like the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, […]

2010 Beijing: Audi stretches its flagship A8

[svgallery name=”2011_Audi_A8L”] By John LeBlanc BEIJING – China may be the world’s largest new car market, but no one wants to really drive here. Especially in the larger cities, like here in Beijing (population 22,000,000) or Shanghai (19,210,000.) The uninitiated are stunned by the telepathic confluence of cars, trucks, pedestrians, motorcycles, rickshaws and bicycles, where […]

The Crank: Is Toyota finally getting it “right”?

By John LeBlanc Another week, another rash of bad news for Toyota, eh? Last Tuesday, the Japanese automaker was suffering from one of America’s most well respected consumers’ group warning not to buy one of the company’s Lexus 2010 GX 460 SUVs because of a tendency to get a little loose in the corners. Okay […]

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